Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

Hambredd t1_j9rsxev wrote

Reply to comment by PaoliBulldog in TIL about the 1938 Gettysburg Reunion, where veterans of The American Civil War met, they were on average 94 years old. by VengefulMight

The Gatling gun and submarines (if you can even call them that), were barely used. Balloons are hardly aerial warfare and were used in the Napoleonic wars. What about artillery the single most important weapon of World war 1? It was still used like the Napoleonic armies had. The infantry still fought in massed ranks.

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NewCanadianMTurker t1_j9rsqut wrote

Reply to comment by Archberdmans in TIL that there are more than 160 endangered languages in the United States alone. In addition to many Native American languages, Cajun French, Eastern Yiddish, and Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii, and Plains Sign Language are all endangered. by afeeney

Good point. I'd still say that the benefits of knowing English outweigh the drawbacks for most Americans. But for people like the American Indians who have cultures which are vastly different than most Americans, yeah they wouldn't benefit from cultural adaptation.

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the_ill_buck_fifty t1_j9rsjtr wrote

Reply to comment by Hambredd in TIL about the 1938 Gettysburg Reunion, where veterans of The American Civil War met, they were on average 94 years old. by VengefulMight

> As opposed to what, have Germany cease to exist? No shit most, got to keep their jobs, someone still had to run the government, and the military, and the police, and the trains etc etc

Is this you justifying not denazifying Germany? I think we know what kind of shit you are.

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locri t1_j9rsd9i wrote

Reply to comment by RobinsShaman in TIL the way NYC has bodegas, Australia has milk bars. Modeled initially on American soda fountains, they’ve been on the decline since the 70s due to competition from supermarkets by idiomaddict

> A small shop and/or cafe, often part of a larger shop, that sells fast food and a range of dairy based beverages such as milkshakes and ice creams; a deli or delicatessen.

This does not describe a small town Australian milk bar at all in anyway. Our milk bars sell bread and milk, as in, milk not mixed into a milk shake and bread without meat in between then sold at up to 30 times the price.

Again, my local milk bar sells kilo bags of beans for a few dollars.

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PaoliBulldog t1_j9rs32v wrote

Reply to comment by Hambredd in TIL about the 1938 Gettysburg Reunion, where veterans of The American Civil War met, they were on average 94 years old. by VengefulMight

Disagree wholeheartedly. The Union in particular brought the power of industrialization to the battlefield for the first time in the history of warfare. The Civil War introduced rapid-fire weaponry (the Gatling gun), modern supply chain logistics, submarine & aerial warfare, long distance communication & mass battlefield carnage to the world.

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Archberdmans t1_j9rrzzm wrote

Reply to comment by NewCanadianMTurker in TIL that there are more than 160 endangered languages in the United States alone. In addition to many Native American languages, Cajun French, Eastern Yiddish, and Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii, and Plains Sign Language are all endangered. by afeeney

Language is a part of culture it’s not independent, language loss is a sign of cultural erasure. American Indians most definitely have been harmed and their language loss is, in some cases, a direct result of that harm. In a vacuum you’re right but in the context of American Indians it’s a bad thing

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RainManToothpicks OP t1_j9rqcg4 wrote

Reply to comment by RandomActOfMindless in 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

Yeah, definitely going to be a wait. In the meantime a great diy solution for loud drunks outside a room is smushing plastic bags into the crevices of a doorframe with a spatula and squishing rolled up trash bags to seal the bottom

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NewCanadianMTurker t1_j9rq1pj wrote

Reply to TIL of Finnish man Lauri Allan Törni (born 1919) who fought in WW2 as both a Finnish and German soldier, and in the Vietnam War as a US Special Forces soldier. He was killed in a helicopter crash in 1965. by bermuda__

"He surrendered to British troops in the last stages of World War II and eventually returned to Finland in June 1945 after escaping a British POW camp in Lübeck, Germany. Törni in a Waffen SS uniform during training in 1941. As his family had been evacuated from Karelia, Törni sought to rejoin them in Helsinki but was arrested by Valpo, the Finnish state police. After escaping, he was arrested a second time in April 1946, and tried for treason for having joined the German military. A trial in October and November resulted in a six-year sentence in January 1947. Imprisoned at the Turku provincial prison, Törni escaped in June, but was recaptured and sent to the Riihimäki State Prison."

How the heck did he escape prison 3 different times?

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