› added 3 weeks ago

7

TIL that when Gottfried Leibniz developed binary code, he was inspired by the divinatory system implemented in the I Ching

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jN1Rn TIL portobello, cremini and button mushrooms are all the same type of mushroom, but at different stages of maturity
BZBe TIL: All aircraft carriers in history (save two) have their bridges on the starboard side due to a near universal tendency of pilots to veer left in an emergency.
X0BDD TIL that in 16th to 18th century Scotland, horses got to help with the execution of horse thieves. The pin holding the guillotine blade in place above the condemned horse thief was tied to a horse with a cord, so the blade would fall when the horse took off running.
8am1G TIL Nikola Tesla, widely known as the inventor of the AC power system, also installed the first hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls in 1896. It was around this time that Tesla also disavowed coal and oil in favor of renewable energy sources.
W7ZoY TIL about the siege of Dura-Europos, one of history's first use of chemical weapons and tunnel warfare, during the siege the Persians dug tunnels to bypass the Roman walls, Romans dug their own tunnels to reach them and fight them but the Persians released sulphur dioxide in the tunnels, killing 20.