Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

Skunkdunker t1_j9srty0 wrote

Reply to comment by sjiveru 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

It's still recovering from a time when it was banned in schools. My Hawaiian speaking tour guide said it's spoken more by the younger generation.

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SammyLBB t1_j9sragd wrote

Reply to TIL Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who started the persecution of Catholics, died in 1616 and for many centuries it was believed to be from over-eating tempura, a dish invented by Catholics during Lent while they were visiting Japan in 1543, which was the same year the Shogun had been born. (Maybe Cancer) by FizzlePopBerryTwist

Mess with the the boss, you get the cross

/s

If tempura had anything to do with it, then my money's on gout.

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locri t1_j9sr0wi wrote

Reply to comment by hypatiatextprotocol 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

What "way"? The two are wildly different concepts that have at least become two wildly different things. You do not live in a food desert if you live next door to a milk bar because you can buy a loaf of bread for 3 dollars, but the same isn't true if you live next to a bodega that sells 30 dollar sandwiches.

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Zarkalarkdarkwingd t1_j9spfh8 wrote

Reply to TIL Pedestrianism was a 19th-century form of competitive walking, often professional and funded by wagering, from which the modern sport of racewalking developed. by I-Skeleton

As much as I’d like to say it’s an English made up sport. That no one else wants to say, as a kid or an adult ,I’ll race walk you to that tree , never happened you must always have a foot on the ground because you are going to fast if you leap and bound keep at least one foot on the earth because it’s most natural.

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stray_r t1_j9sp3hq wrote

Reply to comment by elephantsgraveyard in TIL that the reason Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it 'macaroni' was because at one time macaroni was slang for something very fashionable or trendy by elephantsgraveyard

Ok, was on mobile, didn't see link destination, didn't click through. Guilty of crimes against the internet.

If we taught history properly in schools, we'd be saying that the british were hurling queerphobic slurs at the colonies and they owned it so hard by running with it and kicking the british empire out.

It's important to note that in 1770, buggery was a capital offence in the british empire. (No it's not a term of affection. If you see british people using it as a term of affection on tv, it's a very british and particularly squaddie behaviour of greeting close friends with vile insults. A millennial equivalent observed in the wild is ||whatup douchenuggets||) We don't get the level of self identity we do where it's legally protected. But there's plenty of homophobic and enbyphobic hate recorded in the 1770s.

I think macaroni was more widely "fashion inspired by" rather than exclusively queer culture, but it's the highly visible Ru Paul's Drag Race to the much more underground queer clubs in every city.

I wish things like this were taught in history classes, people might see the queer community as something that's always been here, rather than something that's "new" due to internet exposure and a period of relative safety in existing publicly in some places.

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mkautzm t1_j9sov8l wrote

Reply to comment by The_Linguist_LL 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

There is beauty in preserving language, but to suggest the 'only reason to want to decrease it is support of ethnolinguistic genocide' is quite silly and you damage your argument by dismissing them outright.

Taking it to it's extreme, there are major advantages to having one language. Near-universal communication is a very strong selling point. Having that same universal access to information and information-based platforms without having to traverse a second language would be a boon to many. Not having to spend the time in translation would increase information accessibility to many people.

Now, whether or not it's a net good, or what kind of time line that would turn into a net good is a more interesting discussion, but suggestion that there are no reasons to support the idea of a common language is a pretty dishonest argument.

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elephantsgraveyard OP t1_j9slyoz wrote

Reply to comment by stray_r in TIL that the reason Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it 'macaroni' was because at one time macaroni was slang for something very fashionable or trendy by elephantsgraveyard

Wow what a cool article, sure looks familiar

Joking aside, I wanted to include something about that as well but you can only put so many characters into the title. The whole thing is fascinating!

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