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TIL In 1608 Johannes Kepler wrote "Somnium", the first space exploration novel. It is about daemons who transport humans to the moon for four hours when the timing of orbit is right, and they must face "extreme cold and lack of air". Kepler kept the novel a secret from the public

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Zpm9Y TIL sculptor Anish Kapoor bought exclusive rights to the Vantablack, world’s “blackest black". So artist Stuart Semple developed a new pigment “pinkest pink” to rival the exclusivity of Kapoor’s black. Semple’s pigment was released on sale to anyone in the world except Anish Kapoor.
D1r1Y TIL David Bowie issued his own bonds in 1997, "Bowie Bonds". These asset backed securities awarded investors a share in his future royalties for 10 years.
Wk5xX TIL The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his Poetics (c. 335 BC) that comedy is a representation of inferior people, not indeed in the full sense of the word bad, but the laughable is a species of the base or ugly. It consists in some blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster
R77b6 TIL A British Soldier Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was a one-eyed, one-handed war hero who fought in both world wars, surviving plane crashes and PoW camps. He later said "frankly I had enjoyed the war."
gMPwD TIL The world’s deadliest serial killer, Luis Garavito, admitted to killing 140 people, and was sentenced to 835 years in prison. He was convicted on the deaths of 189 people over 7 years, and is suspected to have murdered many more.