how about: Ice is less dense than liquid water, so it floats. That means bodies of water don't freeze solid in the winter, which would have precluded life anywhere colder than the tropics.
Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
21–30 of 349 posts
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#22Sometimes I think #1 could have gone either way, and that would still be OK. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#23>That even though the turn humans made from hunter-gatherer bands into agriculture pretty clearly made life worse, it eventually led to the industrial revolution Which also made life worse to begin with. Without the enclosure movement depriving peasants of their land and pushing them to work in the factories in horrendous conditions for pitiful pay it likely wouldnt have happened. Though I'm pretty thankful for the w…
I would like to see evidence, that people were pushed into the factories. I was under the impression, that many went into the factories, because working in agriculture was not easy, as machines were not common.
And once factories were there, humans improved working conditions there. While in agriculture, well, way more difficult to do, as the work had to be done.
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#24I'm thankful for my kiddos, single dad full time for years and after the alternative i wouldn't have it any other way. I've got a shock of white now because of them though :D I couldn't be more thankful. And I'm gonna stay single until they grow up so they know beyond a doubt how important they are.
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#25If we have something like #2, would that debunk the idea that backing things up exclusively on magnetic media (HDD, tape) is sufficient for restoration? I've never found optical media to be particularly reliable, but it might be a decent hedge against a huge magnetic event.
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#26>That even though the turn humans made from hunter-gatherer bands into agriculture pretty clearly made life worse, it eventually led to the industrial revolution Which also made life worse to begin with. Without the enclosure movement depriving peasants of their land and pushing them to work in the factories in horrendous conditions for pitiful pay it likely wouldnt have happened. Though I'm pretty thankful for the w…
I would like to see evidence, that people were pushed into the factories. I was under the impression, that many went into the factories, because working in agriculture was not easy, as machines were not common. And once factories were there, humans improved working conditions there. While in agriculture, well, way more difficult to do, as the work had to be done.
In seeing what has recently happened in China, I would agree. A gigantic migration has occurred in the past few decades where Chinese peasants moved from rural areas to the cities to work in factories. I thought for a long time "Why would so many people do this? This factory conditions are quite horrible, or at least the definition of soul-crushing monotony.
I watched a pretty good documentary about this, and the answer pretty clearly seemed to be opportunity. It's kinda similar to how legions of people move to LA to be actors. 99% of them will be worse off for the experience, many of them much more so, but even the chance to escape the conditions of their situation is a powerful draw for a lot of people.
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#27I like this more unusual list of things to be grateful for, as it complements well what one is usually reminded to be grateful for. I'd like a more fundamental point there, though: Gratefulness seems to be primarily a ternary operator: " is grateful to for ." (like "a ? b : c" in C). That second SOMEONE is the one that the being grateful is directed at, as they are responsible for things being the way they are. (Bein…
Unless gratefulness is actually binary (x is grateful for y), and directing this gratefulness towards someone is completely optional. (One might argue that the object of gratefulness is optional as well, and you can be grateful simpliciter, in an unqualified way. But to them I'd say there's an implied, general, object: the world, life, existence, or something like this.)
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#28>That even though the turn humans made from hunter-gatherer bands into agriculture pretty clearly made life worse, it eventually led to the industrial revolution Which also made life worse to begin with. Without the enclosure movement depriving peasants of their land and pushing them to work in the factories in horrendous conditions for pitiful pay it likely wouldnt have happened. Though I'm pretty thankful for the w…
I would like to see evidence, that people were pushed into the factories. I was under the impression, that many went into the factories, because working in agriculture was not easy, as machines were not common. And once factories were there, humans improved working conditions there. While in agriculture, well, way more difficult to do, as the work had to be done.
I was going to argue about the dangers of factory work, then I remembered just how dangerous a scythe can be. Work, in general, was a dangerous thing back then.
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#29>That even though the turn humans made from hunter-gatherer bands into agriculture pretty clearly made life worse, it eventually led to the industrial revolution Which also made life worse to begin with. Without the enclosure movement depriving peasants of their land and pushing them to work in the factories in horrendous conditions for pitiful pay it likely wouldnt have happened. Though I'm pretty thankful for the w…
I would like to see evidence, that people were pushed into the factories. I was under the impression, that many went into the factories, because working in agriculture was not easy, as machines were not common. And once factories were there, humans improved working conditions there. While in agriculture, well, way more difficult to do, as the work had to be done.
It depends on your definition of "pushed" or "forced". People often migrated from country to city for economic reasons. It was the only way to make a living for many. Others simply wanted to make more money or take advantage of other opportunities. You might say economic circumstances forced them to give up agriculture for factory work.
Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful
#30Not about to start being grateful for aspartame, sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯