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| Random facts of the day; Off topic, definitely. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 15 2011, 09:26 AM (288 Views) | |
| tAmazingHoosier | Sep 15 2011, 09:26 AM Post #1 |
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Coach
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Jim Rome is in Blink 182's video "What's My Age Again?" at the 2:04 mark. This was wayyy before I found out who Jim Rome was, and damn the day that I did find out. Whose more annoying, him, or Stephen A Smith? Anywho, I love random facts and such, and I believe they're healthy for our noggins....... sooooo fire away! I'm sure I'll post here randomly as I often do. (Damn shift work) |
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| tAmazingHoosier | Sep 15 2011, 09:29 AM Post #2 |
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Coach
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Statues with war veterans on horses: A.) If the horse is up on its hind legs (2 in the air), the person died in battle. B.) If the horse has ONE leg up, the person was wounded in battle. C.) If the horse is completely grounded, the person died of natural causes. |
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| eelbor | Sep 15 2011, 10:06 AM Post #3 |
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Zen Master
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Not so fast. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1093/in-statues-does-the-number-of-feet-the-horse-has-off-the-ground-indicate-the-fate-of-the-rider A Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's Storehouse of Human Knowledge In statues, does the number of feet the horse has off the ground indicate the fate of the rider? October 6, 1989 Dear Cecil: What's the meaning of the number of feet the horse has off the ground in statues of war heroes? I recall hearing one foot off meant the person was injured and recovered while two feet meant he was fatally wounded. — Laury Hutt, Baltimore Cecil replies: Your columnist confesses he went into this figuring it was a crock. Your columnist goes into pretty much everything figuring it's a crock, for the obvious reason that when you consider most popular beliefs, the percentages are on your side. However, it's not like I wasn't willing to be convinced. First we reviewed the literature. This consisted of looking at tourist guidebooks, which, as far as I can tell, are the main perpetuators of this yarn. Here's a typical version from one such guidebook, Hands On Chicago (1987), by Mark Frazel and Kenan Heise: "At Sheridan Road and Belmont Avenue, the statue of [General Philip H.] Sheridan beckons troops to battle. The horse General Sheridan rides is named Winchester … Winchester's raised leg symbolizes his rider was wounded in battle (the legs of [General Ulysses S.] Grant's horse [as seen in another Chicago statue] are on the ground, meaning he was not wounded)." The book makes no mention of what two legs in the air means, but many people seem to think it indicates the rider died in battle. Next I scoured texts on sculpture for any indication that sculptors actually used such a code. In vain. Not that I was exactly shocked, but one must be thorough. A historian for the U.S. Army Center of Military History also dismissed the story as a myth. We then got down to the guts of the investigation. I got photos of 18 equestrian statues featuring historical figures (Napoleon, George Washington, etc.) in cities ranging from Chicago to Leningrad (well, that's what it was when I looked this up — now it's St. Petersburg). I then checked to see whether the individuals depicted had been wounded or killed. This involved some guesswork. Does getting grazed by a bullet count as a wound? If the guy was assassinated, does that mean he was killed in action? Does it count the same if the horse has both front feet off the ground versus having one front foot and one back foot? I wrestled with these questions late into the night. Giving the code the benefit of the doubt, I determined as follows: Code corresponds with subject's fate: 8 Doesn't correspond: 8 Not enough information to tell: 2 Significantly, in the two equestrian statues I turned up by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of the most famous sculptors of his day and someone who surely would have respected a code had there been one, I found that one piece did correspond with the code and one didn't. Granted, in this world of doubt and pain, one can be certain of nothing. But I say the code is BS. The Teeming Millions say neigh Dear Cecil: Recently you scoffed at the idea that in equestrian statues of war heroes, the number of feet the horse has raised indicates whether the rider was killed or wounded in battle. You are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! There is at least one place in this great nation of ours where the horse code holds true, namely that most hallowed of Civil War battle sites, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At Gettysburg, a statue that has all four of the horse's hooves on the ground means that the rider survived the battle without a scratch. One foot raised means the person was wounded but survived, and both forelegs raised indicates that the man was killed at Gettysburg. Obviously you are an imposter — the real Cecil (a true American) would of course have known this. I advise you to turn yourself in at once. — Theodore S. Shouse, Washington, D.C. Cecil replies: Just goes to show you, Theodore, there's good in all of us, even a zit like yourself. You've undoubtedly pinpointed the origin of the horse-statue myth. Others have told me they also heard it first at Gettysburg. Turning to Gettysburg: The Complete Pictorial of Battlefield Monuments by D. Scott Hartwig and Ann Marie Hartwig (1988), we find photos of six freestanding horse statues (478 monuments and memorials are pictured all told). Sure enough, all six conform to the code you describe, except that the horse of General John F. Reynolds, who was killed at Gettysburg, has one foreleg and one hind leg raised, not both forelegs. Does this mean there really is a code? Nah, it's just coincidence. You'd hardly invent a code to cover a lousy six statues — a code, moreover, that seems calculated to rile the family and friends of many of the depicted heroes. The horse in the statue of General John Sedgwick, for example, has all four feet on the ground. Sedgwick was killed in action, but at Spotsylvania, not Gettysburg. We're supposed to believe Sedgwick was denied his sculptural Purple Heart because he died in the wrong battle? Tell me another one. Further inquiries have turned up nothing to corroborate the existence of a code. Expunge it from your mind. — Cecil Adams |
![]() "Liberal, shmiberal. That should be a new word. Shmiberal: one who is assumed liberal, just because he's a professional whiner in the newspaper. If you'll read the subtext for many of those old strips, you'll find the heart of an old-fashioned Libertarian. And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners." - Berkeley Breathed Meat is Murder. Sweet, delicious murder. | |
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| tAmazingHoosier | Sep 15 2011, 11:38 AM Post #4 |
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Coach
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Eh, listen to some historical creep or go with what most think..... I'm pretty sure the more modern statue's follow the code, as I've heard others agree to this outside of myself. I'm sure if you were really a douche and had no life that you could find 1,000 statues in the U.S. it doesn't hold true on. I guess I should have said on "American War" statues, to be more precise. |
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| eelbor | Sep 15 2011, 01:50 PM Post #5 |
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Zen Master
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he is not a historical creep. Cecil from the straight dope is the ultimate answer guy to any question you might have. He has even explained why asparagus makes your piss stink. A Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's Storehouse of Human Knowledge Why does asparagus make your pee smell funny? August 30, 1985 Dear Cecil: My faith in you remains unshaken and my respect for the sagacity of your judgment undiminished. However, I am afraid that, as Mitzi Malone might say, your interlocutors have gotten pretty weenie. What you need are some good questions, such as the following: Why does my urine smell funny after I've eaten asparagus? F.K., Dallas, Texas Cecil replies: I've probably been asked this question a dozen times since I started this job. The first ten times I dealt with it as you might expect. I burned the letter, had the room fumigated, and prayed for the writer's immortal soul. This week, however, I got the question twice in the same mail, leading me to think this is something the Teeming Millions truly yearn to know, God help us. So I give up. Here's the story: Many have noted the peculiar effect of certain products on human urine. For example, Benjamin Franklin, in a wide-ranging discussion of bodily discharges, once noted, "a few stems of asparagus eaten shall give our urine a disagreeable odor; and a pill of turpentine no bigger than a pea shall bestow upon it the pleasing smell of violets." It's said that in a venerable British men's club there is a sign reading "DURING THE ASPARAGUS SEASON MEMBERS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO RELIEVE THEMSELVES IN THE HATSTAND." Serious scientific research in this field dates back to 1891, when M. Nencki tentatively identified a compound known as methanethiol as the culprit. The odor appears within an hour after eating just a few spears of the offending vegetable. According to Allison and McWhirter (1956), the ability to produce the odor is controlled by a single autosomal (i.e., non-sex-related) dominant gene. In a sample of 115 persons, 46 were rendered fragrant by asparagus and 63 weren't. (This leaves 6 unaccounted for. Urology evidently is an inexact science.) In 1975 Robert H. White, then with the chemistry department at the University of California at San Diego, found that the odor-causing chemical wasn't methanethiol after all. Instead, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry — maybe it's just pee, one imagines Bob thinking, but by God we're going to get to the bottom of this — he found that the aroma was in fact caused by several S-methyl thioesters, specifically S-methyl thioacrylate and S-methyl 3-(methylthio)thiopropionate. (Thioesters are compounds that result from the reaction of an acid with a sulfur-containing alcohol. They tend to be smelly.) I know you're very interested and are following me closely, F., so I'm going to give you the exact chemical formulation for these chemicals, in case somebody asks you at some fancy social soiree. The thioacrylate recipe is: CH2=CHC(=O)SCH3 The thiopropionate is: CH3SCH2CH2C(=O)SCH3 We're faking the above somewhat given the limitations of the ASCII character set, but I know you're grateful for whatever information we can provide. Anyway, says Bob, the "metabolic origin [of the compounds — i.e., how and why they end up in the urine] remains an open question." I can't exactly say research is continuing, but if anything develops I'll let you know. Cecil Adams |
![]() "Liberal, shmiberal. That should be a new word. Shmiberal: one who is assumed liberal, just because he's a professional whiner in the newspaper. If you'll read the subtext for many of those old strips, you'll find the heart of an old-fashioned Libertarian. And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners." - Berkeley Breathed Meat is Murder. Sweet, delicious murder. | |
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| brumdog44 | Sep 15 2011, 08:27 PM Post #6 |
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The guy picked last in gym class
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No, listen to reality and not myths passed down. Horse's hooves have nothing to do with how a person died. http://www.snopes.com/military/statue.asp |
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| BoilerFan24 | Sep 15 2011, 10:59 PM Post #7 |
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Senior
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I look forward to tomorrow's random myth of the day. |
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| tAmazingHoosier | Sep 16 2011, 03:53 AM Post #8 |
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Coach
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Purdue football lost to Rice. I didn't even know that until I looked on the board. Yikes fellas! |
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| brumdog44 | Sep 16 2011, 06:39 AM Post #9 |
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The guy picked last in gym class
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Yeah, but unfortunately IU football lost to life. I'm a huge IU football fan, but I don't think we can cast stones.....we lost to Ball State and Virginia at home. |
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| tAmazingHoosier | Sep 16 2011, 12:23 PM Post #10 |
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Coach
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Yeah, 2 teams that have probably been in bowl games more recent than us..... Terrible, terrible loss for your FIRST year head coach.... by a total of 10 points. Gimme a break Bum. |
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| BTown11 | Sep 16 2011, 12:33 PM Post #11 |
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Mer
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Purdue is better than IU this year. Fact. |
| Death to Signatures. | |
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| obatskii | Sep 16 2011, 12:59 PM Post #12 |
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Go Tebow!
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Football or basketball? :D |
![]() "They say it takes a village to raise a family. Well, it took a nation to rebuild a program. THANK YOU HOOSIER NATION!" -Tom Crean Proud Swiftie | |
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| boilergrad01 | Sep 16 2011, 02:25 PM Post #13 |
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Working on the last 5
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Both |
| Nothing beats an Astronaut | |
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| eelbor | Sep 16 2011, 04:03 PM Post #14 |
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Zen Master
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:D + 1 |
![]() "Liberal, shmiberal. That should be a new word. Shmiberal: one who is assumed liberal, just because he's a professional whiner in the newspaper. If you'll read the subtext for many of those old strips, you'll find the heart of an old-fashioned Libertarian. And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners." - Berkeley Breathed Meat is Murder. Sweet, delicious murder. | |
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| obatskii | Sep 16 2011, 04:40 PM Post #15 |
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Go Tebow!
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-_- |
![]() "They say it takes a village to raise a family. Well, it took a nation to rebuild a program. THANK YOU HOOSIER NATION!" -Tom Crean Proud Swiftie | |
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7:47 PM Jul 10