Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

The_Duc_Lord t1_j9mdg8n wrote

Reply to comment by irredentistdecency in TIL: Since 1199, two counties in England will annually hold a competition event called "Atherstone Ball Game", in which participants from each towns fighting over a giant football for 2hrs. The only two rules are 1. It has to be held at the certain street and 2. No killing. by poclee

Yeah, but the refs can't see whats happening at the bottom of a ruck. I've still got tag marks from 25 years ago.

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p314159i t1_j9mbquk wrote

Reply to comment by FrontierPsycho in TIL - English physician William Harvey was a prominent skeptic regarding allegations of witchcraft. He was one of the examiners of four women from Lancashire accused of witchcraft in 1634, and as a consequence of his report, all of them were acquitted. by wendalltwolf

Men were accused of being witches too, in Salem the only reason women were more likely to get accused of being witches was because the people doing the accusing were women accusing other women they knew.

Basically so long as you kept giving names they would hold off persecuting you. Both men and women were initially accused of being witches but when men were accused of being witches they were more likely to just accept being killed immediately rather than accusing a bunch of other people first to spare their own life, with the famous case of the guy who instead of announcing a plea would grunt "more weight" when they came to ask him for one as he was sandwiched between two boards with rocks on top.

Ultimately the witch trials did not end until the accusations of witchcraft had passed through the women's social circles as they accused people they knew until they eventually reached up all the way to the governor's wife, in which case the whole witch trial thing was clamped down upon swiftly.

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deathbystats t1_j9mayau wrote

Reply to comment by Vainpaix in 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

Christians were by no means a specifically persecuted minority. While it did happen, it was sporadic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians_in_the_Roman_Empire

This was definitely not of the order of requiring them to withdraw into caves.

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MarcusForrest t1_j9mawu5 wrote

Reply to comment by senorbolsa in TIL - That avocado seeds are so large because they depended on extinct megafauna to eat and disperse them. by byronhadleigh

> It's just a well considered hypothesis for why the seeds are so large.

Actually, it isn't even related to the method of distribution, but the direct competition they face in jungles and forests - for a plant to grow amongst multiple rivals, the seed needs to be pretty big to contain enough nutrients so the plant has a chance to grow over/before its rivals, and then live off the soil, sun light, water, air and all

 

Also, although they were still pretty big back then, big seeds were not as large as they are today - they are this large today due to human interaction and selection - the seeds are bigger, but the proportion of flesh vs seed is also growing bigger, too! Because that's what we like

 

Modern avocados are alive due to human efforts - fun fact: the most popular cultivar, the HASS AVOCADO is not even 100 years old yet!

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p314159i t1_j9mae3h wrote

Reply to comment by Adrian_Alucard in TIL - English physician William Harvey was a prominent skeptic regarding allegations of witchcraft. He was one of the examiners of four women from Lancashire accused of witchcraft in 1634, and as a consequence of his report, all of them were acquitted. by wendalltwolf

It is in the bible heretic. The bible supersedes the traditions of man and the church that realized witchcraft probably doesn't exist. Sola scriptura papist!

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MarcusForrest t1_j9ma2e5 wrote

Reply to comment by Dirtroads2 in TIL - That avocado seeds are so large because they depended on extinct megafauna to eat and disperse them. by byronhadleigh

🖼️ Casteroides to scale

  • 2.2 m (7.2 feet) from tail to snout
  • 100 kg (220 lbs)
  • Teeth up to 15 cm (6 inches) long
  • Modern beavers have a major impact on forests due to their dams, imagine the impact the Casteroides left! How big their dams would be!
  • Could stay underwater for long periods of time thanks to its enlarged lungs
  • Interestingly enough, modern beaver brains are (proportionally) larger than Casteroides so it is theorized the ancient Casteroides had less complex thoughts and interacted with their environment a little less
  • They probably went extinct during the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition (12,800–11,500 years ago)
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