An interesting bit of history

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An interesting bit of history from Chaos Manor:

Subject: Plucking the Yew! Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible for the English soldiers to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore incapable of fighting in the future. The famous bow was made of the English Yew tree and the act of drawing the longbow was known as “plucking the yew” or “pluck you”. Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won the battle and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French and saying “We can still pluck yew. Pluck you”. Since “pluck yew” is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative ‘F’ and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger salute. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as “giving the bird”. And yew thought that yew knew everything.

The full story here.

I installed the latest nightly

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I installed the latest nightly build of Mozilla and it’s getting really good. It’s even faster than 0.9.7 & I really like how it uses a sheet for the password entry dialog.

I just packed my first

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I just packed my first two boxes and threw out my first bag of junk. Maybe this weekend I’ll attempt to tackle the closet of doom.

My apartment has only one closet, which is where I toss almost everything. I dread having to clean it out, and it will probably be my biggest task in preparing for the move.

I was originally planning to move on Mar. 23, but it looks like I’ll probably move either the 9th or the 16th. I have some friends visiting from out of town on the 17th and we’re going out that night, which would make for a pretty hectic weekend if I move on the 16th.

Morons in the News: Christians

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Morons in the News: Christians Don’t Like Zen Buddhists. “The aura of Satan is taking a foothold. We do not want Buddhism in here.” [Morons Dot Org]

Zen Buddhists are peaceful, don’t interfere with much, and are generally good people. They aren’t dangerous by any means.

However, some Chrisians in the town are worried that the Zen Buddhists will eat their kids and turn them into wierd psycho samurai killers or something. In a public meeting, Linda Fischer, a Christian in need of a brain transplant said to the audience, “Do you not see the darkness? The aura of Satan is taking a foothold. We do not want Buddhism in here.”

Equating Buddhism with Satanism? Sheeeeeesh!

Current Editorials: Traditional Values Coalition:

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Current Editorials: Traditional Values Coalition: Everyone Is Persecuting Us!. The well-funded Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) is throwing a fit (complete with Flash animations) over the fact that NPR is reporting facts. [Morons Dot Org]

The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), a militant pro-theocracy terrorist group, is throwing a tantrum over the fact that National Public Radio (NPR) dared to report that TVC is involved in a campaign to destroy Senators Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

See, the TVC, being a reactionary militant organization, does not take time to think over anything that is even remotely critical of the organization.