Source: (consider it)
|
Thread: I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!
|
deano
princess
# 12063
|
Posted
No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Actually everyone did. They were required by law to give 30 days notice of their arrival.
Culled form the QI Big Book of Facts. Thought I would share with you.
Anyone got any similar Quite Interesting religious facts or corrections to General Ignorance?
-------------------- "The moral high ground is slowly being bombed to oblivion. " - Supermatelot
Posts: 2118 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: Nov 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
|
Posted
The Roman ghetto, where Jews were required to live was established in 1555 and not demolished until 1888, having been demolished and re-established by a succession of popes. The interesting fact is that it was the last western European ghetto, until the Nazis re-established ghettos elsewhere in western Europe. Makes me wonder why popes and why Rome.
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
|
Posted
The Ancient Etruscans had a habit of burying a cheese-grater with their dead, because it was an Etruscan custom to grate cheese into wine.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
|
Posted
The film "Weekend at Bernie's 2," the sequel to the comedy classic "Weekend at Bernie's" does not take place over a weekend, and does not take place at Bernie's house. Best Wikipedia fact I ever learned.
-------------------- "I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
|
Posted
I was told, and believed, that household dust was mostly dead human skin. For those who find this gross there is good news, it is untrue, only a small portion is skin. the bad news is there is probably more insect faeces than skin in your dust.
-------------------- Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
|
Posted
Contrary to popular belief, the movie Gone With The Wind does not show the burning of Atlanta. What is shown is the Confederates burning their armouries as they flee the city, prior to the Union onslaught.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Starbug
Shipmate
# 15917
|
Posted
In her youth, Queen Victoria often reported in her diary that she had been 'amused'. In fact she was so amused by Albert that she only gave up sex because her doctor warned her not to have any more children. 'Do you know what that means?' the doctor asked. She replied 'Yes - no more fun in bed.'
-------------------- “Oh the pointing again. They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?” ― The Day of the Doctor
Posts: 1189 | From: West of the New Forest | Registered: Sep 2010
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Starbug: In her youth, Queen Victoria often reported in her diary that she had been 'amused'. In fact she was so amused by Albert that she only gave up sex because her doctor warned her not to have any more children. 'Do you know what that means?' the doctor asked. She replied 'Yes - no more fun in bed.'
It is true that she reported being amused frequently - but Victoria saw her doctors to try and find a way of *not* having more babies! She was not a fan of pregnancy or babies but her doctors were horrified at her attitude to this. She asked if there was not a way of just having fun in bed but her doctors (whether through ignorance or relying on her ignorance of biology) told her to have sex when ovulating to avoid pregnancy - hence nine children.
-------------------- Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
|
Posted
arctic ground squirrels' body temperatures drop below freezing (0C) while hibernating. and they come back to normal in the spring. apparently they have a sort of anti-freeze chemical in their blood.
I know this because I worked across the hall from the lab where they spent a lot of time freezing squirrels. They made my research look positively mundane.
(okay, not technically a religion. But then, do we know what parka squirrels worship?)
-------------------- Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sober Preacher's Kid
Presbymethegationalist
# 12699
|
Posted
The British North America Act, 1867 is the Canadian Constitution. It broke up the old United Province of Canada into present-day Ontario and Quebec as part of the Confederation Deal.
Of course, being a divorce the family assets had to be split. Schedule 6 of the BNA Act details this. There were a few items to be negotiated by a commission after Confederation, one of which was the Common School Fund, an investment fund containing revenues from land sales, meant to build schools. Until the final settlement, the Government of Canada was named the custodian of the undivided asset of the Province of Canada and had to pay interest to Ontario and Quebec until the final settlement.
Neither Ontario or Quebec could come to a mutually agreeable solution. Quebec wanted half the fund, Ontario wanted most of it because it came from Ontario land sales. The commission ended in failure. To this day, the Government of Canada pays $100,000 a year each to Ontario and Quebec as interest on the Common School Fund assets.
We were hardly even born and had our first interprovincial squabble over money and fairness.
-------------------- NDP Federal Convention Ottawa 2018: A random assortment of Prots and Trots.
Posts: 7646 | From: Peterborough, Upper Canada | Registered: Jun 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
|
Posted
To meet the demand for saintly relics, the Pope of the day would nip down to the catacombs and pray to be inspired as to the identities of those interred. Thus Guided, he would point out the remains of sundry virgins, martyrs and assorted saints until such time as an acolyte would murmur that the quota had been met.
(Full and entertaining detail here )
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Alaric the Goth
Shipmate
# 511
|
Posted
Attila the Hun's name was not his real name. It is a Gothic word, the diminutive of 'atta', which means 'father' so it is 'Little Father' or even 'Dad'! It was probably a nickname given to him by Ostrogoths who were mercenaries in the Hunnish horde, or co-opted into it somewhat unwillingly!
Posts: 3322 | From: West Thriding | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by balaam: I was told, and believed, that household dust was mostly dead human skin. For those who find this gross there is good news, it is untrue, only a small portion is skin. the bad news is there is probably more insect faeces than skin in your dust.
Well sure, the insects have eaten all the skin, and that's what made them poop. The feces is composed primarily of human skin.
I just made that up, of course, but it could be true...
-------------------- I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
|
Posted
Re Queen Victoria:
She's also thought to have had severe PMS, and people around her suffered for it. Albert, reportedly, couldn't figure it out--he understood a pregnant woman having mood swings, but couldn't figure out why they'd happen at other times.
-------------------- Blessed Gator, pray for us! --"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon") --"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
|
Posted
One of the Velvet Underground was called Maureen. Very rock'n'roll...
AG
-------------------- "It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
HenryT
Canadian Anglican
# 3722
|
Posted
Ben Franklin did not say that "beer is proof God loves us". He did say that about wine.
-------------------- "Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man may, in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed old-fashioned" P. Henry, 1788
Posts: 7231 | From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Dec 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Golden Key: Re Queen Victoria:
She's also thought to have had severe PMS, and people around her suffered for it. Albert, reportedly, couldn't figure it out--he understood a pregnant woman having mood swings, but couldn't figure out why they'd happen at other times.
Marijuana was one of her favourite PMS remedies.
-------------------- Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
|
Posted
Nero did not fiddle as Rome burned. The violin had not yet been invented. Nor did he likely celebrate the fires. He is purported to have funded a relief effort for those afflicted. He did, however, blame the Christians to deflect speculation he might have had the fires started.
-------------------- I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Angel Wrestler
Ship's Hipster
# 13673
|
Posted
In seminary, our Old Testament professor posited that the term commonly translated as "wine" is a more generic term meaning "fermented drink." While fermented grapes were, indeed, consumed back in those days, grain was more available to the masses and thus it is likely that some of that "wine" was more closely related to beer.
I've not studied the issue for myself, but his theory seems plausible.
-------------------- The fact that no one understands you does not make you an artist. (unknown)
Posts: 2767 | From: half-way up the ladder | Registered: May 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
|
Posted
Mice don't actually like cheese. They really prefer grains, seeds, and nuts.
-------------------- When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. - C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Timothy the Obscure: Mice don't actually like cheese. They really prefer grains, seeds, and nuts.
and pure sugar - they'll go after soda syrups in a new york minute.
alas.
also - squirrels are omnivores, not herbivores. they raid nests for eggs and baby birds. but seeds are the main part of their diet.
-------------------- Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Timothy the Obscure: Mice don't actually like cheese. They really prefer grains, seeds, and nuts.
They like chocolate too. I haven't tested them for wine, shoes and handbags but I suspect that mice are inherently feminine.
-------------------- "He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
|
Posted
Given their toilet habits, I would posit they are inherently masculine.
-------------------- I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
deano
princess
# 12063
|
Posted
In an attempt to raise the tone!...
Again from the QI book, if you earn more than £14,000 ($22,500 or so), then you are in the worlds RICHEST 4%.
Staggering.
-------------------- "The moral high ground is slowly being bombed to oblivion. " - Supermatelot
Posts: 2118 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: Nov 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
Hawk
Semi-social raptor
# 14289
|
Posted
There is no word for the place, or piece of equipment you go to in order to evacuate your waste. All the words we use for it are, from one time or another, euphemisms to avoid talking about it directly. Toilet is from the French, referring to one's dressing table. Loo, is French L'eau, 'the water', similar to the English WC for Water Closet. Lavatory is from the latin 'to wash'. There is bathroom, restroom, privy etc. All of which refer to washing, getting ready, being private. There is no polite or official term ever invented to which one can refer directly to one's shitter!
-------------------- “We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don't know." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
See my blog for 'interesting' thoughts
Posts: 1739 | From: Oxford, UK | Registered: Nov 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Traveller
Shipmate
# 1943
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Hawk: There is no word for the place, or piece of equipment you go to in order to evacuate your waste. All the words we use for it are, from one time or another, euphemisms to avoid talking about it directly. Toilet is from the French, referring to one's dressing table. Loo, is French L'eau, 'the water', similar to the English WC for Water Closet. Lavatory is from the latin 'to wash'. There is bathroom, restroom, privy etc. All of which refer to washing, getting ready, being private. There is no polite or official term ever invented to which one can refer directly to one's shitter!
On a similar theme, Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet, but did a lot to promote its use.
-------------------- I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will praise my God while I have my being. Psalm 104 v.33
Posts: 1037 | From: Wherever the car has stopped at the moment! | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
The Great Gumby
Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by lilBuddha: Nero did not fiddle as Rome burned. The violin had not yet been invented.
He did, however, play the lyre, flute and most interestingly, the water organ. He loved to perform, whether holding concerts, recitals or racing chariots, and if you were invited to one of his concerts, it would be inadvisable to have prior engagements.
Vespasian once made the mistake of falling asleep during what was probably a particularly tedious musical performance by Nero, and the emperor's deep displeasure is well-documented.
-------------------- The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman
A letter to my son about death
Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
|
Posted
Hawk wrote:
quote: There is no word for the place, or piece of equipment you go to in order to evacuate your waste. All the words we use for it are, from one time or another, euphemisms to avoid talking about it directly. Toilet is from the French, referring to one's dressing table. Loo, is French L'eau, 'the water', similar to the English WC for Water Closet. Lavatory is from the latin 'to wash'. There is bathroom, restroom, privy etc. All of which refer to washing, getting ready, being private. There is no polite or official term ever invented to which one can refer directly to one's shitter!
I would have to put forth some heavenly disagreement here.
As far as contemprary North American English goes, the word "toilet" is not a eupehmism; it is understood to mean the device used for evacuating bodily waste. That it is derived from a French word meaning "dressing table" is neither here nor there, because that's not what people are thinking of when they use the word.
Granted, the use of "toilet" might have originally come into fashion as a euphemism, ie. people wanted you to visualize a dressing-table when they said "toilet", the way nowadays people want you to think about washing(as opposed to urinating or defecating) when they use the word "washroom". [ 14. January 2013, 15:12: Message edited by: Stetson ]
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
|
Posted
Somewhat backing up the broad contours of Hawk's original point, it does occur to me that North Americans rarely use "toilet" when referring to the actual purpose of the device. People will say "My toilet is broken" or "I hate cleaning my toilet", but, when expressing the need for bodily evacuation, will say something like "I've got to go to the washroom".
I believe Brits say "I've got to go to the toilet", but over there, "toilet" usually refers to the room, not the device.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Stetson: Somewhat backing up the broad contours of Hawk's original point, it does occur to me that North Americans rarely use "toilet" when referring to the actual purpose of the device. People will say "My toilet is broken" or "I hate cleaning my toilet", but, when expressing the need for bodily evacuation, will say something like "I've got to go to the washroom".
I believe Brits say "I've got to go to the toilet", but over there, "toilet" usually refers to the room, not the device.
Possibly because so many terraced houses in the UK used to have separate toilets and bathrooms?
-------------------- Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
the giant cheeseburger
Shipmate
# 10942
|
Posted
In Australia, 'toilet' means both the device and a room or facility primarily existing for the purpose of containing those devices. When faced with the query "excuse me, could you please point me to the toilet/s," the correct response is to give directions to the second door down the passage on the left, not to the location of the toilet device itself within the toilet room.
Sadly, cultural imperialism means that the use of the American euphemism 'bathroom' is now becoming common as well.
-------------------- If I give a homeopathy advocate a really huge punch in the face, can the injury be cured by giving them another really small punch in the face?
Posts: 4834 | From: Adelaide, South Australia. | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
deano
princess
# 12063
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Jade Constable: quote: Originally posted by Stetson: Somewhat backing up the broad contours of Hawk's original point, it does occur to me that North Americans rarely use "toilet" when referring to the actual purpose of the device. People will say "My toilet is broken" or "I hate cleaning my toilet", but, when expressing the need for bodily evacuation, will say something like "I've got to go to the washroom".
I believe Brits say "I've got to go to the toilet", but over there, "toilet" usually refers to the room, not the device.
Possibly because so many terraced houses in the UK used to have separate toilets and bathrooms?
Even to the point where the toilet was outside the house! When I was a child we had an outside toilet, which was no fun in winter!
-------------------- "The moral high ground is slowly being bombed to oblivion. " - Supermatelot
Posts: 2118 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: Nov 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger: Sadly, cultural imperialism means that the use of the American euphemism 'bathroom' is now becoming common as well.
But Dorothy L Sayers has Lord Peter Wimsey (no less) saying 'bathroom' in 'Strong Poison,' unless that was a change for an American edition, which hardly seems likely.
-------------------- You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
|
Posted
quote: Originally posted by Stetson: Somewhat backing up the broad contours of Hawk's original point, it does occur to me that North Americans rarely use "toilet" when referring to the actual purpose of the device. People will say "My toilet is broken" or "I hate cleaning my toilet", but, when expressing the need for bodily evacuation, will say something like "I've got to go to the washroom".
I believe Brits say "I've got to go to the toilet", but over there, "toilet" usually refers to the room, not the device.
In the same vein, "seeing a man about a dog" and "hanging a rat" have nothing whatsoever to do with the animals in question. "Having some quiet time" may in fact mean about the same thing when said by maiden aunts born in the 19th century.
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged
|
|
Stercus Tauri
Shipmate
# 16668
|
Posted
Have I been away too long and missed a language shift? Not long ago I casually mentioned that I needed to go to the bog, and my brother in law, a fairly normal Scotsman and not generally known for unnecessarily delicate language, looked surprised. But he would talk about the cludgie in everyday speech.
-------------------- Thay haif said. Quhat say thay, Lat thame say (George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal)
Posts: 905 | From: On the traditional lands of the Six Nations. | Registered: Sep 2011
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
|
Posted
OK folks, we've now had 10 tangential posts about the toilet. Do you think we might get back to providing interesting religious facts or corrections to general knowledge as per the OP, please?
Thanking you in advance Ariel Heaven Host
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Lord Jestocost
Shipmate
# 12909
|
Posted
According to the BBC, Jesus's quip about straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel is a pun. In the original Aramaic, gnat is galma and camel is gamla.
Not quite as earth shattering as some of the things we've been learning, but you did ask.
Posts: 761 | From: The Instrumentality of Man | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
|