Staring at the truth 'til I'm blind
Aww... Guys, it's another "correcting misconceptions" post. Let's just go somewhere else and come back later.
(Good, I never liked them anyway.)
"SOS" does not stand for "Save Our Souls" or "Save Our Ships" or anything like that. It actually doesn't stand for anything. It was just used as a cry of distress because it was the simplest to remember and use in Morse code.
"News" does not stand for "North, East, West and South" or "Notable events, Entertainment, Weather and Sports". Again, it doesn't stand for anything. It's most likely just a plural form of "new", since the news (is supposed to) concern new topics and events in the world.
"Posh" is not an acronym for "Port Out, Starboard Home", supposedly from how rich people would book rooms on cruise ships.
"Fuck" is not an acronym for "Fornication Under Consent of King" or "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". The word "fuck" predates the word "fornication", and is most likely derived from Dutch "fokken" or German "ficken" meaning "to breed".
"Shit" is not an acronym for "Ship High in Transit", supposedly instructions given for shipping manure. The word originates from Old English.
When the Chevy Nova was released, rumours began circling that the car didn't sell well in Spanish-speaking countries because in Spanish, "no va" translates as "doesn't go". This is false on two fronts. Firstly, "Nova" is actually a word in Spanish, and secondly, when you're talking about a car, you use "no marcha" or "no funciona", not "no va". A Spanish person would be just as likely to read "nova" as "no va" as an English person would be to read "notable" as "no table".
Contrary to popular belief, "Bite the Wax Tadpole" was never an official Chinese translation of Coca-Cola. Before there was an official translation, merchants selling the drink in China used whatever transliteration they felt like, one of which might have translated to "Bite the wax tadpole" (or "Bite the wax-fattened mare"), but it's not confirmed (and "Bite the wax tadpole" only vaguely sounds like "Coca-Cola" in Chinese anyway). When the official translation came about, it actually translated to something like "tasty and fun".
Pepsi's slogan "Come alive! You're the Pepsi generation" was never translated as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave" in any language.
Similarly, the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was not translated into Japanese with the title of The Angry Raisins. This was an urban legend.
Plan 9 from Outer Space is a famously terrible movie, with particularly bad special effects. One part everyone remembers is the flying saucers, which are widely believed to be paper plates, to the point it's tradition to throw paper plates around during screenings. However, they were actually children's flying saucer toys.
And speaking of, the person who popularised the term "flying saucer", Kenneth Arnold, never actually used it to describe the aircraft. He said they flew "like saucers skipping across water", but described their shape as something more akin to a stealth bomber. He also never said he thought they were extraterrestrial in origin - his theory was that they were some kind of secret military aircraft.
Picking a laptop up by the screen, on most models, is perfectly safe. Most models (not all, but most) are made strong enough to withstand being picked up by the screen. You probably should still do it sparingly, though, but it's okay if you're just briefly picking it up.
(Good, I never liked them anyway.)
"SOS" does not stand for "Save Our Souls" or "Save Our Ships" or anything like that. It actually doesn't stand for anything. It was just used as a cry of distress because it was the simplest to remember and use in Morse code.
"News" does not stand for "North, East, West and South" or "Notable events, Entertainment, Weather and Sports". Again, it doesn't stand for anything. It's most likely just a plural form of "new", since the news (is supposed to) concern new topics and events in the world.
"Posh" is not an acronym for "Port Out, Starboard Home", supposedly from how rich people would book rooms on cruise ships.
"Fuck" is not an acronym for "Fornication Under Consent of King" or "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". The word "fuck" predates the word "fornication", and is most likely derived from Dutch "fokken" or German "ficken" meaning "to breed".
"Shit" is not an acronym for "Ship High in Transit", supposedly instructions given for shipping manure. The word originates from Old English.
When the Chevy Nova was released, rumours began circling that the car didn't sell well in Spanish-speaking countries because in Spanish, "no va" translates as "doesn't go". This is false on two fronts. Firstly, "Nova" is actually a word in Spanish, and secondly, when you're talking about a car, you use "no marcha" or "no funciona", not "no va". A Spanish person would be just as likely to read "nova" as "no va" as an English person would be to read "notable" as "no table".
Contrary to popular belief, "Bite the Wax Tadpole" was never an official Chinese translation of Coca-Cola. Before there was an official translation, merchants selling the drink in China used whatever transliteration they felt like, one of which might have translated to "Bite the wax tadpole" (or "Bite the wax-fattened mare"), but it's not confirmed (and "Bite the wax tadpole" only vaguely sounds like "Coca-Cola" in Chinese anyway). When the official translation came about, it actually translated to something like "tasty and fun".
Pepsi's slogan "Come alive! You're the Pepsi generation" was never translated as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave" in any language.
Similarly, the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was not translated into Japanese with the title of The Angry Raisins. This was an urban legend.
Plan 9 from Outer Space is a famously terrible movie, with particularly bad special effects. One part everyone remembers is the flying saucers, which are widely believed to be paper plates, to the point it's tradition to throw paper plates around during screenings. However, they were actually children's flying saucer toys.
And speaking of, the person who popularised the term "flying saucer", Kenneth Arnold, never actually used it to describe the aircraft. He said they flew "like saucers skipping across water", but described their shape as something more akin to a stealth bomber. He also never said he thought they were extraterrestrial in origin - his theory was that they were some kind of secret military aircraft.
Picking a laptop up by the screen, on most models, is perfectly safe. Most models (not all, but most) are made strong enough to withstand being picked up by the screen. You probably should still do it sparingly, though, but it's okay if you're just briefly picking it up.
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