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Quick links to various main topics in my blog
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Simon's Blog - Hot news from the future!
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When you've run out of space in your brain, it's handy to be able to store thoughts somewhere else.
If you want to post a reply to anything hereabouts, you'll need to be registered and logged in.
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Well, that was quick - they've already discovered a new timber circle and henge about 900m NW of Stonehenge.
See this article and this one for some pics.
I reckon it's just visible on Google Earth immediately southwest of the Cursus Barrows, but I'll try to confirm the location if I get a chance to speak to the guys on site today.
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This is interesting - the DNA profiles of Amenhotep III and the 'mystery mummy' from Tomb KV55 (supposedly Akhenaten) have leaked via a documentary aired on the Discovery Channel about pharaohnic paternity.
What's been unintentionally revealed by the camera panning across the results is that the Y chromosome data is a 99.6% fit with the R1b haplogroup.
See this article for an explanation and a really excellent map :-)
(Facebooky folks hit "View original post" for a bit more)
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Not quite BdgeMaster, but close :-)
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Thought you might like this one :-)
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The announcement today that the new Govt has withdrawn the funding promised by its predecessor is extremely disappointing.
I can't understand it - Stonehenge desperately needs to have the visitor experience improved, and the new visitor centre project was specifically designed to be extremely cost-effective while achieving that aim, especially when compared to previous attempts over the last many decades.
(Facebook folks, click 'view original post' for more)
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In a stunning move, cementing its ultimate fate as the successor to the crown of 'purveyor of all things evil' and citing 'security concerns', Google has apparently decided to abandon the use of MS Windows on its internal desktop computers in favour of using Macs instead.
The FT has the story, such as it is.
In other news, Apple is now worth £154Bn - about the same as the UK's annual deficit. They should buy us.
iUK anyone?
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Regular readers (if there are such) of my blog will know I'm slightly obsessed with Stonehenge :-)
Having recently been accepted on to the English Heritage Education Volunteer programme at the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, I've just had an interview to become a paid part-time employee in the Visitor Operations Team.
It's the first actual job interview I've had in something like 11 years (bidding for new work for Novacaster isn't the same by any stretch), and I think it went quite well - although I won't know until Friday if I've been successful or not.
(Facebook readers click 'View original post' for more)
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Irrespective of your political views, you've got to admit this is funny :-)
(Facebooky folks, to find the video you need to click the 'view original post' link)
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... and boy are they extensive.
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The results of 4 days' work by the exceptional Andy May, bricklayer extraordinaire.
(Facebookeyfolks need to 'view original post' for the pics)
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I found the text of William Stukeley's book "Stonehenge - A Temple Restor'd to the British Druids" online along with images of the engravings from that work. Fascinating, and I have a new respect for Stukeley's attention to detail in his drawings of the landscape.
(Facebook-viewing folks, you'll need to click through and "view original post" for the rest)
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According to this, the BBC is going to make a documentary TV movie about the Atlantis story.
Sadly it appears to be yet another retelling fixated on the idea that Thera's explosive eruption 3600 years ago is the source of the legend. C'mon, that's only ~500 years before the events of the Iliad.
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Saw some of this guy's work at the Ft. Myers Art Festival, and thought of you :-)
Eric Ober
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Have returned to find the second week of the MRX well under way - heicopters all over the sky, silhouetted against the icy blues and yellows of an early February evening.
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http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=262529242887 - is slightly worrying, nascent plans to try and hold a Stonehenge free festival in June 2012.
Bad idea on very very many levels. It could set back the open access that has been achieved by so many people's efforts, by decades.
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If you weren't around in 1970 to see this edition of the BBC programme "Chronicle" the first time around, it's now available on the BBC website.
Prof. Alexander Thom in his own words - well worth viewing.
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Just got back from the Wiltshire Council Strategic Planning Committee meeting where, after more than an hour's debate, approval was given to English Heritage's plans for a new visitor centre at Airman's Corner.
This is excellent news.
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I like this article about several possible ancient records of astronomical observations because of just how old they are. http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/oldest-lunar-calendar/15204.
...over 35,000 years. Kind of brings the timescale of how long humans have been human into focus and that's why I'm fascinated by ancient oral traditions, myths and legends.
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Now the remaining foxes are safe again until next Shakehands Midwinter dinner preparations, you won't get shot if you're seen out in one of these.
So celebrate foxy's contribution to our feasting by honouring his memory with a handy dandy cut-out-and-wear mask.
http://elixia-dragmire.deviantart.com/art/Fox-Mask-130562919
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On the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment website there's a critique of the design for the new visitor centre. The same point that occurred to me when I first saw it has evidently occurred to them too - that roof looks a bit iffy, given the hoolies that blow in from the southwest across the Plain.
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There's a bizarre Spanish article out there, purportedly from Jan 2010's National Geographic, claiming that Mike Parker Pearson's unearthed a conspiracy relating to the re-erection of various parts of Stonehenge.
It's peculiar in the extreme.
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Check these photos out and look at the captions.
They say "Winter Solstice at Stonehenge.Revellers watch druidic ceremonies and take photos near the Key Stone, away from the Stone Circle at Stonehenge as Druids and revellers celebrate the Winter Solstice".
Key Stone? They mean Heel Stone.
So what, who cares? Well, I do - enough to give the AP picture desk a quick call to let them know. They swear up and down that they've only released 3 pics today and none of them have that caption, despite me quoting the URL to them and their photo IDs.
It's in this way that misinformation gets promulgated - the wrong caption's on the BBC and (edit: BBC have fixed it) Guardian websites and by the end of the morning will be all over the 'net.
Useless.
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17:47 UT Monday 21st Dec 2009 is the moment of solstice, but I had to go down to Stonehenge today because the sky was perfectly clear and afforded an excellent opportunity to photograph sunset through the monument.
Actually, I've been down there every day since Wednesday this week for the International Year of Astronomy event.
Here are some photos...
(if reading on Facebork, click the 'view original post' link to read more)
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Amazing pic shows the arrival of a UFO in the middle of the Stonehenge Golf Driving Range on The Packway at Larkhill.
Oh wait, no, it's just a teeny bit of light pollution.
(if reading this summary on Facebook, use the "View original post" link to see the photo)
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Bad name, poor article, odd in so many ways but still I'm going to have to take a closer look at this.
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Have just got around to retrieving and looking at the 'hacked' University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit files - concentrating on the code rather than the emails.
Ian "Harry" Harris, author of "HARRY_READ_ME.txt" in the 'documents' tree - you have my deepest sympathy. You're the designated shit/fan interface right now, and it isn't your fault.
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Having georeferenced the official plan of the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre in QGIS (as discussed in an earlier post) I was able to determine the coordinates for the end points of the "Avenue" through the middle of it.
Armed with my GPS, I then went out to the location and planted sticks in the ground at those end points, then walked back to the previously determined observation point and took a few photos to assemble into a panorama.
Finally, I scaled and overlaid the west elevation of the architect's drawings for the new building on that panorama to get a (rough) idea of what it'll look like.
As you can see below (assuming you've got Javascript turned on and are looking at this article on my blog rather than via Facebork), the "Avenue" is aligned almost dead on to the gap in Fargo Plantation at the western end of the Cursus.
Sunrise on April and September 6th (or thereabouts) each year will be on this alignment, and the Sun will appear to rise out of the ticket booth :-/
I stress again, this is pretty rough and ready, but it's just to give me (primarily) an idea of how it may look.
(Apologies for the wide page the panorama requires to be viewed)
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This is an embedded version of the public CIX GoogleWave.
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A while ago I said it should be possible to work out where and when to stand outside the newly proposed Stonehenge Visitor Centre at Airman's Corner and watch the Sun rise through the gap between the retail and interpretation 'pods'.
Now that the planning application's been put in and the detailed drawings are available (with OS grid refs and land levels), I've had a stab at it.
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