Tell Me Something I Don't Know

[btownmeggy]

Stoney, here's one of the reasons I think it's important for socially-consciouss peopel to avoid phrasings like "that's more than twice the total number of slaves that were brought from Africa in the entire 400 years of the transatlantic "Triangle Trade"... and more than there has ever been before.":

Minimizing the immense effect of the slave trade and its pervasiveness in Western society, economics, and community-structuring during one of the most formative periods of modernization, helps racists and bigots to minimize the immense effect that the "Triangle Trade" STILL has on the world today. In fact, I would argue that the continued presence of slaves throughout the world is in part due to the patterns of exploitation, both interpersonal and economic, that flourished during the Africa-America slave trade period.

Your activism needn't focus only on the immediate present. Historical PERSPECTIVE can only make it more well-informed, nuanced, and persuasive.

[Minister Masket]

Octopuses have blue blood and permenant high blood-pressure.

[MrBenn]

Giraffes have blue tongues and no vocal chords

[lcb11]

Klaus Allofs was the top scorer in the Bundesliga (German football/soccer league) in 1978-79 with 22 goals. He played for Fortuna Düsseldorf who finished 7th.

I had wikipedia open and clicked a few random articles.

[ParadiceCity9]

I had wikipedia open and clicked a few random articles.

That's....cool...

[ignotus]

Jomo Kenyatta, first prime minister and president of Kenya, is the great-uncle of Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

[ParadiceCity9]

Jomo Kenyatta, first prime minister and president of Kenya, is the great-uncle of Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

that's pretty cool

[ignotus]

Jomo Kenyatta, first prime minister and president of Kenya, is the great-uncle of Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

that's pretty cool

I know. Now you can use this information.

[luns101]

Sara Edmonds was one of the greatest spies for the North during the Civil War, and she wasn't even an American.

[richardgarr]

-butterflies taste with their feet

-a normally proportioned person can NOT lick their own elbows

-certain albums in the 60's-70-s, did have messages on them when played backwards

[heavycola]

Octopuses have blue blood and permenant high blood-pressure.

Sorry to quibble, but if it's permanently high isn't it just, in fact, normal?

*ahem*

Pimlico is the only London Underground station name that contains none of the letters from the word 'badger' in it.

The only London Underground station name to contain every vowel is South Ealing.

[ParadiceCity9]

-certain albums in the 60's-70-s, did have messages on them when played backwards

please, do tell.

[lord voldemort]

stairway for one

did u know, that i once killed a guy....with a trident....

[ParadiceCity9]

lovo, we all love anchorman, but you don't have to make a reference to it in every post.

but where'd you get that hand grenade?

[bryguy]

I can speak a few words of the Mandalorian language, Mando'a

[ParadiceCity9]

bump

[heavycola]

-certain albums in the 60's-70-s, did have messages on them when played backwards

please, do tell.

Fill your boots:

http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm

britney spears is brilliant

[Anarkistsdream]

Oklahoma has the most diverse ecosystem in the entire U.S.

[daddy1gringo]

6 things you don't know:
#1: 27 million slaves exist in the world today
#2: that's more than twice the total number of slaves that were brought from Africa in the entire 400 years of the transatlantic "Triangle Trade"... and more than there has ever been before.
#3: the average cost of a slave in 1850 in Mississippi was $40,000 (USD adjusted for inflation)... a major investment that was protected much more than the even-more-abused, disposable slaves of today, which average $80 a person.
#4: Two fifths of the world's cocoa comes from farms that use slave labor (not just child exploitation.... but real slave labor)
#5: Millions of us indulge ourselves daily with the pleasures of chocolate and coffee at the cost of the the lives of millions, who had their lives stolen by the traffickers that we support by buying chocolate.
#6: You can, and should, make a difference, by buying "Fair Trade Certified" chocolate and coffee, which is certified to not support slavery, but ensures taht all laborers involved are paid a fair price. By refusing to buy traditional "free trade" chocolate and coffee, and instead demanding that retailers offer Fair Trade items, the Fair Trade market will grow, and major chocolate manufacturers will gradually lose the benefit they have from using slave labor cocoa/coffee, eventually ending much of the modern slave trade altogether.

Thanks for posting this. My family and I use a lot of both products. Can you elaborate: what countries is the slave labor ocurring in, what brands of coffee and chocolate are "fair trade Certified", or how do you find out? Actually, I mainly need to know about chocolate. We buy coffee that is grown here in Puerto Rico, which I'm sure is safe.

[Napoleon Ier]

Fair trade is a scam orchestrated by corporations manipulating or directly run by pathetic neo-marxists with less understanding of basic market economics than my pet goldfish, which died six years ago.

[supersue]

-In your lifetime, you'll shed over 40 pounds of skin.
-There are approximately fifty Bibles sold each minute across the world!
-Every year, kids in North America spend close to half a billion dollars on chewing gum!
-In 1976, the 10 billionth gallon of "Coca-Cola" syrup was produced.
-The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
-It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
-Nearly 90% of American teens used the Internet in 2005.
-The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
-Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
-"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
-Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale.
-TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
-An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain.
-'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
-Average lifespan of a major league baseball is 7 pitches.

[Guiscard]

Fair trade is a scam orchestrated by corporations manipulating or directly run by pathetic neo-marxists with less understanding of basic market economics than my pet goldfish, which died six years ago.

Cola, free market economics solves all. You really have got to realise that government intervention is always a bad thing.

[ParadiceCity9]

-In your lifetime, you'll shed over 40 pounds of skin.
-There are approximately fifty Bibles sold each minute across the world!
-Every year, kids in North America spend close to half a billion dollars on chewing gum!
-In 1976, the 10 billionth gallon of "Coca-Cola" syrup was produced.
-The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
-It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
-Nearly 90% of American teens used the Internet in 2005.
-The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
-Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
-"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
-Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale.
-TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
-An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain.
-'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
-Average lifespan of a major league baseball is 7 pitches.

Thanks for the info sue

[unriggable]

Slavery is a scam orchestrated by gangsters manipulating or directly run by pathetic neo-conservatives with less understanding of basic human rights than my pet midget, which died during labor yesterday.

[heavycola]

-TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

the QWERTY keyboard was invented so typewriter salesamn could type the word typewriter using the top row of keys. For speed, see?