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TIL that in 2020, a bizarre new type of extinct deep-sea plesiosaur was discovered in Norway. Despite being 5 to 5.5 meters (16-18 ft) long, the marine reptile's head was tiny, being only 20 centimeters (8 inches) long. It also had a small brain, extremely large eyes, and likely ate squid.

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via reddit.com

m6Ly TIL California’s largest body of water, the Salton Sea, was created by an engineering mistake. Irrigation canals were dug from the Colorado river to the Salton sink. When the river flooded a dyke was breached and the entire Colorado river poured into the sink making the sea.
YpdVP TIL that loneliness and social isolation are as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and can lead to a a 29% increase in risk of coronary heart disease and a 32% increase in risk of a stroke.
1aGxX TIL that in New York City, while its delicious bagels are not subject to a sales tax if they are whole, buying an ‘altered’ (i.e. sliced or with cream cheese) bagel will increase the sales tax by 8¢.
yVLQJ TIL that in 1979, Elf, a French oil compagny, lost over $150 million in a scam. Alain de Villegas, a Belgian Count, had led ELF officials to believe that a company had created a machine capable of detecting oil fields from the air. The scandal is known as the "Avions Renifleurs" ("Sniffer Planes").
M1G0 TIL that Arthur Ganson built a kinetic sculpture of connected gears called “Machine with Concrete.” The 1st gear turns at 200 rpm and the last gear is stuck in concrete. It can still run because each gear set reduces the turning speed, meaning that the last gear only revolves every 2 trillion years.