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TIL in ancient Sri Lanka, they used winds driven by the yearly monsoons to power some of the first steel-making furnaces to produce what's called Wootz Steel.

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Y7yKr TIL there are 3 main types of circus clowns in a traditional clown trio: The Whiteface Clown (leading clown, most important), the Contra-Auguste Clown (imitator of the Whiteface clown and mediator, second most important), the Auguste Clown (submissive to the Whiteface clown, least important)
4M5J TIL When making The Incredibles, director Brad Bird intentionally used artists who were likely to either quit or be fired from Pixar; because he believed only they could create everything that he needed.
wLGE6 TIL in 2012, a man attempted to pay his traffic ticket with 137 origami dollar bills shaped as pigs, inside of 2 doughnut boxes. The clerk called in police, who required him to unfold every single one to pay his ticket. The event was regarded by the ticketed man as, "The Great Dollar Pig Massacre.".
JZYV TIL that although samurai are best known for their swordsmanship, originally the way of the warrior was the way of the horse and the bow. “kyūjutsu [art of archery] was actually considered a more vital skill for a significant portion of Japanese history”
OEv4 TIL For nearly a century, the French have prohibited entry into an area of more than 460 square miles because there is an almost impossible amount of ammunition and dead bodies to recover from the battlefield’s of World War One. The area is called “Zone Rouge”, and much of it is still off limits