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TIL Olympic athletes may participate independently, without an associated country (they fly the Olympic flag)

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MekKW TIL Elephants resist cancer because of a gene called P53 that can either order repair of a damaged cell, or order to kill it. Most of the time P53 chooses the latter. The LIF6 gene carries out the orders to eliminate the cancerous cells.
6ExW7 TIL Composer Dvořák was inspired by African-American spirituals while in America and became convinced they were the future of American music. He told a student, "these beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them."
wLkO1 TIL Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than they are to vegetables.
GYWBE TIL that back in May 2016, in order to show the absurdities of software EULAs, the Norwegian Consumer Council did a live, word-by-word, non-stop reading of all of Apples and 3rd party EULAs on an "average" iPhone. It took them over 32 hours.
yAgv TIL parts of France were so devastated in WWI they were declared permanently uninhabitable: zone rouge.