› added 5 years ago

194

TIL - American fast food companies are banned from Iran, so the country is home to many knock-off fast food joints with similar branding and food, such as "Mash Donalds", and "Pizza Hot". Lawsuits from major corporations are rare due to the American/Iranian relationship and Iranian trademark law.

Read more atlasobscura.com

via reddit.com

Qp9M TIL De Beers no longer controls the diamond market and prices are set by market forces after a century long monopoly
RB8Q TIL in the Roman Empire, daytime was divided into 12 hours between sunrise and sunset, meaning that the length of hours changed with the seasons.
rRnZe TIL that why mandrills have such colorful bums. Turns out the bright red and blue on a male mandrill’s backside really draws the eye – especially the ladies’. Only dominant, top males flaunt such vibrant hues, and female mandrills see them as a badge of fitness.
7r0lP Til MJ wanted to do a HP musical
QNZjk TIL that in World War 2 Nazis used secret codes to communicate using a machine called the Enigma Machine which would use morse code but make it very, very difficult and there was a building in England where many people were recruited to work as decoders and it would take hours or days to solve.