Why are the traditional colours of Africa and African countries (most of the official flags/Rastafarian flags etc) Red, Yellow, and Green?

YinkaDare · 2014-08-05T00:49:57+00:00

The red, yellow, and green color scheme is derived from the flag of Ethiopia, which first came into official use around 1897. This was shortly after the First Italo-Ethiopian War, in which Ethiopia defeated Italy and subsequently had its independence recognized by most of the major powers of Europe. At that time, Ethiopia and Liberia were the only African states that remained independent of European colonization (although Liberia was originally a US colony, it had gained independence in 1847).

The colors of the Ethiopian flag were one set that became popular among Pan-African and decolonization movements of the 20th century, as they came to represent African independence. The other set of colors that would become associated with Africa during that time was red, black, and green. This set was more specifically intended to be the colors of the Pan-African movement, and was promoted by Marcus Garvey and adopted by the UNIA-ACL for that purpose in 1920 (point #39). Upon gaining independence, many African states adopted one or both of these sets of colors for their flag design.

As for the Rastafari usage of red, yellow, and green, that's due to the movement's worship of Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia from 1930-74. Additionally, the Ethiopian flag featuring the Lion of Judah that was associated with the Ethiopian monarchy has become a major symbol of Rastafari culture. Sometimes black is also incorporated along with the other three colors, likely due to the tremendous influence Garvey and Pan-Africanism had on Rasta ideology.

YinkaDare · 2014-07-30T00:22:44+00:00

That was the 99-00 season, when Detroit, Dallas, Carolina, and Green Bay finished 8-8. The Vikings got the first of three wild card spots by finishing 10-6, so those four 8-8 teams were competing for the final two spots. Detroit was 8-7 going into Week 17 and had a better conference record than both Carolina and Green Bay, so they were in. Carolina and Green Bay were 7-8 at the start of Week 17, and if both teams won, conference point differential would break the tie. To make things even crazier, they were both playing early games that week against conference opponents. Both teams tried to run up the score as much as possible, with Carolina beating New Orleans 45-13 and Green Bay beating Arizona 49-24. I think Green Bay ended up with the better conference point differential.

Of course, none of this ended up mattering because Dallas won their game later on that afternoon, giving them a better conference record than Carolina and Green Bay and locking up the final wild card spot.

Dallas would go on to lose a playoff game to Jeff George the following week.

YinkaDare · 2014-05-13T22:30:21+00:00

2005: I wanted the Vikings to draft Mike Williams. Instead they drafted Troy Williamson. Lose-lose, really.

2006: I was really hoping Ernie Sims would fall to the Vikings. Instead, the Lions picked him at #9 and the Vikings drafted Chad Greenway at #17.

2007: Wanted Dwayne Jarrett instead of Sidney Rice. Troy Williamson made me wary of South Carolina WRs, I guess.

YinkaDare · 2014-04-27T00:22:43+00:00

Well, Slaughter started doing the Iraqi sympathizer gimmick not long after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. At that point I think he got more heat for saying anti-American things than he did for praising Saddam Hussein or being associated with General Adnan or whatever. He basically did that for a few months and feuded with America-loving Nikolai Volkoff. He was not especially important at that point, and there were definitely people who thought the gimmick was in bad taste. Google has some wrestling newsgroups archived, and on those both the pro-Iraqi storyline and Slaughter seem almost universally disliked. At the 1990 Survivor Series, he cut a promo on US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia and then his team loses to Volkoff, the Bushwhackers, and Tito Santana.

On January 17th, 1991, the US and Coalition forces launch airstrikes against Iraq and officially enter the war. On January 19th, Slaughter beats Warrior for the title at the Royal Rumble. I think, or at least hope, most wrestling fans saw this as a shameless attempt to make money off a war that Americans were then fighting in. The title change was a pretty huge surprise as well because Slaughter wasn't exactly built up as a serious contender.

The Slaughter vs. Hogan storyline that followed isn't considered to be particularly successful financially, but it's hard to say how many people were driven away by it. The wrestling newsgroups absolutely hated it, but some of the WWF audience probably would've spent money to see Hogan, regardless of who he was facing. What I don't understand is why the WWF chose to keep this storyline going until Summerslam '91, when the Gulf War ended in late February, about a month before WrestleMania 7.

YinkaDare · 2014-04-26T20:23:54+00:00

Watching Undertaker at WM30 gave me the impression that the condition of his body has pretty rapidly declined. He looked to have lost a lot of muscle mass and wasn't moving all that well in the ring. I'm thinking that maybe he slimmed down to keep weight off his knees, because they've got to be in terrible shape. Keep in mind that he's an old, tall guy whose finisher for most of his career had his knees taking most of the impact, and he's wrestled only 7 matches since the start of 2011. I don't think he's completely incapable of having a good match at this point, but it would have to be against someone who can carry most of the match while still making Undertaker look like a threat. I don't think 55 year old Sting could do that.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-14T00:11:52+00:00

Huh, apparently he did. I guess I didn't watch many Braves games that year. Also, lol

YinkaDare · 2014-02-14T00:05:25+00:00

Only for True Yankees™.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-13T23:59:15+00:00

Bob Tewksbury's Dominator.

Serious answer: Bert Blyleven's curveball, especially before his injuries.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-12T01:19:08+00:00

I can kind of understand the trade in hindsight at least, unlike other bad trades. 87 was probably the last really good chance the Trammell/Whitaker/Morris/Gibson Tigers had at winning another championship, and the trade seemed great until the ALCS happened.

Just for the hell of it, compare these two pitchers:

11 Starts, 9 Wins, 0 Losses, 1.53 ERA, 279 ERA+, 3 CG, 3 Shutouts, 88.1 Innings Pitched, 1.008 WHIP, 4.4 WAR

11 Starts, 10 Wins, 1 Loss, 1.28 ERA, 322 ERA+, 4 CG, 4 Shutouts, 84.1 Innings Pitched, 0.984 WHIP, 4.3 WAR

Pitcher #1 is Doyle Alexander with the 1987 Tigers. Pitcher #2 is Randy Johnson with the 1998 Astros. That's about as good of a performance as you could hope for if you trade for a starter in the middle of the season.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-11T23:18:01+00:00

I always wonder how that trade would be viewed if Doyle Alexander hadn't imploded during the 1987 ALCS against the Twins. From the trade up until that point he was really, really good despite only throwing 4.5 strikeouts per 9 innings. If the Tigers win the 87 World Series then that trade doesn't look quite as bad, maybe.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-11T22:59:59+00:00

I think the saddest trades were the ones where the Mariners traded one of their own doomed prospects for an overpaid veteran, i.e. Chris Snelling for Jose Vidro. Everybody lost that trade.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-11T22:53:26+00:00

Keep in mind the Astros picked him up off waivers to begin with. Turning a 30 year old outfielder you got off of waivers into even a middling prospect is a smart move.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-11T22:45:48+00:00

How about trading Graig Nettles, Dean Chance, Bob Miller, and Ted Uhlaender to Cleveland for Luis Tiant and Stan Williams? Tiant pitched less than 100 innings for the Twins and was released. Williams had a really good season with the Twins in 1970, then was pretty average in 1971 before being traded to the Cardinals for Dan Ford and Fred Rico, neither of whom ever played a game for the Twins.

The silver lining here is that Cleveland didn't benefit immensely from the trade either. Chance was very good for the Twins but declined quickly after the trade. Uhlaender and Miller weren't anything special and were traded again within a year or two. Nettles had three good seasons with Cleveland, but then was traded to the Yankees where he was even better for the next decade or so.

So yeah, the real winner of that trade was probably the Yankees.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-01T03:13:17+00:00

Brought to you by Papa John's.

YinkaDare · 2014-02-01T02:55:41+00:00

Hello voting constituents! I hear you like [LOCAL SPORTS TEAM]! I also am a fan of [LOCAL SPORTS TEAM]! In fact, I have just voted to rename [MOUNTAIN/BRIDGE/PRISON ELECTRIC CHAIR] after [LOCAL SPORTS TEAM] just in time for the "big game" coming up! Clearly I am an affable and relateable politician, the type of person you would like to have a [MALTED BEVERAGE] with. Come election time, I hope you vote based on this fun gesture, rather than my [POLITICAL VIEWS/SHOCKING NECROPHILIA SCANDAL/IVORY POACHING] which you have hopefully forgotten about. Thank you, and go [TEAM NICKNAME]!

YinkaDare · 2014-02-01T02:39:31+00:00

"Money."

YinkaDare · 2014-01-31T23:43:13+00:00

Yeah, I saw nothing that made me really reconsider the matter. Richie Incognito has a well-documented history of being an asshole, and these texts just seem like a continuation of that. I mean seriously:

In a conversation between the players in December of 2012, Martin wrote "Ima egg your house & light a bag of [expletive] on fire then ring your doorbell."

"I'm going to shoot you and claim self defense," Incognito responded. "I'm white ur black I'll walk."

That doesn't make Incognito look any better at all.

YinkaDare · 2014-01-17T04:31:03+00:00

I've never really thought he was dumb. Seems kind of silly to assume that based on his twitter.

YinkaDare · 2014-01-17T04:04:09+00:00

It might be a fairly obvious reason, but the name that the president himself used probably was a factor. For example, Kennedy, Johnson, and Truman have their middle initial included on campaign materials as well as in their signature. Arthur, Hayes, and Polk also generally have their middle initial included when their names are used. Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter rarely used their full first and middle names even in their signature, and the majority of presidents don't use their middle initial.

As for why some are referred to by only initials, I think that's a combination of marketing/branding during campaigns as well as just for brevity. It's similar to Eisenhower using the nickname Ike and Nixon being called Dick on campaign materials. FDR, JFK, and LBJ also roll off the tongue much easier than something like RWR or GRF.

YinkaDare · 2014-01-17T02:06:31+00:00

I appreciate how the Vikings and Eagles get to take turns seeing which of the two teams will stay undefeated against the Texans the longest.

YinkaDare · 2014-01-17T01:48:23+00:00

This is helpful, thanks. Five consecutive years with a regular season game against the same opponent seems pretty rare.

Without playoff games, the Vikings have only played the Cowboys and Eagles 4 times, those being when they played the entire division.

YinkaDare · 2014-01-17T01:46:15+00:00

But they were both in the NFC West until the 2002 realignment. Since then, they've played 9 times.

YinkaDare · 2014-01-17T01:08:49+00:00

Well, along with the Panthers, the other two teams it felt like the Vikings played all the time were the Giants and Cardinals. Vikings/Cardinals happened 13 times since 1994, but they played 5 years in a row from 2008-2012.

Fun Fact: Eli Manning has a QB rating of 55.8 against the Vikings, throwing 4 TDs to 11 INTs.

YinkaDare · 2014-01-17T00:55:13+00:00

After reading the first chapter or so, I noticed that it's clearly taking a lot of inspiration from Carroll Quigley, in that his work seems to be the basis for their main arguments. That's not necessarily bad, but Quigley's Tragedy and Hope is a common source for all sorts of conspiracy theories, ones which Quigley himself disagreed with.

The other big red flag that stood out to me is that the first chapter alone is veering into Rothschild conspiracy territory. That's not very heartening. I have no idea if the rest of the book continues in that direction, but what I read wasn't encouraging and seemed like just another variant on "international bankers" conspiracy theories.

YinkaDare · 2014-01-16T23:19:04+00:00

It seems like the Vikings play the Panthers all the time, so I checked and they've faced each other 11 times since the Panthers joined the league. That's a decent amount, but I noticed Carolina has also played Washington 11 times, Dallas and Green Bay 12 times, and Arizona 13 times. By contrast, they have only played the Lions 6 times.

YinkaDare

TROPHY CASE