› added 4 years ago

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TIL Arborglyph is the carving of shapes and symbols into the bark of living trees. Derived from arbor ‘tree’; glyphein ‘to carve’. It was also mentioned in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’; the love-frenzied Orlando declares he will carve every tree in the Forest of Arden.

OG5wX TIL Indian yellow pigment is claimed to have been originally manufactured in rural India from the urine of cattle fed only on mango leaves and water.
wLlYP TIL of Perkeo, a court dwarf in the 1700s, who would drink 5-8 gallons of wine a day. This impressed the Prince of Heidelberg Charles III, who made him cup-bearer and supervisor of the largest wine barrel in the world.
mxnBR TIL that while most air traffic communications around the world use the NATO phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, etc), Atlanta doesn't. Taxiways, Gates, and others including a 'D' are referred to as 'Dixie', so as not to cause confusion with Delta Air Lines. Atlanta is Delta's hub.
9wAkm TIL that low-income countries can borrow money from the IMF on concessional terms, which means there is a period of time with no interest rates, through the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), the Standby Credit Facility (SCF) and the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF).
WkWN4 TIL that the truck flipping scene/stunt in The Dark Knight didn't use any CGI at all, meaning it was a practical stunt. Nolan used TNT and a piston on the rear base of the 18-wheeler in order to make it flip the way it did in the film. It worked successfully.