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TIL Eric Idle, of Monty Python, wrote a science fiction novel about a robot trying to understand human comedy.

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LkLnZ TIL a single mirror produced in Venice in the 15/16th century was worth more than a painting by Raphael, and was about equal to the cost of a naval ship. The creators of the mirrors were so prized the Venetian government would send assassins to kill them if they absconded without permission.
8a7dZ TIL about rubber duck debugging, where programmers work out problems in their code by explaining them out loud to a rubber duck
DQ1Aj TIL about Cliff Young, a 61-year-old farmer who won the 543 mile (875 k) endurance race from Sydney to Melbourne. Wearing work clothes, he ran without sleeping for five days. Surprised to learn there was a cash reward he shared it with the other competitors. Young credited his win to herding sheep.
e098k TIL: "The Silent Majority" originally meant dead people, as in there's more dead people than living. It was first used in politics in 1919, but didnt become mainstream until used in a book read by Nixon that used "the silent majority" to contrast "the vocal minority."
9YpY6 TIL the verb 'to snipe' originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India where hunter skilled enough to kill a particularly elusive bird, the snipe, were called 'snipers'. This is also the origin of the term 'snipe hunt' to describe an impossible task.