I bet you didnt know that

Realt Dearg Sec

Shemale wrote: »

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Defoe is also responsible for one of the great continuity errors in literary history, when Robinson Crusoe stripped naked, swam out to his ship and filled his pockets with biscuits.

Maeby he is a never nude?

In a sense, actually. Just wearing a pair of undershorts was often described as being naked in the seventeenth century. But the idea that Tobias funke would have fit in better in that era, well, that's just a fallacy.

Sponge25

There's enough iron in an adults bloodstream to make a nail.

Liamalone

Liamalone wrote: »

The last bellybutton survey saw a dead heat, 50% inny, 50% outty.

I find that very hard to believe.

Are Am Eye

Deleted User wrote: »

I find that very hard to believe.

Hmm. I'm fifty fifty on it.

wexie

Liamalone wrote: »

The last bellybutton survey saw a dead heat, 50% inny, 50% outty.

Who commissions/performs a bellybutton survey?

And why?

Professor Moriarty

wexie wrote: »

Who commissions/performs a bellybutton survey?

And why?

I did the survey. Spent every Saturday since Christmas stopping people in the street and asking to see their bellybuttons. Methodology a bit suspect as the sample was four participants (including me - I'm an innie) but the facts speak for themselves.

Are Am Eye

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

I did the survey. Spent every Saturday since Christmas stopping people in the street and asking to see their bellybuttons. Methodology a bit suspect as the sample was four participants (including me - I'm an innie) but the facts speak for themselves.

A useful report. It's a bit short though, you may need to fluff it out a bit.

Professor Moriarty

Are Am Eye wrote: »

A useful report. It's a bit short though, you may need to fluff it out a bit.

I've had a bellyful of it now and not many can stomach the findings.

Are Am Eye

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

I've had a bellyful of it now and not many can stomach the findings.

You're just going to cut it loose like that?

Franz Von Peppercorn

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Tullio De Mauro, an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861 only 2.5% of the population of Italy could speak Standard Italian.

This of course depends on what you mean by standard Italian, or standard language in general. If in 1861 there was a definition of standard Italian recently formulated then it is likely that most of the uneducated, or regional population didn't adhere to it. Which doesnt mean the population of Italy spoke thousands of totally different unintelligible languages, but that the version of the ( effectively) corrupted Latin they speak there had lots of dialects. Presumably most Italians understand and understood each other.

The difference between Romance languages isn't huge anyway, even across countries. Compare to English and German, native speakers of both can't understand each other or read any texts, unless they learn the other language, despite their common ancestry. Romance languages can often be partially read or partially understood across languages.

With regard to French not being universal in France back in the day the same logic probably applies: not if you define it as the new standard French of the Parisienne region, yes if you see the majority of languages as dialects.

There were regions of France which spoke non Romance languages like the Celtic Breton of Brittany and German in Alsace (in the times when the French controlled it) but most of the different languages of France were romance based and probably were mostly intelligible to each other.

The language of the Normans is described as French after all, but Normandy is supposed to have not been French speaking at the time of the French Revolution.

Chancer3001

If you're looking at a herd elephants, you think they're silent creatures .

But they're almost always in conversation with one another. They grumble to each other at a frequency below what the human ear can hear

Professor Moriarty

Are Am Eye wrote: »

You're just going to cut it loose like that?

Yeah. It just doesn't strike a chord anymore.

Bandana boy

I am pretty sure I read there was significantly more innies than outies , although some obese people will become outie due to stress of fat , and you can get plastic surgery which will change you from one to the other if required

Capt'n Midnight

wexie wrote: »

Who commissions/performs a bellybutton survey?

And why?

If you unscrew your belly button your bum will fall off.

Fourier

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

This of course depends on what you mean by standard Italian, or standard language in general. If in 1861 there was a definition of standard Italian recently formulated then it is likely that most of the uneducated, or regional population didn't adhere to it. Which doesnt mean the population of Italy spoke thousands of totally different unintelligible languages, but that the version of the ( effectively) corrupted Latin they speak there had lots of dialects. Presumably most Italians understand and understood each other.

I know that Neapolitan isn't mutually comprehensible even today. I remember a colleague who had to switch to English to speak to Northern Italians. Reading the Wikipedia article and its links seems to say they generally aren't mutually comprehensible.

Realt Dearg Sec

Fourier wrote: »

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

This of course depends on what you mean by standard Italian, or standard language in general. If in 1861 there was a definition of standard Italian recently formulated then it is likely that most of the uneducated, or regional population didn't adhere to it. Which doesnt mean the population of Italy spoke thousands of totally different unintelligible languages, but that the version of the ( effectively) corrupted Latin they speak there had lots of dialects. Presumably most Italians understand and understood each other.

I know that Neapolitan isn't mutually comprehensible even today. I remember a colleague who had to switch to English to speak to Northern Italians. Reading the Wikipedia article and its links seems to say they generally aren't mutually comprehensible.

Yeah I have a friend from Naples and we first met in Trieste and he couldn't understand triestine Italian (the language James Joyce spoke with his family, incidentally, despite the fact that he and his wife were Irish), while Neapolitan is famously difficult. But both would be able to speak standard Italian to one another.

JRant

Cleopatra was closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than she was to the building of the great pyramid.

donegal.

T-Rex was closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than it was to the Stegosaurus .

Greybottle

donegal. wrote: »

T-Rex was closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than it was to the Stegosaurus .

Well seeing as they only split up in 1977 I kind of knew that as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5pw8BNPn6U

JRant

donegal. wrote: »

T-Rex was closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than it was to the Stegosaurus .

But they were both in Jurassic Park...

ohnonotgmail

JRant wrote: »

But they were both in Jurassic Park...

T Rex isnt from the Jurassic period, it is from the cretaceous period that came after it.

storker

Fourier wrote: »

Napoleon wasn't fully fluent in French, having grown up speaking Corsican (very close to Standard Italian). His written French in particular was ambiguous and hard to understand. This was probably responsible for his loss at El Arish in Egypt, where the generals had difficulty understanding his orders.

Source: The Campaigns of Napoleon, David G. Chandler

He should have had Berthier write them instead.

I'm reading that very book at the moment. I've had a hard copy for years but it's too big for my laptop bag so I can't read it on the train and it's too too awkward to hold for reading in bed, so I gave in and bought the Kindle version and I'm nearly at 1805 already. Only about 800 more pages to go...

This is a great companion volume, although it's not available for Kindle, unfortunately: https://www.amazon.com/Military-History-Atlas-Napoleonic-Wars/dp/1853673463

In the spirit of the thread, Napoleon wasn't so short either. He was mostly likely reported as being so because in the non-standard measurements of the time, a French foot was longer than its English equivalent. In the French system of the time, he was 5'2", the modern equivalent of which is about 5'7", a good average height for the early 1800s.


_

VW 1

JRant wrote: »

Cleopatra was closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than she was to the building of the great pyramid.

Courtesy of Robert Schoch? Fascinating podcast.

Are Am Eye

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

T Rex isnt from the Jurassic period, it is from the cretaceous period that came after it.

T Rex was in Jurassic Park. As Jrant correctly said.

ohnonotgmail

VW 1 wrote: »

Courtesy of Robert Schoch? Fascinating podcast.

No need for schoch. He isnt an egypotologist. plenty of real sources for the time she lived in.

ohnonotgmail

Are Am Eye wrote: »

T Rex was in Jurassic Park. As Jrant correctly said.

It was. the film should really have been called Cretaceous Park though that doesnt roll off the tongue as well.

VW 1

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

No need for schoch. He isnt an egypotologist. plenty of real sources for the time she lived in.

I only say that because i heard him quote that exact stat on a podcast he did in the last few days, was wondering if that was the source.

Capt'n Midnight

De Beers will now be selling genuine artificial diamonds.

JRant

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

T Rex isnt from the Jurassic period, it is from the cretaceous period that came after it.

Fascinating period off time. My favorite from that epoch has to the the Permian-Triassac extinction event or 'The Great Dying'.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian–Triassic_extinction_event

JRant

VW 1 wrote: »

Courtesy of Robert Schoch? Fascinating podcast.

I'd heard it before but that podcast jogged the memory alright.

Really enjoyed the podcast as well. Even looking at the Sphnix you can tell the head is completely at odds with the rest of the structure. Also sites like gobekli tepe throw a new light on how far ancient civilisations actually go back in time.