h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"you are referring i think to Olber's paradox"

OK, thanks, I think that helps ... in particular, this part of the main Wikipedia article on the paradox helps:

" ... since the universe expands at its outskirts faster than the speed of light, the number of visible stars will actually decrease over time, causing the night sky to appear darker."

The term "redneck" comes from the red bandannas worn by union miners as they marched to Southern West Virginia to unionize the non-union mine workers there.

I thought it was because poor whites all worked outside, and got sunburn on their necks.

'Red tape' has got something to do with US Civil War servicemen getting their pensions. They had to go to Washington, where red tape was cut on their files. Or something..

Actually, "red tape" comes from the use of red tape to bind legal and official documents. This practise dates from at least the 17th century, possibly earlier, and still continues.

Ah, so that was truly a useless fact then.

There's some other phrase that comes from US civil war veterans. Anyone know what it is? I'm sure it was on QI recently.

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"In my day, this here was all fields" ?

I think the only thing you'll here from U.S. Civil War vets these days is the sound of worms burrowing through them.

legal documents and tape is actually a useful fact. even today in some places you cannot staple or pin particular legal documents.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

how does that work?

That happened because a full moon occurs every 29.5 days. February is 28 days long, with 29 in a leap year. By the sounds of things, there would have been a full moon on January 31st 1865, and another on March 1st 1865.

I'm sure there were other years where this happened, although it won't happen very often. It's just that nobody recorded it.

a blue moon is the 'reverse' right?

There are two different types of 'blue moon'. If there are two full moons in a month, the second is a blue moon. If there are two full moons in January (this will have happened in 1865), there will often be two in March. A blue moon also occurs when the moon appears blue due to atmospheric conditions, such as volcanic debris or dust storms.

Our modern definition of a blue moon, the second of two full moons in one month, is a misinterpretation of the traditional definition from the Maine Farmer's Almanac that defined blue moons as the third full moon in a quarter year with four full moons. The moons of the seasons were named, for instance, the Early Summer, Mid Summer and Late Summer moons. If a particular calendar Summer had four full moons, the third would be designated as a Blue Moon so that the last in the season would still be the Late Summer Moon. It gets more complicated by the determining of the seasons around the date set for Easter which was also determined by a full moon.

(Sources, a recent NPR show and Wikipedia).

The term 'Hooker' refering to prostitutes comes from the us civil war, when general Hooker had his own group of prostitutes, anyone asking "who are they?" would be told "Oh thier Hookers"


Taff
agent of kaos

The prostitues weren´t all for himself. He encouraged prostitutes "Hooker´s girls" to follow the troops around.

I hate say this, but the story about hookers being "Hooker's girls" is just that - a story. The word predates the American Civil War, and is found in print in the USA as early as 1835.

For an article on the history and probable origin of the word, go here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hoo4.htm

That's one of my favorite reference sites.

In a similar vein, while the term "red light district" predates World War I, the term became more specific then because in France and Belgium there were also designated "blue light districts" for officers only. While the enlisted men were given ample warning (and supplies) to prevent diseases of a venereal nature, the officers felt they were above such thing and having their own special district, they believed, was precaution enough.

Of course no one bothered to check to see the same girls working both districts.

now that, is a wonderful example of how the military and other bureaucratic minds work.