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TIL that the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed much later than I expected. And it's interesting to note the amount of time needed to change societal views.
TIL: Today I Learned
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cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
Li Bai, one of the greatest Chinese poets (whose influence in the Sinosphere, along with other important Chinese poets like Du Fu, have been compared to Shakespeare in the Anglosphere), was born in Afghanistan. Or Tajikistan. Or Kyrgyzstan. Somewhere in Central Asia, basically. His mom may have even been Turkish. Really a testament to the interconnectedness of the world in the past.
Also learned that ancient Iranian musical forms, while pretty much dead elsewhere, "survives" to this day... in Japan, of all places, via Japanese imperial court music. Long story short ancient Japanese picked up the music in China during the Tang Dynasty, as the Chinese then were obsessed with Persian stuff at the time including Persian music. Anyhow I actually knew this and learned it ages ago but forgot about it. Also a very nice testament to the diffusion of culture and ideas past (and present).
Also learned that ancient Iranian musical forms, while pretty much dead elsewhere, "survives" to this day... in Japan, of all places, via Japanese imperial court music. Long story short ancient Japanese picked up the music in China during the Tang Dynasty, as the Chinese then were obsessed with Persian stuff at the time including Persian music. Anyhow I actually knew this and learned it ages ago but forgot about it. Also a very nice testament to the diffusion of culture and ideas past (and present).
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
Dang these were really cool to learn.
Our ancient times interconnectedness is very real. Our most recent common ancestor (of virtually all people! Like 99.9999995+%) was, after all, born only sometime between 2050-9000 years ago.
cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
So I'm a lot more closely related to you than I thought, huh?
But yeah it's fun finding out how ideas and customs and stuff gets spread around all over the place and people forget about where it came from.
Also, minor addition to what I re-learned above: the Japanese court music style I discussed above, Gagaku, is rather slow and for those who are inexperienced with listening to it it can be a bit of a drag due to its slowness. I remember now that my professor told me (in the class where I originally learned this) that what may have happened was that over centuries, as generations of Japanese court musicians learned from one another, the music got gradually and gradually slower as it became more of a ceremonial thing. So what you hear nowadays as Gagaku was probably once music with a more "normal" tempo (and one I suspect may have been even rather lively, given that Persian music was often accompanied by dance during its days of popularity - Yang Guifei and An Lushan, two famous figures in Tang history, for instance, were apparently quite good at dancing to that sort of Persian music). And music that wasn't necessarily so "refined" and "classical"-like, either.
H4run
Deity
read a beautiful religous quotation today
only speak when your words more beautiful than silence!
only speak when your words more beautiful than silence!
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So I can't talk to emergency responders about a horrible incident that happened?
H4run
Deity
African girl in human zoo, Belgium 1958
This girl is in a human zoo in Brussels, Belgium in 1958. Human zoos with African people put on display go back to at least 19th century Europe. The ''visitors'' here are feeding her just like you feeds animals in the zoo.
I just learnt there is such thing in history today.
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
1958?
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Terxpahseyton
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Russia has about 800k soldiers, which is a lot for its population size, and every European country seem to have been slashing its military budget over the years, except Russia (and perhaps Greece).
African girl in human zoo, Belgium 1958
This girl is in a human zoo in Brussels, Belgium in 1958. Human zoos with African people put on display go back to at least 19th century Europe. The ''visitors'' here are feeding her just like you feeds animals in the zoo.
I just learnt there is such thing in history today.
That just looks extremely horrible.
And one should also have in mind that Belgium was quite related to the nice years in the Free Congo State
I too have to wonder if the pic is from 1958 (or anything post WW2), but maybe the african people there were paid to be seen as part of a rare exhibit or something (which again should place this before the 1950s and electronic media). Still very sad.
H4run
Deity
and she is so cute also, how can they fail to see how human she is.
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Owls are harbingers of doom in some cultures.
cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
Concerning the human zoos, aye, it was pretty common place in 18th and 19th century Europe, even into the 20th century. I remember studying in one class a case where a Khoisan woman from South Africa was captured and turned into a live exhibit in England in the late 18th century. If I remember correctly somehow she ended up getting out of there and learning to speak/write/read English a bit, though she unfortunately spent some time as a prostitute - her unusual appearance (particualarly her large buttocks (I kid you not)) certainly were interesting to some of the English men.
The woman you are talking about is Sarah Baartman (not her real name). Unfortunately no happy ending for her though.
cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
Yup, that's her. Died young, too, sadly.
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