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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
No, not the planet, this time. Hibernicus' cousins thread made me think of this, starting, oddly enough, with his comment about a knight's move being across and then down. From another perspective, the knight could be thought of as moving across and up. My question is:
why do we say "down through the generations" and "down through the ages"? The numbers are getting higher, right? I would rather think of us as generations leading up to whatever pinnacle awaits, not down through the generations, as though there is some unimaginably horrid and final bottom we're going to hit.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Well, perhaps it has to do with listing things from the top to bottom. Just a thought.
It is hard for little kids to learn to count, conversely, the lines on the staff from bottom to top--or moving up. The first line, as you know, J., is the bottom line of the staff--and then you move up to the top line, which is the fifth.
Anyway, I'm not sure about down through the ages and all that, but maybe it simply has to do with how we list things on a page from first down to last.
If someone knows the correct answer to your question, I'll be interested in learning, too.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
which way is up? depends on what your doing.
in knitting, charts start at the bottom and you work your way up (but the knitting gets longer and longer and goes down!)
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79 |
The word "descendants" suggests generations going "down" into the future.
The usual convention for family trees has the latest-born generation at the bottom and earlier-born generations progressively higher up the page.
This convention was probably what conditioned me to say "across, then down", but I confess I didn't think about it at the time. Why, indeed, should our posterity be lower, and our antecedents higher?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Why, indeed, should our posterity be lower
Bet mine's lower'n yours--oh, wait...you said posterity.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
They ain' no up or down on a chess board. The knight's move is one orthogonal and one diagonal.
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Have you ever seen Chinese chess ( xianggi pronounced shang ghee)? You've got red's side of the river and black's side. There's a river that runs across the chessboard. There's also a palace and no queen, just a couple of mandarins (guards). Less pawns and two cannons. The horse (our knight) moves in the same L-shape, but can be blocked by certain pieces. Some cannot make it across the river and the king cannot make it outside the palace. Pieces sit on the vertices of our squares, of which there are 9 across the board. More here: http://www.chessvariants.com/xiangqi.html
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I've played shogi (Japanese chess). The respective pieces on each side are identical, differring only in which way they are pointed. If you capture an opponent's piece you can send it to political retraining and use it to fight on your side. I'm sure I never would have beaten anyone who could remember which was the rook and which the bishop.
The knight moves one forward and one diagonally.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Jheem,
I can't get the link to work. It comes up then dies. (???)
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
AnnaStrophic-- I just checked it again, and it works for me. Sorry about that. We can take this into PM and try to get it working for you.
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