[–] 13 points 6 months ago

The "mast" in "mastodon" is the same one as in "mastectomy".

"The term "mastodon" comes from Greek roots: "mastos" meaning "breast" and "odon" meaning "tooth," referring to the nipple-like projections on the mammal's fossil molars. The name was coined by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1806."

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I once heard about a tribe in South America. Say a man had four wives. If he was asked how many wives he had, and in that moment he only could see two of them, he had to answer "I have two wifes". I wonder if in this culture sarcasm would be a thing.

  • source
  •  

    I was reading Michael Caine autobiography, "The elephant to Hollywood". At a certain point he's in living in LA, and his wife becomes suddenly ill. She had a burst appendix, one of these "you have surgery on a couple hours or you die" situations. The thing is once they get to the hospital and she's properly diagnosed, Caine is asked $5000 beforehand for her operation, and he's literally told; "No money, no operation". Eventually he realizes that he belongs to the actors Gild, so the operation is covered, and everything was alright. But I wondered, does (did) the US health system really work like this? Will a perfectly curable person be left to die just because a forward payment can't be done? For context, this happened in LA probably in the 60s or 70s.

    view more: next ›