Random Fact of the Day

[Scheherazade]

Please share the random facts you discover with us!

- One fact per day.
- Please indicate for which day you are posting for.
- Please indicate your sources clearly.


May 14th


Est ubi glorai nunc Babyloiae? Where are the snows of yesteryear? The earth is dancing the dance of Macabre; at times it seems to be that the Danube is crowded with ships loaded with fools going towards a dark place. 'Where are the snows of yesteryear?' question reminded me of Yossarian's question from Catch-22: "Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?"

When I searched, I found out that the line was a reference to a poem by François Villon, a famous mediaeval poet:


Ballad Of The Ladies Of Yore

Tell me where, in what country,
Is Flora the beautiful Roman,
Archipiada or Thais
Who was first cousin to her once,
Echo who speaks when there's a sound
On a pond or a river
Whose beauty was more than human?
But where are the snows of yesteryear?
Where is the leamed Heloise
For whom they castrated Pierre Abelard
And made him a monk at Saint-Denis,
For his love he took this pain,
Likewise where is the queen
Who commanded that Buridan
Be thrown in a sack into the Seine?
But where are the snows of yesteryear?

The queen white as a lily
Who sang with a siren's voice,
Big-footed Bertha, Beatrice, Alice,
Haremburgis who held Maine
And Jeanne the good maid of Lorraine
Whom the English bumt at Rouen, where,
Where are they, sovereign Virgin?
But where are the snows of yesteryear?

Prince, don't ask me in a week
or in a year what place they are;
I can only give you this refrain:
Where are the snows of yesteryear?

http://www.projetbrassens.eclipse.co.uk/pages/transballade.html

http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Francois_Villon/2079

[Pensive]

May 15

Mother said "You should take your studies seriously"
Father said "You should have done each and every question"
Brother said "You---are you mad? YOU are worried about 7th's exams. Who cares?"

I said "Bah, stop yourself from living in Neverland because that's a place that does not fit anyone unless you don't give a damn to your result"

And here is Pensive trying to leave Neverland behind and being unable to do so. Please Pray that she passes her Math's exam! And behind this the fact is:

"Living in Neverland is dangerous but one (especially people like me) can't help it"

(sad)

[Scheherazade]

Thank you very much for sharing that, Pensive but when I started the thread I had more tangible facts in mind, rather than personal issues. :)

[Pensive]

"Living in an imaginary world without seeing realities infront of you has its problems" Isn't it a fact, Scher? That was all I wanted to say. :)

[papayahed]

May 16


In 1997, as part of a Japanese "food as art" exhibition, Tadhiko Okawa copied the great artwork, entirely in toast. The picture was first etched onto tin foil, then each section was transferred to a slice of bread, which was toasted in an upright toaster. The masterpiece contained 1,426 slices.


s10cr

[Scheherazade]

That is amazing! Do you think those toasts were buttered??? :D

[Scheherazade]

Read this passage from The shipping News by Annie Proulx last night:
In theold days a love-sick sailor might send the object of his affection a length of fishline loosely tied in a true-lover's knot. If the know was sent back as it came, the relationship was static. If the know returned home snugly drawn up, the passion was reciprocated. But if the knot was capsized -tacit advice to ship out.Which made me curious about this particular knot. A search on the net came up with this:
The true lover's knot is the name for several knots, including the Middleman's knot, Fisherman's knot and Shamrock knot. The most popular version, the Middleman's knot, is actually a bend created by interlacing the loops from opposing overhand knots with the opposite line.


Legend has it that the Dutch sailors tied this knot to remind them of their loved ones during their ocean voyages in the 16th century. The two intertwining overhand knots symbolize two intertwined lovers. The knot is sometimes used by goldsmiths to make a romantic piece of jewelry.

Like true love, the simplicity is deceptive, this knot is difficult to tie correctly.
http://www.beadingtimes.com/leather/loversknot.gif

[papayahed]

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was made when a poem was set to an old British drinking song, called “Anacreon in Heaven.” Likewise, “Hail to the Chief,” the ditty played whenever the president makes a public appearance, also has roots across the pond.

“The Lady of the Lake,” a Sir Walter Scott poem published in 1810, told of a clan in the Scottish Highlands that lost their land to an imperialist invader. The poem was a hit in its original form, and received even more acclaim a few years later when it was used as the basis for a stage production. London conductor James Sanderson set Stanza XIX of the Second Canto of “Lady of the Lake” to music, renaming it “Hail to the Chief.” (The Chief in this case was Roderick Dhu, a Scottish folk hero.)

When the play opened in Philadelphia in 1812, “Hail to the Chief” struck a chord with Americans, who were embroiled in a war with Britain at that time. In February 1815, the song was played both to honor the late George Washington and to mark the end of the War of 1812. The song then began its long association with the Commander-in-Chief, even though the Department of Defense didn’t officially recognize it as the presidential tribute song until 1954.

[papayahed]

When you buy liquor that is labeled 100 proof, that indicates that it contains 50% alcohol. But why is it called “proof” in the first place?

Modern distillers use a hydrometer to measure the alcohol in their spirits, but in the days before such a device was available, a simpler method was used. In England, equal parts of liquor and gunpowder were mixed together, and then lit with a flame. Careful experimentation had taught the Brits that the perfect amount of alcohol content (57.1% at the time) produced a steady blue flame. If the flame burned too yellow, it was “proof” that there was too much alcohol in the spirit.

Folks in the American Old West, on the other hand, employed a slightly different method: they poured a small amount of hootch onto a tiny pile of gunpowder, then lit it on fire. Once the liquor burned off, it would set off a small explosion as “proof” that the alcohol content was right on. If the booze was too watery, the fire would simply fizzle out.

[papayahed]

The average toilet is flushed 2.56 times every day

[Virgil]

The average toilet is flushed 2.56 times every day
Is that even if you have the runs? :D

And what about work toilets. We have a couple of hundred people in our building and a limited number of toilets. :lol:

[papayahed]

Is that even if you have the runs? :D

And what about work toilets. We have a couple of hundred people in our building and a limited number of toilets. :lol:

What's the toilet to person ratio?

We could do an informal work poll to determine how many times people use the bathroom on a daily basis? :nod: :D

[Virgil]

What's the toilet to person ratio?

We could do an informal work poll to determine how many times people use the bathroom on a daily basis? :nod: :D
I don't know the ratio. I could ask but that would look odd. :lol: I could count, but I don't think I want to go into the Ladies Room.

[papayahed]

I don't know the ratio. I could ask but that would look odd. :lol: I could count, but I don't think I want to go into the Ladies Room.


Come on Virgie!!! This is for science and the betterment of all mankind! :D

[Taliesin]

Two of the classical three problems that are unsolvable with straightedge and compass (those three being trisecting an angle, doubling the cube and squaring the cube) are solvable with origami (paper folding). The unsolvable one is of course squaring the circle.
While using compass-and-straightedge, only second degree equations are solvable, but origami allows to solve third degree equations, thus making origami a more powerful construction method.

[Scheherazade]

It may be itsy bitsy, but there is no doubt the bikini has had a huge impact on popular culture, changing the world of fashion like few other garments.

The bikini as we know it turns 60 on 5 July. It has weathered scandal, shrugged off the fads and whims of fashion, been celebrated as helping with the emancipation of women and lambasted as turning women into objects of desire.

Its wearers have passed into legend, becoming iconic images of 20th Century culture.

Who can forget that 1962 Dr No moment when Ursula Andress, as Bond Girl Honeychile Rider, emerges from the sea in a white bikini, knife tucked into a wide belt. So iconic was the look that it was repeated 40 years later by Halle Berry in the Bond movie Die Another Day.

In 2001, the Dr No bikini sold at auction for $61,500.

Then there was Brigitte Bardot who set pulses racing when she appeared in her bikini in the 1957 film And God Created Woman. Raquel Welch's animal skin two- piece in One Million Years BC made her an instant pin-up girl.

Female expression

Historically, the bikini is more than 1,700 years old, according to mosaics dating from 300AD at the Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, which depict girls exercising in bikinis.

The bikini became a symbol of female expression, says American writer and former model Kelly Killoren Bensimon, who has written The Bikini Book to celebrate its birthday.

"It really gave people confidence," she told the BBC News website. "The bikini is emblematic of freedom. It's about fun, it's about play, it's a lifestyle.

"It celebrates athletes, models, dancers and real people."

Ms Bensimon puts the bikini's longevity down to its scandalous inception.

"The bikini is associated with scandal and that's why it survived," she said.

Certainly the two-piece had a hard time convincing the public that it was OK for "decent" women to wear it.

Invented by engineer

"Le bikini", a suit of four triangles made from only 30 inches of fabric, made its debut in Paris in 1946. Unable to find a model who would wear it, the bikini's creator Louis Reard enlisted a nude dancer to pose for photographs.

Mr Reard was a French engineer by profession but in the mid-1940s, he was running his mother's lingerie business.

He had noticed women on the beaches of St Tropez rolling up their bathing suits to try to get a better tan. He and French designer Jacques Heim were in competition to produce the world's smallest swimsuit. While Mr Heim's two-piece was the first to be worn on the beach, it was Mr Reard that gave the bikini its memorable name.

It was debuted shortly after the first US post-war nuclear tests on the South Pacific Bikini atoll. Words like atomic were beginning to be used by the media to describe something sensational and, no doubt, Mr Reard reasoned that the excitement the bikini would cause would equal that of the bomb.

Banned

The bikini certainly caused a sensation - but few women were prepared to wear it. One of the main problems was that the bikini exposed the navel and that was frowned on.

Until, that is, Brigitte Bardot sparked the French craze and St Tropez was set alight by women in two-pieces.

But it was too much for conservative America, where Modern Girl magazine sneered: "It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so-called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing."

However, as the sexual revolution in the 1960s took hold, so did the bikini - except in Catholic countries, that is, where it was banned. It gained acceptance and clout and made its own contribution to the changing relationship between men and women.

Still popular

French fashion historian Olivier Saillard argues that the bikini imposed itself due to "the power of women, and not the power of fashion".

"The emancipation of swimwear has always been linked to the emancipation of women," he told AFP.

Brian Hyland sung about an "Itsy-Bitsy Teenie-Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" in the 1960s and Playboy first featured a bikini on its cover in 1962.

Two years later, it featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, giving it an acceptable edge. It was no longer just associated with louche sexuality.

In the 1980s, the bikini suffered a dip in its popularity. Today, however, it is going strong again. US-based market research company NPD Group reported that sales of two-piece swimsuits nationwide jumped by 80% in two years.

Teenagers and young women are said to be the major buyers, but women over 30 make up an increasing share.

Snapshot

Some argue that the key to the bikini's re-found popularity is the ageing baby boomers who signed up to the fitness-obsessed culture. Kathy Peiss, a professor of women's history at the University of Massachusetts argues that this baby boomer group is "inculcated with the idea that they won't ever grow old".

For some, however, it is the other end of the market that causes concern.

Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, argues that the bikini is able to exert a noose-like grip on the psyche and physical health of girls and women.

"American girls and women have been stripped bare by a sexually expressive culture whose beauty dictates have exerted a major toll on their physical and emotional health," she writes.

There is, however, no doubt that the power of the bikini will be debated for many years to come.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/5130460.stm

[alshadai]

July 10, 2006. Little bit of interesting film/literature facts here.

Apocalypse Now was based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness...
...which was based on Dante's Inferno.

$6million of cocaine was consumed on the set of Apocalypse now. The director went through his own trip to hell while struggling with his life on the set of the movie (refer to "The Heart of Darkness", a documentary on the making of Apocalypse Now).

The darkness of human nature can be seen in many, many ways.

[thevintagepiper]

Bikini celebrates its 60th birthday on July 5th

I saw a highland dancer (go figure--and no offense to any highland dancers out there...) with a shirt that said "Never underestimate the power of an itsy-bitsy bikini."

Sad.