› added 1 year ago

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TIL about the "Pretzel Belt" where 80% of pretzels in the US come from.

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via reddit.com

9YA6p TIL that the top two sumo referees, tate-gyōji, have daggers on hand while officiating matches. These daggers symbolize the referees' willingness to ritualistically disembowel themselves if a call of theirs is overruled. In modern times, they submit resignation letters when they make a poor call.
9wxaQ TIL: You can determine the voltage in power lines overhead by counting the insulator discs below the line. High voltage power lines typically use disc insulators to prevent current entering the metal pylon. Counting the number of discs can give an indication of the line voltage:
KMWE TIL that illiterate immigrant Jews signed with a circle in lieu of their names. The Yiddish word for Circle was kikel, leading to the ethnic slur “kike”
KYapR TIL Elizabeth the First was gr*med and sxually harassed by her legal guardian Thomas Seymour when she was an adolescent; Seymour was later beheaded for treason
Koa6 TIL that as NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft swung past Earth on Oct. 9, 2013, amateur radio operators around the world sent a Morse Code “HI” to the spacecraft, and Juno heard them!