The rumor/caveat: French people allot the most minimal of efforts to personal hygiene and thus smell icky. This international legend dates back to the 16th century, an epoch during which Parisians disposed of their household wastes by nonchalantly hurling it out of their windows, not really bothering to forewarn the unsuspecting pedestrians strolling below. Furthermore, [...]
Archive for category Geography
The origin of coffee?
Jul 29
According to historical discoveries, coffee first appeared in Ethiopia (more precisely, in the province of Kaffa) in the east of Africa. It seems that the locals of this region have been getting jittery with it since about the 8th century. These Ethiopians then summarily introduced the delightful caffeinated concoction to Yemen, but it wasn’t imported [...]
In our time, it’s common to see someone spontaneously getting a piercing simply for it’s aesthetic appeal. However, piercing has an astoundingly ancient origin and has even been assimilated into rituals within certain tribes. Ear piercing: The story goes that sailors would don a golden earing so that they might sell it to finance their [...]
Contrary to their name, it wasn’t the Arabs that came up with these numbers. Rather, it was the Indians! In Europe, Roman numerals were used until up to the Middles Ages. So to write 138, you essentially had to write 100+10+10+10+5+1+1+1, i.e. CXXXVIII. With this system, arithmatic operations were inevitably extremely complicated. At the same [...]