› added 7 years ago

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TIL More police officers and firefighters die from suicide than in line of duty

LQr8d TIL: An Wang was an immigrant who coinvented "write-after-read" which made magnetic core memory possible in computing while working at Harvard. However, Harvard cut computer research in 1951 so he started a business. He said, "Success is more a function of consistent common sense than of genius"
69r5X TIL Comet Hale-Bopp was independently discovered in 1995 by two people: astronomer Alan Hale and amateur stargazer Thomas Bopp. Both immediately alerted the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams to report their discovery. Hale sent an e-mail, while Bopp sent a Western Union telegram.
Wogd TIL a study by Princeton sociologists on discrimination in university admissions concluded that on SATs, blacks had an advantage of +230 points, Hispanics +185, and athletes +200. Asians had a -50 handicap. To have the same odds of admission as a black student who scored 1110, Asians need a 1550.
MwxV TIL that among the first people to have their genome sequenced were two white American scientists and one Korean. Surprisingly, the two whites were found to be closer genetically to the Korean than to each other.
W7kXX TIL that Quentin Tarantino, while listing out his favorite movies released between 1992 and 2009, referred to M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" as one of the true masterpieces of our time. He also said the film was directed by "M. Night Shyamalamadingdong."