› added 2 weeks ago

8

TIL Aristotle hypothesized that nature contains no vacuums because the denser surrounding material continuum would immediately fill the rarity of an incipient void. The hypothesis was termed horror vacui (Latin: horror of the vacuum) or plenism— commonly stated as "nature abhors a vacuum".

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

v18M7 TIL that a male brown antechinus mates with as many females as possible for up to 14 hours at a time. Unfortunately, the effort usually crashes his immune system and ultimately kills him.
4yQo TIL that MI5 once had a plan to use Gerbils to detect terrorists/spies at airports, as their sense of smell can acutely detect increased adrenalin in people. The project was scrapped when the Gerbils proved unable to tell the difference between terrorists and those afraid of flying.
wXLY TIL that in 2003, Fox News won, in a lawsuit in appellate court, the right to report false information.
R4k6 TIL that an iPhone would have cost over $3.5 Million in 1991.
rRoBw TIL of Sonya Golden Hand, a Russian female con artist who committed several carefully planned robberies and stole tens of thousands of rubles. She was eventually captured and exiled to a penal colony. She was moved into solitary confinement after trying to escape the colony dressed as a guard.