› added 2 days ago

2

TIL Amir Khusrau, a 13th-century Turco-Indo-Persian Muslim poet, wrote an epic where Alexander is a Roman emperor who conquers China and Rus', defeats Frankish pirates, explores the Atlantic in a glass submarine, and is hailed as the second Solomon and world ruler of Rome, Africa, Persia, and China

Read more academia.edu

via reddit.com

4AQ5 TIL George Takei hires writers to contribute posts to his Facebook account
ADOgn TIL that 'meme' the word was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene to explain how cultural information spreads. The internet meme is just a subset of the same concept.
KYXbR TIL In 2017, 10 of the 12 UK water firms admitted using divining rods to find leaks and pipes, despite there being numerous studies that show it is no more effective than chance
0dWLy TIL Ancient Egyptian king Menkaure's black stone sarcophagus, carved with niched panels, was discovered inside his pyramid, but was lost at sea in 1838 as it was being transported to England.
6Emrl TIL When Andrew Johnson tried to fire his Secretary of War Stanton, Stanton refused to leave and locked himself in his office for weeks, refusing to let his successor in.