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A comment on Phylogenetic analyses uncover ancient roots of Indo-European folktales (2016).

Re:Phylogenetic analyses uncover ancient roots of Indo-Europ... by gumby on Thursday July 16, 2020 @03:14PM (#23862700)
I had some Indian children’s stories that seemed obviously to have been European stories translated into Marathi (e.g. wicked stepmother forces daughter to separate mixed sand and rice). But maybe that is not what happened.
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Re:Phylogenetic analyses uncover ancient roots of Indo-Europ... by JoeAltmaier on Friday July 17, 2020 @10:21AM (#23870725)
That story is strange - its pretty easy to separate mixed sand and rice. Toss it in a sieve for instance. Or just toss it - they are different densities and will naturally separate.

Or heat the sand! The rice pops and will trivially be separable.

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Re:Phylogenetic analyses uncover ancient roots of Indo-Europ... by gumby on Friday July 17, 2020 @10:38AM (#23870958)
It’s a children’s story and I think most kids are used to seemingly pointless tasks
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Re:Phylogenetic analyses uncover ancient roots of Indo-Europ... by JoeAltmaier on Monday July 20, 2020 @11:00AM (#23898473)
Yeah but folks have been popping rice in hot sand for millennia. Its apparently the oldest recipe known! So children should have seen it done daily. Hm.
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