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TIL: The Codex Leicester, a collection of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci, holds the record for the sale price of any book. It was sold to Bill Gates for $US30,802,500.

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npJb TIL a dutch man named Jan de Doot, in 1651, removed his own bladder stone with a kitchen knife. He pulled it out through an incision he made in his taint/gooch/groad/perineum. It was the size of an egg and weight a quarter of a pound. He lived for years after, and had the stone plated in gold.
kJla5 TIL the person who coined the phrase “the future is female”(sally miller gearhart believed that “The proportion of men must be reduced and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race”
4XvLJ TIL that "Coco" was originally about a Mexican-American boy coping with the death of his mother, learning to let her go and move on with his life. As the movie developed, Pixar realized that this is the opposite of what Día de los Muertos is about.
R7VG4 TIL that Christopher Hitchens once agreed to be waterboarded for an article in Vanity Fair. He was given two metal objects, to drop as a non-vocal signal to show that he wanted to stop, and a safe word- “red”. It only took a few seconds for him to throw the objects down and end the experiment.
J1O8v TIL the film Kangaroo Jack (2003) originally had violence, cursing and sex scenes but producers were unsatisfied with the rough cut and turned it into a family animal comedy after positive response to the kangaroo in test screens.