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183

TIL Sharks Are Actually Older Than Trees

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PYZmE TIL about Vickrey auction, a type of sealed-bid auction. Bidders submit written bids without knowing the bid of the other people in the auction. The highest bidder wins, but the price paid is the second-highest bid. This was first described academically by Nobel winner William Vickrey in 1961.
gjW8 TIL Soviet scientists tried to create nuclear 7.62 mm bullets for AKM/PKM. They used californium-252 instead of uranium or plutonium. Each bullet had enough power to destroy a tank (100—700 kg of TNT equivalent)
b6RWN TIL that the Eiffel Tower was originally designed for Barcelona, but it was rejected for aesthetic reasons. The design was not popular in Paris at the time; some 300 intellectuals and artists called it an eyesore.
b94GQ TIL of Jordan Anderson. After gaining his freedom from slavery and being asked by his former master to come back to work, Mr. Anderson wrote a deadpan style letter asking for 25 years back pay.
8e96b TIL that Marvel Comics has a superhero named Man-Thing. In the 1970s it published a series called 'Giant-Size Man-Thing'.