› added 10 years ago

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TIL that after the highest-ranking defector from the Eastern Bloc, a 3-star general in the secret police of Romania, arrived in US, a bounty of 2 mil was placed on him. Yasser Arafat and Muammar al-Gaddafi set a 1 mil reward each. Additionally, Carlos the Jackal was hired. Gen. Pacepa still lives.

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jNBxQ TIL about Dreamweaver, a 2011 project by Gallant Lab at UCB. Participants watched movie clips, and researchers were then able to reconstruct low-resolution videos of what they were viewing using only their brain activity. This could lead to technology enabling us to video record our dreams.
wLRa7 TIL that at the age of 10, a boy named Alexander Bell asked his father if could have a middle name. As a result, on his 11th birthday, he became Alexander Graham Bell of telephone fame.
Jm7j TIL After buying out the McDonalds brothers, Ray Kroc was angry that the deal did not include the original McDonalds so he forced the McDonald brothers to change the name of the establishment (it was changed to the big M) and opened a McDonalds a block away and the put the big M out of business.
rRKXd TIL of William Lewis Moore, a white man who fought for civil rights. He planned to walk from Chattanooga, TN, to Jackson, MS, to ask Gov. Ross Barnett to change the state’s racial hierarchy. He planned to walk 40 miles a day for 10 days but was shot dead along the way - the killer was never caught.
ABX7 TIL that astrophysicists have discovered a faraway object that’s hotter than any contemporary theory can explain, a discovery that might require scientists rewriting galaxy operation manuals for years to come.