› added 9 years ago

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TIL forensic scientists have said that around 80% of all British banknotes contain traces of drugs. A 1999 study found even higher levels of contamination in the London area; of 500 notes tested, only four had no traces of cocaine.

xVwYo TIL that Fakhruddin Razi (d.1210), a Persian Polymath, decentred our universe-centric ideas with his conception of a multiverse. This astonishing idea happened 300 years before Copernicus' more well-known revolution of moving western astronomical knowledge from geocentric to heliocentric
5Yojk TIL Ann B. Davis, who later played Alice on The Brady Bunch, was the original inspiration for Pepper Potts in the Iron Man comic books. After a few issues it was decided the depiction was too obvious and the character was redesigned.
Me61b TIL prior to After Earth's (2013) abysmal box-office performance, Will Smith had plans for the film to spawn a sequel, an animated television series, a video game, theme-park attractions, and a social media platform.
W7ggN TIL Saint Catherine was tortured on a wheel by the Emperor Maxentius for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. The wheel broke and Catherine was eventually beheaded instead. Her martyrdom is remembered in the firework called the 'Catherine Wheel'.
YppwB TIL when presented with nutrients arranged in the pattern of Japanese cities around Tokyo, brainless, single-celled slime molds construct networks of nutrient-channeling tubes that are strikingly similar to the layout of the Japanese rail system