I bet you didnt know that

retalivity

retalivity wrote: »

Cross-posted from the 'how to kill your ex thread', i had seen someone else mentioned/posted this and looked it up, a bit sorry now i did.

The persians of antiquity had a method of torture/execution called "the boats". From wikipedia

And I was worried that eyelash mites would turn peoples stomachs. It's going to take me a while to forget that post.

RiderOnTheStorm

Yea, was just reading about "the boats" on Wiki .... you would want to really really hate your enemy.

Not sure if it was posted before, but ... you can download the entire Wiki database (well, all bar photos) to a quite small memory stick (a few gig?). Great if you want to look up stuff offline (eg internet goes down during an apocalypse and we need to re-learn & re- build). Can't remember exact details, but a quick Google will tell you how, and Wiki themselves provide regular dumps of the site for this exact purpose.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Is the boats torture true - can we trust the Greek sources?

RiderOnTheStorm

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote:

Is the boats torture true - can we trust the Greek sources?

Yeahh.... What have the Greeks ever done for us?

Baggly

I believe the boats torture is also called schaphism.....Blindboy boatclub did a very disturbing short story on the concept in his book.

mzungu

A pound of houseflies contains more protein than a pound of beef.

80s Child

VW 1 wrote: »

Putting it here is as good as googling it tbf.

Bananas contain octenol which is commonly used as a bait in mosquito traps.

In Miley's voice, " Well holy God! "

KevRossi

VW 1 wrote: »

Putting it here is as good as googling it tbf.

Bananas contain octenol which is commonly used as a bait in mosquito traps.

I spent a good few years in Africa, in the Sahel and sub tropical areas. i always found it odd why they never had Banana bushes in the houses, until I copped that one day.

We used to go to one pub in particular where Mosquito were rare. Turns out the courtyard was full of lemon trees, a great natural way to repel mosquitoes.

Graces7

Candie wrote: »

And I was worried that eyelash mites would turn peoples stomachs. It's going to take me a while to forget that post.

I did not read it. Saw the trend and scrolled on.

Lady Haywire

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Is the boats torture true - can we trust the Greek sources?

Pretty sure it is, have heard about it before somewhere. I also recall reading a good info post on Imgur about some other old-timey torture/killing devices in case anyone is interested - https://imgur.com/gallery/PwgNp

Nobody expects the Spanish donkey!!

RiderOnTheStorm

Not the most riveting piece of info ever posted here, but it gets published (incorrectly) in papers often, so I guess some dont know it.

Ireland (and USA) has a "Coast Guard" (two words). Her Majesty in UK has a "Coastguard" (one word) ... A bit like loo-tenant and lief-tenant. The way you pronounce it (or in this case, how you write it) has meaning.

RiderOnTheStorm

Not the most riveting piece of info ever posted here, but it gets published (incorrectly) in papers often, so I guess some dont know it.

Ireland (and USA) has a "Coast Guard" (two words). Her Majesty in UK has a "Coastguard" (one word) ... A bit like loo-tenant and lief-tenant. The way you pronounce it (or in this case, how you write it) has meaning.

Esel

Buoys: we say 'boys', they say 'boo-eys'.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Esel wrote: »

Buoys: we say 'boys', they say 'boo-eys'.

I thought it was Boo-eys when younger too, at least I read it like that. Didn’t say it out loud. Same with paradigm where I pronounced the g in my head. When someone said par-a-dime to me I worked it out.

No such luck with segue. The 18 year old me reading an essay to the class, and trying his luck with sophisticated words pronounced it seeg.

I mean I knew there was a spoken word segway which I assumed was spelt like it sounded. And yeh, when you think about it, it meant the same thing.

Not very bright, and my sarcastic English teacher was quick to pounce...

pleas advice

segue

hold on now....

...


...well **** me sideways... you're right.

'segway', huh..

New Home

Wallis Simpson died the day before the Chernobyl disaster. (24th April 1986, and 25th-26th April 1986).

quickbeam

Esel wrote: »

Buoys: we say 'boys', they say 'boo-eys'.

I did NOT know that! But their way sounds more sensible. It might prevent little six year olds* freaking out when told that there were boys in the sea, and all you could see was the top of their little round heads and wondering why they were left there.




* yeah, me!

Kat1170

quickbeam wrote:

I did NOT know that! But their way sounds more sensible. It might prevent little six year olds* freaking out when told that there were boys in the sea, and all you could see was the top of their little round heads and wondering why they were left there.

Only if they're named Bob :-D:-D

Peregrinus

Esel wrote: »

Buoys: we say 'boys', they say 'boo-eys'.

English borrowed the word in the fifteenth century from either French or Dutch, it's not clear which. In English, it was originally pronounced something like "bwoy", which corresponds more-or-less to the pronunciation of the equivalent word in Dutch. Over time, in the US "bwoy" developed into something like "boo-y", while on this side of the Great Puddle it became "boy", a pronunciation initially used by sailors but almost universal by the mid-nineteenth century.

valoren

At the market close last Wednesday, Facebook stock was worth $630 billion.

After a conference call it was mentioned Q2 earnings were below estimates and that user growth had slowed and this would impact future revenue.

Before the bell was rung on Thursday morning, the stock had lost $120 billion during 'after hours' trading in one of the biggest routs in recent market history.

To put it in perspective the value drop is larger than the individual market caps of 464 of the 500 companies in the S&P 500, or 92.8% of them. It is almost as big as McDonalds and Nike. Bigger than Goldman Sachs, General Electric and the entire Argentine stock market. If you were to add up the market caps of the bottom 21 companies in the S&P 500, it’s bigger than that, too.

gozunda

Much of the article base in Wikipedia is built on the now out of copyright 11th Edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. The 11th Edition is seen as one of the "high points of scholarship and writing"

much of the still-useful text in the 1911 Encyclopaedia was adapted and absorbed into Wikipedia.

See: 'The history of adaptation' in
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Encyclopaedia_Britannica

Whilst Wikipedia sources are frequently critical of the Encyclopaedia Britannica - it remains a little known fact that many Wikipedia articles are actually based on Britannica articles written at the turn of the last century ...

Chancer3001

Mars has huge polar ice caps , north and south just like we do.

If you melted the South polar ice cap on mars , the entire planet would be covered in 11m of water

Pyr0

In the Electric Six song "Danger! High Voltage", the secondary lead vocals are actually performed by Jack White from the White Stripes.

Big Nasty

Pyr0 wrote: »

In the Electric Six song "Danger! High Voltage", the secondary lead vocals are actually performed by Jack White from the White Stripes.

Great tune!

partyguinness

VISA is not widely used in the Netherlands. Maestro is the card of choice.

Quazzie

partyguinness wrote: »

VISA is not widely used in the Netherlands. Maestro is the card of choice.

Maestro is a debit card only, whereas VISA can be either credit card or debit card. Up until recently Maestro was the card of choice here and in the UK too.

partyguinness

Quazzie wrote: »

Maestro is a debit card only, whereas VISA can be either credit card or debit card. Up until recently Maestro was the card of choice here and in the UK too.

Apparently the Dutch are adverse to debt. Had to spend a long weekend in Holland recently and no bar that we went to (and there was a few) would take VISA debit card. Luckily we had cash the first night and then had to take cash out.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Pretty sure it is, have heard about it before somewhere. I also recall reading a good info post on Imgur about some other old-timey torture/killing devices in case anyone is interested - https://imgur.com/gallery/PwgNp

Nobody expects the Spanish donkey!!

Tbh, I was grand until the duck:pac:

cdeb

partyguinness wrote: »

Apparently the Dutch are adverse to debt. Had to spend a long weekend in Holland recently and no bar that we went to (and there was a few) would take VISA debit card. Luckily we had cash the first night and then had to take cash out.

A debit card takes money straight out of your account and doesn't involve debt. A credit card builds up debt for repayment typically once a month, but you can of course choose not to pay off the balance in full.

As of 2015, Dutch household debt was the second-highest in the OECD. Ireland came in sixth, and we all know how much of an issue household debt is here.

https://data.oecd.org/hha/household-debt.htm

Capt'n Midnight

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Tbh, I was grand until the duck:pac:

From QI

There once was a novelty act with a dancing duck.

Guy plays piano, and the duck danced on top of it.


After the guy died they found out the trick.

There was a hotplate in the piano, and since the duck was tied up ....

"ouch ouch ouch"