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Child Item

I bet you didnt know that

Cartouche

As people here work in various jobs / professions they might know things from work or study no one here knows yet. this is what this topic is about.

what do you know that we have never heard of?

Eg: you don't need to be great at maths to be an architect

this is obvious to me but everyone says to me "i wanted to be an architect but i was bad at math,i can barely add"

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server down

That’s interesting but did the pirates actually know about the scurvy being caused by lack of fruit?

Riddle101

Some pirate trivia that I just recently read.

Pirates doubled as mixologists. They created a drink that prevented certain diseases. Pirates borrowed the recipe for grog and made it legendary by adding lemon juice (it helped prevent scurvy) and sugar (it tasted good). Their's was a drink that packed a punch.

Not all pirates who wore eye patches had missing eyes. The patches helped them with night vision. By wearing an eye patch, the sea buccaneers could always keep one eye adjusted to night vision. Pirates spent a lot of time going from the bright light above deck to the darkness below deck, especially when they were raiding ships or defending their own. If he lifted his patch before going below deck, a pirate could instantly see even if there was only a little light.

Red flags on a pirate ship were really bad. The Jolly Roger flag that flew from pirate masts was terrifying but the most dreaded sea flag was red. A ship hoisting a red flag warned its enemies that no mercy would be given to a captured ship, everyone on board would be killed immediately.

Pirates practiced gay marriage as early as the 1600s.

Julius Caesar was once captured by pirates. In 75 BCE, pirates captured Julius Caesar but when they only asked for a ransom of 20 talents, Caesar laughed in their faces and told them he was worth at least 50. While he was held captive, Caesar serenaded the pirates with poetry. Once his ransom was paid, though, Caesar had the pirates crucified as punishment.

Pirate earrings also served as ear protection. Pirate ships were outfitted with numerous cannons. Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, had a whopping forty. Those cannons were vital during combat when a pirate ship might need to sink an enemy to prevent capture. Cannonballs were accompanied by a loud blast, though, and were known to deafen. Pirates would hang wads of wax from their earrings to prevent this sound damage. They popped the waxy contraptions into their ears like a makeshift earplug when firing cannons.

lmimmfn

server down wrote: »

Central banks don’t really in normal circumstances create any money. And banks don’t use deposits for loans, quite the reverse - the loans create the deposits.

link?

Deusexmachina

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Another uniquely Irish tense is 'do be', for example 'I do be going'.

Not really particularly Irish - I think that is just for thicks to be honest

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Greybottle wrote: »

Apple bobbing dates from Roman times, if a girl slept with a bobbed apple under her pillow she would dream of her future husband.

You misread that. Apple bobbing was introduced to British Celts by the Romans bring Apples to Britain. The future husband tradition was much later though.

server down

lmimmfn wrote: »

That's not true -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_market_operation
Since the gold standard was dropped central banks can print money if they want to stimulate economies etc. but it generally devalues currencies as happened with the Euro when they tried to prop up countries by buying government bonds at low interest rates.
Non central banks cannot magic up money, they usually use deposits for loans, get loans from other banks with a separate inter bank interest rate of get loans from the central bank.

Central banks don’t really in normal circumstances create any money. And banks don’t use deposits for loans, quite the reverse - the loans create the deposits.

Martina1991

Greybottle wrote: »

Apple bobbing dates from Roman times, if a girl slept with a bobbed apple under her pillow she would dream of her future husband.

My mother says that about wedding cake. Put it under your pillow and you will dream of your future husband!

Greybottle

From the same source as the Halloween mask story;

A fear of Halloween is called Samhainophobia.

Starbucks introduced the Pumpkin Spiced Latte in 2003, but didn't include pumpkin as an ingredient until 2015.

Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada has a law banning children over the age of 14 from trick or treating, or 'taking part in door-to-door soliciting'. Facial disguises are banned after 7pm on October 31st. Fine of $200 Canadian if caught.

Apple bobbing dates from Roman times, if a girl slept with a bobbed apple under her pillow she would dream of her future husband.

lmimmfn

server down wrote: »

I bet you didn’t know that most money in a modern economy is created when a normal commercial bank issues a loan. Banks literally create money. The money disappears as the loan is paid back.

That's not true -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_market_operation
Since the gold standard was dropped central banks can print money if they want to stimulate economies etc. but it generally devalues currencies as happened with the Euro when they tried to prop up countries by buying government bonds at low interest rates.
Non central banks cannot magic up money, they usually use deposits for loans, get loans from other banks with a separate inter bank interest rate of get loans from the central bank.

KKkitty

The iconic Michael Myers mask from the Halloween movies is a Captain Kirk from Star Trek painted white.

New Home

Mountainsandh

New Home wrote: »

Silkworms used to be fed mulberry leaves (not sure if that's still the case).

The cocoon used to be dipped in scorching water (around 80°C - which both killed the pupae and removed the waxy residue around the cocoons).

The silkmill workers had to spend most of their day with their hands submerged into that water to find on each cocoon where the beginning of the silk threads swas, to allow for the cocoon to be unravelled.

I think there's a handful of other kinds of plants they'd eat, but I know in France mulberry is still common, I don't know about other countries.

In my hometown of Lyon, were there were several silk manufactures, page boys were paid (probably a pittance !) to run up and down the hill to the river Saone with the newly produced silk. They used "les traboules", these are little passage-ways through buildings, ie not public covered laneways, although they sometimes look similar. Traboules run through private residences, and the name "traboule" suggests the idea that they were "tumbling down" towards the river.

As a Lyonnaise I always thought traboules were designed for the silk boys, but this website I visited to double check suggests they may have even pre-dated the silk trade and were just a quicker way to reach water.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/07/99/ea/e0/traboules-du-vieux-lyon.jpg

You can visit them if ever in Lyon, but I think a (good) number are normally closed to the public for residents' privacy. Guided tours are available though.

New Home

Mountainsandh wrote: »

To kill remaining silkworms/chrysalis without staining the inside of the cocoons, hot air is blown onto them until the chrysa./worm dies and shrink dries.

Silkworms used to be fed mulberry leaves (not sure if that's still the case).

The cocoon used to be dipped in scorching water (around 80°C - which both killed the pupae and removed the waxy residue around the cocoons).

The silkmill workers had to spend most of their day with their hands submerged into that water to find on each cocoon where the beginning of the silk threads was, to allow for the cocoon to be unravelled.

Mountainsandh

Bombyx mori are domesticated silk worms.
They were domesticated by man thousands of years ago, and as a result of selective breeding, they have lost their ability to fly, their pigments, and they simply couldn't reach a source of food on their own, so the species is exclusively kept alive by man and would not survive in the wild.

In the right conditions they hatch from their eggs after 3 days, are fed by man, moult repeatedly for around 30 days, can reach 40 times their original size, and are then encouraged to evolve to cocoon stage.
Within 3 days of the cocoon being completed, the chrysalis is formed.
If left alone within 15 days it would become a moth, but of course only a few breeders are selected to live long enough to lay eggs.

To kill remaining silkworms/chrysalis without staining the inside of the cocoons, hot air is blown onto them until the chrysa./worm dies and shrink dries.

In France, a lot of magnaneries are to be found in troglodyte habitations, since the constant temperatures inside the caves were very favourable to silk worm breeding.

Realt Dearg Sec

Why would you pronounce it any other way?

Maybe you meant to go to the "I bet you knew this but I only just found it out" thread?

(Just joking btw)

IvyTheTerrible

NIMAN wrote: »

I'm guessing everyone would pronounce it like that anyway? No?

Well I pronounced it the wrong way for years!

NIMAN

I'm guessing everyone would pronounce it like that anyway? No?

IvyTheTerrible

NIMAN wrote: »

So how do I pronounce gif properly?

I always say gif as in gift without the 't'.
Only other way would be jif.

The correct way to pronounce it is with a hard g so as you say, like gift without the t. I've edited my post for clarity.

NIMAN

So how do I pronounce gif properly?

I always say gif as in gift without the 't'.
Only other way would be jif.

IvyTheTerrible

The file format .gif is pronounced with a hard g, (like gift without the t), and not with a soft g (jif).
A soft g at the start of a word in English comes from the French, in words like "general". The rule in French is that the g is hard unless followed by e.
Gif is an acronym of Graphics Interchange Format. Graphic comes from the Greek , and the g is hard.

gitzy16v

EndaHonesty wrote: »

Everyone knows that. And how to copy and paste...

Go away....Candie is an excellent contributor to this thread.

server down

EndaHonesty wrote: »

Everyone knows that. And how to copy and paste...

She definitely didn’t copy and paste it. Any interesting information or are you here just to bitch?

tomwaterford

The first woman elected as MP to Westminster was Countess Markievicz in 1918

EndaHonesty

Candie wrote: »

In the year 1307, King Philip of France and Pope Clement colluded in falsely accusing the Templar Knights of heresay with a view to dispatching of them and availing of the vast wealth they had accumulated, and in un-monk-like fashion, kept. A wealthy army of well trained monk-soldiers was a threatening prospect, even if the King owed them no debts, and the Templars were a singularly successful organisation only answerable to the Pope, which increased the threat. Philip had previously tried to bring the previous Pope Boniface into line by accusing him of heresay in an effort to unseat him, but failed miserably and had worked hard to gain Clements co-operation, even succeeding in bringing the seat of the Church from Rome to Avignon.

With the collusion of Pope Clement, The King arrested most of the knights and the Pope took care of the rest, confessions were tortured out of them and they were executed.

The date was Friday October the 13th, and this is the origin of the unlucky date superstition.

Everyone knows that. And how to copy and paste...

server down

I bet you didn’t know that most money in a modern economy is created when a normal commercial bank issues a loan. Banks literally create money. The money disappears as the loan is paid back.

Greybottle

In some cultures amputation is a form of mourning. This was especially true of the Dani tribe from Papua, Indonesia. The members of this tribe cut off their fingers as a way of displaying their grief at funeral ceremonies. Along with amputation, they also smeared their faces with ashes and clay, as an expression of sorrow.
It isn’t very surprising to learn that women were mostly subjected to this gruesome ritual. The religious beliefs of the tribe prompted this sort of ritual. If the deceased person was considered to be powerful, it was believed that their spirits would contain equal power too. In order to appease and drive away these spirits, several shocking practices were followed. Girls who were related to the dead had the upper parts of their fingers cut off. Before being cut, the fingers would be tied with a string for over 30 minutes. After the amputation, the finger tips were allowed to dry, before they were burned and the ashes buried in a special area.

Another explanation offered for the finger-cutting ritual is that the physical pain symbolized the suffering and pain due to the loss of a loved one. In such a case, the finger would be cut by a close family member, like the mother, father or a sibling. In a similar bizarre ritual, the tip of the little finger of babies are bitten off by their mothers. This perhaps originated from a time when most newborns died, from several causes. The hope was that by biting off the finger tip, the baby would be different from the others, and would perhaps, live longer.

The practice has been banned in recent years. However, older women of the tribe are often seen with snipped fingers – all five of them.

There are photos here, but they are NSFW. https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=dani+tribe+amputated+fingers

Are Am Eye

Ipso wrote: »

When Archduke Franz Ferdinand married Princess Sophie many people disapproved as she wasn't from a prestigious enough Royal House, and was often treated as inferior.
For his trip to Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand went in a military capacity and not a royal one so his wife would be treated as his equal, subsequently the arrangements such as route and itinerary were planned around this.

When the Archduke was shot his driver was just after taking the wrong right turn. They were reversing back around the corner when a disconsolats Princip , who had failed earlier in the day with assassination bid, was walking by and saw the archduke yards away from him and practically stationary.
He fired two shots killing Franz and the missus.

quantumcat

The strongest biological material ever tested is limpet's teeth:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31500883

Ipso

When Archduke Franz Ferdinand married Princess Sophie many people disapproved as she wasn't from a prestigious enough Royal House, and was often treated as inferior.
For his trip to Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand went in a military capacity and not a royal one so his wife would be treated as his equal, subsequently the arrangements such as route and itinerary were planned around this.

elvis83

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Where you have a semi colon.... everything I know about grammar tells me there should be a full stop there .

Also, the example is a bit silly. What if the second play was called had had had had had...then we'd have more "hads" . I don't think it's as impressive of the five "ands" because of the multiple hads

Quick google of semi colon usage:

The main task of the semicolon is to mark a break that is stronger than a comma but not as final as a full stop. It’s used between two main clauses that balance each other and are too closely linked to be made into separate sentences, as in these two examples:

The road runs through a beautiful wooded valley; the railway line follows it.

An art director searched North Africa; I went to the Canary Islands.

So pretty sure it's applicable here, the second part of the sentence is directly related to the first part.

As for the second play being called "had had had had had"... The play example was put up there to help understand the makeup of the sentence by substitution, it's not the original sentence. The original only works because of the weird property of the word 'had' that allows it to be followed by itself and still be correct.