This one time I've had a discussion on Tumblr and it hasn't gone south YET

[apiphile]

derek: history tumblr, why did the industrial revolution happen in europe & not somewhere else?

little-ray-of-gabi: basically europe was the only continent not getting invaded by europeans at the time. I guess europeans would like to think they had a more “advanced” or “progressive” culture open to modern ideas and such whereas other cultures were

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

Ooh, this is interesting.

[howifall]

So in exchange for this being really fucking interesting, did you know that about 75% of the world's bananas are all the same variety which changed around the 50s due to a fungus that pretty much wiped out the previous single variety culture of bananas? Also far from learning, the producers are still not researching against the still very present fungus.

Basically thanks for sharing knowledge!! :)

[apiphile]

I would be vastly more upset about this knowledge were it not for the fact that bananas are one of the few foods I genuinely and unremittingly HATE. :D BRING ON THE FUNGUS.

[merryhouse]

... which is apparently why banana flavouring doesn't taste like bananas. It tastes like the old bananas.

It's tricky because most banana seeds aren't real seeds so the normal route of innovation is almost entirely closed off.

[apiphile]

No, that's because banana flavouring is made entirely from the same chemicals they use to make pear drops, common myth. BUT. I believe bananas are clones? Which makes it hard to change them or help them if there's an epidemic.

[merryhouse]

Have you read Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond?

It sort of starts from the same question - and his answer is heavily based on "happened to be".

[apiphile]

I'm not allowed to because he's Eurocentric apparently.

[merryhouse]

ok, that's....

well, Eurocentrism is kind of the point he's attempting to address ;-)

[apiphile]

I know some profoundly reactionary people, I guess.