I bet you didnt know that

Buford T. Justice XIX

The mechanical milking machine was invented, well, perfected 100 years ago by a New Zealander working with what is now Delaval to fine tune his earlier prototypes.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/99362818/milking-machine-creator-recognised-100-years-after-his-invention-revolutionised-dairy-farming

david75

Speaking of NZ, sheep and humans are the only two mammals that hair will continue to grow if left unchecked. No other mammal has this.

Duckworth_Luas

Kat1170 wrote: »

Looks like there is still plenty of time to change that

That's true. However there are many reasons why they can't get "the finger out"!

One is geology, which Ziolkowski didn't take enough account of. The foremost though it seems is that they want no Government interference and therefore investment.

This is what Mount Rushmore was supposed to look like before the US Government cut off funds.



Although they seemed to have decided on some sort of tiger, rather than Teddy Roosevelt, at this particular point in time.

filbert the fox

david75 wrote: »

Speaking of NZ, sheep and humans are the only two mammals that hair will continue to grow if left unchecked. No other mammal has this.

Dogs?

sbsquarepants

Ipso wrote: »

And the word grey is used to describe a white horse (in the horsey world).

Fear gorm (blue man) is the Irish for black man

An fear dubh (the black man) means the devil - who usually looks a nice shade of red to me!

sbsquarepants

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

That's true. However there are many reasons why they can't get "the finger out"!

One is geology, which Ziolkowski didn't take enough account of. The foremost though it seems is that they want no Government interference and therefore investment.

This is what Mount Rushmore was supposed to look like before the US Government cut off funds.



Although they seemed to have decided on some sort of tiger, rather than Teddy Roosevelt, at this particular point in time.

Is it just me or, does Lincoln look like a dodgy Elvis impersonator?:D

fergiesfolly

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Is it just me or, does Lincoln look like a dodgy Elvis impersonator?:D

Yes, you're right....
It's just you.

runawaybishop

Ipso wrote: »

And the word grey is used to describe a white horse (in the horsey world).

White coloured horses are almost invariably older greys whose coat lightens as they get older. Albinos do not occur - as in white with pink eyes, but you can very rarely get a white horse which is one that has a white coat and pink skin. Greys have dark skin.

tomwaterford

filbert the fox wrote: »

Dogs?

Virtually all dogs will shed their hair eventually

mr chips

Ipso wrote: »

I read that the Char family of fish are named after an old celtic word for red (as their bellies turn red around spawning time, they look amazing). Dearg and char sound similar but may be coincidence.

Afraid I don't know about that myself. However it's not impossible - it does bring to mind a very old audio recording I once heard of one of the last native speakers of Irish on Rathlin Island, which had its own distinct dialect (as did the Glens of Antrim, as did mid-Ulster). Can't remember now when it dates from, but I think it mustn't have been too long after the move to establish the "caighdeán", i.e. standardise the language. Frustratingly, the interviewer was a condescending pr1ck, a perfect embodiment of everything that was wrong with the teaching of Irish. He was the high-up academic, out here in the wilds talking to this islander like she was an interesting specimen in a zoo. Flann O'Brien would have had a field day ... He wouldn't just let the lady talk, but had the utter arrogance to correct her Irish - when the whole point was to preserve a record of her dialect!! Over the course of the recording, you can hear her becoming increasingly irate about this.

At one point, she mentions a red thing and uses the word dearg - while this is usually pronounced with two syllables and sounds something like "jarug", in her dialect, it has only one syllable and sounds more like "jarrg". So anyway, she's saying her bit, in full flow once more and yer man "corrects" her yet again, this time with "jarug", and it's clearly the final straw and she snaps straight back at him "Jarrg, JARRG, JARRRG!!!!"

I'd say he was glad to make back to Ballycastle in the end.

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Fear gorm (blue man) is the Irish for black man

An fear dubh (the black man) means the devil - who usually looks a nice shade of red to me!

And "na fir buí" are in fact the Orangemen. Which ties in with "flannbhuí" being the word for the colour orange.

valoren

david75 wrote: »

Says who? Makes more sense for a clean seeep to mean winning all awards you’re nominated for.

Speilberg opened the envelope on the best film award they won and he said ‘it’s a clean sweep. Lord of the rings return of the king’.



Semantics. But anyways.

I guess the 'clean sweep' definition at the Oscars is akin to winning the 'Grand Slam' in Golf and Tennis. Four tournaments every year in each sport are deemed to be the most prestigious for a player to win. In an Olympic year winning all four in Tennis including the Olympic Individual Gold is called the 'Golden Slam'. It's understandable how more prestige is given to a film winning Best Director over one that won for Sound Editing for example, it's deemed a more important award I suppose. Just like how Roger Federer winning Wimbledon is more prestigious than his winning the Cincinnati Masters a week later.

While a film such as The Return of the King can win 11 Oscars (including 3 of the 5 prizes deemed the major one's) for me it would be akin to Rory McIlroy playing in only 10 tournaments in a calendar year but he somehow didn't play in the Masters (a 'major' in Golf). He might win all 10 tournaments and call his season 'a clean sweep', he would point out that he is the first to have done so, he would have won 3 of the 4 majors but he wouldn't have won the 'Grand Slam' so to speak because he didn't win The Masters. So in essence while the LOTR won all 11 awards it was nominated for it didn't win the Oscars Grand Slam. As mentioned only 3 have ever done so.

david75

valoren wrote: »

I guess the 'clean sweep' definition at the Oscars is akin to winning the 'Grand Slam' in Golf and Tennis. Four tournaments every year in each sport are deemed to be the most prestigious for a player to win. In an Olympic year winning all four in Tennis including the Olympic Individual Gold is called the 'Golden Slam'. It's understandable how more prestige is given to a film winning Best Director over one that won for Sound Editing for example, it's deemed a more important award I suppose. Just like how Roger Federer winning Wimbledon is more prestigious than his winning the Cincinnati Masters a week later.

While a film such as The Return of the King can win 11 Oscars (including 3 of the 5 prizes deemed the major one's) for me it would be akin to Rory McIlroy playing in only 10 tournaments in a calendar year but he somehow didn't play in the Masters (a 'major' in Golf). He might win all 10 tournaments and call his season 'a clean sweep', he would point out that he is the first to have done so, he would have won 3 of the 4 majors but he wouldn't have won the 'Grand Slam' so to speak because he didn't win The Masters. So in essence while the LOTR won all 11 awards it was nominated for it didn't win the Oscars Grand Slam. As mentioned only 3 have ever done so.

I’m not getting into this again. The big five and a clean sweep seem to be two different things as explained above



Oscars are really really heavy. Guy I know has one. You get to take the statue home and then they send you the engraved plate with the details of what you won for a month or two later and you have to screw it on.
Michael Jackson paid $1 million dollars for the Gone with the wind best picture Oscar. The academy then made it so you couldn’t sell them anymore and you had to offer it to them for sale first and they’ll only give you $32 or something like it.

They’ve also been lost and found in the most bizarre places. Many have been left in cabs to never be seen again. Many have turned up in pawn shops. Quite a few have been stolen. Matt Damon had a flood on his apartment and his Oscar for good will hunting was gone when he returned after the flood was repaired.

The academy will replace any Oscar that has been stolen though.

Buford T. Justice XIX

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Fear gorm (blue man) is the Irish for black man

An fear dubh (the black man) means the devil - who usually looks a nice shade of red to me!

There was a programme on RTE many moons ago saying that the blue man term comes from North West Africa which earlier Irish would have had trade links to. The folk the Irish traded with were heavily tattooed in blue ink and were called Fir Gorm and it became a generic term for all Africans.

I don't know if that is still accepted explanation.

Wibbs

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

There was a programme on RTE many moons ago saying that the blue man term comes from North West Africa which earlier Irish would have had trade links to. The folk the Irish traded with were heavily tattooed in blue ink and were called Fir Gorm and it became a generic term for all Africans.

Or the indigo dye for which North Africa was known for. Indeed the first reference to blue as a separate colour in ancient texts is Egyptian.

I don't know if that is still accepted explanation.

I don't think it is, but it would not surprise me, as Ireland wasn't nearly so isolated as some think. Certainly by sea. It was easier for example for us to trade with say present day Spain than present day Germany. African origin items show up here as far back as the early Iron Age. EG a Barbary ape skull was found in Tara. Since the early late stone age people have established remarkably long distance trade and trade routes.

Professor Moriarty

Wibbs wrote: »

Or the indigo dye for which North Africa was known for. Indeed the first reference to blue as a separate colour in ancient texts is Egyptian.

I don't think it is, but it would not surprise me, as Ireland wasn't nearly so isolated as some think. Certainly by sea. It was easier for example for us to trade with say present day Spain than present day Germany. African origin items show up here as far back as the early Iron Age. EG a Barbary ape skull was found in Tara. Since the early late stone age people have established remarkably long distance trade and trade routes.

They are interesting explanations but the reality is a little less, well, colourful. 'Gorm' can also mean 'dark complexion'.

Incidentally, and in the same vein, Freddie White's name in Irish is Feardorcha Bán. Which translates as Darkman White.

mr chips

We might well have been trading as far afield that long ago. There's the remains of a Neolithic/Mesolithic flint quarry at Cushendall in Co. Antrim called Taobh Builleach (I actually don't know how it's rendered in English) - apparently a particular type of flint only occurs there and at Brockley on Rathlin Island. Yet axe heads, arrowheads etc made from this flint have been found all over Europe, from Scandinavia down as far as Turkey. Or so I was told - I'm afraid I'm sketchy on the detail, so if any pre-history buffs are able to correct me on this then I'd welcome it!

Ipso

Going that far back it's probably best to think of trading like a draughts board or hopscotch. Exotic items may not have moved from where it originated to where it was found directly but most likely in a series of separate movements. Supposedly there was a "market" for high status prestige items.

Kablamo!

david75 wrote: »

Is it a purely Irish belief that when a robin comes into your house it’s one of your deceased loved ones looking after you? We have a pair living in the bush on our back wall and a couple of times a year one of them will come in to the house. We do feed them occasisonally though. When I mentioned it to friends they told me about the family member thing. They are very friendly and cheeky

I was always told if a robin comes in to the house he's bringing death to a member of the family, but to see one outside is a visitor from heaven coming to say hello.

Professor Moriarty

Kablamo! wrote: »

I was always told if a robin comes in to the house he's bringing death to a member of the family, but to see one outside is a visitor from heaven coming to say hello.

I was told the same. If a robin comes into the house then someone in the house would die.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

I was told the same. If a robin comes into the house then someone in the house would die.

Oh Dear! I have one in the house three times this year.

Then again, I have one in most years.

New Home

In fairness, Srameen, the saying didn't specify when the death would occur.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

New Home wrote: »

In fairness, Srameen, the saying didn't specify when the death would occur.

In that case, a loaf of bread in a house is a sign of a death too.

New Home

NOOOOOOO!!!

New Home

Still, I'd be interested in finding the origin of these beliefs, I find them very interesting.

Fourier

That's true, my grandfather ate a loaf of bread in the 30s, several decades later he was dead. Say what you want, but some things go beyond coincidence.

david75

Brilliant

I don’t mind them coming into the house. They come in a few times a year. Nobody in the house has died yet. #godbewteenusandallharm

Ipso

Fourier wrote: »

That's true, my grandfather ate a loaf of bread in the 30s, several decades later he was dead. Say what you want, but some things go beyond coincidence.

But he wasn't abducted by aliens in those thirty years, good old Brennans.

Professor Moriarty

david75 wrote: »

Brilliant

I don’t mind them coming into the house. They come in a few times a year. Nobody in the house has died yet. #godbewteenusandallharm

Yeah but if you're five years old when you're told then you get mighty nervous when a robin approaches the back door.

Are Am Eye

I think it's clear now that we have to wipe out the Robins.

server down

What if we wiped out all the robins and people kept dying, though? Wouldn’t we feel stupid.