-In the theory that postulates the Moon as the result of the collision of a now non-existant planet with the Earth, said planet is called Thea, as Thea was the mother of Selene in Greek Mythology, and Selene is the actual name of the Moon (hence why "Moon Aliens" are called "Selenites").
I read somewhere that all of the moons of various planets are named after the mortal lovers of the Roman gods the planets are named for.
Including Ganymede.
I'm not sure if it's true all the way through, but it bears investigating...
...well, maybe not all of them.
-Bone forensics on Roman corpses have shown that lead poisoning was rampart among the nobility, due to the use of said material in plates and cups.
You'd get minimal dermal/ingestion exposure from a lead plate. However, lead was widely used in the old plumbing that only nobles could afford -- the symbol for lead, Pb, is derived from the Latin "plumbum." Moving water, passing through lead pipes, would certainly accumulate sufficient lead to eventually induce cognitive impairment and/or madness in a decent fraction of the people who drank such water regularly.
I read somewhere that all of the moons of various planets are named after the mortal lovers of the Roman gods the planets are named for.
More typically those gods' offspring -- e.g., Triton and Nereid, as the moons of Neptune.
Yeah, I guess it was just Jupiter with the lovers.
I read somewhere that all of the moons of various planets are named after the mortal lovers of the Roman gods the planets are named for.More typically those gods' offspring -- e.g., Triton and Nereid, as the moons of Neptune.
The first moons of Saturn to be discovered were named after the Titans of Greek myths. Once they ran out of Titans, they started naming the moons after giants from other cultures' myths, beginning with Norse Ice Giants.
The moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare, including Ariel, Oberon, Miranda, Setebos, etc.
-Bone forensics on Roman corpses have shown that lead poisoning was rampart among the nobility, due to the use of said material in plates and cups.You'd get minimal dermal/ingestion exposure from a lead plate. However, lead was widely used in the old plumbing that only nobles could afford -- the symbol for lead, Pb, is derived from the Latin "plumbum." Moving water, passing through lead pipes, would certainly accumulate sufficient lead to eventually induce cognitive impairment and/or madness in a decent fraction of the people who drank such water regularly.
I blame the plates. Because romans liked to tap spring water, and it was notoriously hard water. A layer of sinter would build up on the pipes rather quickly. On the aquaducts people actually mined the stuff and used it for headstones.
I read somewhere that all of the moons of various planets are named after the mortal lovers of the Roman gods the planets are named for.More typically those gods' offspring -- e.g., Triton and Nereid, as the moons of Neptune.The first moons of Saturn to be discovered were named after the Titans of Greek myths. Once they ran out of Titans, they started naming the moons after giants from other cultures' myths, beginning with Norse Ice Giants.
The moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare, including Ariel, Oberon, Miranda, Setebos, etc.
You know, like, nevermind.
grumble grumble F#~$ing moons grumble
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-In the theory that postulates the Moon as the result of the collision of a now non-existant planet with the Earth, said planet is called Thea, as Thea was the mother of Selene in Greek Mythology, and Selene is the actual name of the Moon (hence why "Moon Aliens" are called "Selenites").
And here I always thought it was Luna. Latin for Moon.
The first moons of Saturn to be discovered were named after the Titans of Greek myths. Once they ran out of Titans, they started naming the moons after giants from other cultures' myths, beginning with Norse Ice Giants.
The moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare, including Ariel, Oberon, Miranda, Setebos, etc.
Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, are named after the god's pet war dogs.
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Fear and Terror?? Were dogs?
"They were sons of the god Ares, who accompanied their father into battle, driving his chariot and spreading fear in their wake. As sons of Aphrodite, goddess of love, the twins also represented the fear of loss.In classical art the two were usually represented as youths. Phobos was sometimes depicted with a lion or lion-like head."
In classical art the two were usually represented as youths.
Why did I think they were dogs? Meseems it's time for me to re-read The Iliad -- I think there's a reference to them in there somewhere. Anyway, if kids, that ties in with the whole moons of Neptune thing, too.
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{completely straight-faced} Uranus is more than thirty thousand miles wide.
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And here I always thought it was Luna. Latin for Moon.
-In the theory that postulates the Moon as the result of the collision of a now non-existant planet with the Earth, said planet is called Thea, as Thea was the mother of Selene in Greek Mythology, and Selene is the actual name of the Moon (hence why "Moon Aliens" are called "Selenites").
Luna is also correct, although the name Selene is used as the "baseline", since in all Romance languages (Castillian, French, Italian, etc), "Luna" is used as the generic "Moon". So Selene, which is the Greek name of the lunar goddess (Luna was, in turn, the Roman version of Selene), is generally accepted as the official name of the Moon.
More Did-you-Knows:
-Brazil got its name from a type of tree that the Portuguese first encountered when they got there, called "brasil". The term "brasil" itself comes from the Portuguese/Castillian "Brasa" (Ember), because the wood was used to make red dye.
-The Spanish city of Barcelona got its name from Hamilcar Barca (Hannibal's father), who founded it some centuries BC.
-When Mansa Musa of Mali (a powerful west-african empire during the Middle Ages) took his pilgrimage to Mecca in the XIV century, reccords detail that he was accompained by more than 60,000 men, as well as 12,000 additional slaves carrying a gold bar each, as well as dozens of camels loaded with hundreds of pounds of gold dust. During his pass through Cairo, Medina and Mecca, he gave away so much gold that inflation skyrocketted in the entire region, causing a widespread crisis that was only fixed when he bought all the gold of Cairo, a decade later, at the highest interest rates. The effects of his actions sent shockwaves all across the known world, with reccords from England to Persia showing a volatility in the gold markets that lasted for decades. Now that's how you bling. He also built a new mosque for every Friday that his journey lasted (most of which still stand).
{completely straight-faced} Uranus is more than thirty thousand miles wide.
I'd hit that.
{completely straight-faced} Uranus is more than thirty thousand miles wide.
but Uranus can swallow Pluto.
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In classical art the two were usually represented as youths.Why did I think they were dogs? Meseems it's time for me to re-read The Iliad -- I think there's a reference to them in there somewhere. Anyway, if kids, that ties in with the whole moons of Neptune thing, too.
Not sure. It has been so long since I delved into the Iliad there might in fact be something of that nature in there. There are so many different legends and variations thereof it is hard to keep track. At least for me. Heck I can't figure out if their sister Eris is Love or Hate. Depends on which myth you look at.
-The name of the flying city in Jonathan Swift's famous book Gulliver's Travels, Laputa, means "The Whore" in Castillian,
That's interesting.
Laputa is definitely my favorite Miyazaki film.
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Heck I can't figure out if their sister Eris is Love or Hate.
Neither! Eris is DISCORD!
I didn't know that, but I did notice that there is this one hummingbird, a real bizitch, who hangs out by the feeder and divebombs all of the other hummingbirds when they try to eat.
She's real mean.
I didn't know that, but I did notice that there is this one hummingbird, a real bizitch, who hangs out by the feeder and divebombs all of the other hummingbirds when they try to eat.
She's real mean.
My cockatiel used to dive bomb my labrador. Hysterical. The dog was scared of the bird.
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Yeah, birds are evil bastards.
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(quoting a friend:) "Seals are just dog mermaids."
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A duck can't walk without bobbing its head.The word you are looking for is strut.
I have that same problem.
--Chinese sailors had gotten as far west as modern day Kenya and Jedda in Saudi Arabia before an imperial edict ended it. That same edict made it so that anyone caught building a ship with more than two masts faced the death penalty. Before that, chinese ships were up to as much as five times larger than those used by the west.
Crazy isn't it? Imagine how different history might be if East Africa, Australia and the west coast of North America had been colonized by Chinese.
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Crazy isn't it? Imagine how different history might be if East Africa, Australia and the west coast of North America had been colonized by Chinese.
--Chinese sailors had gotten as far west as modern day Kenya and Jedda in Saudi Arabia before an imperial edict ended it. That same edict made it so that anyone caught building a ship with more than two masts faced the death penalty. Before that, chinese ships were up to as much as five times larger than those used by the west.
Rumors are that they went much farther than East Africa.
Crazy isn't it? Imagine how different history might be if East Africa, Australia and the west coast of North America had been colonized by Chinese.
--Chinese sailors had gotten as far west as modern day Kenya and Jedda in Saudi Arabia before an imperial edict ended it. That same edict made it so that anyone caught building a ship with more than two masts faced the death penalty. Before that, chinese ships were up to as much as five times larger than those used by the west.
Columbus would have been so much more confused about where he was when he arrived in the New World.
He originally thought that Hispaniola was between Japan and Taiwan (where Okinawa is in reality). Then he thought that Cuba was a peninsula sticking off of either Guangdong or Vietnam. Finally he was trying to find the Straits of Malacca in Guatemala and Costa Rica before he realized he was not in Asia. Imagine if he had met people with Chinese products and even speaking Chinese.
Rumors are that they went much farther than East Africa.
Do go on.
My understanding is that the Americas connection is largely conjecture without a strong historical basis, but that east African and Australia was basically confirmed. Do you imagine they went inland in Africa? Or sailed around the Cape or something?| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Nitpicking is the pastime of pointing out minor flaws or mistakes. The term is always used in a negative light. The term comes from the intense concentration and careful attention to detail required when nitpicking (searching for the eggs of lice, known as nits).
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Rumors are that they went much farther than East Africa.Do go on.
My understanding is that the Americas connection is largely conjecture without a strong historical basis, but that east African and Australia was basically confirmed. Do you imagine they went inland in Africa? Or sailed around the Cape or something?
Exactly what I heard, hence rumors. They might have made it around the cape. They might have gone west as well as east and visited Alaska and the pacific north-west. No proof that shows anything other than a maybe. We know the trips happened. That they made it quite far and that the ships were capable of going farther. We have nothing else with which to go on. Ships ballast that could have come from them but most likely can centuries later ect...
On one of the voyages, they were given a giraffe as tribute. When they got it back to the Emperor he called it a unicorn. It doesn't survive long. A few years later, the new Emperor declares the skeleton a fake. nearly all of the records for the voyages are destroyed because they are considered to be nothing more than fanciful tales and have no place in the neo-confucianist state.Crazy isn't it? Imagine how different history might be if East Africa, Australia and the west coast of North America had been colonized by Chinese.
--Chinese sailors had gotten as far west as modern day Kenya and Jedda in Saudi Arabia before an imperial edict ended it. That same edict made it so that anyone caught building a ship with more than two masts faced the death penalty. Before that, chinese ships were up to as much as five times larger than those used by the west.
They didn't just unilaterally decide to call it a unicorn though. A qilin, which is translated in the english as unicorn for reasons surpassing my understanding is said to have the horns and hooves of a deer, the scales and face of a dragon and the chest of a lion.
You can almost see how the Chinese thought that the giraffe was one, assuming they interpreted the spots as scales.
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Elephants are the only mammal that can't jump.Manatee, whale, dolphin...
(Though to be fair, I suppose land mammal was implied)
Nitpicking is the pastime of pointing out minor flaws or mistakes. The term is always used in a negative light. The term comes from the intense concentration and careful attention to detail required when nitpicking (searching for the eggs of lice, known as nits).
Welcome to the club.
I'm filthy...pick my nits!
Please?