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What has the Tintin series taught you?

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IvanIvanovitch
Member
#1 · Posted: 8 May 2008 06:22
The Tintin books are a large part of my life. Besides simply reading and enjoying them, I've accumulated quite a bit of extra knowledge from them. Here's some of what I've learned on the way:
· A full-grown gymnotus (electric eel) can stun a horse with a single discharge - Tintin and the Picaros
· To stand up for the little guy, even if you are one yourself - Prisoners of the Sun
·Â The percentage of U.235 in natural uranium - Destination Moon
· How to do away with a blackboard once it's in a leopard's stomach - Tintin in the Congo
· The distinction between the Paris and Greenwich meridians - Red Rackam's Treasure
·Â Friendship is forever - Tintin in Tibet

What about you?
tintinagalog
Member
#2 · Posted: 8 May 2008 13:14
Good idea, Ivan Ivanovich! Nice to know that you opened the thread I suppose to build up, hehehe...

Well... there are a lot of things I learned from Tintin's adventures. Thousands, to be precise. But the best lessons for me are:

1. Teamwork.
2. Bravery.
3. Survival.
4. Creativity.
5. Vigilance.
6. Open-mindedness.
7. Friendship.
cigars of the beeper
Member
#3 · Posted: 9 May 2008 00:22
I don't know about what I've learned, but there's one thing that some people might have learned from The Seven Crystal Balls which is not true: The Incas had no writing system, unlike how it is portrayed there. From that I learned that not all of the facts in Tintin are true. However, there is still much to be learned, such as good fighting moves!
Jeeves
Member
#4 · Posted: 9 May 2008 06:56
I've learned a lot from Tintin over the years. I've learned from the actual books and from books talking about the books. I've learned things from learning about Herge. I've learned things about literature, and art and culture. Tintin and my intrest in him and his world has tought me more than some of the classes I've taken in my life.
tintinagalog
Member
#5 · Posted: 9 May 2008 10:57
cigars of the beeper
The Incas had no writing system

Hmmmn...

But I read from http://archaeology.about.com/od/qterms/qt/quipu.htm this article:

*************************************************************
Quipu (Khipu, Quipo)
Ancient Writing System of the Incas

By K. Kris Hirst


The quipu (also spelled khipu or quipo) is the only known precolumbian writing system in South America--well, perhaps writing system isn't quite the correct phrase. But quipus were clearly an information transmittal system. A quipu is essentially a group of wool and cotton strings tied together. The strings are dyed in many different colors, and they are joined together in many different manners and they have a wide variety and number of knots tied in them. Together the type of wool, the colors, the knots and the joins hold information that was once readable by several South American societies.

Quipus were a tool used by the Inca empire to communicate some kinds of information throughout the Inca Empire. When they arrived in 1532, the Spanish conquistadors viewed the quipu with great suspicion. Thousands of quipus were destroyed in the 16th century. Today there are only roughly 300 quipus which were preserved or have been discovered since that time.

Quipus have not yet been deciphered, but some educated guesses about what they represent have been attempted. Certainly they were used for administrative tracking of tributes. They may have represented maps of the ceque system and/or they may have been mnemonic devices to help oral historians remember ancient legends. They may even have those legends encoded in them; but the likelihood that we'll ever translate them is very small.

Quipus predate the Inca, and are known from the Chimú state. They may have been used by the Moche and Tiwanaku civilizations, although quipu from those societies have not as yet been discovered. The oldest known quipu was discovered at Caral, and dates to about 4600 years ago.

***********************************************************
But still, let us research further. We just can't rely solely from one reference alone.
Triskeliae
Member
#6 · Posted: 9 May 2008 17:25
I've learned that if I get to see an unregistered plane force-landing, I won't go nearer; I'll go away ASAP. Let the pilot fix the problem! I don't want to be shot in the gut!


Joke aside, thanks to Tintin I've learned about Hergé, which made me find out more about the author, his country and history.
I've got also interested in Savate fighting.
I learned that I can use any common word in the dictionary to make an insult (courtesy of Captain Haddock!) without having to incur in dirty bad words.
I got interested in learning " L' Air des Bijoux" , Bianca Castafiore's favorite opera song.
I learned more about French pronunciation, writing and cultural expressions both with the books and the TV series. That, and much more.
cigars of the beeper
Member
#7 · Posted: 10 May 2008 01:17
tintinagalog

I am aware of the quipu, but as far as I know, it cannot be used to convey such things as what I am writing here. I think it is something more like: Storeroom 1. Contains: 15 bushels of llama wool, and 12 baskets of grain. So it was, I think, more like something for numerical data, probaly almost like binary code.

We should either start a thread about quipus, or go back to the topic, I think.
tintinagalog
Member
#8 · Posted: 11 May 2008 05:11
Thanks, beep, but I think quipus is kinda hard to decode.
Dupondt
Member
#9 · Posted: 11 May 2008 13:27
It's encouraged my desire to visit South America
Triskeliae
Member
#10 · Posted: 16 May 2008 17:00
And now I want to learn Dutch. So I ordered Tintin (Kuifje) albums in that language to teach myself.

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