› added 3 years ago

134

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

oR1YY TIL Sperm Whales consume roughly twice as much seafood as all of humanity combined per year. With Sperm Whales (the largest toothed predators) consuming roughly 300 million tonnes per year and humans consuming about 160 million tonnes. (Further sources in comments)
P18aV TIL that the Colt Armalite AR-15 was used in Vietnam starting in 1961. Battlefield reports from US Army Special Forces lavishly praised the AR-15 and the stopping-power of the 5.56mm cartridge, pressing for wide adoption as a replacement for the M-14. The M-16 variant was then deployed in 1964.
wLL58 Til of Henry Darger- The Chicago janitor and author of a 15,145-page fantasy epic titled "In the Realms of the Unreal"; complete with over 300 accompanying watercolor illustrations filled with nude children.
5VMJp TIL that drugs in the SGLT-2 Inhibitor class(Jardiance/Empagliflozin being the most common), increasingly popular drugs used to treat Diabetes, Kidney Disease, and Heart Failure, were synthesized based on a compound found in apple tree bark.
mx4yO TIL of William Rankin who survived ejecting from his plane and the failure of his parachute, then spent 40 minutes falling through a several-miles-deep cumulonimbus cloud which featured lightning strikes, a hailstorm and what he described as the "feeling" of thunder.