• aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    First to industrialize

    The Japanese were dumbstruck when the Dutch showed them machinery. They had been handpicking rice and painting lewd pictures of octopi up until that point.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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      3 months ago

      First to industrialize amongst their neighbors. And mechanization of rice harvesting is a very late invention.

      As is, for that matter, lewd octopus drawings, which date only to the 19th century.