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TIL that while a person who inherits two copies of a cystic fibrosis mutation has a terrible disease, someone who only has one (a carrier) has an inborn resistance to cholera, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis. This is an example of heterozygote advantage.

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W766d TIL with the names on the Stanley Cup being engraved by hand, there are roughly 16 spelling mistakes on it. While some of the misspellings have been corrected, others remain.
wLOAP When 50,000 of Mark Rober's 3 million YouTube subscribers participated in a basic coding challenge, the data all pointed to what Rober has dubbed the Super Mario Effect. The YouTube star and former NASA engineer describes how this data-backed mindset for life gamification has stuck with him along his journey, and how it impacts the ways he helps (or tricks) his viewers into learning science, engineering, and design. Mark Rober has made a career out of engineering, entertainment, and education. After completing degrees in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University and the University of Southern California, Rober joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2004. In his nine years as a NASA engineer, seven of which were on the Mars rover Curiosity team, Rober worked on both the Descent Stage (the jetpack that lowered the Rover to the surface) and some hardware on the Rover top deck for collecting samples. In 2011, Rober’s iPad-based Halloween costume helped launch both his creative costume company, Digital Dudz, and his YouTube channel, which now boasts 3 million subscribers and 400 million views. His videos focus on creative ideas and science- and engineering-based pranks and activities. Rober is a regular guest on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". Today, he does research and development work for a large technology company in Northern California, where he lives with his wife and son.
KYm6G TIL the Trout memo (1939) compared wartime deception to fly fishing. Issued by Admiral Godfrey, whose assistant was Ian Fleming (James Bond creator), it inspired Operation Mincemeat. This plan put fake documents on a corpse, fooling the Germans into expecting an attack on Greece instead of Sicily
mxkZp TIL that Romans weaved asbestos fibers into a cloth-like material that was then sewn into tablecloths and napkins. These cloths were cleaned by throwing them into a blistering fire, from which they came out unharmed and whiter than when they went in.
9YvwD TIL that prior to Steve Irwin's death - he designed and funded a study which discovered that crocodiles can "surf" long distances across the ocean. One of the crocodiles in this study surfed 366 miles within 25 days.