› added 5 years ago

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TIL that actor Matt Damon is proud to call himself the 'Dumbest actor of all time' due to the fact that he was offered a role and 10% royalties on the movie Avatar but he turned them down. The payout later came out to be 250 million dollars.

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via reddit.com

D11ov TIL there is a theory that homosexuality might be caused by the mother's immune system---which may mistake male-specific proteins on the Y chromosome as pathogens and "attack" them, leading to developmental quirks
eyGJ TIL that when Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet during its 1910 approach, there was public fear that a gas discovered in the tail, cyanogen, would destroy all life on the planet, leading to people buying gas masks and “Anti-Comet Pills.”
M7Rw8 TIL that English law when discussing trademark infringement uses the "moron in a hurry" standard. It was famously used in Apple Corp. v. Apple Computer, where it was ruled even a moron in a hurry wouldn't confuse the Beatles' label with Apple Computer.
loeOK TIL the NHL is Canada's National Hockey League. The first US team didn't join until several years after it was established.
l4LN TIL When the creation of the ‘Cheers’ spinoff, 'Frasier’ was announced, Cheers cast-member Kirstie Alley called producer David Lee to tell him she wouldn’t make any appearances on the show, because she was a Scientologist and didn’t believe in psychiatry. He replied, “I don’t recall asking.”