The Thread for Useless, but Interesting Facts

[Tommy]

1 hour ago, Beelzebub said:

The ancient city of Baghdad ( capital of Abbasid Empire ) was built completely round. Naubakht and Ibn-e-Athari were the master city planners. This city model is taught in architecture and town planning schools as one of the finest examples of city infrastructure and planning even till today.

The city was completely sacked by Mongols such that the river Euphrates turned black because of all the ink from the books of central library.

Neat. 

[Bluewolf]

[nudge]

[Spike]

16 minutes ago, nudge said:

That's a very real problem in Mexico. So much can go wrong for so little. One of the worst things is to have an attractive daughter in the wrong town, sad but true.

[nudge]

10 minutes ago, Spike said:

That's a very real problem in Mexico. So much can go wrong for so little. One of the worst things is to have an attractive daughter in the wrong town, sad but true.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/world/americas/miriam-rodriguez-san-fernando.html

It's incredibly sad. 

[Spike]

10 minutes ago, nudge said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/world/americas/miriam-rodriguez-san-fernando.html

It's incredibly sad. 

I don’t even need to read it because it is the same story that has happened to far too many people. It’s truly horrific.

Some of my good friends are Mexican and unfortunately it’s gotten to the point where the cartels will hurt anyone remotely related to their targets. Friends with someone that’s in trouble? That’s a death sentence.

[nudge]

4 minutes ago, Spike said:

I don’t even need to read it because it is the same story that has happened to far too many people. It’s truly horrific.

Some of my good friends are Mexican and unfortunately it’s gotten to the point where the cartels will hurt anyone remotely related to their targets. Friends with someone that’s in trouble? That’s a death sentence.

This one's about the cartel in a particular city kidnapping people for ransom, and then still killing them and hiding the bodies despite actually getting the ransom money from the families. Some of the victims were even chosen as kidnapping targets by their own extended family members. Unfathomable.

[Bluewolf]

[Bluewolf]

[Azeem]

Pontius Pilate, the infamous Roman governor who decided to free one of Barabas or Jesus. In older Bible manuscripts Barabas's complete name also appears as Jesus Barabas. Bar is a patronymic meaning the son of and Abas is a noun not yet translated properly.

Some proffer Jesus Barabas maybe the original Jesus who was set free by Pilate and why some Eastern Christian groups like Coptics and Ethiopians canonize Pilate as a saint.

[Spike]

1 hour ago, Beelzebub said:

Pontius Pilate, the infamous Roman governor who decided to free one of Barabas or Jesus. In older Bible manuscripts Barabas's complete name also appears as Jesus Barabas. Bar is a patronymic meaning the son of and Abas is a noun not yet translated properly.

Some proffer Jesus Barabas maybe the original Jesus who was set free by Pilate and why some Eastern Christian groups like Coptics and Ethiopians canonize Pilate as a saint.

Well he didn't really decided at all, he allowed it after a public vote for Barabas, it is literally the etymology of 'washing one's hand of [this]'. He isn't canonised for that reason either, it is because in the gospel he was reluctant and constantly asks the crowd to change their mind. Nearly all versions of the gospel frame Pilate as innocent putting all the blame on the Jews, there are version where he is indeed framed as guilty but he also Jewish in those depictions.

[Azeem]

Irish-English poet WB Yeats was so in love with an Irish woman he proposed him three times and was rejected every time. He even then proposed to marry her daughter in desperation. Simp 

Edited September 12, 2022 by Beelzebub

[Bluewolf]

[Azeem]

Arabian peninsula is rife with dormant and extinct volcanoes. The last major eruption was in 1256 which created a river of lava longer than 23km. How fascinating it was all once green and filled with rivers and then maybe volcanic eruptions turned it into a desert.

[Bluewolf]

[Azeem]

Emotional tears have more protein concentration than irritant tears which makes them run down on cheeks more slowly. 

[Azeem]

85% of Greek mythology involves Zeus poking with a woman alone mind her own business. 

[Bluewolf]

[Azeem]

Omar Mukhtar, the Libyan commander of anti-colonial forces against Italian occupation. Once his army captured two Italian soldiers he stopped his men from torturing them, his men said but they do it to ours to which he said ' They are not our teachers '.

Viewed positively by historians for his discipline armed conduct the movie about his life Lion of the Desert was banned in Italy until 2009 by then PM bcz it ' damaged the army's honor '.

[Bluewolf]

[nudge]

6 minutes ago, Bluewolf said:

I can't unsee it now...

[Bluewolf]

1 minute ago, nudge said:

I can't unsee it now...

Me neither... 

[Tommy]

3 hours ago, Bluewolf said:

It helps that it is altered. 

[Azeem]

Despite common media portrayal the Vikings never had horns in their helmets.

[Azeem]