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TIL Genetic mutations among Tibetan individuals helps them to live and work in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which features elevations as high as 14,800 feet. One of these variants was inherited from an extinct group of humans known as the Denisovans, a sister species to the Neanderthals.

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1arBX TIL that Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land is Your Land” sarcastically after he got tired of hearing Kate Smith’s “God Bless America” over and over again.
KOPPG TIL that Shell Shock may not be wholly psychological, but caused by concussive damage to the brain. Distinctive honeycomb lesions have been found on soldiers' brains who had survived IED blasts. These lesions "may help explain why some veterans... have problems putting their lives back together."
60M7 TIL Albert Einstein’s son, Hans, was a famous hydraulic engineering professor who developed important equations for sediment transport in rivers. When reporters asked Albert what he thought of his son’s career, he replied, “He is working on a more difficult problem”
GgBQ TIL Chlorine trifluoride is a substance so flammable that an accident resulted in 900 kg burning straight through a foot of concrete and three feet of gravel. Cloth, wood, water, sand, and asbestos all make it burst into flames. The only way to stop it is to wait for it to burn itself out.
b6GyN TIL Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, died in obscurity, was dug up by an admirer, shipped to England, then sold with a bankrupt man's house. His remains vanished and may have been turned into souvenirs.