Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

AdmiralAkbar1 t1_j9ks2kk wrote

Reply to comment by jwgriffiths in TIL Mark Twain is often wrongly credited with the quote: "I would have written a shorter letter, but did not have the time." Earliest credit goes to French mathematician and philospher Blaise Pascal in “Lettres Provinciales,” 1657. by jeremyjava

It doesn't seem like he said it at all. Mark Twain, much like Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, and Albert Einstein, has the fascinating ability to become associated with any pithy quote ever said in the English language.

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jeremyjava OP t1_j9kr5vd wrote

Reply to comment by jwgriffiths in TIL Mark Twain is often wrongly credited with the quote: "I would have written a shorter letter, but did not have the time." Earliest credit goes to French mathematician and philospher Blaise Pascal in “Lettres Provinciales,” 1657. by jeremyjava

One of the sources of the NPR piece says, Mark Twain who is often connected to this saying did not use it according to the best available research, but one of his tangentially related quotations is given later for your entertainment.

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BigEd369 t1_j9kp0l4 wrote

Reply to TIL about Saint Josaphat (aka Būdhasaf), a legendary Christian saint whose life is based on Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. His life story tells of how Josaphat, a son of an Indian kind that persecuted the Christian Church in his kingdom, converted to Christianity. by kweenllama

The Catholics actually did create saints that corresponded to non-Christian famous humans, various deities, and legendary humans, usually as they were moving into an area and trying to convert the inhabitants. Saint Josaphat clearly has the Buddha’s backstory, and some major holy festivals are clearly kludged from pagan deities, Easter being the most famous example. As far as Easter goes, the pagan celebration of Eostre, goddess of springtime and renewal was held in spring with baby animals, eggs, and fresh grass. I’d argue that Easter the celebration of the brutal torture, death, and resurrection of Jesus is directly nailed onto the pagan festival, they didn’t even change the name or anything about how to celebrate, they just slapped Jesus on to the existing festival. Christmas is another one, the Bible even states that shepherds were watching their flocks by night, which didn’t happen in winter in that part of the world then, nor does it happen in winter in that part of the world now. Shepherds then and now watch over their flocks by night in the springtime. The birth of Jesus occurs in winter against the actual text of the Bible but perfectly in line with various pagan winter festivals, with a huge amount of how we celebrate Christmas cribbed from Teutonic and Norse traditions. Even the life story of Jesus was likely based on the story of Mithras, which was in turn likely based on the story of Horus. This might have been done deliberately to make Christianity more palatable to Romans, or just developed organically as Christianity was gaining acceptance into Rome.

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TheCloudFestival t1_j9koc6i wrote

Reply to comment by freeeYou in TIL an indigenous empire called the Purépechas (Tarascan Empire) denied an alliance request from their rivals, the Aztecs, when Hernan Cortez first arrived in present-day Mexico City. by freeeYou

All of the Aztecs neighbours hated the Aztecs for very good reasons.

They'd never form an alliance, and the Aztecs only proposed alliances when they were personally endangered but otherwise spent their whole existence beating and murdering the ever-living crap out of their neighbours.

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TheCloudFestival t1_j9ko36i wrote

Reply to TIL an indigenous empire called the Purépechas (Tarascan Empire) denied an alliance request from their rivals, the Aztecs, when Hernan Cortez first arrived in present-day Mexico City. by freeeYou

Good. I mean, yeah the Conquistadors were bloodthirsty bastards, but one of the reasons they went so ham on Central America was that when they landed they saw what cruel, barbaric, and bloodthirsty people the Aztecs were and thought 'Well, when in Rome!'

The Aztecs, according to every account we have of them, even those written by themselves, show them to be one of the most gleefully and spitefully cruel and barbarous civilisations to have ever existed on Earth.

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molotovzav t1_j9ko0yi wrote

Reply to comment by invol713 in TIL the worst snowstorm in the history of Los Angeles occurred in 1949 when up to two feet of snow covered the city for three days as it reached its lowest temperature ever recorded, 28 degrees Fahrenheit by SappyGilmore

They're like 305' (ft.)elevation. With that kind of elevation I would never expect it to get really cold. I'm in Vegas and we're like 2kft and our lows are about 20-30F. I always think of LA as way warmer in winter and I know I'm not even living in a cold area. It's the summer that will get you in LA, well not me, but all you snow bird types.

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