I agree with xbonesgt that your second symbol is almost certainly a Chi-Rho.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 7:52 AM on July 14, 2008

I've contributed to one of those via my wife's old flatmate - he's a journalist and wanted a nice quote and picture to finish off an article after getting a few from random people, and it was easy to ask me (the evening he got home and I happened to be there too - this was before my wife and I were married). Not a fake as such, since I gave a genuine reaction to the question he asked and it was quoted word for word, but also not quite "random person in the street".
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 5:34 PM on March 26, 2008

It could have been Ctesibius, although I'm not sure about the influence he might have had on Archimedes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 6:17 AM on January 26, 2008 marked best answer

In the past I've used a rubber-soled shoe - hold it with one side of the shoe down (ie so the foothole is perpendicular to the floor) and scrape along the carpet until you have the hair swept up into a series of hairballs, then pick it up and dispose of it. It sounds a bit unlikely, but it really does get nearly all of the hair, and it doesn't take long to do. The rubber sole is hard enough that it gets the hairs but doesn't damage the carpet. NB it can help to scrape in the direction of the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 6:50 AM on January 21, 2008

Nthing Zotero - it's wonderful.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 1:12 AM on January 19, 2008

Wikipedia has a brief page on previous attempts to do this. It mentions an anecdote about James V of Scotland having children raised by a mute nurse - apparently the children spoke "very guid Hebrew"...
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 4:40 AM on January 15, 2008

The Scottish census site might be helpful for tracking him down, assuming he was born in Scotland, although I suspect you will have to wade through lots of James Fergusons. NB you will have to pay to view search records. Try also searching for Fergusson.

If he started out in Scotland, he might also have been a member of some kind of trade association. The records for this kind of thing are generally quite good - you could try contacting the Scottish Print Archive.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 1:36 AM on January 8, 2008

When I went to see an IFA (in London) they didn't charge anything for the initial consultation of about 45 minutes. The costs come if you buy products they recommend. £1,600 for a full report seems a huge amount and even £270 is rather a lot. If you shop around you will probably find other advisers willing to offer the initial consultation for free.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 3:24 PM on January 4, 2008 marked best answer

Seconding all of mattbucher's recommendations (hey another early modernist on Metafilter!). Ginzburg in particular is a wonderful writer and historian, and The Cheese and the Worms in particular is a classic work of "microhistory".

I would also add Edward Muir's Ritual in Early Modern Europe, which is an extremely accessible summary of all sorts of interesting rituals and ceremonies, both religious and secular.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 10:57 PM on December 20, 2007

"Wein auf Bier, das rat' ich dir. Bier auf Wein, das lass sein."

I've heard this in English as "beer and wine, fine; wine and beer, oh dear".
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 2:47 AM on December 16, 2007

I'm a civil servant, and although if you write a letter to an MP or Minister it may not get seen by them, you will raise a huge smile on the face of the official who reads it. It is lovely, if rare, to get a positive letter in the post. And you never know, they might actually show it to Ministers (I've done this with particularly nice letters before - "hey Minister, it's not all going to hell in a handcart!"). But that's only benefiting that official - in terms of really putting... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 10:16 AM on December 13, 2007

Animal Crossing is one of those games that has managed to hook friends of mine who "don't normally play games". It has many layers, is quick to pick up and you can spend 10 minutes a day or hours in a single session exploring. Definitely recommended.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 4:24 AM on December 3, 2007

You could try making contact with the people here - the faculty that will offer you either the M.St (coursework) or M.Litt (research). But are you getting carried away with the snob factor? If it's career progression you want, you should probably pick the place with the best track record for art history.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 4:16 PM on November 23, 2007

Follow justice and find life. It's a heraldic motto.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 10:41 AM on November 7, 2007

the magna carta

... was originally written in Latin, so doesn't count. The same disqualification applies to Khruschev and Lenin. As the OP says, "it must have been written in English".

My first thought (slightly banal I know) was the codification of the rules for association football - which changed the sport into something that went on to be huge across most of the world.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 3:14 PM on October 29, 2007

Another vote for the Alan Clark diaries - a great account of Margaret Thatcher's rise and fall from one on the fringes of her court, plus a great insight into the world of a landed Tory. He was an obnoxious, quite right-wing, sexist, philandering little shit who still managed to write wonderfully and have a wicked sense of humour. Much as I would have loathed the man, I still love the diaries.

If you like those, you could then try the diaries of James Lees-Milne.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 12:14 AM on October 29, 2007

Here's a link to a Russian one (mp3 direct link). There is a little, but not much, context here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 9:34 AM on October 25, 2007

Ah damn, beaten to it...!
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 9:35 AM on October 25, 2007

I've been there too and I got through it by having projects outside work: set yourself some exciting things to do before the end of February, so that they become the key thing and work is just incidental and 8 hours to be got through. For me it was doing a part-time academic course, which kept me sufficiently distracted and excited by other stuff that work, while still crap, didn't consume every waking thought and wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 12:07 PM on October 9, 2007

Nthing Symposium. We had something similar at my senior school which was called this.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 10:42 PM on October 3, 2007

Because the Treat of Versailles was not signed until June 1919.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 8:13 AM on October 2, 2007 marked best answer

Err... make that Treaty.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 8:13 AM on October 2, 2007

The Green Howards were indeed deployed in Russia in 1919 but this dating is common across the UK's war memorials, and in other contexts too (eg medals). It relates to the "official" ending of the war as opposed to the armistice of November 1918 - there are a couple of references to this scattered throughout the Q&A section of the site for the Centre for First World War Studies at the University of Birmingham.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 9:10 AM on October 2, 2007 marked best answer

Read this site, which encompasses most of a book called How To Be A Civil Servant by a former senior civil servant at the DTI - it's an excellent places to start for the nuts and bolts of how it works. This guide (PDF) shows you a more satirical side...

But mostly, relax - your skills will stand you in good stead and you'll get relevant training. If you've got any other questions I'm a civil servant of some 5 years, e-mail is in profile if you want to ask specific... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 12:07 PM on October 1, 2007

Hadn't noticed you were a prospective Fast Streamer. The training point is particularly the case as a Fast Streamer - you get dedicated training days at the National School of Government which has courses ranging from management skills to hardcore government finance. Probably within 6 months of you starting you will go on PGCS as it's known or Parliament, Government and Civil Service in full - this is a week of intensive introduction to how the civil service works, your role, Ministers' role,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 1:35 PM on October 1, 2007

It could be Raja Fashions. They do the whole "book up a hotel suite and take measurements" routine and they go to San Francisco as well as other places in the US and the UK. Although some of the reviews elsewhere on the internet are not brilliant, so approach with caution.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 10:20 AM on September 14, 2007

There is an interesting thread on a Turkish forum here that will probably help you. Kissing a friend on the cheek is a common way of greeting or saying goodbye to a good friend in Turkey, as in many countries. I wouldn't get too hung up on the Louis Vuitton bags, either.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 12:20 AM on September 1, 2007 marked best answer

A couple of accessible texts by "people who were there" (focused on the early empire) include:

- Suetonius's Twelve Caesars is a nicely gossipy history of the first twelve emperors after the establishment of the empire.
- Tacitus's Annals and Histories cover a similar period and are very readable. A good thing to dip into - for instance the books of the Annals on Nero are wonderfully fun (like his... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 4:30 AM on August 30, 2007

"Imperial cult" is how it's often described in the Roman context. I think deocracy, if it existed, might end up meaning the same thing as theocracy (theocracy has a Greek root with theos meaning god just as deus means God in Latin) - although I can see why such a word could be coined.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 8:42 PM on August 29, 2007

Given that it's a 2 week deadline you'll have problems getting a working visa in time for anywhere except EU member states. (I'm assuming you are a British citizen; if you are, you can work anywhere else in the EU providing you register with the police after three months). In terms of eastern Europe you have the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania to play with...
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 10:57 AM on August 28, 2007

In the ancient Greek it would have been ekkyklema and given that it's purely an ancient usage it may not have been anglicised. So it might be hard c's and a long e (eh) - see here for a pronunciation (direct link to WAV file, although this is a dictionary of classical terms so goes for the ancient pronunciation - the issue is whether it's changed).
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 2:24 PM on August 23, 2007

The u/y variation is because the original Greek is spelled with an upsilon - denoted by the character u but fulfilling a function somewhere between a y and a u. But it tends to get transliterated to y.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 11:20 PM on August 23, 2007

As ever, I bow down before languagehat's knowledge. The fact that the OED failed me in answering this but languagehat has trumped the OED says rather a lot...
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 4:12 PM on August 24, 2007

Subblandire would be the third person singular passive imperative, and you need the third person plural. Sino's unnecessary using this form of the verb. My own rough guess would be:

lymphae me subblandiuntor

You could also substitute nereides for lymphae - but it depends which obscure branch of water nymphs you want to pick to signify mermaids...
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 1:26 PM on August 20, 2007 marked best answer

Thanks for that - my dictionary only grudgingly admitted the existence of the word ("v., perhaps subblandiri"), much less told me what it took...
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 11:13 PM on August 20, 2007

It's not a properly, 100% American place, but the Battersea Grill, in Battersea just over the river from Chelsea, does a good approximation of an American breakfast.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 1:08 AM on August 19, 2007

NB - Battersea Grill is run by the same people as Chelsea Bun. (The menu options are the same, so whichever is nearer to you should do the trick).
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 3:00 AM on August 20, 2007

I suppose it's a bit of a cliché, but the Chinese character Tao and the philosophy behind it was the first thing I thought of when I read this. Have a look at the Wikipedia page and see if it strikes a chord.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 1:36 AM on August 11, 2007

I have solved problems like this with team members in the past, but it can take lots of time and lots of effort on your part. First of all, identify what the exact problem is. Is it not meeting a particular in-house style? Inability to construct extended prose? Spelling or grammar? Some of the steps I've taken after doing this have included:

- taking the time to go through a draft with someone sentence by sentence. This is painstaking and you have to work hard for it not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 5:33 AM on August 9, 2007

And of course all of my advice above only applies to those below you in the organisation. For those above, I can't help you...
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 5:34 AM on August 9, 2007

Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Elgar is almost a cliché, but still produces a strong emotional reaction in me.

And Love Letter by Nick Cave makes me well up every time I hear it - I haven't got any memories associated with it, it's just lyrically and musically one of the most bitter-sweet songs I know.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 11:14 PM on August 8, 2007

I think they mean a National Union of Students or NUS Card. There is a basic one which denotes student status, or one you have to pay a tenner for which qualifies you for all sorts of discounts - not sure which Apple will want. You normally get them via your student union, so you may have to wait until you get to uni.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 10:15 AM on August 6, 2007

Londonist had an interview with Martin Stiksel just the other day in which this was mentioned.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 4:50 AM on July 26, 2007

A historian and a philosopher go on holiday together after their university's broken up for the summer. They're sitting out on the veranda, sipping a cocktail, and the philosopher asks, "Have you read Marx?", and the historian replies, "yes it's these wicker chairs".
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 2:52 PM on July 20, 2007

Yes, surely it refers to Hercules killing the snakes sent by Hera to kill him whilst a baby in his cradle?
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 2:15 PM on July 10, 2007

I checked and it's not mentioned on the DVD commentary. I suppose you could try the Spaced Out forum. Also, the creator of the website seems to have contact every so often with Simon Pegg et al so might be able to get a direct answer?
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 1:17 PM on July 6, 2007

Go to a doctor and don't worry about it unless you get told something to worry about. I had a very similar set of lumps that didn't go away, and eventually through my GP managed to get a hospital appointment to have them biopsied. I spent the 4 months in between in an absolute panic about the possibility of lymphoma. It turned out they were a reaction related to skin pigment and were completely harmless. (They're still there, not doing anything!). But my point is I spent 4 needless months... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 8:54 AM on June 28, 2007

I know someone who was sent home on their first day at a London investment bank and told to change, because they were wearing a yellow shirt. This was not appropriate, muttonchops will not be either.
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 11:26 PM on June 27, 2007

Ill Met By Moonlight (book and later film), about the British officers who led the resistance in Crete during the Second World War (including the legendary Paddy Leigh Fermor).
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 12:50 PM on June 19, 2007

Is this it?
posted to Ask Metafilter by greycap at 4:35 AM on June 10, 2007 marked best answer