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Girl, 8, pulls a 1,500-year-old sword from a lake in Sweden
- joshuawright11 8y agoDoes this make her queen of something now?
- msiggy 8y agoStrange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
- jackconnor 8y agoSupreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
- ljm 8y agoThe story of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone is lost on many in this thread.
- xamlhacker 8y agoSo is the Monty Python reference.
- jacobmoe 8y agoOh, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
- anon49124 8y agoHelp, help, I'm being repressed!
- theoh 8y agoAnonymous downvoting is the violence of HN (and it's probably a lot more antisocial than we admit). Politely pointing out errors is... well, it's something else. Probably at least OK. Sorry I don't have a Monty Python line for this comment.
- anon49124 8y agoYes, sigh. Cyberdisinhibitionism: accountability and boundaries are reduced, lack of impact seen for committing such repressive acts leads to it. Next on front-page HN: How sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes
- kwhitefoot 8y ago> probably a lot more antisocial than we admit). More like definitely. What function does downvoting really perform anyway? And what function is it supposed to perform? I see lots of perfectly reasonable comments going grey with no explanation at all.
- ljm 8y agoTouché :)
- thaumasiotes 8y agoThe sword in the stone really isn't the right story here; you want Arthur receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake.
- ryandrake 8y ago...her arm clad in the purest shimmering silmite held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water... (Couldn’t resist)
- gumby 8y agoHonestly as I kid I thought that she would be clad in slime -- but I still would eagerly have grabbed the cutlery.
- qohen 8y agos/silmite/samite Per Wikipedia[0]: Samite was a luxurious and heavy silk fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weave, often including gold or silver thread. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samite
- norvig 8y agoI mean, if I went around sayin' I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they'd put me away!
- jackconnor 8y ago"Moistened bint", haha. This quote reminds me just how funny their wordplay and use of language was.
- escherplex 8y ago...That depends on the time and the place.
- fao_ 8y ago> you paraphrased that from a quote in the urban dictionary (funny line) No, it's a quote from Monty Python. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes/qt0470593 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes/qt0470593
- escherplex 8y agoOh, that was the third DDG reference. Still a funny line.
- 8bitsrule 8y agoAnd here, all these years, I was hearing "moistened bink". Makes more sense now. (Surely Python deserves some kind of Silly Award for widely distributing UK slang.)
- bdz 8y agohttps://old.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/4k83qf/cmvstrange_women_lying_in_ponds_distributing/ https://old.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/4k83qf/cmvstr...
- anon49124 8y agoOh, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you.
- Yetanfou 8y agoNow where did that quote come from again? Ah, yes... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sprrQ1OLW6g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sprrQ1OLW6g
- pssflops 8y agoSadly, she is now just the Lady of the Lake.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoIt's wonderfully appropriate that her name is "Saga".
- johan_larson 8y agoLong live Queen Saga, founder of the Second Swedish Empire. Pity about those border wars with China, though.
- Taniwha 8y agoYup, fear her wrath
- julienchastang 8y agoCheck out this PBS Nova episode: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-viking-sword.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-viking-sword.ht... though the sword mentioned in the article is "pre-Viking-era".
- exabrial 8y agoInstantly I thought, "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government" - Monty Python
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- roguecoder 8y agoThough perhaps we should give it a try.
- WalterSear 8y agoA leader chosen at random can only be bought if all of us are bought.
- ocschwar 8y agoWhat we should have is an add on to the jury system. Every bill before a Congressional commitee gets faxed to more than one court house around the country. At each of these, a random selection of people from the jury pool is assigned to read it and vote it onto the floor or onto the garbage pile. If every bill receives this treatment, I suspect legislators would be hesitant to sneak things onto legislation.
- heurist 8y agoYou mean can only be bought before becoming the leader? Unless maybe the leader changes annually and is guaranteed to be unable to affect the lottery process, at which point at least the benefits of greed are distributed randomly..
- NeedMoreTea 8y agoThe top few posts of the reddit CMV thread that bdz linked further down, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18144082 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18144082, makes a reasonable case. Disturbingly manages to cite a relevant study too. Hydrobintocracy might be better than some of the other approaches humanity has tried.
- wkearney99 8y agoSomething, something, watery tart....
- NikolaeVarius 8y agoSurprisingly no references to Saber. I'm somewhat disappointed
- woodandsteel 8y agoOh come on, everyone knows 8 year old girls should be given drumsticks, not swords https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cozHT9QaFJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cozHT9QaFJo
- 7000skeletons 8y agoWell I, for one, would like to congratulate the new Queen of Sweden.
- yellowapple 8y agoI hope she gets to keep it as part of her new quest to claim the Swedish Crown.