› added 10 years ago

254

TIL Helen Keller was a socialist and one of the founders of the ACLU. After extensive travel, she said, “I had once believed that we are all masters of our fate…Now, however, I learned that the power to rise in the world is not within the reach of everyone.”

Read more socialistreview.org.uk

via reddit.com

gMAQA TIL Michael J. Anderson, the actor who played The Man from Another Place in Twin Peaks, worked as a computer technician on the ground support system for NASA’s space shuttle prior to his acting career.
9bLp TIL that because of the starvation and hardship endured by the Irish people during the potato famine, Ireland has been at the forefront of famine relief and its people have given more to the fundraising efforts of Live Aid per capita than any other nation in the world.
5YAr9 TIL In 1978, two Monty Python comedians shot a scene dressed up as John Lennon and Paul McCartney and then tourists, thinking they were the Beatles, asked for their autographs, while the actual George Harrison, who they didn’t recognize, stood nearby laughing his ass off.
1aJR8 TIL modern Hard Disk Drives have read/write heads that float 4 to 5 nanometers above the surface of the disk while it spins. For scale, a human hair is 80,000-100,000 nm thick.
vbR7 TIL Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt survived an attack by a serial killer, but was paralyzed from the waist down. He pleaded for his attacker to not be executed, saying “a government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself.