firstthings.com

VBm8B TIL that Anton LeVey based the Church of Satan on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
N7VD6 TIL of the Murray Gell-Man Amnesia Effect, i.e., we give newspapers the benefit of the doubt even after we catch them being inaccurate on subjects we know about. (Term was coined by Michael Crichton in "Why Speculate?")
AyZg TIL The Beatles approached Stanley Kubrick to direct a LOTR movie starring themselves. Tolkien killed the project as a result of his hate for The Beatles. A hate developed after moving 3 doors down from The Beatles in 1964, who irked him with the “indescribable” noise from their practice sessions.