• nieminen@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    TIL the pyramids are closer in time to stegosaurus than we are

    Did you mean closer than we are to the construction of the pyramids? Because obviously the pyramids are closer in time, because they were before us, and the dinosaurs were before them.

    • cjoll4@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Personally I laughed out loud because I expected it to be one of those “mind blowing” facts like “Cleopatra was born closer to the release of the iPhone than to the construction of the pyramids,” but OP turned it into a shitpost by making a really obvious statement instead. It subverted my expectations. Barvo, OP, brvao

    • agamemnonymous
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      11 days ago

      I think that’s the joke. Obviously much less time separates us from the pyramids than separates the pyramids from stegosaurus.

      This is definitely a humorous subversion of that variety of fun fact, since two popular versions are that Cleopatra lived closer to the modern day than to the construction of the pyramids, and that T-Rex lived closer to the modern day than it did to stegosaurus.

  • deathmetal27@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    The time it took for man to shift from bronze swords to iron swords is longer than the time it took to shift from iron swords to the nuclear bomb.

    • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      So hang on… It’s traditionally poisonous to faeries in folk tales, it heralds the death of stars because it’s non-fissionable, and it also rapidly created a society that could end the world in a single day?

      Iron has some explaining to do.

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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        13 days ago

        I fukn knew I’d find reference to Malthus in this before I even finished reading the second paragraph lol

          • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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            12 days ago

            I don’t know about the actual dude, but he is often cited next to reactionary takes–like how there isn’t enough food for all of us [so we should let the poor die], general pearl clutching over high birthrates [in the wrong ethnic groups], and just generally very selectively utilitarian ways of viewing [certain kinds of] people.

            That said, after clicking around some more on OP’s link, I’m not really sure what the author is about at all.

  • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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    13 days ago

    In those days, in those distant days, in those nights, in those remote nights, in those years, in those distant years; in days of yore…

    They really wanted to drive home just how old the tale is…

  • Aeao@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    The oldest example we have of the “the butler did it” troupe is a compliant of how old and worn out it is

  • Auli@lemmy.ca
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    11 days ago

    I mean yeah they happened in the past. Of course they are closer to stegosaurus then we are. Just like 20 years ago is closer to stegosaurus then we are.

      • drspawndisaster
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        10 days ago

        It doesn’t, and never will, but we got to think about stegosauruses for a moment, and that was really neat.

  • mindbleach
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    13 days ago

    I think it was A Collection Of Unmitigated Pedantry that pointed out, some of the oldest cities with any surviving architecture had stone walls ten feet thick. You don’t start with ten-foot-thick walls. You work your way up to that.

    A lot of what should be civilized history is just fuckin’ gone.