The term potshot originated in California, during the gold rush. A prospector with a gun would shoot an animal to be thrown into the pot for food.
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Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame, fans of Blackadder will recall, was Dr Johnson.
He got that doctorate from Trinity College Dublin.Comment
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I wouldn't take too much heed of the history in Blackadder. Johnson's honourary doctorate came some 20 years after his dictionary, so he was still Mr Johnson when Baldrick lit the fire with his manuscript.
Speaking of which, modern historians don't think Walter Rayleigh introduced the potato to Europe [1]: it wasn't grown in the regions he visited. He did popularise it in Britain and Ireland though. After he helped put down the Desmond Rebellions, he was granted around 1/500th of all the land in Ireland, including his home in Youghal, though he sold up after a couple of decades. Hugh Grant is descended from him.
Rayleigh sold his Irish estates (in Cork, Tipp and Waterford) to Lord Cork, who died having been chased off his lands by another rebellion, the one Cromwell put down.
[1] "To me, it's a potato. But to Sir Walter bloody Raleigh, it's fine estates, luxury carriages and as many girls as his tongue can handle!"You can't spell failure without FAIComment
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He didn't bring tobacco either.
He did live in Myrtle Grove in Youghal though, a ~450 year old house still occupied privately in Youghal, which I always find super cool. (Although I wouldn't like to be maintaining it!)
You can't really visit Myrtle Grove, however you can visit the Collegiate Church next door, which dates from around 1220, and that abuts the old town walls, which you can walk up to. There's a couple of people working in the church now, a touchscreen with info, maps kids can use to find all the interesting stuff, and little mice kids can be tasked with finding. Very well done, well worth a visit, and donation-only.Comment
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TIL that the green code in the Matrix was just sushi recipes.
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Are you looking at me?Comment
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TIL horses originated in North America, migrated to Asia and were domesticated, went extinct in North America, and were brought back over again by the Spanish thousands of years later.
Shamelessly ripped from a Reddit TIL I saved a year ago and just found.
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The recent anniversary of Brian Boru's death in 1014 sent me down a rabbit hole related to his reign and the internal fall out after his death which ultimately led to the dilution of the Dalcassian tribe (Na Dál gCais) as a serious force in Irish monarchy. We have such a powerful, interesting and rich culture and history, and i think it gets forgotten about.
On another note, can anyone recommend a good book or articles on the Annals of the Four Masters?I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.Comment
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The Antikythera Mechanism. The worlds oldest computer dating from 2 BC. It was used to track the moon and sun through the zodiac, predict eclipses and astronomical positions of the stars, sun and moon. Apparently it totally changed the way we look at the history of technology.
Pretty cool.I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.Comment
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Not so much the position of the stars (on a human timeframe they pretty much just rotate in the sky daily as they're too far away for much paralax), but it could track the planet the Greeks knew of.
It's an amazing device. They pulled it out of a shipwreck over a century ago, but it just just junk in a drawer until x-ray tomography revealed the innards. People have spent decades figuring out what it could do. The bronze-work in it and the nature of the gearing is more intricate than anything we see again until the late middle ages. It can't have been an isolated device - the craftsmanship in it has to be built up over generations - but it's possible that other similar devices were melted down for their bronze later on. Sadly, written records from that far back are very fragmentary, and we'll likely never know the full extent of the technology they had. It's kind of a caution too: the march of progress isn't as relentless as they made it out to be in school.
It makes some approximations of the motions of the sun, moon and planets that have allowed people to find the time period where its approximations fit best, which I think has put the likely construction around 300 BCE.You can't spell failure without FAIComment
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Nicotine and shrapnel are named after people. (I actually genuinely found out both of these yesterday, completely independently of each other)
One of Henry Shrapnel's early demonstrations of his new weapon was at Vinegar Hill in 1798.
Jean Nicot was the French ambassador to Portugal, who introduced tobacco to France in the 16th centuryComment
there are too many ultracrepidarian candidates on this site to mention DaH! (but yes 
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