› added 1 year ago

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TIL that there are more possible iterations of a game of chess than there are atoms in the known universe. The number of possible unique chess games is estimated to be 10^120, which is vastly greater than the estimated number of atoms in the observable universe, which is around 10^80

kOj0d TIL Stephen King's debut as a movie director was to make a film based on a short horror story he wrote about killer cars. He did the whole film coked out of his mind before swearing never to direct again.
6EAbX Today I learned about "The Thing", one of the first covert listening devices (bugs), which was implanted in a Great Seal of the United States gifted from the Soviet Union to the United States and, being entirely passive in nature, remained hidden for 7 years.
d8yDQ TIL Cameron Crowe almost lost the opportunity to use “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel in the film Say Anything - Crowe got a call from Peter denying the usage because Crowe accidentally sent Peter and his label a screening of a John Belushi biopic, Wired. Peter liked it, but felt it wouldn’t work.
R5dg4 TIL that the largest single structure sand dune in North America exists in. . .Idaho.
YGvZ TIL Eric Clapton was long-conned by a witch who got him to take herbal baths, smear his own blood, & chant midnight incantations, all with a phone call. She convinced him to fly to the US to have sex with a virgin (herself), began asking for money, then sent pregnant pics of herself to the tabloids.