› added 7 years ago

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TIL that the orange-bellied parrot is close to extinction and conversion attempts are made difficult due to the bird having poor survival instincts

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ANXrw TIL the Buddha's tribe of origin, the Shakyas, practiced the veneration of trees and sacred groves. Tree veneration remains important in Buddhism today, particularly in the practice of venerating Bodhi (fig) trees, the type of tree that the Buddha eventually attained enlightenment under.
WkOYX TIL The version of the song “Po Lazarus” used in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? was an actual recording of prisoners singing at Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1959
Y7vbx TIL about the School of the Air, a term used for radio-borne (now Internet-based) correspondence schools that teach children who live in the most remote parts of the Australian outback, where there aren't enough people for a regular school.
e0b94 TIL that Richard Kiel, the seven-foot-tall actor who played Jaws in James Bond movies and video games, wrote a book about Kentucky abolitionist Cassius Clay
loZKB TIL that during the siege of Tyre in 332 BC, Alexander the Great ordered the construction of a kilometre-long causeway between the island and the Lebanese mainland that, in addition to facilitating the breaking of the siege, collected sediment and turned the island into a peninsula.