@barkas, indeed. Also the triangular sail, which allow the Portuguese to navigate down the African coast and reach the Cape of the Good Hope, and then go “back up” via the other side of the Atlantic (possibly getting an idea of where is Brazil, decades before Columbus reached America).

On Judaism, consider the Persian influence in early Judaism – probably all 3 monotheistic (aka Abrahamic) religious are initially influenced by key concepts from Zoroastrianism… some of the tribes of Israel had links there… but that’s another story…

It’s fun and diverse. The latter is particularly true if you manage to skip tons of US politics-related posts similar to the ones you find on non-Fediverse platforms. Try non-English language channels. Those are far more globally diverse, smart and interesting (aka less US-centric).

Here’s a list of hundreds of communities in the Lemmyverse: https://lemmyverse.net/communities

Mostly prepping to go without food, electricity, travelling or communications because of sabotage of vital infrastructure (in Europe and UK is happening on a weekly basis) and climate catastrophes which are regular in the UK since 2020(ish) and increasing. There are also potential lockdowns because of pandemics (e.g. measles from US). Also Brexit Britain is now inoperative in terms of food safety, really, since it relies on mainland Europe food imports to survive. If something fails or there’s a mega-storm, supermarkets will be empty for days like they were in 2018 or 2020.

Odd thing to say, as the religion these people claim to follow (and the “book” attached to it) is a reworked and simplified (i.e. monotheistic) believe system started in what is now Iran and Iraq. And if it wasn’t for “Arab” maps and maritime science, Europeans would never been able to start their colonial sea expansion and, subsequently, the great-great-great parents of this scum would have reach the Americas … just saying.