Moya Brennan

by **Turlough** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:47 pm

dids wrote:the Moon has an influence on Earth's rotation, as I've read there: http://www.nineplanets.org/luna.html
Also seen that in a documentary called Superscience, in the episode about the Moon

That makes more sense. The cause/effect relationship is the other way around, though: the Earth is accelerating the Moon through tidal drag, resulting in days increasing in length by 15 microseconds a year from the Earth's consequent loss of momentum. The Moon's increasing distance is a result of the momentum it it getting from this.

That's a great astronomy book online you've found. I wonder if there is a good one in printed form. :?:

by **Killiney** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:25 pm

Thanks for explaining Turlough

by **Angoid** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:26 am

Something I learnt last night.....

How many of you were aware that in English we have a word 'defenestrate', which means, 'To throw someone out of a window'?

by **Killiney** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:47 am

Seriously?!

Hmmm. Looking at the word, it does make sense

I see the French 'fenetre' in the word lol which means window :lol:

I'm so gonna have to use that word lol

by **dids** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:58 am

the french word 'défenestrer' means exactly that! the english word is based on the french...

by **Killiney** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:13 am

Thanks

I thought there was a circumflex on the E instead of the following S?

by **dids** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:42 pm

it is the case in the word 'fenêtre', but not in 'défenestrer'... Don't know why

by **Killiney** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:45 pm

Me neither. When I was doing GCSE French, I learnt that in most cases, there's a circumflex on the E instead of the following S

by **Angoid** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:22 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was once told that a circumflex meant that an 's' had been left out, and that the 's' is not pronounced anyway.

For example, the word 'hotel' in French has a circumflex over the 'e', signifying that an 's' had been left out ==> 'hostel'.

This would mean that the two words 'hotel' and 'hostel' have the same root, which makes sense.

by **Killiney** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:27 pm

Exactly right Angus

What I meant was why is there an S in 'défenestrer' when there isn't one in 'fenêtre'? Maybe it has something to do with pronunciation?

by **dids** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:08 pm

in fact it is because the word 'défenestrer' appeared in 20th century, and 'fenetre' (which originally was 'fenestre') exists since 11th century...

I'll find out more information on that, it is very interesting...

by **Killiney** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:10 pm

I think I get you.

by **eadgyth** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 9:54 am

I learned today that the brain of an ostrich is smaller than one of his eyes :shock:

by **Luned** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 1:31 pm

I have been reading an article about the Swedish, and it turns out that there is a word in Swedish, nja, which is a combination of nej ("no") and ja ("yes") - in one! - and it is used for polite refusals. How very diplomatic, isn't it?

by **Eternal_Silence** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:06 pm

^ It is =P. How funny.

Angoid wrote:Something I learnt last night.....

How many of you were aware that in English we have a word 'defenestrate', which means, 'To throw someone out of a window'?

:lol: I'm going to have to remember that one. 'I'll defenestrate you!'

I learned today that if you're born without a sphenoid bone, you're born with a flat head :shock:

. You can't live though..

Moya Brennan

One thing I learnt today

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