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Calling All Grammar Nazi's

Columbus knew he hadn't landed anywhere near the other side of the world.

He and the crew swore otherwise for political and financial purposes.

That's what I've heard.
 
Columbus thought to the end of his days that he had found the far East... ignoring overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Yes, he labeled then Indians because he thought that's where he landed. The name stuck, and is the labeled used in the US Constitution. Many Indians down here find the other labels patronising at best.
 
Dngrsone said:
Columbus thought to the end of his days that he had found the far East... ignoring overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Yes, he labeled then Indians because he thought that's where he landed. The name stuck, and is the labeled used in the US Constitution. Many Indians down here find the other labels patronising at best.
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I don't believe that about Columbus.

He knew before leaving that the world was bigger around than the distance he journeyed, and his Portuguese navigators (where the real credit in seamanship belongs) certainly warned him what to expect and where they were.
 
EarlyMon said:
I don't believe that about Columbus.

He knew before leaving that the world was bigger around than the distance he journeyed, and his Portuguese navigators (where the real credit in seamanship belongs) certainly warned him what to expect and where they were.
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I do... otherwise he would have been criminally idiotic to embark on the journey.

As it was, it is likely that the Spanish monarchy bankrolled him only because it would keep him from going back to Portugal on the off-chance that he was on to something.

There are two books written by Charles C. Mann, called 1491 and 1493 which after very good reads for anyone interested in the history of the new world before and after Columbus.
 
I thought that all people of newly 'discovered' countries were known as 'Indians' as the word was derived from 'indigenous people' .. but it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong .. and certainly won't be the last :D
 
According to our classroom propaganda, it's Indians as in India.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/all-about-christopher-columbus-1451-1506

We've heard that in school here for some time.

As I recall, James Burke debunked the entire idea that Columbus thought the world was smaller around. (added video below, I found it after typing this)

The popular teaching here also has been that he proved that the world was round and couldn't get funding because people thought it was flat. That's not true.

If my memory is right, he couldn't get funding because his approach, given the known size of the (round) planet was absurd. To sell his expedition, he purposefully whacked the numbers.

By the late 1400s, pretty sure that Europe in general had embraced Eratosthenes as well as others who had verified the calculation and the circumference of the Earth was well in hand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

~~~~

Here it is -

The interesting bit here begins at 33.00 minutes and runs to the end.


I can't in good conscience buy Burke's remark near the end about the actual circumference being anyone's guess from a technical perspective. From a popular perspective, no problem, but not from a technical one as would be used by seafarers.

If you have a mapping grid that's highly accurate, and if you know very well the measure of one quarter of the the Earth, north to south, having confirmed it under sail, and you believe that the Earth is a sphere, then you have a very solid estimate of its circumference in any direction.

Burke notes that Columbus knowingly shaved a large amount off the number and banked that with the overestimated size of Asia to sell his expedition.

Nothing about the New World could have matched descriptions of the Far East.

And without forcing complicity on the part of the sailors after the fact, no one would have believed the unbelievable upon his return.

That sort of thing tends to repeat in history quite a bit.

I'll buy the previous remark about Columbus and criminality, no problem. :)
 
Erastothenes came close well before Columbus.

Big problem was Longitude. Latitude could be found easily. It wasn't until a man named Harrison made the first chronometer that kept accurate enough time at sea that latitude was known for certain. The chronometers still exist and are in a museum in the UK. Had latitude been known as a certainty, Columbus would have known he wasn't in India.

The Aristotlean belief of the Earth centered universe was still taught.Copernicus didn't publish De Revolutionibus until after Columbus and Vespucci made their voyages.
 
I don't think that a chronometer would have helped Columbus to not shave a huge percentage off of the circumference prior to running his scam.

He knew all the time he needed to know - it was the right time to find someone to buy into his house of cards.

If he somehow actually believed that he'd hit Asia, as opposed to merely saying it for personal gain and ego, then neither a chronometer, certainty in longitude, nor a GPS receiver would have changed his mind.

He had a commission, he assumed all through that no great land mass stood between him and his goal, and he had a problem when it happened.

I think he started as a charlatan and if he believed all along that he hit Asia, which I contest, then he ended up delusional.

And the Spanish knew it -

http://www.indepthinfo.com/columbus-christopher/last-days.htm

Columbus' history is taught in terms of exploration, but the story I've heard was about money and his drive to get it.

When Columbus set out, elementary math exposed that his Earth model was for the shape of a plump zucchini standing upright.
 
davoid said:
While we call it a windscreen, your windshield makes more sense because it shields the driver from the wind.
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Does it not screen you from the wind?

davoid said:
Our pedestrians walk on pavements (they are usually, but not always, paved) whereas your sidewalks are at the side of the road and you walk on them.
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They're not always by the side of the road, therefore the Aussie term, footpath, seems a better option.

davoid said:
The one big dislike that I held for your language was your use of 'gotten' when our past participle of get is simply 'got'.
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:thumbup:

Now, what I came here for was to ask why people say ATM machine? I mean, automatic teller machine machine?
 
general eclect said:
The mesh screens on the windows in your house?

Fly screens.
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No they really don't, regardless of wind speed.

Unless that's something you cry out when you Frisbee them off of the roof - "Fly, screens!"

If that's the idea, best try to avoid having them hit any windshields when they land.

Those are those things on a car that shield you from the wind, front and back. :D

BTW - moths are bigger so are moth screens more expensive down there?
 
Those things on a car are "Bug screens or deflectors"

They do a fairly decent job on the front windows of the car, but you need something down by the radiator in some areas in the summer.
 
general eclect said:
Now, what I came here for was to ask why people say ATM machine? I mean, automatic teller machine machine?
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You know what a "teller" is don't you? An ATM is a machine that does that job automatically. :)

Many people might not click that the M means machine. It's like saying PIN number, personal identity number number. Probably because ATM and PIN have become words in their own right.
 
mikedt said:
You know what a "teller" is don't you? An ATM is a machine that does that job automatically. :)

Many people might not click that the M means machine. It's like saying PIN number, personal identity number number. Probably because ATM and PIN have become words in their own right.
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This is one of my [many] pet peeves!

HIV virus = human immunodeficiency virus virus
ATM machine = automated teller machine machine
PIN number = personal identification number number

:rolleyes:
 
Unforgiven said:
The Los Angeles Angels of Aneheim --> The The Angels Angels of Aneheim
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I'd argue that one on several fronts, the first being that you are using different languages, followed by the fact that the full name of the city being El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles which means, roughly, the city of the Queen of the angels.
 
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