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TIL that scientists have discovered a species of bacteria called Deinococcus radiodurans, which has earned the nickname "Conan the Bacterium" due to its extraordinary ability to withstand extreme levels of radiation.

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via reddit.com

rNJn1 TIL that rockets are launched from near the equator because it gives them a large initial speed, helping reach space with less fuel. Over a 24-hour period, such places travel longer distances than places at higher latitudes, which means that they move faster and have more angular momentum.
QNoX9 TIL that The Blackguard Children, also called the Blackguard Youth, were gangs of mostly homeless orphans and runaways in 17th- and 18th-century London’s poorest neighborhoods, who survived by begging and stealing. They were depicted in Daniel Defoe’s Colonel Jack and Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist.
WkdvB TIL researchers have mapped the genome of the Indian cobra (Naja naja). They found 12,000 genes expressed in the venom glands; of these, 139 help create toxins, and a subset of 19 genes cause paralysis/nausea/internal bleeding. It forms the platform to synthesize an ideal antidote to the cobra bite.
Ypk0d TIL that Saskatchewan, Canada became the first jurisdiction in North America to recognize the Holodomor, in which ~7.5 million ethnic Ukrainians were starved under Stalin's Soviet regime
X0wQD TIL President Millard Fillmore taught elementary school while clerking for a county judge, and he also married his own beloved teacher, Abigail Powers