DAILY BRIEFING

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DID YOU KNOW ?

BLITZ

Spring-clean or purge .
Blitzkrieg, "lightning-war;' was the name the Germans gave to the kind of high-speed offensive spearheaded by tanks that was taught them by British Major General John Frederick Charles Fuller (1878-1966).
Fuller's first Blitzkrieg struck on November 20, 1917, when 476 British tanks rolled ahead of six infantry and two cavalry divisions at the battle of Cambrai; the effect on the Germans was quite shattering and the British advanced about 5 miles in that day alone. Regarding this as a vindication of all his ideas, Fuller embarked on a crusade to mechanize and modernize the army but, increasingly disenchanted, quit in 1933 to team up with Sir Oswald Mosley on the Policy Directorate of the British Union of Fascists . He became, at Hitler 's side, a regular observer at German military maneuvers and guest of honor at Hitler's SOth birthday party on April 20, 1939. This was the last time he met his friend, General Heinz Guderian ( 1888-1954), who incorporated many of Fuller's ideas into his 1937 fireside page? turner, Achtung! Panzer! and was soon deploying the panzer brigades just as Fuller had taught him.                                                                                                                                               

                        Londoners used the truncated  term "Blitz" for the intensive air raids they endured from September 1940 to April 1941. As early as late 1940 the term had begun to be used metaphorically to denote an intensive strike or purge of any kind, e.g. "We will have to blitz the kitchen today, it's filthY:' Today, "blitzed" can also mean extremely drunk,-this likely arising as an intensifier of "bombed:'

[Smithy]

DID YOU KNOW ?

SCAM

noun
1.  a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, especially for making a quick profit; swindle.

verb (used with object), scammed, scamming.
2.   to cheat or defraud with a scam

No one really knows where the word SCAM originates form
OED cites three definitions for the noun, all contemporaneous: a swindle (1963), a fraudulent bankruptcy (1966), and a rumor (1964). One of the examples given suggests that users at the time (mid ?60s) believed scam to originally be a carnival term, meaning ?to fleece the public.? Although this is included in an early example, it?s worth pointing out that it?s not actually given as the origin of the word (suggesting that someone?s done research down this route and so far come up empty).

One surprising thing is that I?ve found no suggestion that scam was somehow derived from scheme. At the very least this has a nice ring to it as a folk etymology (and scheme used in this way ? as a plan or design ? dates to at least 1704). There?s no documentation to support that theory, however.

After weeks of searching on the Internet I have found where the word SCAM actually comes from
If you would like to know , send 1000 baht to my Bangkok Bank No 2341-23456-0-1 and I will tell you my findings 

[Smithy]

DID YOU KNOW ?

TRASH

Definition of trash

trashed; trashing; trashes
transitive verb
1 : throw away 1
standards of reality and truth were trashed ?Edwin Diamond
2 : vandalize, destroy
3 : attack, assault
4 : spoil, ruin trashing the environment
5 : to subject to criticism or invective; especially : to disparage strongly a film trashed by the critics
intransitive verb
: to trash something or someone

Recent Examples of trash from the Web

There are some very good people on that forum that I personal know but unfortunately they still have the trash.

The newspaper would be thrown way in the next day?s trash and the only proof of the offending idiotic column would be in the memory banks of few readers.

In the kitchen are two dishwashers, a trash compactor and two disposal units.

China's decision this year to stop accepting most imported scrap has meant lower prices for plastic and paper, placing greater pressure on cities and waste companies nationally and in Wisconsin to keep unwanted trash out of recycling bins.

There are a few theories on where the word 'Trash" comes from. Perhaps from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse tros "rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs," Norwegian dialectal trask "lumber, trash, baggage," Swedish trasa "rags, tatters"), of unknown origin. Applied to ill-bred persons or groups from 1604 ("Othello"), and especially of poor whites in the U.S. South by 1831. Applied to domestic refuse or garbage from 1906 (American English). Trash-can attested from 1914. To trash-talk someone or something is by 1989.

[rufusredtail]

DID YOU KNOW ?

LAST DITCH EFFORT

Final and determined attempt.
When 16th- and 17th-century armies were preparing the ground for a pitched battle, they would dig several lines of trenches in case they needed to retreat and regroup in prepared positions. If the men found themselves in the last ditch they had no option other than to fight where they stood or to die.

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DID YOU KNOW ?

CARTE BLANCHE

Complete freedom of action.
The old game of piquet was played with a reduced pack of 32 cards, all the low numbers from two through six being excluded. This raised the odds against a hand without face-cards, so a player with just carte( s) blanche( s), "white cards;' held complete sway over the game. Seventeenth-century gamesters would talk of someone in an unassailable position in any sphere as holding "cartes blanches" and the singularized version shifted into military and diplomatic circles in the 18th century to describe either a punitive acknowledgement of defeat, which left the vanquished no room for maneuver, or a blank sheet for them to sign so the victors could impose any conditions they fancied. A junior  might also hold a carte blanche from his superior so he could write above the signature a justification  for whatever actions had already taken place.

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DID YOU KNOW ?

CARTEL

Group of businessmen bent on price-fixing .
The 16th-century Italian cartello meant a written challenge to a duel, but within a hundred years or so it was understood to denote a written agreement between armies trying to sort out the exchange of prisoners or to agree terms and conditions for any ensuing conflict. It was with these connotations of "fixing things" that the term leached into the commercial world to mean what it does today.

[rufusredtail]

DID YOU KNOW ?

IRON CURTAIN

Imaginary barrier between East and West.
The original iron curtain was very tangible; it was the chain-mail safety barrier lowered between the stage and auditorium of a theater in the event of fire.
In its East-West political sense, the expression was launched into popularity by the famous "Sinews of Peace"speech given by Winston Churchill in Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946: "From Stettin, in the Baltic, to Trieste, in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the Continent:' But, as was so often the case with Churchill, he was far from original; as early as 1914, Elizabeth, Queen of the Belgians, spoke of a "bloody iron curtain" between herself and the Germans. With specific reference to Russia, Ethel Snowden's Through Bolshevik Russia (1920) made frequent use of the same metaphor. In fact, it seems to have been Joseph Goebbels' use of "Iron Curtain" that prompted Churchill to adopt the expression, and, a full year before his Fulton speech, he was already using the phrase in official communiques to President Truman and other prominent figu res.
The iron curtains themselves appeared in theaters in the 1790s, and had entered the realm of metaphor by 1819 when the First Earl of Munster (1794-1842) wrote of his jaunts in India that: "On the 19 November we crossed the Betwah river, and as if an iron curtain had dropped between us and the avenging angel, the deaths diminished".

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To  all those that read this post a very merry christmas to you all , and a happy new year.


DID YOU KNOW ?

YANK or YANKEE

An American.
AU suggestions citing Native American origins have turned out to rest on non-existent words, or those that mean something other than claimed. The most outlandish theory suggests that Yankee derives from the Persian janghe or jenghe, a "great warrior:' as in the title of Jenghis (or Genghis) Khan, and first reared its head in 1810 in a spoof letter sent to The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. Intended as
a burlesque on the philological musings of Noah Webster printed in the same magazine, the piece was so well presented that later retractions failed to halt the launch of yet another false etymology into the English language.
The main problem with any putative American derivation is the fact that the term was beyond doubt first used by English sailors of their constant adversary, the Dutch freebooters and buccaneers. That said, it is still argued whether the insult was built on Jan Kaas, Johnny Cheese, Jan Kees, John Cornelius,  or simply the common Dutch surname of Janke. After the Dutch landed their first colonists in 1624 to consolidate their claim to the lands around modern New York, they too were called Yankees. Not to be outdone, the Dutch hurled the same insult back at the English settlers in Connecticut and before long it became a common term for anyone reviled. By 1758, General Wolfe made frequent and disparaging reference during the Quebec campaign to the New England militia under his command as a "bunch of Yankees" and, after the American War of Independence, the English were using it of any American, whatever their heritage or location.
It was during that American struggle that British Army surgeon Dr Richard Shuckburgh penned "Yankee DoodJe" to ridicule the opposition who, much to British chagrin, played the tune loud and clear when marching down to accept the surrender of the British forces at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

[rufusredtail]

DID YOU KNOW ?

COLOGNE

Light perfume.
Even the name of the city hasa military origin; in AD 50 the Romans established the garrison town of Oppidum Ubiorum, birthplace of Agrippina, mother of Nero, and her far more dangerous brother, Gaius Germanicus. As a child, Gaius liked to hang out with the soldiers, wearing his own scaled-down version of centurion's footwear, which got him the nickname Caligula, or "Little Boots:' After the Emperor Claudius foolishly married the murderous Agrippina he decreed the town be renamed Colonia Agrippina, an eponymous honor that was hurriedly abandoned by the residents as soon as Nero killed her.
EventuaUy Colonia became Cologne, and by the time the French invaded the Rhineland and occupied Cologne in 1794, the city had long enjoyed regional fame for its production of light perfume, or eau de Cologne. Officers of the occupying forces sent it home to friends and family, spreading the name and the fame far and wide.

[rufusredtail]

DID you KNOW ?

FASCIST

Draconian or authoritarian regime.
This term derives from the Latin fasces, (itself fromfasciare, "to bind or tie"), a bundle of thin wooden rods bound together with red tape to represent the power and unity of the Roman people. As they moved about the city, many officials, especially the magistrates, were accompanied by ju niors bearing their fasces; the more elevated the official, the larger the number off fasces. After the Laws of the Twelve Tables (450 BC) denied magistrates the power of summary execution over any Roman citizen, their fasces ceased to have an ax-head protruding while they were within the city where their power was thus limited.The ax-head was only added to magistrates'fasces when they journeyed outside Rome to indicate that they could exercise such power without recourse to higher authority.       Before Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) adopted the symbol of the fasces it was used throughout Europe and America to decorate civic buildings. It appeared on American military medals and on the dime coin; Christian Democratic groups employed  it and, closer to its natural home, the Sicilian Agricultural Union was known as the Fasci Siciliani. The term began to assume darker connotations just after World War I, when Fasci was used  by  organizations that were ostensibly set up to resettle returning combatants, but which actually had a secret and nationalistic agenda to combat the rise of Bolshevism and socialism.
In 1919, Mussolini set up the Fasci di Combattimento and mon_opolized thefasces as the party symbol. This group evolved into the Partito Nazionale Fascista, which took control of Italy in 1922.

[rufusredtail]

DID YOU KNOW ?

RAGLAN

Style of sleeve with no shoulder seam.
Still very popular in sportswear for the freedom of movement it affords the wearer, this somewhat peculiar cut is named after Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788-1855), who lost his right arm at Waterloo and thereafter favored a cut of tunicand coat that minimized his mutilation. Raglan was placed in command of the Allied forces throughout most of the Crimean War (1853-56), and it was his constant appearance on the front page of every British newspaper that prompted the world of fashion to copy the steps his tailor took to hide his handicap.

[rufusredtail]

GRAVITY SHINES THE LIGHT

 
Is it really possible ? a device that generates light from gravity? It appears London- based designers have hit upon a potential game changer for the estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide that have no access to electricity and need an alternative to kerosene powered lighting. The innovators have developed a relatively uncomplicated device called GravityLight that needs no batteries or sunlight and costs nothing to run. It takes seconds to lift the weight that powers GravityLight, creating 20 minutes of light on its descent.
We?re pleased t add that the innovative device has its roots in solar power. Back in 2009 UK Charity SolarAid was charged with a mission to eradicate kerosene lamps. The team at SolarAid wanted to develop an extremely low-cost solar light, in order to reach off-grid families living on less than $3 a day.
Noting that batteries comprised a third of the product?s cost and PV panels another  third, the designers realised the need to look beyond solar and battery powered devices. What if they removed the power storage ? the battery? What if power could be generated as it was needed? They could reduce costs and might be able to gain in efficiency. One of the first ?proof of principle? designs involved a slowly falling weight attached to a bicycle wheel and by late 2013 the enterprising duo had a working/
near production prototype.
Fast-forward to today and GravityLight comprises three parts, the light is hung above the ground giving the weight component a two-metre drop. To power the light the weight is lifted, and on release starts to fall slowly back down towards the ground. This movement powers a series of gears that rotate very slowly with high torque (force).
The gear train running through the product turns this input into a high speed, low torque output that drives a power generator at thousands of rotations per minute. This output is used to power an LED light, and ancillary devices, providing off-grid communities with access to energy.
With the 0.1W of power it generates, GravityLight provides a light superior to kerosene lamps and can also power other devices, such as a radio.
 
Unsurprisingly GravityLight has caught the attention of several mainstream news outlets including The Guardian, Skynews, Al Jazeera, BBC, Forbes, Time and CNN.
And it is on Bill Gates? radar. The philanthropist tweeted ?Gravity light is a pretty cool innovation which could be a source of cheap light in developing markets.?
Solar Council President Steve Blume commented on the ?great invention?
saying ?Although it?s not solar powered it could easily be adapted to charge a Lithium ion battery when light is not needed and so add hours of free energy in a portable form away from the unit itself.?
The next major step is to distribute the life-changing device to the 1.5 million people in need of lighting, and develop a sustainable and scalable distribution strategy to underpin the successful launch.
https://gravitylight.org/

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What's the origin of the phrase 'Over a barrel'?

This is an American phrase and first appeared in the late-19th century. It alludes to the actual situation of being draped over a barrel, either to empty the lungs of someone who has been close to drowning, or to give a flogging.

Either way, the position of helplessness and in being under someone else's control is what is being referred to.

An example of such a literal "over the barrel" experience was recorded in the Delaware newspaper The Daily Republican, July 1886, which reported the initiation ceremony of a college fraternity:

He was bound hand and foot and rolled over a barrel. Next he was stripped naked and placed upon a cake of ice... and branded on his back with the fraternity emblem.

Soon after that 'over a barrel' took on the figurative meaning of 'in trouble; without any hope of deliverance.

This usage is recorded in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 1893, in a story of an unfaithful wife:

The good, true, loving wife she appeared to be, being, to use a slang phrase "over a barrel." The woman who is "over a barrel" was Mrs. Nellie Brundage, and the man "not her husband" was S. R. Clute.

The modern-day usage of 'over a barrel' has softened somewhat. It is now used to refer to anyone in a situation where they have little choice.

[rufusredtail]

DID YOU KNOW ?

FIFTH  COLUMNIST

Spy or saboteur.
As his army of four columns advanced on Madrid in 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, General Emilio Mola (1887- 1937) was asked by journalists if he felt such a force up to the task of taking the city. He replied that he had a fifth column of spies and saboteurs in the city who were ready to rise up when he attacked. Mola failed to take Madrid and died in a plane crash on June 3, 1937 after becoming too popular and powerful for the liking of Francisco Franco, who was head of the Palange Espanola Tradicionalista. Several members of the Junta who mounted the revolution and presumed
they would sit in council after success died in other plane crashes, such as Jose Sanjurjo Sacanell in 1936. Nothing was found to link Franco to either incident.

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The Dog Days of Summer

The "dog days of summer" refers to the hottest, sweatiest, most oppressively sweltering stretch of the year. And though you might think the phrase comes from worn-out, overheated pups laying lazily in the sun, too hot to play even one round fetch, you?d be incorrect. Turns out, the phrase "dog days of summer" has very little to do with dogs at all.

According to Christopher Klein of The History Channel, the phrase dates all the way back to ancient times, when civilizations tracked the seasons by sky patterns. During the hottest days of the summer, ancient Romans and Greeks noticed that Sirius"the brightest star in the sky" set and rose alongside the sun. And as Jay Holberg, the author of Sirius: Brightest Diamond in the Night Sky, explains, Sirius is known as the "dog star" because it's the brightest star in constellation Canis Major, which literally translates to "greater dog" in Latin.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/this-is-why-its-called-?the-dog-days-of-summer?/ar-AADLaQm?ocid=spartanntp