› added 1 year ago

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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.

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pbNO TIL Until 1616 coffee was essentially a monopoly run by Yemen. Merchants were forbidden to sell live coffee plants or seeds. That changed when Pieter van der Broecke, a Dutch merchant, stole coffee seeds and brought them back to Holland. 40 years later coffee had traveled as far as Sri Lanka.
PxnJ TIL that scientists can read dreams using brain scans.
d87K9 TIL Jonas Salk, who played a key role in prevention of polio outbreaks, entered college as a pre-law student, hoping to be elected to Congress one day. He switched to medicine because his mother thought that he wouldn't become a successful lawyer.
rrQx TIL that in 1958, Robert Lane named his child Winner. He named his next child loser. Winner went on to go to prison, while loser became an NYPD Sergeant.
Brm9d TIL the US declared independence on July 2, 1776, two days before the Declaration of Independence was adopted