› added 11 years ago

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TIL that upon leaving office, President Harry S Truman chose not to be on any corporate payroll, believing that taking advantage of such financial opportunities would diminish the integrity of the nation’s highest office.

eMRb TIL in January 2015, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and dozens of artificial intelligence experts signed an open letter on AI, calling for research on the societal impacts and urging researchers not to create something which cannot be controlled.
PYagG TIL of the Harvard Jail House, which was put on sale by accident. Robert Pinckney bought the jailhouse for $1.50 and successfully sued the town for rent when they continued putting criminals in there. He then sold the place to Charlie McCarthy, a ventriloquist’s dummy, for $10,000 in war bonds.
AXdn TIL the “I am a golden god!” line from the film ‘Almost Famous’ is based on a direct quote from Robert Plant who was on a hotel balcony at the time. There is even a photo that captured the moment.
xOyo TIL that Heinz Heydrich, brother of SS General Reinhard Heydrich (a main architect of the Holocaust), helped Jews escape the Holocaust after reading his brother’s SS and Gestapo files after Reinhard’s death.
K4RG TIL that Army officer Hugh Thompson prevented the deaths of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians including women and children, by a group of American soldiers. Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot, landed between the soldiers and the villagers and threatened to open fire if they continued their attacks