this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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Mildly Interesting

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Japanese monks and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years. They accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset (cdn.bsky.app)
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by Valnao@sh.itjust.works to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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[โ€“] jpeps@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Was going to say this myself and then saw your comment. Totally agree. 'Accidently' practically implies that the record keeping itself only happened because some pencils happened to fall on paper. They did exactly what they intended to and used it for their own purpose. It just turned out to have a different purpose, too.

[โ€“] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

That's an even better way of looking at it, to avoid "accidentally". Great point!