PlaneShift
Fan Area => The Hydlaa Plaza => Topic started by: DepthBlade on June 09, 2004, 07:21:13 pm
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:D Todays amazing fact is \"Where did giving the middle finger originate from?\"
After extensive research by my period 1 english teacher we come to find that it actually has been around for hundreds of years back i think he said in the 1600\'s when the French and English were going at it *shrugs*! Anyways...
The English military had the most well trained bow-man any army had ever seen, and they played a very strategic part in the English victories! The French knew this and when they captured English prisoners they would cut off the middle finger of the solider because it was the one they pull back the bow with and then they would give the finger to the leading officer! AND that my friends is where the term giving the middle finger came from!
If anyone else has amazing facts they would like to post do so, its fun to hear some of this stuff :P
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Kinda gross but it is a fact...
ah well... :D
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I read something like that somewhere, it\'s not exactly like that, but yeah, pretty close.
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no thats wrong
the uk jesture of \"2\" fingers came from that. im not sure where the middle finger thing came from but it wasent that...you can still shoot a bow with just your index finger :P
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Methinks combining the gesture with it\'s meaning makes the origin rather obvious.. or is that just Freud talking again?
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yes it is two fingers. also did you know that every train station in london includes at least one letter from the word \"mackeral\"? :P
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I am just repeating what I was told this morning :P I figured the dates must be wrong but the middle finger is the finger you pull back the bow on, I know because I took archery! (The middle and the one closest to pinkie I use :P)
Another Amazing fact I learnt today
Identical Twins ARE IDENTICAL! Yes they have the same finger prints and there has been a case which I should try and find where one of the twins murdered someone the other got convicted but pleaded innocent, they couldn\'t be sure to which did it so they both got off SCOTT FREE! TWINS ARE EVIL!
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FACT! Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th. Mmmm gregorian calendar maths goodness... *drools*
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hey depth, I took archery too, back in boy scouts, they taught me to use three fingers to draw, index middle and ring.
also, I don\'t know about the identical thing, most of the identical twins I\'ve known had at least one major difference. there were a pair of them I knew real well at job corps. they tested to be identical genetically, but their eyes were different colors (both were two tone, but the blue eye was opposite on each) one was left handed, and slender, the other was a little more heavyset and right handed, and their natural hair color was slightly different.
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Yah it doesn\'t really matter I think but they taught us the middle finger was the one to use and when i used two fingers they said i was doing it wrong but i did it anyway :P
Yah I always thought identical twins were different by something for example finger prints but guess not on the other hand fraternal twins have differences heh
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I love this thread :D Nice info Depth
/me just realised that there are no twins in PS...thats weird
anyway...heres for you who don\'t know where the word assasin comes from. It originally comes from \"Hashishin\" which is a person who has drunk of the hashish. Under its influence the Assassins of the East, followers of the Shaikh al-Jabal (Old Man of the Mountain), were said to commit the murders required by their chief.]
and do you know where the act of saluting (when a military greets another military by putting his hand to the side of his forehead) comes from? It originates from the medieval times when two knights in armor met, they would lift up the screen on their helmets to show their faces. :)
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Originally posted by TheRedMonk
and do you know where the act of saluting (when a military greets another military by putting his hand to the side of his forehead) comes from? It originates from the medieval times when two knights in armor met, they would lift up the screen on their helmets to show their faces. :)
Come to think of it I think I have heard that before. I think it was Mail Call.
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Nice info RedMonK .. & great reserch DepthBlade
Just one thing RedMonk .. Do you know that Hashish is actually arabic for drugs ( cocaine to be exact ) and you also spelt Shaikh correctly which means leader in arabic ... (
I think I should also add a fact ..
Issac Newton ( the apple guy :P ) dropped out of school when he was a teenager !!! His mother wanted him to become a successful farmer !! Luckily his mother never got her wish !
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Originally posted by TheRedMonk
anyway...heres for you who don\'t know where the word assasin comes from. It originally comes from \"Hashishin\" which is a person who has drunk of the hashish. Under its influence the Assassins of the East, followers of the Shaikh al-Jabal (Old Man of the Mountain), were said to commit the murders required by their chief.]
Go read Alamut, a fine book on a wannabe El Mahdi Seduina(Hasan ibn Saba) and his fedai(by Vladimir Bartol). It became one of our more famous books after the terrorist threat arose in some parts of the glob.
He was a master pupetmaster, the # was only icing on the cake.
Did you know there are more species of beetles(Coloptera) than of all the plants combined?
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Depthblade from what I was told about the two (or one) fingered salute, was that when the English captured French archers they would cut their middle and ring finger off so they could not fire their bow. The English would then taunt the French by holding their middle and ring fingers in the air (which is supposed to mean we have our two).
Of course I could be wrong but it makes sense (in my mind at least) that it was the English and not French who cut the fingers off as it\'s very English to pull the fingers.
-Zorium
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Pretty sure its the other way around because the English did have very renound archers...oh well!
Also I have come upon a few things you can buy that actually have these warnings on the labels!
BlowDryer -Warning do not use well asleep-
Dove Soap(think it was dove) -Use like regular soap-
Superman costume -Wearing this suit will not enable you to fly-
Bag of Peanuts -Warning contains nuts-
Frozen T.V Dinner -Defrost before use-
The one I probally like the most that I heard about was the one about the sundae desert you can buy at some IGA market and on the bottom it says Warning do not tip upside down! :D
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Albert Einstein skipped mathematics classes because they where to easy for him.
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actually, albert einstein was terrible with conventional mathematics. he failed his classes because he had trouble with multiplication. However, he excelled in algebraic theory.
otherwise my world history teacher was lying to us...
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my amazing fact of the day...
someone was disrespectful enough to suggest johnny depp for the role of willy wonka in the remake of Charlie and the chocolate facory
an even more amazing fact...
he\'s the top choice for the part
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Albert Einstein also couldn\'t tie his own shoes.
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Didn\'t he flee Europe during World War 2 because he was jewish? What would have happened if WW2 never happened I wonder?
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if WW2 had never happened???
maybe they would have found a better actor for the role of Willy Wonka in the remake???
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Originally posted by DepthBlade
Also I have come upon a few things you can buy that actually have these warnings on the labels!
BlowDryer -Warning do not use well asleep-
Dove Soap(think it was dove) -Use like regular soap-
Superman costume -Wearing this suit will not enable you to fly-
Bag of Peanuts -Warning contains nuts-
Frozen T.V Dinner -Defrost before use-
The one I probally like the most that I heard about was the one about the sundae desert you can buy at some IGA market and on the bottom it says Warning do not tip upside down! :D
Yea, I have seen some of these things before.. really funny :D
Here\'s a couple more:
\"Do not attempt to stop the blade with your hand.\" -- In the manual for a Swedish chainsaw.
\"Do not use orally after using rectally.\" -- In the instructions for an electric thermometer.
And then there\'s the whole \"warning coffee is hot\" sort of labels...
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lol Ghostslayer that was one I heard to the chainsaw one but you missed apart
\"Do not attempt to stop the blade with your hand or genitals.\" -- In the manual for a Swedish chainsaw.
I kid you not!
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monozygotic (identical) twins are 100% indentical genetically seen - however they can differ in many ways since the prenatal phase has got a lot of influence on our developement (i wrote a paper on \"nature versus nurture\").
Also afaik all babys are born with blue eyes however during the first month the color will change due to certain color pigments stored in the iris. So eye color could be a way to distinguish them.
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pegasus=smart person....
I read a lot of that in a sociology course. it was a sexuality course, but reproductive science was part of it.
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Originally posted by DepthBlade
Didn\'t he flee Europe during World War 2 because he was jewish? What would have happened if WW2 never happened I wonder?
Speaking of wich...
On Oct. 14 1918, during WWI, Adolf Hitler (a corporal at the time) was hit in some Belgian village by a mustard gas shell that was fired by the British. He got evacuated by train to Germany blinded and burned.
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Well I think its time for me to add another fact :
Van Gogh is known to have only sold ONE painting ..
So all you artists out there who sold dozens of paintings, your work might be famous around the world one day .. After your dead offcourse :P
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I\'ve sold none of my work, I wonder what would happen with my paintings if I died today... hell I might have provided for my children already and not even known it...
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tygerwilde try life insurance .. it might pay better ... :P and your paintings .. If you die I\'ll by one myself ... to burn offcourse :P
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Originally posted by eL_Qadsawi
tygerwilde try life insurance .. it might pay better ... :P and your paintings .. If you die I\'ll by one myself ... to burn offcourse :P
Um is english your second language?
Any way I have sold a few pieces of art they make good money. Especially when you know the art terms and can convince some rich a-hole that this is your greatest work... :D
BTW I have absolutly no artistic talent. I just have loads of BS talent. :D
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fact - the american government has sold stuff on e-bay and did not do well on it
twent-three trucks-value$448,000 sold at $0.17
intell supercomputers(one of the 100 fastest computers in the world-value $89,000 sold at- $31,000 (was then bought back for $89,000)
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Fun fact: here\'s how not to attempt to extort money from a company... [Note: taken from slashdot]
\"The Register reports: Myron Tereshchuk, 42, of Maryland, pleaded guilty to \"attempted extortion affecting commerce\" for sending threatening messages to a competing patent firm, including a demand for $17 million in exchange for not revealing sensitive information. He was clever in hiding his tracks, the messages came from two different homes and a dentist\'s office, all of which turned out to be running unsecured WAPs. He also avoided a web bug sent by the firm, and managed to penetrate the company\'s computer system. But he made a few mistakes. First of all he was already a prime suspect due to \"past altercations between Tereshchuk and the company\". But \"the clearest sign came when he issued the $17m extortion demand, and instructed the company to \'make the check payable to Myron Tereshchuk.\'\"\"
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/06/27/1343221.shtml?tid=133&tid=186
josePhoenix
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Originally posted by DepthBlade
Didn\'t he flee Europe during World War 2 because he was jewish? What would have happened if WW2 never happened I wonder?
Thats correct, and as a pacifist he felt a great dillema about his role in the development of the A-bomb. But the germans might have very well made one.
I don\'t know what the third world war will be fought with but the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and rocks.
Is one of his statements, but he made many more cool ones like.
?Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you that mine are still greater.?
\"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.\"
My wife doesn\'t understand me.
As you can see he is one of the people i admire, to be so brilliant yet down to earth has got to earn respect.
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FACT 1: Bistro
The word \"Bistro\" which is comonly used to describe something like a French fast food restaurant ( i use that for lack of a better explanation) actualy originated from the Russian word \"Bistriy\" ( ```6-b|-c-t-p-b|-|/|``` This is how it would looks if these forums suported cyrillics) which means \"fast\".
After the Napolionic wars, the Russian troops were ocupying France, and spending a lot of their time in bars. But because the soldiers (especialy the cossacs) were not happy with the speed at which their alchohol was served, they would yell the word \"Bistro\" (``6-b|-c-t-p-o``), which is the \"not so nice\" way of saying faster, or hurry.
The French did not know that, and assumed that \"Bistro\" is a Russian word for tavern, bar, or alchohol.
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Fact 2: The Reds
In America, people commonly reffer to communists as \"reds\". Calling all communists \"Red\" would be very inacurate, and very stupid of you.
What many foriegners do not know is that the communists did not want to \"delete\" the history of Russia and other Slavic countries, but bring them back to their state (socialy) before the Tsars and before Christianity, and propell them forward technologicaly.
Now that i\'ve told you this, lets get back to the \"Reds\". The reason that the communists picked the color red as their main collor was because it was the color of the ancient Slavs, and has a lot of meaning in ancient (and even modern) Russian culture. Infact the modern Russian word for beuty, \"krasivi\", originated from the old Russian word for red, \"krasniy\". But many names and expressions using the word \"krasniy\" did not change. So the name \"Red Square\" ( Krasnaya Ploshad) actualy means \"Beutifull Square\", term \"Krasna Devitsa\" (Red girl) actualy means Beutiful girl, and the term \"Krasna Rechivi\" (Red speachfulness) actualy means Linguistic.
And now remember, the next time you call a Russian a \"red\", you are not ofending them, but just calling them beutiful.
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another fact...
The left side of your brain controls the right side of your body and the right side controls the left :D
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One more warning label:
I saw this on the sliding door of a minivan: \"Do not close when head in doorway.\"
I swear...
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Why did the ammount of necro-postings go up so extremely?
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Originally posted by seperot
you can still shoot a bow with just your index finger :P
Hardly...you try shooting a bow that requires 200 pounds of pressure to draw back with only your index finger, while balancing an arrow at the same exact time. If you cut off the index, you could still use middle and ring, pinky they would laugh, thumb, well, they could still remotely shoot, ring, they still have their middle an index finger. Middle, the index and thumb wouldn\'t work so well, the thumb isn\'t angle right, pinky\'s too weak, and middle and ring are too spaced apart.