Interesting Factoids and Cultural differences Flashcards
Which war had the most casualities, WWI, WWII or the civil War?
How many people died in Hitler’s death camps?
Ref: WWII in HD: 400,000 U.S. troops died in WWII. 600,000 died in Civil war. This is 50% more.
14 Million people murdered by Hitler’s forces of death camps. 6 Million were Jews.
How long did it take Japan to surrender after the second Atomic bomb was dropped?
After the second Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan still did not surrender until 6 days later.
Jordan: Penalty for rape is to marry the woman or go to prison, or be killed.
Ref: Time mag. 5/15/17
On April 23, Jordan’s cabinet revoked a law that allows rapists to avoid jail terms if they marry their victims. Parliament is due to vote on ratifying the change in May.
The logic: Between 2010 and 2013, 159 rapists in Jordan took advantage of the law, which was cast as the lesser evil in brutally patriarchal societies. Supporters agrued that marriage protected the victims’ reputation and prevented “honor killings”.
Public outrage has led to change: Morocco scrapped its version of the law following the suicide of a 16 year old who was forced to marry her rapist in 2012. In 2016, mass protests let Turkey to withdraw a bill that would pardon men convicted of sex with underage girls if they married.
At least six countries in the region, including Tunisia, Libya, and Lebanon, retain the loophole, a legacy of the French colonial era.
300 years ago we had the “Enlightenment”.
What was the Enlightenment?
The Enlightenment was also called the age of reason. It was the beginning of the modern age where science explains events. Before the enlightenment, for example, people believed more in mythology, like Zeus throwing lightning bolts down to earth, and the thunder was caused by Thor pounding his hammer on the ground to make that terrible noise.
Even in Ben Franklin’s time, people thought God caused lightning to strike a house and set it on fire. Now we understand it is simply natural science.
Pizarro conquers the Inca empire with only 168 men.
Hernan Cortes, AKA Hernando Cortez, conquers Mexico’s mighty Aztec empire with only 550 men.
How could these puny armies capture and conquer millions of people and steal their land and treasures?
They studied their enemies and started a rebellions against the Aztecs and the Incas. A century later, 90% of the natives were dead and all the lands and treasures belonged to Spain!
REF: Sapiens: A brief history of humanknd. p. 295 note.
