Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

OTee_D t1_j6mpj1q wrote

Reply to TIL about cargo cults, where indigenous people of small tropical islands would perform elaborate rituals to mimic air traffic control and marching patterns after witnessing airplanes drop supplies on airforce bases during world war II. by sciencedit

The term is reused in modern management principles and refers to ritualistic actions in companies that are useless but just adhered to 'tradition' or because 'someone says'.

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1945BestYear t1_j6mphql wrote

Reply to comment by AloofCommencement in TIL that between 1895 and 1908 the population of the Belgian Congo declined by between 2 and 13 million due to colonial brutality and diseases caused by colonialism. by hetkleinezusje

Yeah, that's fair. "Redeem" is just one of those words you have to lock down a very specific and explained meaning if you're going to use it in an argument. Under the meaning that I use, I think it's defensible to consider Leopold the worse person, he did things that earn him the infamy of the world just because he wanted money and land over which he could rule as a true despot. Under your meaning, which admits that any positive qualities of either could be counted just to merely register against their evil, I don't know enough about Leopold as a person to measure against the slightly more that I know about Hitler as a person. I'm sure Leopold would have to have had something, maybe he liked playing with his grandchildren, or he washed his hands after going to the toilet, or maybe he was just charming and interesting in conversation (apparently Hitler, for all his regarded charisma on the speaker's podium, was usually kinda awkward and even dull if you had to talk to him, people who met him who weren't committed Nazis seemed to often find him disappointing next to his reputation).

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DeterminedThrowaway t1_j6mp83i wrote

Reply to comment by inverteboi in TIL When a cow has opposite sex twins, the female twin is usually born intersex and infertile. This happens because the twins blood supplies are linked, which exposes the female to male sex hormones. by awawe

I'm a trans-masc enby and one of the reasons it's so frustrating to me is that not only did my intersex condition rob me of how I would have preferred to be born (I have XY chromosomes but don't get to be male which is endlessly grating to me), it also made it impossible for me to really do anything about it since I'm insensitive to T and was surgically altered as an infant already. I know it's a lot to put out there but it's just some context about how intersex conditions can be incredibly counterproductive rather than validating. I don't get any comfort from this, just health issues unfortunately

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fearlessfalderanian t1_j6mp5zh wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL tomb raiding is a big problem in China that looters sometimes find historically significant sites first. For instance the tomb of the famed 3 Kingdoms-era general, Cao Cao, was discovered in 2008 after police inspected the stolen goods of a bunch of robbers, who then led them to an unknown tomb. by Khysamgathys

Uh, non-archeologist here. Destroying our ability to understand our own past sorta pisses me off too, bub.

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zebulonworkshops t1_j6mo9wa wrote

Reply to comment by Belongs-InTheTrash in TIL that between 1895 and 1908 the population of the Belgian Congo declined by between 2 and 13 million due to colonial brutality and diseases caused by colonialism. by hetkleinezusje

It's called nuance. It's weird that people have such a hard time discerning between two terrible things. You can acknowledge someone is one of the top two terrible humans to ever exist and still have people offended, which is kinda inevitable but, it's not saying one is puppies and rainbows. It's using the one as the bar for worst person ever.

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inverteboi t1_j6mo83l wrote

Reply to comment by DeterminedThrowaway in TIL When a cow has opposite sex twins, the female twin is usually born intersex and infertile. This happens because the twins blood supplies are linked, which exposes the female to male sex hormones. by awawe

Please don't worry about being oversensitive, you were absolutely correct to put me in my place about it. I'm a non binary person with some dysphoria in that area but that gives me no right to downplay others' pain. Thank you for your reply, I'll make sure to educate myself much better on this for the future ❤

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RealMudflapper t1_j6mo413 wrote

Reply to comment by LooksAtClouds in TIL in the 1980s Monty Python got much of its exposure to the US through PBS, because of CBS censoring parts of "The Holy Grail" in a 1977 broadcast. This upset the comedy troupe, prompting them to withdraw the broadcast rights. by AnthillOmbudsman

The 70s were weird. I was only a kid but it seemed like the entire world in the 70s was a bell-bottomed was a filthy, rapey, child-abducting, cigarette-smoking, Quaalude-popping, bell-bottom-wearing, airline hijacking, am-radio-listening fever dream has crisis with big dumb collars. I mean, the decade started with The Beatles breaking up. Talk about a harbinger.

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