this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Today I Learned

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It's kind of funny, I think, that a plant so closely associated with America is actually not native at all.

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think most things that are most closely associated with America aren't native...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

And then you have horses, which originated there, migrated to Eurasia, went extinct in the Americas, and then were reintrouduced thousands of years later.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Also, horses had gone extinct in North America until the Spanish brought them back in the 15th century.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

It's theorized this is partially why a lot of indigenous societies in the Americas simply didn't use wheels in larger contexts. We've found perfectly engineered wheels in a lot of archaeological sites here in North and South America, but they're almost always on toys. The theory is that civilizations like the Aztecs and various Native American and First Nations peoples invented wheels just fine, but since North America particularly lacks any form of native, easily-domesticated draft animal, wheels just didn't make sense or save anyone significant enough time to really bother with in larger forms like carts or chariots.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Ok, but where did the

Dunadunaduna na wah wah waaaah

come from?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I wonder if the Mandalorian theme was inspired by this

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

It's the sound spaghetti makes.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago

It was always there. It just needed the Italians to set it free.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Haha, I literally just watched that a few days ago. For a brief second, I saw this post and jokingly thought, "so when did Lemmy start snooping on my search history?"

But seriously, it's a really bad problem. It's crazy how widely they've spread and become such a massive pain in the ass in so many areas.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago

Kinda poetic really. Gets edged out by the European settler for the most prolific invasive species, though

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago

Freaking commie tumbleweeds rolling from town to town looking for handouts

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wait holdup, a weed from asia, named after russia is ravaging america?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Russia is part of the Asian continent

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Interesting... I always considered it to be a part of europe

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

It's a transcontinental country, like Turkey and Egypt.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

russia is so big it's part of both

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Yep. They're like tribbles.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Apple pie has entered the chat.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Sure, but the same applies to so many foods in so many cultures. What was Italian food like before they had access to tomatoes? Eastern, Central European, or Irish before potatoes? Chinese, Southeast Asian, or Korean before they had chili peppers?

Now each of those countries have dishes we associate with them but which use those non-native ingredients.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

The more impressive thing is how the British had a global empire for roughly 400 years, and their cuisine remained awful.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think that's because British food we commonly see as awful stems from food rationing that went on during and after WWII, as far as I know well in the 1970s

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That seems like a poor excuse, every country experienced rationing and they didn't revert to awful food. There's even a few dishes like fried spam and ramen that are actually pretty good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

American cuisine also suffered dramatically in the post-war period due to a reliance on, for example, canned vegetables. A whole generation or two (boomers and Gen X) grew up not knowing what spices are, practically.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Then they somehow put everything in Jello in the 50s because apparently decent cuisine was completely forgotten

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Access to all those spices and they come up with bread sauce

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

They sold those spices for profit, that's how empires work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Hey now, it's thanks to them that we have chicken tikka and butter chicken.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Blows my minds that Indian and Asian food at one point wasn't spicy, and it wasn't until Europian trade from the America's that changed the cuisine

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They had pepper (actual, not chili).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That would be part of why I said chili peppers, not pepper.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

And I meant that they were still making food spicy hot

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

*Johnny Appleseed approves this comment

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It’s kinda like tomatoes being associated with italian cuisine

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Yep. Western bits of SA.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And spicy chili peppers being associated with Chinese, Thai, or Indian food

And potatoes being associated with Ireland... or Russia...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Or native americans being stereotyped on horses

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Fuckin' Russians.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Kochia scoparia is another one like that, and also makes tumbleweeds

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I was about to say, there isn't just one tumbleweed. There are a bunch of plants that evolved to grow in a roundish shape, dry out, and unroot. I don't even know them by name, but my area has at least 3 distinct plants that could be considered tumbleweeds

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

And they cause a tingling feeling when you get pricked by them.

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