Things Only You Know

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

theluckyone said:

Many people know the popular "rock and roll" symbol of drawing in your thumb, middle finger, and ring finger while extending your pointer and pinky upward; most people refer to it as "devil horns" and believe it to be vaguely satanic. In actuality, it was probably popularized by Gene Simmons of KISS and has nothing to do with Satan; Gene's story has changed over the years, but he sometimes claims he started doing it as a way to wave to fans while holding onto his guitar pick, and sometimes that he got it from Dr. Strange (who would cast spells with his fingers held like that) and Spider-Man (who uses his webshooters that way). However, KISS-hating conservatives misinterpreted is as a satanic gesture, and the rest is history.

Interestingly, the gesture means different things in different cultures and does have some connection to demons- in some cultures it's the symbol used to ward off the evil eye.

-D

Ronnie James Dio, the awesome vocalist of Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and Dio, also claims to have come up with the devil horns gesture, saying he got it from his grandmother (who used it, as Drew mentioned, to ward off the Evil Eye).

Personally, I believe Dio moreso than Gene Simmons on this one. For one thing, he's been in the business longer than Gene, and on top of that, like Drew said, Gene's story has changed over the years. In the case of the "holding-pick-while-waving-to-the-audience" (HYPHEN OVERLOAD!) story, it seems like he could've easily held his pick between thumb and forefinger while he waved with his other three fingers. Doing otherwise would be too much trouble. Trust me...I've tried.

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

Adolf Hitler's favorite film was King Kong.

[sarahbot]

England often bribed its enemies to make them go away. This was a tradition that began with the Anglo-Saxons bribing the Danish invaders to leave, and continued for centuries, bribing people to criticize the Nazis or bribing people in France who claimed they were the rightful king of England to go away and shut up.

[Spiderdancer]

This being the origin of the saying, "Once you pay the Danegeld you'll never be rid of the Dane?"

[varana]

Underneath their white fur, polar bears have black skin. The white fur acts as a sunlight catcher, while the black skin stores heat energy.

[PoolMan]

I knew that one! But to take it one step further...

Technically, polar bear fur isn't white. It's clear, and hollow to boot. It appears white when they're in a cold environment because the hairs don't have a natural pigment. In warmer climes, the hollows can fill with algae, causing the bears to look greenish.

[duckie]

poolman said:

I knew that one! But to take it one step further...

Technically, polar bear fur isn't white. It's clear, and hollow to boot. It appears white when they're in a cold environment because the hairs don't have a natural pigment. In warmer climes, the hollows can fill with algae, causing the bears to look greenish.

Hmmmm... but the polar bear on the tropical island on Lost was white - did they get it wrong?

[varana]

Green polar bears, huh? Footage of that would look great in some "after nuclear holocaust" movie of the cheesier kind.

[PoolMan]

I haven't kept up with Lost, so I can't comment on that. But it's more of a gradual thing... there were polar bears in the Vancouver Zoo for the longest time, and I can vouch that their fur definitely took on non-white hues after a while.

[TheLuckyOne]

Wow, that's pretty cool... I never knew that about polar bears.

While his accomplishment was still tremendous, Jackie Robinson was NOT the first African-American to play Major League baseball; he was simply the first to do so after a long unofficial segregation. Moses Fleetwood Walker is officially credited as the first African-American to play Major League ball, with the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association in 1884. But even this is debatable, as a man named William Edward White, supposedly the son of a plantation owner and one of his former slaves, played as a substitute in one game with the Providence Grays in 1879. Historical records are sketchy, but if the W.E. White who played that game was indeed African-American, he would have been the first, followed by Moses Walker and his brother, and then Jackie Robinson (and Larry Doby).

-D

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

The planet Venus rotates in the opposite direction of every other planet in the solar system. On Venus, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

[varana]

I've got more on that one. On Venus a day is actually longer than a year, but not by much.

[sarahbot]

poolman said:

I haven't kept up with Lost, so I can't comment on that. But it's more of a gradual thing... there were polar bears in the Vancouver Zoo for the longest time, and I can vouch that their fur definitely took on non-white hues after a while.

I was thinking of those bears too. On the other hand, those weren't the best-looking bears in the world.

Hey, have you seen their habitat lately? It's becoming all grown over. Transposing that image with memories of the bears that used to live there results in a delightfully Colbert-like experience.

As for Lost, I haven't been keeping up with it either. But at last viewing I thought the little boy had summoned the bear. If that's so, and he didn't know the bear's fur was translucent, that may be the reason [or excuse] why it was white.

[TheLuckyOne]

The popular story about famous New York street gang the "Dead Rabbits" is that during a heated meeting of predecessors the Roach Guards, someone threw a dead rabbit onto the floor, and certain members took it as an omen to break off and form their own gang. This may or may not be true, but historians think the name more likely stemmed from the Irish words "Dead Ráibéad." Ráibéad meant "a man to be feared" or "a tough guy," and Dead was a popular slang word at the time meaning "very." It's theorized that a reporter asked an Irish immigrant "Who are those thugs over there?" and she responded "the Dead Ráibéads," meaning "the really tough guys," but the reporter misunderstood and believed it to be the name of the gang, which subsequently stuck.

-D

[varana]

If you meassure in how much you pay per kilo, MacDonalds hamburgers are more expensive than an average car.