› added 4 years ago

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Today I learned about a Welsh Christmas tradition in which a hobby horse, made of a real horse's skull, called Mary Lwyd is taken from house to house. Mary and her group is allowed to enter the house for food and drinks if they win the exchange of rude rhymes with the house owner.

Read more wales.com

via reddit.com

xxLw TIL the term mothership is from the whaling trade when small, fast ships were used to chase and kill whales. The dead meat from several boats was then brought back to the larger, slower ship for processing and storage until the return to land.
oRvwE TIL Atrazine, one of the world's most widely used pesticides, wreaks havoc on the population of frogs, emasculating 75% of makes, and turning 1/10 into females.
jNx6p TIL that King Herod of Judea (73/74 BCE – 4 BCE) desired a certain maiden and she killed herself to avoid marrying him. He later went on to preserve her body in honey for 7 years amid rumours of necrophilia.
BrYD TIL in England, there is a ‘Chap Olympiad’ where contestants compete in events like Umbrella Jousting and Shouting at Foreigners.
vxBj TIL that ‘boosting’ is a form of cheating in paralympics. Athletes with spinal cord injuries will do things like breaking bones (usually in toes), electric shocks (to feet/legs/scrotum/testicles), and more. This results in increased blood pressure which improves performance.