Thursday = Thor's day • Hacker News Board

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#21

Post by jz » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:12 PM UTC

Now you can start to dive into any subject with some whimsical web browsing - an alternate to watching a TV show

Wow, I just had a discussion with my wife about giving up cable TV but keeping cable Internet for this reason. My argument was during the 1/2 hour of a silly sitcom, I can become knowledgeable with just about any subject of my choosing. And even if I want to veg out, I can still find most shows on the web.

Her counter argument was the cable box + remote are easier to use than hooking up a computer to the TV, which is what we currently do.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#22

Post by martythemaniak » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:12 PM UTC

huherto wrote: post #7

Interesting. Knowing a little bit of English/Spanish you can guess the origin of most of the days of the week. * Sunday/Domingo - Sun/? * Monday/Lunes - Moon/Luna * Tuesday/Martes - ?/Mars * Wednesday/Miercoles - ?/Mercurio * Thursday/Jueves - Thor/Jupiter * Friday/Viernes - ?/Venus * Saturday/Sabado - Saturn/?

Interestingly, Bulgarian (and by extension probably all Slavic languages) don't follow this model.

(translations based on word roots)

Monday - ponedelnik - "after no work"

Tuesday - vtornik - "second"

Wednesday - sryada - "middle"

Thursday - chetvurtuk - "fourth"

Friday - petuk - "fifth"

Saturday - subota - from Sabath

Sunday - Nedelia - "no work"

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#23

Post by mkramlich » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:13 PM UTC

My minimum requirement for believing in any particular god is if I can have lunch with them. Can I call them, invite to a party, and they actually show up. Etc.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#24

Post by hugh3 » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:13 PM UTC

huherto wrote: post #7

Interesting. Knowing a little bit of English/Spanish you can guess the origin of most of the days of the week. * Sunday/Domingo - Sun/? * Monday/Lunes - Moon/Luna * Tuesday/Martes - ?/Mars * Wednesday/Miercoles - ?/Mercurio * Thursday/Jueves - Thor/Jupiter * Friday/Viernes - ?/Venus * Saturday/Sabado - Saturn/?

What's really interesting is that Portugese is one of the few European languages which doesn't follow this pattern, since at some point someone decided it was heretical to name days after those silly Pagan gods.

So they have:

    * Domingo – Sunday
    * Segunda-feira – Monday
    * Terça-feira – Tuesday
    * Quarta-feira – Wednesday
    * Quinta-feira – Thursday
    * Sexta-feira – Friday
    * Sábado – Saturday

Domingo is the Day of the Lord, Sabado is based on sabbath and the others just get numbers. That's the trouble with monotheism, there's too damn many days and not enough gods.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#25

Post by hugh3 » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:14 PM UTC

mkramlich wrote: post #23

My minimum requirement for believing in any particular god is if I can have lunch with them. Can I call them, invite to a party, and they actually show up. Etc.

Does this apply to people as well?

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#26

Post by mkramlich » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:14 PM UTC

jz wrote: post #21

Now you can start to dive into any subject with some whimsical web browsing - an alternate to watching a TV show Wow, I just had a discussion with my wife about giving up cable TV but keeping cable Internet for this reason. My argument was during the 1/2 hour of a silly sitcom, I can become knowledgeable with just about any subject of my choosing. And even if I want to veg out, I can still find most shows on the web.…

... until the iPad came along. ;)

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#27

Post by infinite8s » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:15 PM UTC

xelipe wrote: post #20

huherto wrote: post #7

Interesting. Knowing a little bit of English/Spanish you can guess the origin of most of the days of the week. * Sunday/Domingo - Sun/? * Monday/Lunes - Moon/Luna * Tuesday/Martes - ?/Mars * Wednesday/Miercoles - ?/Mercurio * Thursday/Jueves - Thor/Jupiter * Friday/Viernes - ?/Venus * Saturday/Sabado - Saturn/?

You beat me to it... I was going to mention that in Spanish, the weekdays are named after Roman gods from Latin. If you find this amazing, then you will be surprised that the month of July is named after Julius Caesar. But what I find truly amazing is that Caesar Salad is named after a guy from Tijuana!!!

And August for Emperor Augustus, January for the roman god Janus (who was actually Zeus), etc

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#28

Post by TomOfTTB » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:15 PM UTC

This just makes me sad to be honest with you.

The idea that “we believe in 519 out of 520 Gods” means anything shows a fundamental misunderstanding of religion. You may not like the beliefs of some religious people but the point of religion is the beliefs. It’s not that a God created the world it’s that a benevolent God created the world and left teachings which lead to benevolence.

On that note I’d point out that he’s wrong about learning something too. The web is a wonderful place and you can go out and learn things but the problem with the Web as opposed to a person is the web doesn’t challenge your beliefs. He took the most superficial point imaginable out of a serious conversation and pursued it. So while he learned something useless he missed the much deeper contradiction in the statement he was so enamored with.

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#29

Post by josh33 » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:15 PM UTC

huherto wrote: post #7

Interesting. Knowing a little bit of English/Spanish you can guess the origin of most of the days of the week. * Sunday/Domingo - Sun/? * Monday/Lunes - Moon/Luna * Tuesday/Martes - ?/Mars * Wednesday/Miercoles - ?/Mercurio * Thursday/Jueves - Thor/Jupiter * Friday/Viernes - ?/Venus * Saturday/Sabado - Saturn/?

to chime in, Mongolian: 1-dex udur - 1st day (Monday) 2-daxi udur - 2nd day (Tuesday) etc... xagas-sain udur - 1/2 good day (Saturday) *buten-sain udur - full good day (Sunday)

Re: Thursday = Thor's day

#30

Post by mkramlich » Fri, May 07, 2010, 8:16 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #25

mkramlich wrote: post #23

My minimum requirement for believing in any particular god is if I can have lunch with them. Can I call them, invite to a party, and they actually show up. Etc.

Does this apply to people as well?

Nope I believe Linus Torvalds exists even though I don't expect to have lunch with him. I have higher standards for gods. Unlike most of the planet. Unfortunately.