Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

lebiro t1_j9r35q0 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL that in 1554 Elizabeth Crofts hid in a wall on Aldersgate Street, where she pretended to be a heavenly voice. Reputedly 17,000 people came to listen to her give out anti-Catholic propaganda. by Kurma-the-Turtle

Would you care to point out what I've said that suggests I've "had trouble with this article"? (Which, incidentally, is an nbc news puff piece).

I think perhaps you should take your own advice.

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big_duo3674 t1_j9r315e wrote

Reply to comment by Averander in TIL that in 1554 Elizabeth Crofts hid in a wall on Aldersgate Street, where she pretended to be a heavenly voice. Reputedly 17,000 people came to listen to her give out anti-Catholic propaganda. by Kurma-the-Turtle

They really did a number on the letter "e" at some point, did it piss off someone important?

Alright that's enough e, I will make it my life's work to ensure you're time at the end of words is finished

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lebiro t1_j9r1rxo wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL that in 1554 Elizabeth Crofts hid in a wall on Aldersgate Street, where she pretended to be a heavenly voice. Reputedly 17,000 people came to listen to her give out anti-Catholic propaganda. by Kurma-the-Turtle

The article doesn't say this.

Firstly it may be the earliest mention of Jesus Christ, but it might also not be a reference to him, and may in fact date to "the late 2nd century B.C."

Secondly the article does use the translation "magician" for the Greek word "goistas" but it gives no indication that the word signified a travelling performer doing 'tricks' for money. It talks about fortune-tellers and soothsayers, who offered what we might call 'service magic', i.e. magic for functional purposes, not for entertainment. We can't speculate about what individual practitioners thought or believed about what they were doing but we can say with confidence that the people who came to them in large part did so because they believed they could really learn about the future (or in other cases be healed, find their stolen goods or buried treasure, etc). Not a David Blaine situation at all, unless I am to understand that the people at David Blaine's shows believe he actually has supernatural powers.

I am not a historian of first century Greece and I don't speak Greek, so it could well be that the word on the cup does signify an entertainer (though I highly doubt it), but the article absolutely doesn't support the idea that Jesus was perceived as someone who "travelled around performing magic tricks for donations".

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substantial-freud t1_j9r1p7l wrote

Reply to comment by lostfromwandering in TIL about the birthday effect. A statistical phenomenon where an individual's likelihood of death appears to increase on or close to their birthday, variously attributed to alcohol consumption, psychological stress, increased suicide risk, and other factors. by Deechon

Not that!

“Attribute”, as the word suggests, means to regard something or someone as the cause of something else.

If a phenomenon is “variously attributed” is that there are various theories about the cause, not necessarily that there are several causes.

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XondoXondo420 t1_j9r16l8 wrote

Reply to TIL certain moths have developed sound absorbing wings that make it harder for bats to hunt and eat them with their echolocation. The structure of the moth wings might someday help people soundproof places by RainManToothpicks

We pretty much already have that tech in multiple forms, you can use sound absorbent materials to soundproof a room, even some submarines were historically equipped with a special hull coating that mostly absorbed active sonar pings, its really cool

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Zandrick t1_j9r01tb wrote

Reply to comment by creggieb in TIL that in 1554 Elizabeth Crofts hid in a wall on Aldersgate Street, where she pretended to be a heavenly voice. Reputedly 17,000 people came to listen to her give out anti-Catholic propaganda. by Kurma-the-Turtle

Those are two very different statements.

“Nobody told me” implies withheld information, like a secret.

“Choose not to inform myself” is a failure of personal responsibility, sure.

But either way, you are talking about ignorance, both things are ignorance. If someone withholds secret information from you, you are ignorant of that information.

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lebiro t1_j9qzbqz wrote

Reply to comment by gaijin5 in TIL that in 1554 Elizabeth Crofts hid in a wall on Aldersgate Street, where she pretended to be a heavenly voice. Reputedly 17,000 people came to listen to her give out anti-Catholic propaganda. by Kurma-the-Turtle

This was in the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary - her marriage to the Catholic King Philip of Spain was the thing thatwas agitating Croft and her friends. I don't think Mary had actually burned any Protestants yet at the time of this incident (and Croft certainly wasn't burned), but she certainly did so during her reign.

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