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TIL a certain species of jellyfish has been deemed “immortal” by scientists who have observed its ability to, when in crisis, revert its cells to their earliest form and grow anew. That means that these tiny creatures, 4 mm to 5 mm long, potentially have infinite lives.

4XeG6 TIL that “Idaho” was not a Native American word as originally thought but rather a made-up word. “To his horror, he found that he had been the victim of a practical joke. [He]learned, to his surprise, that the name did not mean, "gem of the mountains"...In fact, it did not mean anything at all.”
nW6LG TIL the Swiss Cheese Model is a form of risk analysis that proposes some errors are caused by flaws in multiple systems aligning, like the holes in different slices of Swiss cheese.
VM0jZ TIL that Joko Widodo, the current president of Indonesia, is such a big heavy metal fan that the Danish prime minister gave him Metallica's Master of Puppets box set as a diplomatic gift. The box set was signed by Metallica's drummer, Lars Ulrich.
loVE7 TIL: The ceremonial podium from the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo was used as an execution site during the area's warfare in the 1990s. Restorers working after the '92-'95 Siege of Sarajevo patched-up the scarred cement and filled in the many bullet holes.
p8Anp TIL Ernesto Miranda's supreme court case led to the Miranda rights (“you have the right to remain silent...”). Miranda himself was later killed in a bar fight. His killer got away with it... because he chose to remain silent.