Walkie Talkies

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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby macausland » 9:31 am

The Chinese led the way, as always, nearly two thousand years ago.

The problem was they discovered inflation as well and over the centuries it wouldn't go away.

In the mid fifteenth century they got rid of paper money and went back to heavy metal as you might say.

Paper made a comeback with Chang Kai Cheque, sorry Shek, I believe.

Although they always used paper money to burn as offerings for the dead.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Marko » 4:39 pm

Interesting that the Chinese stopped using paper money in the mid fifteenth century, the time when they seemed to turn inwards and the apparently massive Chinese navy was completely destroyed.

The Chinese are supposed to have invented paper produced from soaking cloth, and far cheaper than parchment, but this assumption seems rather dubious if outside trade was indeed suspended and paper money no longer used?
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby macausland » 4:41 pm

They used paper for other things though. They used it for wrapping things in, for writing and eventually for toilet paper.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 10:26 pm

macausland wrote:They used paper for other things though. They used it for wrapping things in, for writing and eventually for toilet paper.


Ironically, that's also the history for some notable Fiat Currencies, that, err, went down the toilet as well.

Quantitative Easing is just a new phrase for an ancient danger. Devalue your currency to the point of collapse.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 11:42 am

This isn't a "new" walk, just a newly-recognised walk.

The Great Stones Way now runs from to Barbury Castle to Old Sarum.

The Great Stones Way is a new, 36.5 mile walking route through the ancient landscape and the varied, stunning scenery of West Wiltshire, linking the World Heritage Sites of Avebury and Stonehenge. The route includes magnificent historic landscapes, fantastic views and pretty villages with welcoming pubs. It runs from the Iron Age hillfort of Barbury Castle, via Avebury and Amesbury to end at historic Old Sarum near Salisbury.

The Great Stones Way is a central part of the ancient Great Ridgeway which follows the chalk escarpments across southern England from the Wash to the coast of Dorset. Together The Great Stones Way and The Ridgeway National Trail form the most exciting heritage trail in the country.


http://www.greatstonesway.org.uk/

No, I don't know why it doesn't go via Stonehenge. But it does go within a stone's throw of Avebury, Marden Henge, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. Other TME-significant places are passed on route.
e.g.
The Sanctuary
Wansdyke
Knap Hill
Adam's Grave
Alton Barnes (also Crop Circle HQ and Draco-connected)
Casterley Camp
Amesbury/Vespasian's Camp
Ogbury
Monarch's Way
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 11:15 pm

More walkers. And a famous one too. I'm not at liberty to say whether he stayed with us while he was walking The Ridgeway.

Just after I returned home from America, I went to a place I had hoped to go to while travelling for this book, but never quite managed to reach: the ancient White Horse of Uffington.

This is a giant, stylised chalk figure of a horse, nearly 400ft long, carved into a hillside in Oxfordshire. It is strikingly modern - it looks as though it was designed by Picasso - and very beautiful. It stands just beneath the even more ancient track known as the Ridgeway. This is where England gets really old. The Ridgeway has been a thoroughfare for at least 10,000 years.

For a long time, no one could say just how old the White Horse is, but now, with a procedure called optical stimulated luminescence, it is known that it has been there, galloping across its hillside, for 3,000 years. So it is older than England, older than the English language. For all those centuries it has been continuously maintained. If people didn't climb up the hill and tend it, grass would grow over the chalk and the White Horse would disappear.

The White Horse is a magnificent creation, but its preservation and continuous maintenance over 3,000 years is perhaps more magnificent still. You can't actually see the horse from the Ridgeway. You have to go partway down the hill to see it at all, and even then you can't tell what it is because of its immense size. But if you can't see the horse from White Horse Hill, you can see the countryside for miles around and that is awfully fine, too.


Part of Bill Bryson's article
Five reasons I fell in love with this rainy little island, adrift in the cold, grey sea
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... RYSON.html

Optical stimulated luminescence is a way of dating minerals and how long they have been exposed to sunlight.

(it) is used to date minerals. Events that can be dated using OSL are, for example, the mineral's last exposure to sunlight; Mungo Man, Australia's oldest human find, was dated in this manner. It is also used for dating the deposition of geological sediments after they have been transported by air (aeolian sediments) or rivers (fluvial sediments). In archaeology, OSL dating is applied to ceramics: The dated event is the time of their last heating to a high temperature (in excess of 400 °C).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optically ... minescence
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 6:27 pm

Stand easy chaps. I know this will come as a bitter disappointment to many of you, given the many hours of hard effort and dedicated training you've been putting in.

I will quote from the announcement from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust : The 2017 Sarsen Trail & Neolithic Marathon has been cancelled.

We have been informed that due to a major military exercise on Salisbury Plain, the Trust is unable to access the Plain or Old Carter Barracks at Bulford (the finish) on 30th April, the planned date of our Sarsen Trail and Neolithic Marathon.

We have overcome many challenges in the 29 years of running this event but after looking at alternatives including changing the date and route, none of these options are viable.

When did you know about this?

On Monday 20th February we were advised by Landmarc (Responsible for the license to use Salisbury Plain) that there may be difficulties with the date, we subsequently had several phone calls and meetings with Landmarc and the military to try and resolve this and look at alternative dates. Late on Friday the 24th we were advised that an alternative date was not possible. We took the unfortunate decision on Monday morning to cancel the event.

Why did this happen?

Each year we have to apply to the army for a license to use the plain. We did this in November 2016 for this year’s event. We then hoped to receive a decision to proceed in February/March 2017. It was at this stage we were informed that we would not be given the licence. In the past this has never caused a major problem. When obtaining permission there have been times we have been asked to change the route, because of the army’s operational needs, on one occasion a week prior to the event. We followed the exact same process this year but this time because of operational requirements the army could not accommodate us.


More.

Alternative Megalithic Marathon routes are available starting at Chateau Boreades, across the Marlborough Downs, and back home again. We will, if Harpo and Hattie insist, pause on the way to play Hide & Seek among the Sarsen Stones on Totterdown, or for ice creams from the ice cream van in the Barbary Hill Car park. Followed by (in time-honoured fashion) an extensive rehydration session at the local pub.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 6:16 pm

The Clarendon Way (Salisbury to Winchester.

Is this an ancient path, or some nouveau-cuisine national trail?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarendon_Way

As used by the Clarendon Marathon
http://www.clarendon-marathon.co.uk/
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 2:23 pm

Anyone got an axe to grind?

It's Marlborough Running Club's annual visit to The Polissoir, the Neolithic axe grinders' bench, just off the Ridgeway. About 9 miles in total there and back. A half-hour run each way, and a group hug around The Polissoir.

The route instructions are quite simple:

The route is out of the back of the Leisure Centre, then along the path that goes along the back of Barton Park. Turn right, and follow the path to the farm road. Left, then right at the t-junction and follow the road to the car park. Follow the byway to the Reservoir. Turn left, then through the next gate on the right. Head towards Totterdown Wood, bearing left before reaching it. Keep going in the same direction, starting with the wood to your right, then following the faint track. At the bottom of the hill, continue up the hill. The Polissoir is on your left. Continue up to the Ridgeway, Turn left, then half left over the next stile. Continue keeping the gallops to your left. Cross the gallops, and turn right along the top of the valley. Bear left along the obvious track. Staying in roughly the same direction, cross the valley bottom, and up the other side. At the top of the hill, pass through two gates, then turn right along the byway and follow it to the car park. Return the the Leisure Centre along the route taken at the start.


Totterdown is famously the place where many stones were quarried for Avebury and probably Stonehenge as well.

As the Marlborough Downs are very short of water at this time of year, the traditional way to do this is to drink plenty of water before you leave home. Then nature will take its course, and micturition will provide all you need on site. Don't forget your carborundum.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 1:10 pm

Walking can be thirsty work. So, good news for some walking routes.

A number of the National Trails now have official beers. A donation to support the trail is made with each pint or bottle sold - the perfect excuse to stop for a drink! Look out for 'Best Offa' from Monty's Brewery, 'Wolds Way Ale' from Wold Top Brewery and 'Striding the Riding' from the Helmsley Brewing Company.


Shockingly, the Ridgeway Trail doesn't have an official beer yet. I wonder if nominations are welcome for a suitable brew? Bishops Finger, Aass Fatol, Ginger Tosser, Sheep Shagger and the Dogs Bollocks probably do not qualify. Suggestions on a webcard to the National Trails please : http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/contact
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