maulheldentum

magic is real you fools it happens when you make your friends smile

“Here’s how it worked: Fairy tales are transmitted through language, and the shoots and branches of the Indo-European language tree are well-defined, so the scientists could trace a tale’s history back up the tree—and thus back in time. If both Slavic languages and Celtic languages had a version of Jack and the Beanstalk (and the analysis revealed they might), for example, chances are the story can be traced back to the “last common ancestor.” That would be the Proto-Western-Indo-Europeans from whom both lineages split at least 6800 years ago. The approach mirrors how an evolutionary biologist might conclude that two species came from a common ancestor if their genes both contain the same mutation not found in other modern animals.” 

Tehrani’s work is absolute genius. If you like this, look up his other work. He’s been at this for a while.

What really annoys me in all this discussion about the Amazon that has started recently is that a lot of people engaging in it - gringos and brazilians/other south-americans who don’t live in the region - are acting as that forest is just a bunch of trees. It isn’t just this, it’s much more. There are people living in there, you understand? Indigenous people of various cultures, some of them not even contacted yet. The ribeirinhos, a typical population of the Amazon. Important towns such as Manaus are located in the Amazon, and thousands of people live in there. All of them are facing the consequences of these events right now. The Amazon means a lot to their lives and culture. And you must remember that the land of the forest is theirs by right before you enter this conversation.