Today I Found Out » Language

The Word “News” Does Not Derive from the Four Cardinal Directions (North, East, West, South)

Scott — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:10:20 +0000

Myth: the word “news” derives from the four cardinal directions.

While this potential origin of the word news seems plausible enough, it isn’t true. The truth is, the word news can be traced back to late Middle English around the 14^th century as a plural for the adjective “new” or “new thing”. This is a somewhat rare instance of an English adjective becoming a noun when made plural. Making this leap from “new” to “news” in English is thought to have been influenced by the Old French “nouveau”, meaning “new”. “Nouveau” in its plural feminine form becomes the noun “nouvelles”, meaning “news”.

Before the 14^th century, instead of using the word “news”, English speakers typically used the word “tidings”, more or less meaning the “announcement of an event”. This Middle English version started before the 11^th century and stems from the Old English term “tidung” meaning “Event, occurrence, or a piece of news”.

Bonus Factoids:

According to USA Today, the top ten news stories of the past 25 years are (disclaimer: heavily biased towards U.S. related news):
1. The “fall of communism” in 1989, with the destruction of the Berlin wall.
2. The 9/11 terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center.
3. The Iraq War starting in 2003.
4. Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans.
5. The OJ Simpson trial in 1994-1995.
6. The 2000 Presidential election that took 5 weeks to reveal a winner.
7. The Clinton impeachment in 1999.
8. The Afghanistan invasion of 2001.
9. The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
10. The Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
The Chernobyl disaster was a result of a lot of idiocy, rather than an actual failure in design or engineering. It was a case where one of the reactors was intentionally put in about the worst possible state it could be in, all the while the operators ignoring all the warnings and overriding many of the automated safety systems. It was actually a testament to the safety systems that the reactor they were messing with lasted as long as it did with what they were doing with it. Even after the explosions, the workers who were managing the reactor next to the exploded one were told to keep the other reactors online and continue to work. The mistakes didn’t stop there though, the exploded reactor crew chief, Alexander Akimov, assumed the reactor was still intact, despite all the graphite and reactor fuel lying around the building after the explosions. So he kept everyone working throughout the night on the exploded reactor core which cost many workers, including Akimov, their lives.
One of the problems in not recognizing the danger was that, of the two dosimeters capable of measuring the radiation levels they were experiencing, one was inaccessible and the other failed to turn on. All the other meters couldn’t read that high; indeed, they didn’t read very high at all, so they only knew the radiation levels were somewhere above 3.6 rems per hour, which is a relatively high rate, but certainly not going to kill anyone working there for a shift. When they eventually brought a meter in that could read the correct levels, Akimov assumed it must be malfunctioning because of the extreme high readings they were getting. Once again, you’d think the nuclear fuel and graphite lying around the building and the two explosions would have tipped him off, but here we are. In his defense, at around 5000 rems, the brain begins to be damaged with the radiation killing nerves and small blood vessels. He wasn’t likely experiencing these levels where he was working, but lower high levels, while not causing brain damage, will cause memory problems; confusion; information processing ability problems; and decline in cognition. So that may have played a role in his poor decisions after the explosions.
The next mistake was with the rescue crews that arrived on scene. Many of them knew nothing of radiation and some even directly handled some of the radioactive debris lying around that was emitting as much as 15,000 rems per hour. The mistakes didn’t end there and, in the end, an estimated 60,000 people were exposed to high levels of radiation; of which, about 5,000 people died within five years of the explosion from problems stemming from radiation exposure. Note to self: when working at a nuclear reactor and there are a bagillion warning lights going off over the course of a few hours telling you to stop doing what you are doing, maybe you should think about not overriding said warnings and maybe, instead, stop what you are doing. I’m just throwing that out there.
Firefighters on scene at Chernobyl described the radiation as “tasting like metal” and feeling sensations of “pins and needles” all over their skin.
The Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe, caused by the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan, was rated as a level 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which is the highest rating. To date, the only other event given this rating was Chernobyl.
The 7 levels on the INES are: level 1- Anomaly 2- Incident 3- Serious incident 4- Accident with local consequences 5- Accident with wider consequences 6- Serious accident 7- Major accident.
Three Mile Island, the nuclear power plant accident near Middletown, Pennsylvania, is the most serious power plant accident in U.S. History. It led to no deaths and no injuries to plant workers or the nearby community. It was still rated a level 5 on the INES, even though it really should have just been rated a level 2. If you camped out at the plant at Three Mile Island during the accident that happened there in 1979, you’d have received only an additional 80 millirems of exposure during the duration of the accident. For reference, if you’ve ever had your spine x-rayed, you’d have received about double that just during the few seconds of the x-ray. If you were around ten miles away from the reactor during the accident, you’d have received about 8 millirems or about the equivalent ionizing radiation of eating 800 bananas. There are no known deaths/cancers/etc. that resulted from this event.
Public reaction to Three Mile Island went extremely overboard from what the actual event warranted. This was largely due to misinformation in the press; misunderstanding of ionizing radiation among the general public; and the fact that, not 12 days before it happened, the movie The China Syndrome was released. The plot of the movie was how unsafe nuclear reactors were and just about everyone in the movie but one of the main characters was trying to cover it up. The China Syndrome movie title’s concept comes from the premise that if an American nuclear reactor core were to melt down, it would melt through the center of the Earth to China. Getting around the fact that it is actually the Indian Ocean that is on the opposite side of the Earth from the U.S. and the obvious problems with the “melt through the Earth” premise, it couldn’t have been a better timed movie as far as free advertisement through the press due to the Three Mile Island incident. The movie was nominated for several academy awards, including best actress by Jane Fonda.
The top 5 most widely circulated newspapers in the world all come from Japan. This is followed by Bild in Germany, then News of the World, and The Sun in the United Kingdom.
The most widely circulated newspaper in the United States is USA Today. It ranks 11^th world wide, followed by The Wallstreet Journal at number 19, and then The New York Times at 27^th world wide.
The first news-worthy event, in our universe, comes in the form of the Big Bang. This all encompassing cosmological theory is the most widely accepted explanation of how our universe was formed and is backed by a considerable amount of evidence. Extremely simply put, it states that at about 10 -36 seconds after the Big Bang, our universe began to rapidly expand. This hot environment has been expanding and cooling ever since. The resulting four known fundamental forces then formed the reality we know it today. (We will not talk here about the many complexities that exist, when it comes to our fundamental forces. Just know there is no known accepted theory that links all four, and there are many many holes in the specifics of one: so don’t hold too fast to your seat, gravity might just take a turn for the worse soon with it being possibly not a fundamental force in and of itself, but a byproduct of something else.)
There are numerous theories about the causal factor of the Big Bang, and subsequently what the universe was like before 10-36 seconds after the incident. The universe before this time period does not follow with any known physics. There are also many theories as to how the universe will come to an end. Assuming our universe continues to unfold as current physics understands, and the limitations of the big bang are explained, there are a few accepted thought processes: there is “The Big Freeze”, in which the universe expands and cools to the point it dies out; “The Big Rip” in which the universe is ripped apart by dark energy; “The Big Crunch”, in which the universe is will retract back in on itself and return back to a singularity; and “The Heat Death of the Universe”, in which the universe ultimately will no longer be able to support any motion or life due to the temperature differences being such that no work can be performed (maximum entropy).
Arguably the first controversial news-worthy story involving the planet Earth comes in the form of what our atmosphere was made of. This is extremely important to science today given that the early atmosphere is what set the stage for how life formed on our planet. For the last several decades most scientists believed the Earth’s atmosphere in the early days was lacking in large amounts of oxygen, instead being filled with methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and other noxious gases. This misguided thought lead to many different theories about how life we know today could have evolved from this madness. On December 1^st of 2011, in the journal “Nature”, scientists showed that the early atmosphere of our planet was more like the atmosphere we have today. It was filled with oxygen-rich compounds like water, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. These new findings do not seem to run contrary to how we believe life evolved from anaerobic to aerobic organisms. Bruce Watson, one of the scientists involved in the research, states, “We can now say with some certainty that many scientists studying the origins of life on Earth simply picked the wrong atmosphere”.

References:

Where The Term Goodbye Comes From

Scott — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:38 +0000

Today I found out the origin of the term “Goodbye”.

“Goodbye” comes from the term “Godbwye” a contraction of the phrase “God be with ye”. Depending on the source, the contraction seems to have first popped up somewhere between 1565 and 1575. The first documented use of the “Godbwye” appeared in a letter English writer and scholar Gabriel Harvey wrote in 1573. In it, he wrote, “To requite your gallonde of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes.” As time went on, it is believed the phrase was influenced by terms like “good day” and “good evening”, transitioning then from “god be with ye” to god-b’wye to good-b’wy and finally ending in today’s blessing of goodbye.

Bonus Factoids:

In Spanish, there are several different ways to say goodbye: there is adiós, which literally translates “to god” but functionally means “good-bye”; hasta luego, literally meaning “Until then or next”; hasta la vista literally “until the sight” but functionally “see you later”.
“Hasta La Vista, Baby” was popularized in American culture by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid $15 million dollars for his role in T2. Having only 700 words of dialog in the movie, he was paid $21,429 for each word. That’s $85,716 for the phrase “Hasta la vista, baby”.
The “Judgment Day” in the movie was August 29, 1997. This is the anniversary of the first atomic bomb detonated by the Soviet Union in 1949.
The first nuclear bomb the Soviet Union detonated was RDS-1, also known as “first lightning”.
On January 28, 1573, the same year Gabriel Harvey wrote his letter referenced above, the Articles of Warsaw Confederation were signed. These articles sanctioned the freedom of religion for Poland. At the time, Poland was populated by Poles, Lithuanians, Russians, Germans, Georgians, and Jews. Poland, as a result, had a very religiously tolerant society. When the King died the year previous leaving the reform of their legal system up in the air, it was feared that the election of an unsuitable candidate might bring this religious tolerance to a halt. This would have been disastrous for the region at the time because Poland was situated between Moscow, Turkey, and the rest of Western Europe which were themselves being torn apart by religious conflicts. Refugees from all of Poland’s neighboring countries would seek the tolerance of Poland, thereby escaping persecution in their home countries. Cardinal Hozjusz called Poland at the time “a place of shelter for heretics”. The confederation then legalized this societal tolerance and allowed for the peaceful co-existence of all religious denominations.
Freedom of religion in the United States is provided for under the 1^st amendment to the US Constitution. The first amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” There are also 2 religious clauses to the first amendment. The establishment clause and the free exercise clause. They do not allow government to establish a national religion or show preference by the U.S. Government to one religion over another.
The 14^th amendment of the US Constitution guarantees religious civil rights and prohibits discrimination, including on the basis of religion, by securing “the equal protection of the laws” for every person.
On March 3^rd 1991 Rodney King was beaten by members of the Los Angeles police department. The acquittal of the police officers involved kicked off the “1992 South Central riots.
The same videocassette recording that shot the beating of Rodney King was used earlier that same day to record the film crew of the Terminator 2 movie while they were themselves filming the exterior of a bar for the opening scene of the movie.
On November 25, 1981, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed a “Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief”. This declaration recognized that the international community believes freedom of religion to be a fundamental human right. It is unfortunate, however, that they haven’t passed any legal ramifications for those who do not guarantee the right to freedom of religion.
A report by Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that approximately 2.2 billion people live in countries where persecution for religious reasons increased between 2006 and 2009.

References:

The Difference Between The UK, England, And Great Britain

Scott — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:55:11 +0000

Today I found out the difference between The United Kingdom, England, and Great Britain.

The actual name of the sovereign state we are talking about is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). The United Kingdom is made up of the countries England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The confusion of the terms seems to revolve around the term “country” and the political powers that are perceived based on that word. While the four countries that make up the UK are considered separate in the minds of locals, and in certain sporting events, their powers for local law and control are devolved from the UK. Think of the 50 states of the United States, while each state has their own set of laws, they all are still under the power of the federal government. In the case of the UK, it is somewhat similar, though certain responsibilities are also implied, like healthcare and education, that are delegated to three of the four countries. The responsibilities that are delegated differ from one country to the next. England is the only country in which the UK does not devolve any powers and instead it is legislated directly by the UK government. When it comes to international politics, it is the sovereign nation of the UK that is recognized and not any of the four constituent countries.

The term “Great Britain” refers to the land mass that comprises England, Scotland, and Wales. Something that aids in the confusion as to the difference between Great Britain and the UK is that the term is sometimes internationally used as a synonym for the UK. For instance, the UK’s Olympic team competes under the name “Great Britain” and the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) gives the UK the country codes of GB and GBR. This can be confusing given that the ISO also codes England, Scotland, and Wales as subdivision countries of the UK but Northern Ireland as a subdivision province. If you’re getting the impression that Northern Ireland is the red-headed stepchild of the UK, you may be right! (both figuratively and literally, if you believe the current statistics for redheaded populations that is)

The confusion over the definition of these four countries, in reference to the UK, is further muddied up in sporting competitions. There are several international sporting events, like the commonwealth games, and football competitions, in which each of the four has their own team, and do not compete under a unified national team. When competing under these conditions, their nations are referred to as “home nations”. Because each team is from a specific home country, it can lead some to think these countries have political autonomy as well. Given the inebriated thought processes attained during the enjoyment of these competitions, it’s not too hard to understand where this drunken confusion comes from.

If you’re curious when these unions between the countries that comprise the UK came about, it happened as follows: England and Wales were joined in 1536. Scotland and England were joined together in 1707, along with the previously joined Wales, to officially form the Kingdom of Great Britain. Ireland decided to join up in 1801, at which point the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. In 1922, however, many of the Southern counties of Ireland decided to remove themselves from the union and the UK changed their name to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

So in summary:

Great Britain = England, Scotland, and Wales
UK = England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (and the full name is the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”)
England = Just the part of the island that is England

Bonus Factoids:

The “Union Jack”, the flag of the UK was initially made by superimposing the Flag of England with the Flag of Scotland in 1606. When Ireland joined up in 1801, Saint Patrick’s Flag was added to the composition.
The first peoples of the UK were the Picts who inhabited Briton around 10,000 BC. Two centuries later, they were driven north to Scotland by the Celts who promptly took over. The Romans then conquered in 45 AD and ruled for several more centuries. From around 600AD to around 900AD several peoples known as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes began to populate and govern the area. They became known as Anglo-Saxons. Then between 900 and 1400 came the conquering Vikings, then Danish, and finally the Normans. After that, in 1485 Henry Tudor claimed the English crown and the rest of British rule is an incestuous line of Kings and Queens of the monarchy leading to that handsome Prince William Mountbatten-Windsor and his lovely wife Kate!
The United Kingdom ranks 28^th on the Human Development Index. This index is a comparative statistic that measures a countries “human development” based on factors like life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living, like income potential. Unfortunately for those Northern Ireland folks, their neighbors to the south who left the UK without them, living in the Republic of Ireland, rank 7th.
The top five countries on the Human Development Index are: 1- Norway 2- Australia 3- Netherlands 4- United States and 5- New Zealand. The bottom five countries for human development are: Chad, Mozambique, Burundi, Niger, and The Democratic Republic of Congo. So based on these statistics, you can assume you lost the ovarian lottery if you were born in Africa somewhere!
The United Kingdom has 14 overseas territories and 3 crown dependencies that do not make up part of the UK itself. Crown dependencies differ from territories in that they are the possessions of “The Crown”, and as such, sovereignty over them lies with the Queen (or King, as the case may be). The executive responsibilities for them are carried out by Her/His Majesty’s Government. The 14 overseas territories are under the sovereignty of UK itself, and not solely the ruling monarch.
As of July 9, 2011, there are 195 independent sovereign states in the world. This includes independent Taiwan. So if you’re Chinese, you might consider that there are only 194, but who’s counting anyway? The last country to gain recognition as an independent state was the Republic of South Sudan in July of 2011.
The UK does not have a single judicial system; instead, it has three separate systems. These systems are Northern Ireland law, Scots law, and English law. As you might expect, English law governs Wales as well. There are a few instances where there are laws that have jurisdiction throughout all of the UK, immigration law being one; further, employment law is recognized in the three countries of Great Britain proper. The UK has four separate educational systems, and four separate healthcare systems as a result of both being devolved to each separate country.
London is not only the capital of England, but is also the capital of the UK. The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh. The capital of Wales is Cardiff. Finally, the capital of Northern Ireland is Belfast.
The national anthem of the UK is “God Save the Queen”, though the lyrics are changed to “God Save the King” when the ruling monarch is a man. One can only imagine the confusion and tumult at sporting events directly after the death of the ruling monarch where the gender of the heir is different than that of their predecessor and some people have heard of the death and others haven’t.

References:

The Difference Between a Coffin and a Casket

Samantha — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:12:54 +0000

Today I found out the difference between a coffin and a casket.

The words coffin and casket are often used interchangeably to describe a box used to bury a dead body in. Although the general purpose of each is the same, there are small differences between the two.

The term coffin has been used to describe a container that holds dead bodies for burial since the early 16th century. The shape of a coffin typically resembles the shape of a body and has six or eight sides. It is wider at the top for the shoulders and gradually decreases in width toward the opposite end where the feet are placed (picture Dracula’s spider web covered coffin in all the scary movies). Depending on all the bells and whistles a person chooses to adorn a coffin with, the hexagonal or octagonal shape is considered to save wood for construction and can be cheaper than a casket.

On the other hand, the word casket was originally used to describe a box used to store jewelry and other small valuable items before coming to have an additional meaning somewhat synonymous with coffin around the mid-19th century. A casket is typically a four-sided rectangular box and, when used for burying people, often contains a split-lid for viewing purposes.

Interestingly, it is thought that the word casket was adopted as a substitute word for coffin because it was deemed less offensive, especially when morticians and undertakers started operating funeral parlors instead of mortuaries. In addition, the shape of a casket was thought to be less dismal because it did not depict the shape of a dead body. Given that they both are essentially just boxes and that both coffins and caskets can be customized in a variety of ways, include things such as jewels, engravings, pockets to hold pictures and trinkets for the deceased, and any other specialized details, the main difference between a coffin and a casket is essentially just the shape. Although, a casket may still refer to a jewelry box or the like and need not necessarily be referring to a box to bury a body in.

Bonus Factoids:

The word coffin is derived from the Greek word kophinos, meaning “basket”.
When a coffin is used to transport a deceased person, it can also be called a pall, a term that also refers to the cloth used to cover a coffin.
Coffins/caskets can cost up to $50,000 or more, depending on the bells and whistles a person wants to include. The external material from which the coffin or casket is constructed from, the workmanship, and the interior fabric are the main factors that influence the price. Coffins are most often made from wood or metal, and the quality of the material impacts the price. In addition, coffins can be inscribed with the name of the deceased or with messages from their friends and family. They can also be decorated with jewels or artwork and include internal pockets to hold personal items. Each detail increases the overall price of the casket.
While most coffins are made of wood or metal, they can also be made of other materials such as fiberglass. Some even include a glass cover which enables permanent viewing of the body. In the attempt to “go green”, recently more people have been interested in making coffins of natural materials such as bamboo or Banana leaf. The idea of the environmental-friendly bamboo coffin originated in China.
In 2000, casket sales reached their peak, only to experience a continuing decline since then, especially during the down-turned economy. People looking to save either sacrifice the bells and whistles of a high end casket or coffin, or choose to forgo a traditional burial in favor of cremation. Either way, in the past ten years, fewer and cheaper coffins have been sold and sales continue to decline, forcing casket and coffin makers to expand business into other areas.
The external details of a coffin, which may include handles, designs, crosses, symbols, etc. are called “fittings” or “coffin furniture”. The use and design of fabric on the inside of the coffin is called trimming the coffin.

Sources:

Origin of the Chinese Fire Drill

Daven — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:00:44 +0000

Today I found out the origin of the Chinese Fire Drill.

In World War I, British soldiers came up with the phrase “Chinese Landing” to describe a clumsy or bad landing. It should be noted that this wasn’t originally meant to imply Chinese citizens couldn’t land a plane well or anything of the sort; rather, it came from the fact that, in a bad landing, the soldiers would often use the phrase “one wing low” to described this. When said quickly, this somewhat resembled the Chinese language in sound to the British soldiers, hence, “Chinese Landing”. This later evolved into describing any clumsy or inept landing. Eventually, this spread to other phrases where anything done clumsily or ineptly was called a “Chinese X” where X is whatever the act was.

This phrasing also came to mean anything done in a confused or disorganized way. The origins of this are thought to be from the stark contrast between British and Chinese cultures where the British viewed many things the Chinese did as confusing and hard to understand from their cultural perspective. Thus, around the time of World War I, any fire drill that was done in a disorganized or confused manner was called a “Chinese Fire Drill” by British soldiers.

In terms of the car game, where everyone jumps out of the car like the car is on fire when it is at a stop; then runs around chaotically; and then hops back in, it is unknown when and where exactly this game became common. The first documented reference to this game, with the name “Chinese Fire Drill”, is from the early 1970s. There are, however, accounts from people who lived as far back as the 1940s who say this game and with the name “Chinese Fire Drill” was around back then. It is thought from this, considering there have been no accounts of the game with that name being around before the 1940s, that the name was brought back to America by soldiers fighting in WWII, who picked it up from British soldiers and at some point it got assigned to the car game, which was probably already around at that point, but either lacked a name or was under a different name.

Needless to say, this phraseology typically doesn’t sit well with Chinese citizens for obvious reasons and, for political correctness sake, most of these “Chinese X” phrases have disappeared, though some are still somewhat common in Britain.

Bonus Politically Incorrect Phrases:

Dutch Courage (also called “liquid courage”): This is courage derived from becoming intoxicated from alcohol. The first documented case of this idiom was in Edmund Waller’s Instructions to a Painter in 1665. ”The Dutch their wine, and all their brandy lose, Disarm’d of that from which their courage grows.” The origins of this term come from a Dutch doctor by the name of Franciscus Sylvius, who invented gin and prescribed it as a form of medication to British soldiers fighting in the 30 year war, particularly using it to calm the soldiers directly before battle. When they returned to England, the soldiers brought back gin with them and the phrase “Dutch Courage”.
Indian Summer: This one has a few distinct meanings. Most common is a period after the first frost or when the weather has turned cold, in late autumn, where the weather warms back up for a time before once again turning cold; second is the hottest period of summer, typically in July or August; third, is where something blooms uncharacteristically later in the summer.
Chinese Whispers (also known as Telephone when played as a game): Where someone tells one person something, then that person tells another person, and so on, with the story getting distorted as it goes along.
There an urban legend that states that the first usage of the phrase “Chinese Fire Drill” was during a British naval engine room fire drill. In this drill, British officers and Chinese officers were both part of the drill (why Chinese officers were serving aboard a British vessel is a mystery, but these sorts of urban legends can’t be bound by logic). In any event, soldiers were to form two bucket lines, one on the starboard side and one on the port side. The starboard side was to fill their buckets and pass them along to the engine room, where they would be dumped on the fire. The port side was then to fill their buckets with the water accumulating in the engine room from the starboard side line. Due to confusion in language between the Chinese soldiers and British soldiers, what actually supposedly ended up happening was that the crew from the starboard side would draw the water and then run over to the port side and dump it back into the ocean. At that point, everybody started running around doing this. I don’t know about you, but to me, that story sounds extremely plausible and is very likely to have been the true origin of the “Chinese Fire Drill” phrase.

Sources:

Sushi is Not Raw Fish

Daven — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:00:04 +0000

Today I found out sushi is not raw fish, that’s sashimi.

Sashimi is just sliced raw fish, sometimes dipped in sauces and sometimes served with sushi. Sushi is any food dish consisting of vinegared rice, usually served with some other toppings, but not always. It happens to often be served with various types of sea food, either cooked or raw, and perhaps even a mix of the two; but that tradition simply comes from the primary food staples of the locations where sushi originated (not Japan, by the way). Sushi can be served with just about any toppings or none at all.

The variety of sushi served with raw sea food has given rise to the notion that sushi is any dish served with raw fish. In fact though, sushi is more often than not served in the western world with fully cooked sea food, including: cooked imitation crab (California roll); smoked salmon (Seattle roll); grilled squid or octopus; fully cooked shrimp; and fully cooked clam. It is also often served with fried and battered sea food of varying types. There are also a variety of vegetarian sushi dishes, including the very popular maki (cucumber rolls).

Perhaps the reason sushi is so strongly thought of as “raw fish” in the western world is that, whatever the toppings, it is commonly served cold. Also, the general idea of raw fish isn’t exactly to the liking of most westerners conceptually, so that form of sushi stood out more when it was first introduced; giving rise to the notion that sushi was any dish that included raw fish.

The term sushi, literally means “it’s sour”, and comes from an ancient grammatical form that is no longer used in other contexts. The “sour” description comes from the ancient way of preparing sushi by fermentation of meat, generally sea food, packed in rice with salt used as a preservative. The vinegar produced from the fermenting rice ends up breaking down the fish meat into amino acids. This, in turn, results in a strong umami flavor, which is one of the five basic tastes the human tongue can detect. Once the meat was properly fermented, thus preserved, the rice would then be discarded and only the meat itself would be eaten. Basically, it was just a handy way to preserve meat before ice boxes and refrigerators.

Modern forms of sushi are not typically prepared in this way and the rice is now the main part of the meal. Around the Muromachi period (1336-1573 AD), they began adding vinegar, which aided in preserving the food and in improving the flavor. Eventually, this lead to the fermentation process being shortened and ultimately abandoned in favor of just eating it right away with the rice.

A few centuries later, osaka and sushi combined to form oshi-zushi. In this type of sushi, various types of sea food and rice are pressed using molds. This eventually led to the version of sushi created by Hanaya Yohei, in the 19th century, which most of the world thinks of as “sushi” today. In this form, the sushi can be prepared extremely quickly and eaten with one hand, making it one of the earliest forms of fast food.

Bonus Factoids:

Sashimi is considered a Japanese delicacy and is made from fresh, raw seafood that is sliced into thin, small pieces, which are then to be dipped in various sauces, such as soy sauce with wasabi paste. Each piece is typically about one inch wide by one and a half inches long and one fifth of an inch thick.
The word sashimi means “pierced body”. The word is thought to have derived from the fact that, traditionally, sashimi would have the fish tails or fins stuck to the meat itself, so you could identify what meat the fish came from. Alternatively, from the fact that as soon as the fish used for sashimi are caught, the brains are pierced to kill the fish without damaging the meat; this also minimizes lactic acid in the meat by killing the fish instantly, which allows the fish to store longer (as many as 10 days) without degrading in quality. Once the brain is pierced, the fish are immediately put in ice.
Sushi served rolled in dried sheets of seaweed is called makizushi.
In bowl form, sushi rice, with toppings scattered over it, is called chirashi-zushi.
Sushi comes from Southeast Asia, not Japan; it is still very popular in both Southeast Asia and Japan today. It is thought that it was introduced to Japan in the 7th century from China.
The name of the modern form of sushi called Edomae nigirizushi comes from the fact that it was originally made with freshly caught marine life from Edo Bay (Tokyo Bay).

Sources:

What R.S.V.P. Stands For

Daven — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:30:35 +0000

Today I found out what R.S.V.P. stands for, namely Répondez S’il Vous Plaît, which translates roughly as “please reply” or “reply if it pleases you”.

So how did R.S.V.P. make its way into being used for wedding invitations and the like? This dates all the way back to around the 11th century when French became the fashion among the elite of the English court. This continued in England for several hundred years. It was also the fashion in the United States, among high society, to use French as the language of refinement up until around the 19th century. From this, many such similarly themed French phrases and words made their way into English, another example being the word “etiquette” itself.

Ironically, the French themselves don’t usually use R.S.V.P. anymore, more typically using Prière de Répondre these days.

Bonus Factoids:

A new trend sweeping the invitation world is to not ask for an R.S.V.P., but rather put a “Regrets Only”, so the inviter will expect you unless you respond checking the “Regrets Only” box. If you don’t respond, they assume you are coming.
The choice to use periods following the letters in “R.S.V.P.” is somewhat a personal preference today, despite it being an abbreviation. Many guides say periods are necessary because it is an abbreviation, such as AP; others say you should not use them; and still others say it is personal preference. To further cloud the issue, some, like the Chicago Manual of Style, recommend only using periods if the letters are printed in all lower case, otherwise no periods.
Etiquette first showed up in English around the 18th century. It derives from the Old French: estiquette, meaning something to the effect of “label or ticket”. Estiquette in turn derives from the Old French: estechier, meaning “to attach or stick”. It is thought that the word “etiquette” came about thanks to King Louis XIV (Louis the Great) who had étiquettes passed out at his palace at Versailles. These étiquettes were basically just little cards that had various reminders written on them like “Ne marchez pas sur l’herbe” (keep off the grass) and other such rules of conduct at the palace.
The famed “Let them eat cake” saying often falsely attributed to Marie Antoinette, was actually referencing something the wife of Louis XIV, Maria-Thérèse, said, around 100 years before Marie Antoinette was born. The actual saying “let them eat cake” (Qu’ils mangent de la brioche) was first documented some time later by the political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his autobiography “Confessions”. At the time, Marie Antoinette was only 10 years old and living in Austria. In this autobiography, he was referencing a “great princess” who, when told the peasants had no bread, said “Well, let them eat brioche.” (brioche being a highly enriched bread). To read more on this and about the very sad story that was Marie Antoinette’s life. Go here: Marie Antoinette Never Said “Let Them Eat Cake”
Louis XIV had a reputation for being an extremely stinky person. As one Russian ambassador to France noted “His Majesty [Louis XIV] stunk like a wild animal.” King Louis XIV stench came from the fact that his physicians advised him to bathe as infrequently as possible to maintain good health. He also stated he found the the act of bathing disturbing. Because of this, he is said to have only bathed twice in his lifetime. If you’re interested in finding out why bathing became so unpopular in parts of medieval Europe, check this article out: Why Bathing was uncommon in Medieval Europe
Another in this “gruesome two-some” class among the aristocracy was Queen Isabel I of Spain who once confessed that she had taken a bath only twice in her lifetime, when she was first born and when she got married.

Sources:

The Bluetooth Standard is Named After a 10th Century Scandinavian King

Daven — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:06:57 +0000

Today I found out the Bluetooth standard is named after a 10th century Scandinavian king.

The man was Harald I of Denmark. “Bluetooth” is the English translation of “Blåtand”, which was an epithet of Harald I (Harald Blåtand Gormsson). Legend has it, he received this name due to being extremely fond of blueberries and consuming them so regularly and in such volume that they stained his teeth blue.

The Bluetooth standard was originally developed by Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson in 1994, working at Ericcson in Sweden. Because Bluetooth was meant to offer a set unified standard, replacing a variety of competing protocols, particularly the somewhat antiquated RS-232, they decided to name it after the 10th century king, Harald Blåtand Gormsson, who completed his father’s work of unifying the various Danish tribes into one Danish kingdom around 970. Although, he was only able to maintain this unification for a few years.

The name Bluetooth wasn’t originally necessarily meant to be the final name of the standard. When they first named it thus, it was just a code name for the technology. It ultimately ended up sticking though and became the official name of the standard.

The Bluetooth logo also derives from “Harald Blåtand”, with the long-branch Nordic runes for “H” and “B” comprising the design you see in the blue oval of the logo.

Bonus Factoids:

Although the wireless Bluetooth standard was developed to be ultra low power and short range, with proper directional antennas and focusing, researches have been able to achieve a range of a little over one mile with a standard Class 2 Bluetooth device which is supposed to only have a maximum range of around 30 feet.
Nearly 95% of all mobile phones have Bluetooth capabilities.
Because Bluetooth devices are now so prevalent and the standard itself has some security flaws, they have relatively recently become targets of attacks, such as the 2005 Lasco.A worm, which targeted mobile phones using the Symbian OS. Any of those devices with their Bluetooth enabled could replicate themselves to other Bluetooth enabled devices of the same type within range.
Also in 2005, thieves looking for expensive devices in cars would use their own Bluetooth enabled device to locate other Bluetooth enabled devices left in the cars. Once located, the thieves would then break into the cars and steal the devices.
Since 1998, the Bluetooth standard has been managed by Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) which is currently comprised of over 14,000 telecommunication companies across the globe, such as Ericsson, IBM, Toshiba, Intel, Nokia, etc.
Harald I of Denmark was the offspring of King Gorm the Old and Thyra Dannebod. The famed Jelling stones at Jelling church in Denmark were erected in honor of King Gorm and Thyra. The runes read: “King Harold bade these memorials to be made after Gorm, his father, and Thyra, his mother. The Harold who won the whole of Denmark and Norway and turned the Danes to Christianity.” These stones are particularly famous in Denmark due to being a symbol of when Denmark first became a nation state.
Harald I was able to maintain control of Norway for only a short time before losing to the Germans near Danevirke in 974, which subsequently saw him lose control of many of the tribes under his rule and saw the Germans re-take much of the land bordering Scandinavia and Germany.
Harald I and certain West Slavic tribes were able to drive out the Germans in 983. However, shortly thereafter, Harald I’s son, Swein, is thought to have led a rebellion against is father, which ultimately lead to the death of Harald I around 985-986.

Sources:

The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
Harold Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth Technology and Its Implications
5 Surprising Facts About Bluetooth
How Bluetooth Technology Works
The Jelling Stones
Harold Bluetooth
Bluetooth Devices, a History
RS-232
Image Source

Saying ‘Ahoy-Hoy’ was at One Time the Preferred Way to Answer the Phone

Daven — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 09:20:01 +0000

Today I found out saying “ahoy-hoy” was at one time the preferred way to answer the phone.

The very brief popularity of this telephone greeting stemmed from the fact the “ahoy-hoy” was Alexander Graham Bell’s preferred way to answer the phone. Ahoy-hoy derives from the term “ahoy”, which is generally associated with being a nautical term used for hailing ships. However, there is also significant evidence that it was popularly used as a way to more or less say “hello” in non-nautical situations. Further, “hoy” was commonly used as far back as the 14th century as a call to use while driving cattle. This precedes the first known instance of it being used in the nautical sense, attached with a leading ‘a’ sound (“a-hoy”).

The exact origins of the word “ahoy” aren’t known beyond that it stems from the Middle English exclamation “hoy!” The most popular theory as to the origin of “hoy” is that it derives from the Dutch word “hoi”, meaning “hello”. An alternate widely accepted theory states that it came from the Czech word “Ahoj”, also meaning something to the effect of “hello”. Yet another theory, albeit slightly less widely accepted, is that it stems from the Old Norse “heill”, which eventually gave rise to the Middle English “hail” and perhaps “hoy”.

“Ahoy-hoy” quickly got beat out in the U.S. and many other English speaking countries by “hello”, which was Thomas Edison’s favorite thing to say when answering the phone. The invention of the word hello is often credited to Thomas Edison, including on the popular BBC show QI (Quite Interesting), which is normally an exceptionally accurate show and which is unfortunately not aired in the U.S. In this case, though, QI got one wrong when they stated Edison invented the word “hello”.

In fact, the first documented case of the word “hello” being used as a greeting predates Thomas Edison, appearing in The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. Davey Crockett, which was written in 1833, about 14 years before Edison was born. The exact quote from the text is: “Said I, ‘Hello stranger! if you don’t take keer your boat will run away with you.’” Further, based on significant literary evidence, it would seem that by around the 1860s, “hello” had become an extremely popular greeting. This popularity also predates the invention of the commercially viable telephone device. In addition to that, it predates the first known instance of Edison writing the word “hello”, which was in a letter he wrote in 1877 to the president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company of Pittsburgh, where he suggested that using “hello” was the best way to start a telephone conversation.

Similar to Graham Bell’s reason for liking “ahoy hoy”, Edison liked “hello” as a telephone greeting because it was easily heard and distinguished from other words, even over long distance transmissions (for the time). As Edison stated, “hello” could be heard clearly on a transmission “ten to twenty feet away”. Edison originally tested this using a prototype of Graham Bell’s telephone system.

The word “hello” also has somewhat obscure origins, though many etymologists think it came from the English “hullo” or “hallo”, which derive from “hollo”, which was an exclamation to draw attention to something. This word, in turn, is thought to derive from “holla”, which meant “stop or cease”. Another slightly less popular theory is that “hello” ultimately derives from the Old English “hál béo þu”, meaning “Hale be thou”, which was more or less just a way to wish someone good health.

Bonus Factoids:

The standard responses to “ahoy”, when used in nautical terms, vary depending on who’s on the boat being hailed. If you have a commissioned officer aboard, “aye aye” is the correct response. If no officer is aboard, “no no” is the correct response. If a captain of a different ship is on board, the name of the ship is the proper response. Finally, if an admiral is aboard the vessel, the proper response is “flag”.
“Ahoy hoy” has seen something of a resurgence in the last couple decades thanks to the fact that Mr. Burns on The Simpsons, uses it as his standard greeting when answering the phone.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first written record of the word “ahoy” comes from the Wonderful Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, written in the 1750s: “Ho! The house ahoy! What cheer!” “Ahoy!”
Because “hello” quickly usurped “ahoy hoy”, by 1889, telephone operators became known as “hello-girls”.
The first documented use of the word “hollo” is thought to be from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, written in 1798: “And the good south wind still blew behind, But no sweet bird did follow, Nor any day for food or play Came to the mariners’ hollo!”
While Alexander Graham Bell didn’t technically develop the first telephone-like device, he was the first to create a commercially viable telephone device, which drastically improved on many existing devices of the day, which is why he is credited as being the inventor of the telephone, even though similar devices existed when he invented his contraption.
Instead of saying the German equivalent of “hello”, it is common in Germany to simply answer the phone by stating your last name.

Sources:

The Origin of the Term “Going Postal”

Scott — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:22:13 +0000

Today I found out where the term “Going Postal” came from.

It seems to be common knowledge that if you have a co-worker who appears they might take out a 9mm handgun and play target practice with all the panicking office help, you would say, “he’s about to go postal!” It also seems like common sense then, that this could be because postal workers are a little on edge, that they will fly off the handle and kill everyone in sight if they don’t get their 15 min. smoke break. It turns out, that’s not really the case, but who’s to let facts get in the way of a good established term and public perception?

The first known publication of the term “Going Postal” was in the St. Petersburg Times on December 17, 1993. In his article Violence at work tied to loss of esteem, Karl Vick stated; “The symposium was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, which has seen so many outbursts that in some circles excessive stress is known as ‘going postal…”

Later that month, on December 31^st, the Los Angeles Times published an article The year in review, 1993 in which they stated; “Unlike the more deadly mass shootings around the nation, which have lent a new term to the language, referring to shooting up the office as “going postal,…” It isn’t known who exactly started the phrase “going postal” but what is clear is that it was already a common phrase among Americans at that time.

The stereotype was undoubtedly due to several incidents involving postal workers from 1986 to 1993. On August 20, 1986 postman Patrick Sherrill walked into his workplace, shot and killed 14 co-workers and injured 6 more before shooting himself in the head. On October 10, 1991 a former US postal worker, Joseph Harris, killed two employees at a post office in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Then, on November 14^th of that same year, after being fired, Thomas Mcilvane killed 4 people and then himself at a Royal Oak, Michigan post office. In a terrible coincidence, on May 6^th 1993, two separate shootings took place. The first one was at a post office in Dearborn, Michigan, where Lawrence Jasion killed one person and wounded three before killing himself. Within a few hours of that, in Dana Point, California, Mark Richard Hilbun killed his mother, and then shot two postal workers.

It isn’t hard to see from these shootings where the public might get the idea that the postal service had some issues; the media was sure to follow. The postal service itself wasn’t taking a blind eye to the problem and in 1993 they created eighty five “Workplace Environment Analysts” positions. The positions were to help with violence prevention and workplace improvement.

Further, in 2000, the Postmaster General commissioned The National Center On Addiction And Substance Abuse for recommendations on how the Postal Service could provide their workers with the safest possible work environment. This report provided some interesting findings. It found that “Postal workers are no more likely to physically assault, sexually harass, or verbally abuse their coworkers than employees in the national workforce.” And that “Postal employees are only a third as likely as those in the national workforce to be victims of homicide at work.”

This might seem like a win for the Postal Service, but the report also showed some glaring problems. It found that Postal Workers were six times more likely to believe they were in danger from other co-workers; that Postal Workers were less likely to believe their employer would take action against violence by non-employees; and that they were more likely to fear being attacked at work. The most astonishing finding was that workers were more likely to agree that managers and supervisors try to provoke employees to violence. Due to the overwhelming negative viewpoint of these workers, despite the facts, it would seem the postal service had some very poor morale.

So while the postal service itself states that there is no evidence to suggest that their workers are more violent than others, American slang took a different view. We now have a very convenient term to use when we see a crazy angry person!

Bonus Factoids:

Further postal service incidents occurred twice in 2006 where postal workers gave in to the urge to shoot their fellow workmates. On January 30^th, Jennifer San Marco killed six postal employees before committing suicide. Then, on April 4^th, Grant Gallaher murdered his supervisor in the parking lot of their post office, reportedly because he couldn’t find the postmaster to complain about said supervisor, so he felt shooting her was the next best option.
Of the 6,719 workplace homicides from 1992 to 1998, only 16 were postal employees related.
Workers in the retail trade are eight times likelier than postal employees to be victims of homicide at work while taxi drivers are 150 times likelier. “Going Taxi Driver” just doesn’t quite have the same ring I suppose.
Benjamin Franklin was the first Postmaster General.
Peach Springs, AZ, Post Office has walk-in freezers for food destined for delivery to the bottom of the Grand Canyon by mule train.
Clinton is the most common Post Office name; madison is the second; and Franklin and Washington are tied for third.
The Postal Service has a larger retail network than McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart combined (in US).
There are more than 42,000 ZIP codes in the United States
Once the ZIP code system was put in place, the U.S. Postal Service only required that bulk mailers use the ZIP codes, though they wanted everyone to use them. The Postal Service struggled, in the beginning, to get the general public to start using the zip codes. They eventually more or less decided to give up on convincing adults and instead they created a cartoon character “Mr. ZIP” in order to try to get kids to start using ZIP codes. They figured that the kids would then encourage parents to use the ZIP codes when they saw their parents leaving the ZIP codes out on mail. Further, when the kids grew older, they would teach their kids to use ZIP codes.
Mr. ZIP was based on a design by Howard Wilcox, who was the son of a letter carrier. This was a design done for a New York bank that was a child-like sketch of a postman delivering a letter. After AT&T acquired the rights to the design, they made it available to the Postal Service to use at no cost. The Postal Service then made a few minor modifications and Mr. ZIP was born.
The term “ZIP code” was originally registered as a servicemark, which is a type of trademark, by the U.S. Postal Service, but the registration has since expired allowing companies like UPS and FedEx to use the term freely.
You can actually print the Postnet barcode directly onto your mail piece to make it slightly easier for the Postal Service to sort your mail (mainly skipping the step where they have to scan your mail and print the barcode on it). Many word-processing programs, such as Microsoft Word, include a feature for doing this.
Before the 1970s, the United States Postal Service (USPS) was named the United States Post Office Department (USPOD).
Interestingly, the ZIP code system was first introduced because the Postal Service was beginning to be overwhelmed with the volume of mail they needed to process in a timely manner, most of which originally was processed by hand. The ZIP code system made a handy way to increase efficiency in that way. However, only a few years after the ZIP code system was introduced in the 1960s, the Postal Service began using the MLOCR system for automatic sorting. Given the address, even without the ZIP code, the MLOCR system is almost always perfectly capable of assigning the ZIP+4 code to the address, with very little mail needing to be human-read to determine the correct address/ZIP code. So in most cases, including the ZIP or ZIP+4 code with the written address doesn’t really increase mail efficiency much at all as the Postal Service’s initial scanning system can come up with those numbers for your written address on its own.
The lowest ZIP Code is 00501 in Holtsville, NY. The highest ZIP Code is 99950 in Ketchikan, AK.
The easiest ZIP Code to remember is 12345, a unique ZIP Code for General Electric in Schenectady, NY.
The longest regular rural route is Route 2 in Gridley, KS. The carrier travels 182.8 miles daily and delivers to 258 boxes. The shortest rural delivery route is Route 42 in Henderson, NV. The carrier travels 2.9 miles daily and delivers to 952 boxes.

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