› added 4 years ago

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TIL that the most powerful explosion in the universe (that has been witnessed by humans) occurred when a supermassive black hole in the Ophiuchus cluster flared up and released roughly 100 billion times more energy than the Sun will produce in it’s lifetime.

Read more nasa.gov

via reddit.com

gM0Nb TIL of the Talking Statues of Rome, where critiques & satires of authority figures were posted when they couldn't be published openly
N7W96 TIL of Aeroplankton, the atmospheric analogue to oceanic plankton that deposit many millions of airborne viruses and bacteria every day on every square meter around the planet.
YOO7 TIL Switzerland and Finland have proportional fines. [Millionaire gets $300,000 speeding ticket]
ZpXLo TIL: due to the cooking and canning process, large crystals can form in canned seafood, called Struvite, made of magnesium ammonium phosphate. They are crunchy and unpleasant, but dissolve when eaten and are not harmful.
W7YBN TIL that early in Edgar Allen Poe's writing career, he published an essay exposing a fake chess-playing automaton that was actually operated by a chess master hidden inside. The essay employs a method of deduction called 'ratiocination' which is used by C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective.