› added 7 years ago

743

Almost nothing looks more orderly than chess pieces before a match starts. The first move, however, begins a spiral into chaos. After both players move, 400 possible board setups exist. After the second pair of turns, there are 197,742 possible games, and after three moves, 121 million. At every turn, players chart a progressively more distinctive path, and each game evolves into one that has probably never been played before.

b99E0 TIL that the Roman Empire didn't fall until the year 1453. Whilst Rome fell in 476, the Eastern Roman Empire- also known as Byzantium- survived for another thousand years. This means that Joan of Arc, the Spanish Inquisition, and Glasgow University all existed at the same time as the Roman Empire.
xVYbk TIL that in most legal systems, a bank deposit of money is not a bailment. In other words, when you deposit cash to a bank, the funds deposited are no longer your property. You merely loaned the money to the bank for a promised interest without security.
005j [TIL] People visiting the NORAD command center after the 1983 release of Wargames were so unimpressed with what the command center actually looked like versus the movie portrayal of it, that NORAD realized it was time to upgrade their entire system.
d8lZB TIL that police in Australia spent over $1000 to track down a man who stole a $3.95 bag of Nobby's Nuts by hiding them in his pants
W7xRN TIL about Raven Thorogood III, a 5 year old monkey who outperformed more than 6,000 internet and technology money managers earning an astonishing 213% return.