Learn Something Today

[midwestyankee]

I gleefully stole, and still use your description of New York pizza pretty frequently:

"ketchup on a saltine"

heh. But we mustn't hijack the thread...

The ancient Greeks considered beans a possessed vegetable, which contained the souls of the unmourned dead. The "atmos" expelled after eating beans was thought to be ghosts, since air was considered the "world soul" into which our own breath would be absorbed after our death.

Round our house, if someone has an unfortunate digestive moment, we all shout "GHOST!" and run away.

In our house, some of those "ghosts" would be putrid indeed.

 

[ShyGuy68]

No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half!

 

[unpredictablebijou]

In our house, some of those "ghosts" would be putrid indeed.

Feng shui has its origins in the appeasement of ancestors, by situating their burial plots in auspicious places. This prevented one's dead relatives from becoming angry ghosts.

By (il)logical and cross-cultural extension then, feng shui prevents flatulence.

 

[ShyGuy68]

I did not know the first, (cool!) but I knew the second.

I'm a bit of a word geek.

If you add the suffix -ly you can include the sixth vowel too.

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable"!

 

[WriterDom]

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable"!

I think I read that same site today.

 

[00Syd]

No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half!

Oooh I knew that. So cool.

 

[satindesire]

No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half!

Actually, the mythbusters folded a piece of paper in half way more than 7 times.

 

[ZRT]

Actually, the mythbusters folded a piece of paper in half way more than 7 times.

By hand, or with tools?

 

[ShyGuy68]

According to Guinness World Records, the oldest national flag in the world is that of Denmark.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Dannebrog.jpg/250px-Dannebrog.jpg

 

[satindesire]

By hand, or with tools?

by hand to eight folds! They flattened it with a roller for nine, and for ten and eleven they had to get a forklift to lift it, because it was too heavy to lift themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRAEBbotuIE

 

[Homburg]

"Pseudoantidisestablishmentarianism"

This was the longest 'normal' word in the English language.

"Extreme opposition to the withdrawl of State supported church"

"Normal" refers to a word not created by an amalgam of greek or latin or chemical prefixes, suffixes, etc.

 

[Keroin]

You can't lick your own elbow.

(If you try this and you are successful, my phone number is 1-682...)

 

[ZRT]

You can't lick your own elbow.

(If you try this and you are successful, my phone number is 1-682...)

Raise your hand if you immediately tried to do this after reading the post.

Edit- If I popped my bum shoulder out of socket I think I could, but there are limits to what I'm willing to do for a damn phone number.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

"Pseudoantidisestablishmentarianism"

This was the longest 'normal' word in the English language.

"Extreme opposition to the withdrawl of State supported church"

"Normal" refers to a word not created by an amalgam of greek or latin or chemical prefixes, suffixes, etc.

So "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" wouldn't count?

(a pneumoconiosis caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust; pneumoconiosis = chronic respiratory disease caused by inhaling metallic or mineral particles)

Hey... your word has a Greek prefix!

 

[satindesire]

So "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" wouldn't count?

(a pneumoconiosis caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust; pneumoconiosis = chronic respiratory disease caused by inhaling metallic or mineral particles)

Hey... your word has a Greek prefix!

How would you pronounce that?

New-mono-ultra-microscopic-sila-covo-vul-can-o-knee-osis?

 

[00Syd]

by hand to eight folds! They flattened it with a roller for nine, and for ten and eleven they had to get a forklift to lift it, because it was too heavy to lift themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRAEBbotuIE

Yeah, but that's a super huge piece of paper, I know that's not supposed to matter, but I honestly think that would be impossible with a standard letter size piece of paper.

 

[satindesire]

Yeah, but that's a super huge piece of paper, I know that's not supposed to matter, but I honestly think that would be impossible with a standard letter size piece of paper.

Exactly.

 

[00Syd]

Exactly.

Well, I would like to see someone attempt to fold a standard letter size piece of paper 11 times.

 

[satindesire]

Well, I would like to see someone attempt to fold a standard letter size piece of paper 11 times.

Youtube it. I'm sure there are lots of videos of people trying.

 

[Homburg]

So "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" wouldn't count?

(a pneumoconiosis caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust; pneumoconiosis = chronic respiratory disease caused by inhaling metallic or mineral particles)

Hey... your word has a Greek prefix!

You will note that I described the denied words as amalgams of such things. In other words, nothing but greek latin, etc like you word above. It is very easy to make long strings of such things in both medical and chemical contexts.

 

[LilyBart]

Careful, if it attracts too much attention it morphs into a pizza. Just ask LilyBart.

Ha ha!

No more....

 

[satindesire]

Today's Topic: Cats

Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,
An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature;
Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.

I find myself intrigued by your sub-vocal oscillations,
A singular development of cat communications
That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents,
You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion
It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.

Oh Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array;
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.



The cat (Felis catus), also known as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small predatory carnivorous species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests. It has been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years.

A skilled predator, the cat is known to hunt over 1,000 species for food. It can be trained to obey simple commands. Individual cats have also been known to learn on their own to manipulate simple mechanisms, such as doorknobs. Cats use a variety of vocalizations and types of body language for communication, including meowing, purring, hissing, growling, squeaking, chirping, clicking, and grunting. Cats may be the most popular pet in the world, with over 600 million in homes all over the world. They are also bred and shown as registered pedigree pets. This hobby is known as the "cat fancy."

Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal. However, a 2007 study found that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) circa 8000 BC, in the Near East.

In the Middle Ages, many equated the Black Death with God's wrath against sin, and that cats were often considered in league with the Devil thanks to their aloof and independent nature, cats were killed in masses. Had this bias toward cats not existed, local rodent populations could have been kept down, lessening the spread of plague-infected fleas from host to host.

A medieval King of Wales, Hywel Dda (the Good) passed legislation making it illegal to kill or harm a cat.

Much like their big cat relatives, domestic and feral cats are very effective predators. Domestic felines ambush or pounce upon and immobilize vertebrate prey using tactics similar to those of leopards and tigers. Having overpowered such prey, a cat delivers a lethal neck bite with its long canine teeth that either severs the prey's spinal cord with irreversible paralysis to prey, causes fatal bleeding by puncturing the carotid artery or the jugular vein, or asphyxiates the prey by crushing its trachea.

One poorly understood element of cat hunting behavior is the presentation of prey to human owners. Ethologist Paul Leyhausen proposed that cats adopt humans into their social group, and share excess kill with others in the group according to the local pecking order, in which humans are placed at or near the top. However, anthropologist and animal scientist Desmond Morris in his 1986 book "Catwatching" suggests that when cats bring home mice or birds they have caught, they are teaching their human to hunt, or helping their human as if feeding "an elderly, inept kitten". Another possibility is that presenting the kill might be a relic of a kitten's behavior of demonstrating for its mother's approval that it has developed the necessary skill for hunting. Indoor cats will often retain their hunting instinct and deliver small household items to their owners, such as watches, pens, pencils, and other objects they can carry in their mouths.

For cats, life in close proximity with humans (and other animals kept by humans) amounts to a "symbiotic social adaptation" which has developed over thousands of years. It has been suggested that, ethologically, the human keeper of a cat functions as a sort of surrogate for the cat's mother, and that adult domestic cats live their lives in a kind of extended kittenhood, a form of behavioral neoteny.

Cats may express affection towards their human companions, especially if they imprint on them at a very young age and are treated with consistent affection.

Cat coat genetics can produce a variety of coat patterns. Some of the most common are:

*Bicolor, Tuxedo and Van
This pattern varies between the tuxedo cat which is mostly black with a white chest, and possibly markings on the face and paws/legs, all the way to the Van pattern (so named after the Lake Van area in Turkey, which gave rise to the Turkish Van breed), where the only colored parts of the cat are the tail (usually including the base of the tail proper), and the top of the head (often including the ears). There are several other terms for amounts of white between these two extremes, such as Harlequin or jellicle cat. Bicolor cats can have as their primary (non-white) color black, red, any dilution thereof, and tortoiseshell.

Mackerel tabby cat, showing the characteristic "M" on its forehead.

*Tabby cat
Striped, with a variety of patterns. The classic "blotched" tabby (or "marbled") pattern is the most common and consists of butterflies and bullseyes. The "mackerel" or "striped" tabby is a series of vertical stripes down the cat's side (resembling the fish). This pattern broken into spots is referred to as a "spotted" tabby. Finally, the tabby markings may look like a series of ticks on the fur, thus the "ticked" tabby, which is almost exclusively associated with the Abyssinian breed of cats. The worldwide evolution of the cat means that certain types of tabby are associated with certain countries; for instance, blotched tabbies are quite rare outside NW Europe, where they are the most common type.

Female tortoiseshell-and-white cat

*Tortoiseshell and Calico
This cat is also known as a Calimanco cat or Clouded Tiger cat, and by the nickname "tortie." In the cat fancy, a tortoiseshell cat is randomly patched over with red (or its dilute form, cream) and black (or its dilute blue) mottled throughout the coat. Additionally, the cat may have white spots in its fur, which make it a "tortoiseshell and white" cat or, if there is a significant amount of white in the fur and the red and black colors form a patchwork rather than a mottled aspect, the cat will be called a "calico." All calicos are tortoiseshell (as they carry both black and red), but not all tortoiseshells are calicos (which requires a significant amount of white in the fur and patching rather than mottling of the colors). The calico is also sometimes called a "tricolor cat." The Japanese refer to this pattern as mi-ke (meaning "triple fur"), while the Dutch call these cats lapjeskat (meaning "patches cat"). A true tricolor must consist of three colors: a reddish color, dark or light; white; and one other color, typically a brown, black, or blue. Both tortoiseshell and calico cats are typically female because the coat pattern is the result of differential X chromosome inactivation in females (which, as with all normal female mammals, have two X chromosomes). Conversely, cats where the overall color is ginger (orange) are commonly male (roughly in a 3:1 ratio). In a litter sired by a ginger tom, the females will be tortoiseshell or ginger. Male tortoiseshells can occur as a result of chromosomal abnormalities (often linked to sterility) or by a phenomenon known as mosaicism, where two early stage embryos are merged into a single kitten.

Siamese cat, classical colorpoint pattern

*Colorpoint
The colorpoint pattern is most commonly associated with Siamese cats, but may also appear in any domesticated cat. A colorpointed cat has dark colors on the face, ears, feet, and tail, with a lighter version of the same color on the rest of the body, and possibly some white. The exact name of the colorpoint pattern depends on the actual color, so there are seal points (dark brown), chocolate points (warm lighter brown), blue points (dark gray), lilac or frost points (silvery gray-pink), red or flame points (orange), and tortie (tortoiseshell mottling) points, among others. This pattern is the result of a temperature sensitive mutation in one of the enzymes in the metabolic pathway from tyrosine to pigment, such as melanin; thus, little or no pigment is produced except in the extremities or "points," where the skin is slightly cooler. For this reason, colorpointed cats tend to darken with age as bodily temperature drops; also, the fur over a significant injury may sometimes darken or lighten as a result of temperature change.

The tyrosine pathway also produces neurotransmitters, thus mutations in the early parts of that pathway may affect not only pigment, but also neurological development. This results in a higher frequency of cross-eyes among colorpointed cats, as well as the high frequency of cross-eyes in white tigers.

*White cats
True albinism (a mutation of the tyrosinase gene) is quite rare in cats. Much more common is the appearance of white coat color due to a lack of melanocytes in the skin. A higher frequency of deafness in white cats is due to a reduction in the population and survival of melanoblast stem cells, which in addition to creating pigment producing cells, develop into a variety of neurological cell types. White cats with one or two blue eyes have a particularly high likelihood of being deaf.

*Smoke cats
The bottom eighth of each hair is white or creamy-white, with the rest of the hair being a solid color. Genetically this color is a non-agouti cat with the dominant inhibitor gene; a non-agouti version of the silver tabby. Smoke cats will look solid colored until they move, when the white undercoat becomes apparent. It is mostly found in pedigreed cats (especially longhair breeds) but also present in some domestic longhaired cats.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

How would you pronounce that?

New-mono-ultra-microscopic-sila-covo-vul-can-o-knee-osis?

According to the "Word-A-Day" webpage at Wordsmith.org, "a community of more than 700,000 linguaphiles in at least 200 countries," it's

NOO-muh-noh-UL-truh-MY-kruh-SKOP-ik-SIL -i-koh-vol-KAY-no-KOH-nee-O-sis.

"Mr. Clark, I'll give it a 7 for danceability, but only a 2 for lyrics."

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Hey... your word has a Greek prefix!

You will note that I described the denied words as amalgams of such things. In other words, nothing but greek latin, etc like you word above. It is very easy to make long strings of such things in both medical and chemical contexts.

You have a very good point, sir. Again from Word-A-Day,

"[From New Latin, from Greek pneumono- (lung) + Latin ultra- (beyond, extremely) + Greek micro- (small) + -scopic (looking) + Latin silico (like sand) + volcano + Greek konis (dust) + -osis (condition).]"​

So it's ALL Latin and Greek roots. Not a good Olde English word root in the bunch, since "scopic" and "volcano," neither attributed above, have latinate roots, and -osis has Greek roots.

Even though we have included the pronunciation of this word, we advise caution lest you may have to avail the services of an otorhinolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist).

At 45 letters, it's the longest word in any English language dictionary. It's a trophy word -- its only job is to serve as the longest word. In day-to-day use, its nine-letter synonym "silicosis" works just as well. Whatever you call it, it is deadly."

"This time the messages were longer and nastier. 'What on earth is the matter with you? Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?'"
Marion Thomas; Mystery Writer; Curriculum Corporation; 1998.​

The rest of the info provided from Wordsmith.org on the word, I just included for the hell of it and because the way they wrote it is a tad bit amusing.

 

[myinnerslut]

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!

absolutely! thats why this is the sentence schools have children write as a quick evaluation of which letters need work.