Post * W7woN — Curious Curator

› added 1 year ago

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TIL; The title, "October Sky", of the 1999 biographical movie about teens studying rocketry as an escape from their coal town was an anagram of the novel it was based on, "Rocket Boys". The novel was then re-released under the title "October Sky" to capitalize on the interest in the movie.

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XjnP TIL the first time the word “astronaut” was used to refer to a human traveling in space was in Neil R. Jones’s short story “The Death’s Head Meteor,” in 1930

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”

Bopk TIL that FedEx Express is so committed to on time delivery, that they fly up to 5 empty airplanes per night. These flights are able to swoop in and take over for a broken airplane or take on excess cargo.

WkZ9o TIL City water supplies in Minneapolis, USA and Warsaw, Poland use a "bio-monitoring system." Consisting of clams and mussels that alert them to pollutants via text message or switches. When the clams close, a spring glued to their head completes a switch and alerts the operators in Warsaw.

ZlX4 TIL that Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker’s guide was a guitarist and a friend of David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, and Adams played for Pink Floyd in their Earls Court concert in 1994. Adams played the guitar in the songs “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse”.