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TIL Members of the armed services are encouraged to salute anyone who has been awarded the Medal of Honor, one of the only instances where someone can be saluted by a person with a higher rank

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60dl TIL a massive solar flare missed the Earth by nine days on July 23rd 2012. Estimated cost of damage was $2.7 trillion dollars, and estimated recovery time was four to ten years.
4X9w5 People like to imagine that they’re the pinnacle of evolution, but the animal kingdom suggests otherwise. The discovery that bumblebees use hair on their legs to detect a flower’s electromagnetic field offers another reminder that human senses don’t always measure up. You share the planet with creatures that can smell veins, see colors you can’t imagine, and communicate through their feet. Here are just a few animals with senses sharper than yours.
gMwwA TIL there’s a protein made by placenta cells called syncytin which aids in the attachment of the placenta to the uterine wall, making it essential for nutrients to get to the developing fetus. The gene that codes for the protein actually came from a virus millions of years ago.
D1ogY TIL of a bacterium that does photosynthesis without sunlight. Instead it uses thermal "black-body" radiation. It was discovered in 2005 on a deep-sea hydrothermal vent, at a depth of 2400 m, in complete darkness.
gXG4 TIL Iran once administered random alcohol tests to drivers during a one month period. Despite a ban on alcoholic beverages, they found 26% of the drivers to be drunk.