What's hot
February 05, 2006 Edition 1
Used for fun or used for research, the internet is part of all our lives now. Here's a selection of a few sites that are interesting fun or just strange and barmy.
The first of the barmy ones is the "overheard in New York" site, where you can read a list of what New Yorkers are saying. The comments are posted by other New Yorkers and contain some real gems. Some of the comments are extremely stupid, and you have to wonder long and hard, but others are good for a laugh.
Businessman No 1: Hey man, guess what I just found out? Martin is a robot!
Businessman No 2: I always thought so. At least he's a good robot. (Overheard in Times Square.)
Hubby: That woman just grabbed my ass!
Wife: Yeah, you wish. (Overheard outside the Hard Rock Café, W 57th Street.)
Hobo: Got a quarter?
Guy: Yes, do you? (Overheard at Penn Station.)
Read more at www.overheardin-newyork.com
As for the house bond, these go back as far as the year 1190 in England. The origin of the word "mortgage" is also interesting, and is explained on the site: "The "mort"- is from the Latin word for death and "gage" is from the sense of that word that means a pledge to forfeit something of value if a debt is not repaid. So mortgage is literally a dead pledge. It was dead for two reasons: the property was forfeit or "dead" to the borrower if the loan wasn't repaid, and the pledge itself was dead if the loan was repaid."
Meanwhile on the techno front you can learn that the first digital photographs were taken in the 1980s. The first consumer digital was marketed in 1990: the Dycam Model I produced black and white photos at a resolution of 320x240 pixels. Digital cameras are set to get smaller and produce better pictures as well. Read more about these and other histories at www.thehistoryof.net
A lot of our idioms come, not surprisingly, from the Bible. The saying "A leopard can't change its spots" is taken from the Bible: "The phrase about leopards is descended from the Bible, in the book of Jeremiah: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?" (Jer 13:23). And "by the skin of your teeth" comes from Job 19:20:
"My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth."
Close, but no cigar? Where does the cigar come into it? "Many years ago slot machines gave out cigars as prizes." Early carnival games also gave out cigars as prizes.
Find more at www.idiomsite.com
Similarly, if you're interested in subliminal advertising, astrology or automatic writing, set aside some time, because you'll need it, and go to www.skeptic.com
