Rupert_Baehr Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 People have been bitching at one another, but usually the Brits (who don't get too many holidays ) Do congratulate the Americans on whatever holiday it is. Sometimes they get it wrong. They seem to think that 'Memorial day' (3rd Monday in February) is the day that Americans reserve to celebrate the reincarnation of Presidents. Washington came back as a monument, Kennedy came back as an Airport ... understandable, really. Then, of course, there's Thanksgiving Day. The Americans celebrate theirs on the 3rd Thursday in October The Brits celebrate it in either the 4th of July (when the Americans finally decided to 'go it alone') or on August 24th, when they finally got rid of the Mayflower. Ordinarily, the Brits are very generous ... but what happened yesterday? Yesterday - as I'm sure you all know - was 'Get Lost' day. The day on which Americans celebrate the most incompetent navigator in history. (I'll pm you the explanation if you can't do sums.) Christopher Columbus. The man who: Didn't know where he was going Didn't know where he was when he got there and Did itall using somebody else's money. Columbus' sponsor was a gentleman by the name of Amerigo Vespucci, It appears that Columbus wasn't over-given to formality - which is just as well. He used his sponsor's first name to name the continent he discovered ran into (He didn't 'discover' it - It already had people.) Had he been a little more formal, the the country would've been named after the last name of his sponsor. 'Happy 'Get Lost' day, Vespuccians!' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callippo Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Vespucci wasn't Columbus's sponsor, and Columbus had nothing to do with the naming of America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regatta Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Oh! here we go! get ready for all the yank wannabe's, they make me laugh, they have been to the states on their jollies a couple of times and think that they are a real authority on America, spouting American history ect, especially after a visit to wikapedia before they come on the forum spouting off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 A mere bagatelle. Columbus didn't discover America (Fact) When Columbus called the 'West Indies' the 'West Indies' he was talking out of his butt. He knew how far it was from Portugal to the East Indies. - So he could've worked out how far it was heading in the other direction. (Spherical trig may not have been his strong point, but a 'guestimate' of 70% would've been a fair shot.) He believed that the earth was a spheroid and he knew (because people had known since at least 2000 BC)[vide Micronesian {real navigators} coconut sextants] that 1 minute of arc subtended 1 nautical mile on the surface of the earth. - So the diameter of the earth would be somewhere in the region of 21600 nautical miles. He knew to within a few [less than 4] hours (ignore chlong) how long he'd been at sea. He knew the speed of his ship. So when, by simple logic and common sense he was less than 1/5 of the way around the world he decided he was all the way there. That represents a DR error of ludicrous magnitude!:hihi: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bloke Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 I do apologise. I just popped in to pay my respects but it looks like I'm in the wrong place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harleyman Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Was there ever any real "Bonhomie" in the first place ? For every friendly post on the Forum there have been around 5 negative. Usually the posts run to remarks like "rednecks" "idiots" "morons" and so on. More often than not by people who've never been anywhere ouside of Sheffield except an odd weekend trip to Skeggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drone Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 I got strong suspicions that Kennedy was murdered by your government Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Play it cool Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 A mere bagatelle. Columbus didn't discover America (Fact) When Columbus called the 'West Indies' the 'West Indies' he was talking out of his butt. His voyages led to European awareness of the American continents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harleyman Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Oh! here we go! get ready for all the yank wannabe's, they make me laugh, they have been to the states on their jollies a couple of times and think that they are a real authority on America, spouting American history ect, especially after a visit to wikapedia before they come on the forum spouting off. What are you an authority on? Daft remarks? I'll second that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bloke Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Was there ever any real "Bonhomie" in the first place ? For every friendly post on the Forum there have been around 5 negative. Usually the posts run to remarks like "rednecks" "idiots" "morons" and so on. More often than not by people who've never been anywhere ouside of Sheffield except an odd weekend trip to Skeggy You should think yourself lucky... ... you want to hear what we say about people from Skeggy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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