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TIL the 1100 page epic novel about the history of Japan "Shogun" by James Clavell was inspired by a single sentence in his daughter's school textbook that read "in 1600 an Englishman went to Japan and became a Samurai".

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X0ppk TIL In preparation for his role as “Bill the Butcher” in Gangs of New York (2002), Daniel Day-Lewis would often pick fights with strangers on the streets of Rome where the movie was filmed. The method acting, Day-Lewis said was “not so good for my physical or mental health”
78rLO TIL that Jamaica in NYC and Jamaica in the Caribbean are derived from unrelated words. The neighborhood in Queens, NYC, is named from the Lenape word "Yameco," or Beaver, while the island of Jamaica got its name from the Arawak word "Xaymaca," meaning Land of Wood and Water.
nWnWo TIL there was a short-lived country in Africa named the Republic of Maryland, settled by freed slaves from the US state of Maryland. Their governor was named John Brown (different one) and then they got annexed by Liberia.
R7bA8 TIL that the False Consensus Effect is real, and causes people to believe their opinions are more widely shared than they actually are, making us more confident than we should be that we are “right”. This is often exaggerated since we generally surround ourselves with others who share our opinions.
8r7V TIL of the Halcyon, a $2500, LaserDisc-based video game console from 1985. It was entirely voice-activated, and the manufacturer claimed it was as ‘intelligent’ as the HAL 9000. It never saw commercial release, and fewer than a dozen still exist.