› added 6 years ago

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TIL In Japan, a festival called Kanamara Matsuri, or 'Festival of the Steel Phallus' celebrates the defeat of a vagina demon by an iron penis.

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via reddit.com

nWVj9 TIL Montecristo cigars are named after the classic novel because cigar rollers at the time were read to for entertainment whilst working and ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ was a favourite among the staff.
nGV7 TIL that there is a real criminal called Dr. Chaos who is currently being held in Federal supermax prison in Colorado for causing 28 power failures and hoarding large amounts of cyanide.
7rYjM TIL that the Vikings were the first Europeans in North America landing in modern-day Newfoundland in Canada, beating Christopher Columbus by 500 years.
l7RNK TIL a band released blank album cover captioned “We had an album cover we wanted to use, but after getting dropped by our label we can no longer afford to use it. So instead you can stare at this blank square.”
Egnbw TIL about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a secure backup facility that protects duplicates of seeds that are conserved in genebanks around the world. The purpose is to protect the world's food supply in case of disaster.