Things You Thought You Thought You Knew
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Bangkok Is The Capital Of Thailand
Patently impossible since, in reality, there is no such place - not as far as the Thais are concerned at any rate. They call their capital Krung Thep, only foreigners call the place Bangkok, that being the name of a long gone village upon whose site King Rama 1 decided to build his new capital in 1782. Transalating as
'The City of the Gods, The Great City, The Residence of the Emerald Buddha, The Impregnable City of Ayutthaya of the God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious stones, the happy city abounding in an enormous Royal Palace which resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god (almost finish), a city given by Indra built by Vishnukarn'
the place full name is, wait for it,
Krungthep Maha Nakorn, Amarn Rattanakosindra Mahindrayudhya, Mahadilokpop Noparatana Rajdhani Mahasathan, Amorn Piman Avatarn Satit, Sakkatultiva Vishnukarn Prasit
which only makes Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch look a bit sick, but it also explains why European call the name Bangkok. -
Sardines Are A Type Of Fish
The only way to define a sardine is to say that it is whatever fish is found in a tin marked 'Sardines'. There is no such fish! This term covers numerous breeds of small fish ranging from pilchards to herrings and menhaden; the word originating from the fact that such fish abound along the shores of Sardinia. -
More about Seppuku..
Seppuku, (Sape-puu-kuu) is the Japanese formal language term for ritual suicide (Hara-kiri (Har-rah-kee-ree), the common language term.)
it's the act of cutting the abdomen with a guy beside holding a sword.
It is said that when a person commits Seppuku, he tries to endure the pain for as long as possible. The longer he holds it, the more respect he gets. When the person cannot take the pain anymore, he will signal to the guy beside to slice his head off.
It is considered an honor for a person to die by commiting Seppuku instead of being killed by others[enemies etc.] as well as a way to show your 'undying' loyalty to a person.
All this from Discovery Channel
"Way of the Samurai"
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Xmas Is A Sloppy Modern Shorthand For Christmas
It is neither sloppy nor modern having been in use since the early part of the fifteenth century. In the Greek alphabet the character 'X' represent 'K' and was used to stand for 'Khristos'. -
Well, since the Cortez war is now ongoing, lets focus on another Cortez
The Pacific Ocean Was Discovered By Cortez
Nine ouf of ten people would tell you that the above is true, but they would only be perpetuating a myth that has been going on for years. Perhaps the best known example of the mistake being enshrined in literature is the following extract from the well known sonnet by Keats.
Then I felt like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken
Or like stout Cortez when, with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific - and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise -
Silent, upon a peak in Darien
Look through any art book and you will find reproduction of paintings depicting amazed Spaniards gazing at the Pacific, the central character being referred to as Cortez, but he is in fact Vasco Nunez de Balboa.
In 1520, Balboa joined Fernandez de Encisco's expedition bound for the Gulf of Urba. This move was not really prompted by the call of the great unknown, but from a pressing need to escape an ever increasing battalion of creditors - he was compelled to join the ship hidden inside a barrel! Nevertheless he soon took command of the expedition, sending its desposed leader back to Spain in chains. Encouraged by the tales from the Indians of a great sea on the other side of the Isthmus of Panama, he pushed on until,on 25 September 1513, he firstsighted the Pacific from the aforementioned peak in Darien. On the smae day he despatched a scouting party which includes Francisco Pizzaro and Alonzo Martin, and it was this group who first stood on the shores, Balboa not arriving to join them until the 29th. Nor was he the first European to sail upon the waters, that already having been done by Martin in a small boat on the Gulf of St Michael.
Although they discovered it, members of this expedition did not, however name the ocean. This was done by Magellan in 1520 who was grateful for the calm waters after his less than tranquil passage through the Straits of Magellan. -
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
is the official name of a lake in Webster, Massachusetts. The Nipmucks and other tribes gave it a variety of similar names. Many residents of Webster call it Webster Lake, because they can't pronounce the Nipmuck name, but others take pride in reeling off the Nipmuck version.
The name means approximately "Englishmen at Manchaug at the Fishing Place at the Boundary". Manchaug was the name of one of the tribes that lived by the shore of the lake, which was known before the Englishmen came as Chaubunagungamaugg, or "fishing place at the boundary". The lake was a noted fishing spot on the boundary of several tribes' territories, and for that reason was also used as a meeting place.
Larry Daly, editor of the Webster Times, wrote a humorous article about the lake, and about disputes concerning the meaning of its name. He proposed the tongue-in-cheek translation "You Fish on Your Side, I Fish on My Side, Nobody Fish in the Middle", which met with so much popular acceptance that the actual translation is fairly little known.
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg is the longest place name in the United States and 6th longest in the world.
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Things You May Not Have Known
¡¤ Money isn't made out of paper; it's made out of cotton.
¡¤ The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the varieties of pickles the company once had.
¡¤ Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks - otherwise it will digest itself.
¡¤ The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
¡¤ The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
¡¤ A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
¡¤ Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.
¡¤ A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.
¡¤ 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
¡¤ Every person has a unique tongue print.
¡¤ The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was albino.
¡¤ 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
¡¤ During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.
¡¤ On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
¡¤ Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
¡¤ Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog.
¡¤ Most lipstick contains fish scales.
¡¤ Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
¡¤ Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
¡¤ Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
¡¤ Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
¡¤ American Airlines saved $40,000 in '87 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.
¡¤ Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
¡¤ Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.
¡¤ There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
¡¤ There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!
¡¤ The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before!
¡¤ Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.
¡¤ If you pour a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
¡¤ If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
¡¤ The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
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Saint Valentine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Saint Valentine or Saint Valentinus refers to one of a number of saints, two of whom, one a martyred Roman priest, the other, a martyred bishop of Terni (Interamna) share the feast day of February 14 (popularly known as Valentine's Day).
The passion of the former Valentine is part of the legend of Saints Marius and Martha and their companions; that of the latter has no better historical foundation: so that no argument can be drawn from either account to differentiate the two saints. It would appear from the two accounts that both belonged to the same period, i.e. to the reign of the emperor Claudius II Gothicus; that both died on the same day; and that both were buried on the Via Flaminia, but at different distances from Rome. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum mentions only one Valentinus: Interamnae miliario LXIIII. via Flaminia natale Valentini. It is probable that the basilica situated at the second milestone on the Via Flaminia was also dedicated to him. The date of his death remains undetermined.
The Saint Valentinus who appears as the apostle of Rhaetia, and who receives veneration in Passau as its first bishop, flourished in the 5th century.
Although the name of Saint Valentine is very popular in England, apparently no church has been dedicated to him. For the special observances formerly commonly connected with Saint Valentine's Eve and Day, to which allusion is frequently made by English writers, such works as John Brand's Popular Antiquities (edited by W. C. Hazlitt, vol. ii. pp. 606-11, London, 1905), W. Hone's Every-Day Book, and Chambers's Book of Days may be consulted. Their appropriateness to the spring season is, in a general way perhaps, obvious enough, but the association of the lovers' festival with St Valentine seems to be purely accidental.
See Acta Sanctorum, February, ii. 753, 756, and January, i. 1094; G. B. de Rossi, Bullettino di archeologia cristiana (1871), p. 101 and (187
p. 59.
The relics of the of one of the claimants to the title St. Valentine are now interred in a Carmelite church in Dublin, to which they were donated by a nineteenth century pope. Many tourists visit the saint's remains on St. Valentine's Day.
Origins of St. Valentine's Day
There are varying opinions as to the origin of Valentine's Day. Some experts state that it originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine". Other aspects of the story say that Saint Valentine served as a priest at the temple during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius then had Valentine jailed for defying him. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honor St. Valentine.
Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.
In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's and now the date is very commercialised. The town of Loveland, Colorado, does a large post office business around February 14. The spirit of good continues as valentines are sent out with sentimental verses and children exchange valentine cards at school.
The History of Saint Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.
The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.
Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honor of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.
The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavored to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the celebration of this new feast. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.
I know this is abit late coz valentine's over ... But it will come again .. Impress or irritate ur gals with ur knowledge .. Haha ... -
Wow, XiaoTingDong thanks for contributing
someone post this before
11. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange,silver,or purple.
orange --> strange
silver --> quiver
purple --> turtle
hehe -
Okiez .. Haha .. Me gong gong one ..
Hmm ... Really dunno how to answer to tat .. haha ...
Lost of words .. Hee -
Why is a hamburger called a hamburger although it contains no ham?
During a trip to Asia in the early 1800s, a German merchant - it is said - noticed that the nomadic Tartars softened their meat by keeping it under their saddles. The motion of the horse pounded the meat to bits. The Tartars would then scrape it together and season it for eating. The idea of pounded beef found its way back to the merchant's home town of Hamburg where cooks broiled the meat and referred to it as it as Hamburg meat.
German immigrants introduced the recipe to the US. The term "hamburger" is believed to have appeared in 1834 on the menu from Delmonico's restaurant in New York but there is no surviving recipe for the meal. The first mention in print of "Hamburg steak" was made in 1884 in the Boston Evening Journal.
The honour of producing the first proper hamburger goes to Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, WI. In 1885 Nagreen introduced the American hamburger at the Outgamie County Fair in Seymour. (Seymour is recognised as the hamburger capital of the world.)
However, there is another claim to that throne. There is an account of Frank and Charles Menches who, also in 1885, went to the Hamburg, New York county fair to prepare their famous pork sausage sandwiches. But since the local meat market was out of pork sausage, they used ground beef instead. Alas, another hamburger.
The first account of serving ground meat patties on buns - taking on the look of the hamburger as we know it today - took place in 1904 at the St. Louis World Fair. But it was many years later, in 1921, that an enterprising cook from Wichita, Kansas, Walt Anderson, introduced the concept of the hamburger restaurant. He convinced financier Billy Ingram to invest $700 to create The White Castle hamburger chain. It was an instant success. The rest of the history, we might say, belongs to McDonald's.
And, no, a hamburger does not have any ham in it. Well, it's not supposed to. Hamburger meat usually is made of 70-80% beef, and fat and spices.
Why is a hotdog called a hotdog?
In 1987, Frankfurt, Germany celebrated the 500th birthday of the frankfurter, the hot dog sausage. Although, the people of Vienna (Wien), Austria will point out that their wiener sausages are proof of origin for the hot dog. (By the way, ham, being pork meat, is found in hotdogs.) According to Douglas B. Smith in his book "Every wonder why?" the hotdog was given its name by a cartoonist.
A butcher from Frankfurt who owned a dachshund named the long frankfurter sausage a "dachshund sausage," the dachshund being a slim dog with a long body. ("Dachshund" is German for "badger dog." They were originally bred for hunting badgers.) German immigrants introduced the dachshund sausage (and Hamburg meat) to the United States. In 1871, German butcher Charles Feltman opened the first "hotdog" stand in Coney Island in 1871, selling 3,684 dachshund sausages, most wrapped in a milk bread roll, during his first year in business.
In the meantime, frankfurters - and wieners - were sold as hot food by sausage sellers. In 1901, New York Times cartoonist T.A. Dargan noticed that one sausage seller used bread buns to handle the hot sausages after he burnt his fingers and decided to illustrate the incident. He wasn't sure of the spelling of dachshund and simply called it "hot dog." -
It once was law to say "God bless you" to one who sneezed
During the 6th Century, it was customary to congratulate people who sneezed because it was thought that they were expelling evil from their bodies. During the great plague of Europe, the Pope passed a law to say "God bless you" to one who sneezed.
There still are some weird laws on the books. In Washington state, it is against the law to boast that one's parents are rich. In Maryland, it's illegal to play Randy Newman's "Short People" on the radio. In Alabama it is illegal to play Dominoes on Sunday. And in Minneapolis, double-parkers can be put on a chain gang.
An old statute in Kentucky states that men who push their wives out of bed for inflicting their cold toes on them can be fined or jailed for a week. A 100-year-old law in Willowdale, Oregon makes it illegal to swear during sex. An odd law in Minnesota makes it illegal to hang male and female underwear on the same washing line. In Melbourne, Australia it is illegal for men to parade in strapless dresses - but they are allowed to cross-dress in anything with sleeves.
An old law in Russia allows a police officer to "beat a peeping tom soundly." In Texas, two categories of men are exempt from peeping tom charges: men over 50 and men with only one eye.
In Normal, Oklahoma you could be sent to prison for "making an ugly face at a dog."
And if you're in Hawaii and laughing at these odd laws, stop! In Hawaii it is forbidden to laugh after 10pm.
All about Christmas
The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ," later shortened to "Christ-Mass." The even shorter form "Xmas" - first used in Europe in the 1500s - is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first letter of Christ's name: Xristos, therefore "X-Mass."
Today we know that Christ was not born on the 25th of December. The date was chosen to coincide with the pagan Roman celebrations honouring Saturnus (the harvest god) and Mithras (the ancient god of light), a form of sun worship. These celebrations came on or just after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, to announce that winter is not forever, that life continues, and an invitation to stay in good spirit. These are stuffs i found for my GP homework last year ... Some are really interesting facts ... Others are boring ... Hope ya enjoy reading up more ... Hee 
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Originally posted by XiaoTingDong:
Oh man, you might get shot by the Christians in Eternal Hope.
[b]It once was law to say "God bless you" to one who sneezed
During the 6th Century, it was customary to congratulate people who sneezed because it was thought that they were expelling evil from their bodies. During the great plague of Europe, the Pope passed a law to say "God bless you" to one who sneezed.
There still are some weird laws on the books. In Washington state, it is against the law to boast that one's parents are rich. In Maryland, it's illegal to play Randy Newman's "Short People" on the radio. In Alabama it is illegal to play Dominoes on Sunday. And in Minneapolis, double-parkers can be put on a chain gang.
An old statute in Kentucky states that men who push their wives out of bed for inflicting their cold toes on them can be fined or jailed for a week. A 100-year-old law in Willowdale, Oregon makes it illegal to swear during sex. An odd law in Minnesota makes it illegal to hang male and female underwear on the same washing line. In Melbourne, Australia it is illegal for men to parade in strapless dresses - but they are allowed to cross-dress in anything with sleeves.
An old law in Russia allows a police officer to "beat a peeping tom soundly." In Texas, two categories of men are exempt from peeping tom charges: men over 50 and men with only one eye.
In Normal, Oklahoma you could be sent to prison for "making an ugly face at a dog."
And if you're in Hawaii and laughing at these odd laws, stop! In Hawaii it is forbidden to laugh after 10pm.
All about Christmas
The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ," later shortened to "Christ-Mass." The even shorter form "Xmas" - first used in Europe in the 1500s - is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first letter of Christ's name: Xristos, therefore "X-Mass."
Today we know that Christ was not born on the 25th of December. The date was chosen to coincide with the pagan Roman celebrations honouring Saturnus (the harvest god) and Mithras (the ancient god of light), a form of sun worship. These celebrations came on or just after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, to announce that winter is not forever, that life continues, and an invitation to stay in good spirit. These are stuffs i found for my GP homework last year ... Some are really interesting facts ... Others are boring ... Hope ya enjoy reading up more ... Hee [/b]
Btw, I set up another topic like this under the forum Eternal Hope. Post Christians stuff there, easier to read.
And let me tell you something, I think you are starting to get hooked to sgforums like me.
Muahahahahhahaha -
Let Them Eat Cake
This, the best known 'quotation' from French history, is invariably, and erroneously attributed to Marie Antoinette; the Revolutionaris maintaining that she said it during the Paris Bread Riots of 5 and 6 October 1789. What is fairly certain is that the Duchesse de Polignac, a close friend of the Queen, said to her,'How is it that these silly people are so clamourous for bread when they can buy such nice brioches for few sous?' - brioche being a kind of sponge cake. As for the curt 'Let them eat cake' it had already been said in 1739, which was sixteen years before Marie Antoinette was even born. In Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, published in 1766,he makes reference to the Genoble Bread Riots of 1739, and say that: A great princess callously remarked,"Let them eat cake.". The truth of the rumour that Marie Antoinette had said such a thing to discredit her further with the people - not a difficult task. -
The Titanic Band Swan Song
Although the band did play on bravely, they were not playing 'Nearer My God To Thee' - hardly a tune likey to boost the doubtless flagging morale of the passengers! Survivors recall that the bridge became submerged and, at that point, they bean playing 'Autumn' but never got to the end of that piece. No members of the band survived he tragedy. -
'Scot Free' As A Slur On The Scots
The Scots have, deservedly some way, earned a wide reputation for being the slowest people i nteh world with a pund coin, but 'scot free has nothing to do with them always avoiding their corner when it comes to getting the drinks in, or whateevr. The word traces back tothe Old Norse 'skot' meaning a contribution. -
America Has The Highest Murder Rates
Suprisingly enough, America does not lead the field in any of the national or local statistics for what has long appeared to be their greatest participation activity. Cape Town, having forty three homicides per ,100,000 per annum, far outstrips Chicago (14.5 per), Ne York (21 per) and Detroit (16.1 per)
When it comes to national overall figures, the brazillians really show us all up as squeamish softies by streaking into the lead with a staggerring 104 slayings per 100,000 population. This works out to about 370 killings for every day of the year, which makes America's last recorded average of 10.2 per 100,000 population look as if they simply arent trying.
Disclaimer, this figure shown was correct at the time of printing of this book....in 1986. -
Demise Means Death
It is nearly always used in that context, but it has no such meaning in real terms. With actual meanings of to give, grant, transfer or convey by means of a will or lease, the word's misunderstanding seems to have been occassioned by its use to describe the transfer of the drown due to the death of the monarch. When people talk about the 'demise of the crown', or whatever, they mean the transfer of the mantle of responsiblity, not the death of the crowned head that brough such about.