I know it originated as a sign that the bowman still had their bow fingers and that is why in Europe they show two fingers but why is it only one in NA?
130792
two fingers means f*ck off\none finger means up yours.
257105
Well guess what, the Browns don't have any either. Besides, they are a distraction to our longstanding tradition. As far as changing the helment design...If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Because of the lack of tradition in today's football, the game has been changed due to new driving force of the game...money! It's nice to see teams, such as the World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers to hold on to traditional values, because that what gives a team it's true identity. Our core of values is what makes Pittsburgh so easy to identify and respect. So I can speak for all the the diehards, don't change a thing!
570634
It was a Hitler salute.  Kind of ironic to find this Q.  I just received my grandfathers prisoner ring from his time during his stay as a prisoner of war in a German concentration camp.  I'm sure it actually has a literal meaning in German but I really hate to hit a wiki-website for the answer.
108363
I think nowadays it's just good manners to do so.\n\nDragging up from the deepest corners of my memory, I have a feeling that the origin of the handshake was that it showed your enemy you were unarmed....most people being right handed....\n\nI much prefer a person with a firm handshake than one whose handshake can be likened to a limp fish....not nice at all.
227253
Although I don't know specifically, I know a bit *around* the topic.  I live in Bowling Green, which is named for having nice flat green spaces.  I also played an interesting "bowling" yard game while I was in Sweden that seemed a lot like bowling.  SO the way I imagine it is that the English had a similar yard game that was the predecessor of modern bowling.  It probably used a similar size ball as the Swedish game - a wooden (?) ball slightly larger than a softball, but definitely not as large as a modern bowling ball.  "Pins" would probably be carved of wood and would have ot be made stable enough to stand on soft turf, but tall enough to be knocked over by the ball - the Swedish game just had blocks of wood this size, but wealthy people might afford something sanded down to pegs or even already given a pin shape to make throws more difficult.  The game would be similar, but no gutters or return, of course - just the pins set up on a green (think putting green) and the players standing at a distance.  Depending on the class of the person playing, either servants or friends would help set up or remove the pins.  Of course, they probably weren't as pressed for time as we are today, so I suppose they could have just done it themselves.  Anyhow, I don't see how the scoring for... What is it called?  One round?  Anyhow, the terms "strike" and "spare" might have been invented then, but I doubt the games ran ten rounds... then again, there were 18 holes of golf, so why not?\n\nHopefully someone can confirm my suspicions!
17095
Unfortunately, the origins are lost in the mists of time. The Romans referred to the middle finger as the digitus impudicus (Indecent digit) and writings suggest that flipping the middle finger was offensive. But it is also culture based. You might see in some British comedies characters forming a V and giving a raspberry (a "phthbt" noise with the tongue and lips) which is apparently a very rude gesture in England.
527213
I’ve read at least half a dozen contradictory accounts of the origin of the handshake. Because handshakes clearly predate written history, all these explanations are ultimately somewhat speculative. But the most popular story is that an open right hand showed you were not carrying a weapon; if two men met and displayed empty right hands, this presumably meant a basic level of trust existed that neither would stab the other. In one variant of this story, the handshake evolved from an elbow-to-wrist “patdown” to check for hidden knives; in another, the shaking motion was supposed to dislodge any sharp objects that may have been kept in the sleeve.\n\nOf course, this explanation, while plausible enough, doesn’t account for left-handed men, who presumably would have been happy to extend the right hand in greeting while wielding a dagger in the left. But in many parts of the world, since ancient times, the left hand has been considered the “bathroom” hand, the one never used for eating, giving, or receiving—nor, by extension, for greeting—whether you’re left-handed or not.\n\nMeanwhile, the “I’m-not-going-to-stab-you” story doesn’t tell us why the handshake won out over other greeting gestures in the West. After all, in some cultures the standard greeting (even between people who don’t know each other well) is a kiss on one or both cheeks; in others, people hug, rub noses, bow, or even stick out their tongues. Writer Margaret Visser suggests one possibility. As she noted in her book The Way We Are, at one time the English were more demonstrative with their gestures of greeting—for example, English men routinely greeted all women with a kiss on the mouth. As part of the Victorian behavioral “reforms,” public kissing of any kind became socially unacceptable and the handshake came into fashion for both men and women as a convenient way to keep a person at arm’s length. So to speak.\n\nThe Left Hand Doesn’t Know What the Right Hand Is Doing\nAt least in the United States, the handshake has become an extremely ambiguous symbol. At one level, it just means “hello” or “goodbye.” But it can also be construed to mean “we’re in agreement” or even that an informal contract has been reached, as in the proverbial handshake deal. And on a still deeper level, it can mean “everything’s OK between us,” particularly after some conflict has been resolved. But sometimes social convention awkwardly calls for shaking hands to signify the end of a meeting, even though no agreement has been reached or a state of conflict still exists. And heaven forbid that one world leader should shake hands with another whose ideology differs deeply, since people on both sides will judge this as a disingenuous move at best, and at worst, a betrayal of the leader’s values. But was the politician saying, “I accept you and your beliefs” or simply, “Hello”?\n\nThen, of course, business types will read all sorts of meaning into the very style of your handshake. Even if you execute it under exactly the right circumstances, it must be firm but not too firm; it must be held for exactly the right amount of time but no longer; it must be accompanied by direct eye contact; and, for bonus sincerity points, you should add your left hand to make a “hand sandwich.” You may also be judged on the angle of your hand and the number and intensity of shakes.\n\nAnd if this kind of confusion isn’t bad enough, that’s just the standard, run-of-the-mill handshake. Gangs sometimes use special handshakes to signify group membership, just as fraternal societies and children’s clubs use “secret handshakes” as a kind of password, a symbolic way of saying, “We’re insiders.” So if someone outside the group incorrectly attempts a handshake, the results can be quite serious. On the other hand, a high five (arguably a variety of handshake) pretty unambiguously expresses satisfaction or congratulations—but that’s t
547898
Common ancestor.  It's like having five fingers--it's not necessarily the ultimately best number of fingers to have, but the bone arrangement has been around since we got it from the actinopteryginii and possibly even before.  We just happened to get it from the animal that happened to make it.  Evolution can work in favor of dumb luck, occasionally.
186220
The reason is because the rules say in England that a game needs to have a least of 5 points to be consider a game with a difference of two points to consider the winner of that specific game.\nIt all goes back to the British
61323
First of all they aren't waving sticks in front of the stone. The "sticks" are small brooms that are used to create a path for the stone to follow. If the right spin and speed is placed on the stone when it is released then the sweepers can control where the stone goes to some degree.\n\nSecond, the name "Curling" today comes from the way the sweepers get the stone to "curl", or turn, during game play. If the stone has the right amount of spin and the sweepers create a clean path, then a stone can gradually make a 90 degree turn to get around other stones on the ice.\n\nThird, the players aren't shouting at the stone. Assuming the players are shouting at the stone is the same fallacy of assuming the coach is shouting directions at the basketball in the middle of the game. What the players are shouting is directions to each other to help know where they are trying to guide the stone. It is called "teamwork."\n\nBeyond that, Curling is a strategy sport similar to shuffleboard and bowling, but done on a team level and on ice.
640818
It looks like people are focusing on the ORIGINS of the silent letters more than any "purpose" or value to them.  Well the two are connected.\n\nSilent letters are largely the result of:\n\na) changes in pronounciation AFTER the spelling was established  (e.g., in OLD English the k and gh of 'knight' were pronounced, as the related German word "Knecht" continues to pronounce them).       The changes may be large ones where entire sounds are  lost to the language (like the loss of the /gh/ sound of Old English), or small shifts from things like where the accent falls in a word (which is the origin of  many chnages in vowel sound, including silent vowels).\n\nb) borrowing words from MANY different languages with different spelling conventions and/or with distinctions that may not exist (and so ultimately are lost) in English.\n\nc) trying to use the Latin alphabet witch lacks single letters for many sounds found in English (esp. vowel sounds)\n\nSo in most cases, those who established the spelling of English words did not intentionally include silent letters!   And the 'decision' to keep the old spelling after the pronunciation changed was usually tradition/habit.     Nevertheless, keeping the older spellings DOES\n\n------------------\n\n"Purposes" (or values) in silent letters:\n\n1) The 'magic e' of words like "cane" and "code" --originally it was pronounced separately, but now it helps to mark the first vowel as "long" (and so to distinguish these words from "can" and "cod").  Some prefer not to label this use of e as "silent e" because it DOES have an effect on the pronunciation.\n\n\nSomething similar might be said for doubled letters -- technically only one is pronounced, but the doubling helps to mark the preceding vowel as short. Compare 'hoped' (with  the 'magic e') and 'hopped' (with the double consonant).\n\n2) Help us distinguish words that sound the same:  night/knight,  in/inn,  lent/leant.\n\n3) Silent letters may keep a record of part of the word's history.    Keeping the spelling may help to show us relationships between words: when  'soft' adds '-en' (-> soften) the 't' become silent, but we can see that the words are related (cf. haste > hasten; oft > often; fast [meaning 'secure'] > fasten; nest > nestle);  lean > leant (not 'lent');  in other cases, the suffixed form pronounces a letter that is silent in the simple form  damn (with silent n) > damnable;  vehicle (silent h) > vehicular (restores the h because it is in the accented syllable).   Incidentally, learning words as PAIRS or clusters (soft WITH soften) can make it much easier to get the correct spelling for the one with a silent letter\n\nThis is also useful when learning foreign languages (like learning to read French or German and RECOGNIZING related English words from the spelling) or other English words borrowed from foreign languages.   \n\n4) Some letters are commonly silent in certain English dialects, not in others (e.g., initial h-  or final -r);  keeping the same spelling, even if our own dialect treats a letter as silent makes it possible for us to communicate across English dialects.  (These dialectal/accent differences, by the way, are a MAJOR barrier to "spelling reform", because it would only really work for some groups, and make the written word totally confusing and non-phonetic for many others.)\n\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter\n\na list of common silent letters in English\nhttp://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/silentletters01.html
45714
I think that by the time the second olympics was added in 1924, most of the world was still under European colonialism and thus the focus was on the northern hemisphere and the tradition as just stuck.\nIn the first Olympic games, only one country was from under the equator---Australia.
622059
A Japanese student of mine once answered this question by explaining that when her boss or social superior calls her on the phone, she bows - even though it's a phone call.\n\nKorean stduents asked to raise their hands in class to answer a question always touch the elbow of the raised hand with the other hand.  It is considered impolite not to.\n\nAnd my own nation - the English - have the quaint custom of turning their arses towards theatre/cinema-goers when we shuffle past in front of their seats to get to our own.  (In mainland Europe, you turn to face these people and greet them).  A Russian friend of mine once nearly hit someone for this as he thought it was a deliberate insult.
566994
The "nazi salute" was used long before Hitler was ever born, and is still used to this day in Austria.  When asked why they salute their flag with an upraised arm, they tend to reply "Why would we change a long-standing tradition?  Just because some two-bit painter's son made it unpopular in Germany?"  Outside the Germanic world it is always associated with Nazism.  Within the Germanic world I have a feeling it is much more complex.\n\nA similar thing happens with the white robes and pointy hoods.  While here in the US that will always be associated with the KKK, in Spain it has been the traditional garb of the brotherhoods of the various local churches.  When taking their holy statues and virgins on parade through the streets during holy week (Semana Santa), the men dress up in this garb as they have since medieval times.  I'm not sure, but I think the KKK actually borrowed that symbol from Catholic popular ceremony (ironically).\n\nThe point is, symbols have a much more complex and varied meaning once they are borrowed or lifted by social groups for specific social or political reasons.
286118
I think it is probably actually a mace or sceptre. These are used in lots of parliaments all around the world as a symbol of sovereign power. This dates back to the middle ages when Kings used them as a symbol of absolute power.
617928
Playoff hockey tradition that goes back some time... no idea on its origin, but it's something I've seen for years and years.  Wonder why Brindy didn't sport the bearded look... doesn't matter now as I'm a Flyers fan.
216726
Well, he discovered it for Europe, even though there were people there, they had no contacts with people other than themselves. The funny thing is, Leif Erickson, a viking, had landed in America before Christopher, but he wasn't given the credit. Amerigo Vespuchi was the first to ever make a map of America, and so for some reason America was named after him. Columbus was funded by the royal family, therefore, his dicovery was noted and the others weren't.\nHope this helps! \n\nJesus loves you! :D