› added 5 years ago

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TIL Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year. 19 diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes include Malaria, Dengue, West Nile virus, Keystone virus, Rift Valley fever, La Crosse encephalitis, Chikungunya, Zika fever, etc. Doctors can typically identify a mosquito bite by sight.

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6Elpl TIL elephants rarely get cancer, thanks to an extra cancer-fighting gene called P53. This gene recognizes dangerous cells and killing them before they become cancerous.
Lpwr TIL: The Darwin Awards poster child, who sued McDonalds over coffee burns, is actually a very sweet old lady who only want the company to be accountable. She did not get millions from the lawsuit as reported, and almost died from the burns she sustained.
WMYd TIL Smedley Butler earned 2 Medals of Honor but said of his military career “…I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.”
NXjEJ TIL in 2003 £4 million of stolen artwork from the Whitworth Art Gallery (by Picasso, Gauguin & Van Gogh) was recovered in a cardboard tube next to a public toilet after an anonymous tip-off. Also in the tube was a note that read "the intention was not to steal. only to highlight the woeful security"
7rWZr TIL: WWII - In 1944, the American military attaché in Bern warned the Swiss foreign minister, Marcel Pilet-Golaz, that the mistreatment inflicted on US aviators could lead to “navigation errors” during bombing raids over Germany.