› added 12 years ago

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TIL that during the filming of Star Wars Episode IV, studio executives were apparently unhappy that Chewbacca’s character had no clothes and wanted to have the costume redesigned to have shorts.

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JYPxQ TIL Gary Gygax's wife was convinced he was having an affair so she followed him to a dimly lit basement and burst into the room only to find him and his friends hunched over hand-drawn maps. Gary would go on to invent the role-playing game "Dungeons and Dragons".
XO16 TIL that when Hitler forced the French to surrender during WW2 he did so on the site where the Germans were forced to surrender in WW1. Not only that but he found the same train carriage used in WW1 and forced the French to sign a surrender in that same train carriage.
ADNWa The human brain looks like a big, pinkish-gray, wrinkly walnut. There are so many folds in it that, if it could be unfolded, it could be a small tablecloth. Pinkish-gray might not match your decor, but it would be about the right size! This "tablecloth" is made up of the cerebral cortex and is the wrinkly outside layer of your brain. All those folds are responsible for abstract thought, language, and memory. Scientists believe the wrinkles exist as a way to increase the surface area of the cortex, allowing for increased brainpower in a smaller space. In this week’s Today I Learned, neuroscientist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Steve Ramirez shares some of his smarts on how your cortex is different from your pet hamster’s.
neMjG TIL that there was a real-life John Wick. Meet Chester Wheel Campbell, the king of contract killers in Detroit. Raised in a secret school of hitmen of just a dozen students, he learned the legal system, had high-profile connections, and survived 4 bullet shots (3 in the leg and 1 grazed his head)
woNR7 TIL Caterpillar Inc. (the machinery company) once sued a coffee shop in Santa Cruz, California called Cat and Cloud Coffee over their use of the word "CAT".