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Citation Station: Fact on the 30th of August

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    • CommentAuthordjb13
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2006
     

    The factoid • Ferret legging is the oldest sport involving an animal where competitors are not riding. may be wrong. The wikipedia article is being threatened with deletion, although, not being a wikipedian, I couldn't make head or tail of the reason, so it may be for a disrelated problem.

    If I am wrong about then I am very sorry for wasting your time :cry:.

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      CommentAuthorAdinsx
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2006
     

    We all know how unreliable Wikipedia is, deleting the true information and keeping the false bits whenever the community is so compelled.

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      CommentAuthorIllnab1024
    • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2006 edited
     

    After the last ice age, we humans came north from Africa, to settle into new lands. As some tribes headed further north (what would become the Russians and Eastern Europeans), we encountered several strange, new animals. Of these was the ferret. Now the human, ever seeking entertainment, had already found out several games involving riding horses (mainly those in western Europe), but those further north had few resources for such games, and invented the sport of ferret legging. This sport was handed down through the ages, but many things are sure to have changed. We can only derive from cave paintings that the original sport involved letting a ferret crawl around one's genitals. Many researchers believe this was also a way of "impressing" the women of the tribe, and those who could withstand the longest period of exposure to a ferret were deemed the most fertile.

    Again, due to modern medicine and improvement in technology, this sport eventually became only found in remote tribes in the Carpathian and Ural mountains; it is rare to find it prominent in other parts of Europe.

    -Source: Gambling and Speculation: A Theory, a History, and a Future of some Human Decisions by Reuven Brenner

    And please, don't be sorry. For you have not wasted our time; you have given us a great opportunity to check a fact's verity.

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      CommentAuthorUdoboy
    • CommentTimeSep 5th 2006
     

    Thanks for your question, djb13 and for your great resource Illnab1024.

    The Wikipedia article is in question because some of the facts about the sport itself are not correct. The wikipedia article doesn't mention the actual date of creation of the sport.

    I heard about ferret-legging many years ago reading a book titled The People's Almanac, but I don't remember which version it was (there were three that I know of, as well as a Book of Lists.) Since then, I have had to research it all by hand. That is, there's little on the internet that isn't basically a copy of the Wikipedia article. You have to go find hardcopies in the great British universities. Unfortunately, I live in the US now and all my information went up in a fire in 2003.

    The Danes brought over the sport from Jutland during their frequent conquests during the Viking days. Alfred the Great was known to have lasted quite some time, but those records are, unfortunately, lost. Also, these records are questionable, since time recording was not standardized. He may in fact have been able to hold on longer than the current world record. [If you ever read about archery statistics, there's a "world record" (rumored to have been) set by the Persian King which is impossible even with today's technology. This one seems to be like that.]

    Anyway, the hardy and burly Scots used ferret-legging to determine their clan leaders for almost a century, until one unfortunate incident left one emasculated. [One of my ancestors, coincidentally, earned clan leadership this way.] Since then, it has merely been for sport. The old days, it used to be tournament-style, so it wasn't "how long could you hold on" but rather "when the other guy gave up, you moved on" so it behooved you to remove the ferret as soon as possible after the other guy quit, because you still had more rounds ahead of you. Bravery = taking one to the groin, and then going back into the ring!

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      CommentAuthorIllnab1024
    • CommentTimeSep 5th 2006
     

    Ah. Thank you Udoboy for filling in the blanks over the sport's history that I left open.

    • CommentAuthorRedGreg
    • CommentTimeSep 11th 2006
     

    would mamouth hunting not counted as a sport?Many men working together to kill/win a mamouth,if so id say thats a pretty old ''sport''.

  7.  

    I work together with some people to make websites every day. Is that a sport?

    • CommentAuthorRedGreg
    • CommentTimeSep 11th 2006
     

    not in modern times no but this was a long time ago, thay were working together for a cause,yes it was to feed then but ther was stretegic thinking behind it and tactics and i bet thay had a good time doing it, and whats to say there wasnt 2 teams working together to kill the mamouth and the team that suceeds would get the better bits and more praise from the people of the tribe.That sounds like the beginings of sport as we know it today to me

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      CommentAuthorUdoboy
    • CommentTimeSep 11th 2006
     

    RedGreg, hunting for survival does not qualify as a sport. Many sports have origins in Mankind's quest for survival: swimming, running, hurdling, javelin throwing, etc.

    legat, your website development sport is as legitimate as calling "Texas Hold'em" a sport.

    • CommentAuthorRedGreg
    • CommentTimeSep 11th 2006
     

    so Udoboy the begining of your post your dissagreing with me but then you say many sports hav origins in mankinds quest for survivle,that was all i was trying to say in the first place

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      CommentAuthorUdoboy
    • CommentTimeSep 11th 2006
     

    OK. I didn't get your point then. You do have to admit, though, that having a rodent bite one's nether regions is not necessary for survival.

    • CommentAuthorRedGreg
    • CommentTimeSep 11th 2006
     

    ok you win. :shamed::cry:

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      CommentAuthorGeog
    • CommentTimeSep 13th 2006
     
    Posted By: Udoboy

    legat, your website development sport is as legitimate as calling "Texas Hold'em" a sport.

    Don't they have a lot of poker championships on ESPN? The sports channel?

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      CommentAuthorElixer
    • CommentTimeSep 15th 2006
     
    Posted By: Geog
    Posted By: Udoboy

    legat, your website development sport is as legitimate as calling "Texas Hold'em" a sport.

    Don't they have a lot of poker championships on ESPN? Thesportschannel?

    :shocked::shocked::surprised::surprised::shocked::shocked:

    PERPOSTEROUS! I think we should all write complaints and demand trivial research be proclaimed an official sport and be publically televised every sunday night 9 PM EST.

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      CommentAuthorGeog
    • CommentTimeSep 16th 2006
     

    I think it's PERPOSTEROUS the way you spelled "preposterous"! :bigsmile:

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