Did You Know...

Did you know that the Frenchman, Frederic Bartholdi, who was resposible for the concept of the Statue of Liberty, originally wanted to place it at the entrance to the Suez Canal, on the Mediterranean end. Except it would be an Arabian woman with a veil holding up the torch and would double as a lighthouse. But the Egyptian government went bankrupt in 1869 and Bartholdi ended up in the US. He altered his idea, and it became an "American" woman holding the torch.

I didn't know that.

Did you know that some folks believe that the stones on which the 10 Commandments are etched are in a monastary in Axum, Ethiopia, guarded by a lone monk whom no one has ever seen?
When I was a lad, I hitchhiked through Ethiopia, and I was in Axum. But I didn't know that story.
Tonight, I googled Axum, Ethiopia, and also discovered that the world as we know it will end between 2006 and 2012.

There are more people who speak English in India than any other country.

I can source this story as being from an interview on NPR a week or so ago with an author of a book on George Washington. I must admit that I am a little skeptical, but here goes:

In 1777, when the Revolutionary War was raging, 7 wounded colonialists were left on a battle field in PA. The Brits and the (German) Hessians executed them and, in fact, with their swords made sieves out of their bodies.

Washington decreed that never would the colonial forces behave in such a barbaric fashion.

It came to pass that, in a later engagement, 900 Hessians were captured. The colonial army marched several hundred of them to the border with Maryland, under guard. There they gave them provisions and told them to keep marching, without any guards, to what is now Charlottesville, Virginia, and to camp in what is now Johnboy's back yard.

Evidently they all showed up, and hung around here until the war ended.

25% of them stayed after the war ended. And they became (paraphrasing a bit) "Former enemies of the revolution...an army of settlers...and brothers-in-laws of the people they had fought against."

Cool story, eh?

oh cool! i often come across something like that that i want to post somewhere, but i never know where.

so, bookmarking. now just hope that i'll remember this thread next time round..

Did you know that more people made money mining miners than miners made mining gold?

Speaking of gold, John of Virginia. All that has ever been mined is still around somewhere.

That doesn't surprise me, I reckon.

Yoru 2nd point eludes me.

Well, RJB, That is why gold is so valuable, Virginia. It never corrodes or tarnished like silver.

The Texas Lotto odds of winning are once every 700 years per regular player.

Before the US Civil War Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War.
In that position he started the US Camel Corps in the Southwest.

bookmarking

All of this is news to me! :wink:

Did you know that the universal aggression inhibitor is a handshake or a smile?

Could be, Letty. I remember hearing that the "purpose" of the handshake was to demonstrate that you didn't have a knife in your right hand, tucked behind your back. I'm left-handed, though. So watch out for me.

I learned this quite a while ago but it seems there are some people who still don't know it. You cannot drink Canada dry.

Georgia Tech got about a million dollars from the Pentagon
to develop a radar system to identify people by their way of walking.

I wonder if there really is a Ministry of Silly Walks?

Did you know that the closest genetic link to the hippopotamus is the whale?

Someone told me recently that the word 'gullible' is not in the dictionary. I wonder if that's true.

He's just gonna keep doin that till someone looks it up.

It would take someone who's awfully gullible to actually do that, wouldn't it, George?