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The great leap backward

The great leap backward

Posted Apr 27, 2017 8:43 UTC (Thu) by lacos (guest, #70616)
Parent article: The great leap backward

(1) This article is pure gold. Thank you. It has so many shining nuggets that it's hard to pick examples.

> leapfrogs Leap

Beautiful.

> 19 is suspiciously prime

Oh man. The tears.

(2) The incredible backwardness and savagery encoded in various cultures are mind-boggling. Man is man's biggest enemy. Here's another example: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_iron_fish>.

NB I'm not picking on the so-called developing parts of the world; the so-called developed world is terribly superstitious too. Anti-vaxxign? Homeopathy? Remote healing?

(3) Regarding the less than obvious "suse_version" values, I guess the distro is called *tumble*weed for a reason :)


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The great leap backward

Posted Apr 27, 2017 10:40 UTC (Thu) by linuxrocks123 (subscriber, #34648) [Link] (2 responses)

The "lucky iron fish" is supposed to be used when cooking so the iron will leach into the water in the pot and correct for iron deficiency in the users' diets. Iron does leach into water, so what's superstitious about that?

The great leap backward

Posted Apr 27, 2017 12:14 UTC (Thu) by lacos (guest, #70616) [Link] (1 responses)

> The "lucky iron fish" is supposed to be used when cooking so the iron will leach into the water in the pot and correct for iron deficiency in the users' diets. Iron does leach into water, so what's superstitious about that?

The fact that the ingot had to be cast into fish form, otherwise people wouldn't put it in their pots? See e.g. the attempt with the lotus flower shape:

> The research group distributed an iron disc to women in the village, asking them to place the disc in their pot while making soup or boiling water. The women were reluctant to use the chunk of iron while cooking, and "almost no one used it". [...] Charles and others distributed iron ingots in the shape of a lotus flower, but that was also rejected by the villagers. During discussions with village elders, Charles learned about a fish species deemed a symbol of good luck, health, and happiness in local folklore. The group created fish-shaped iron ingots, which were received more positively by the villagers and led to immediate increases in blood iron levels amongst the villagers, and anemia was virtually eliminated. Charles would later state that "You can have the best treatment in the world, but if people won’t use it, it won't matter."

The great leap backward

Posted Apr 28, 2017 18:58 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

That's probably because putting random chunks of what looks like rock in food is often dangerous, so triggers a disgust response. (An even more extreme example: almost nobody from any culture would be happy about putting a piece of iron shaped like a turd into their cooking. This might be irrational, but it is definitely sensible, because most things shaped like that are really really dangerous to put in cooking.)


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