Trade Secrets

[hvered]

The public has been invited to vote for the most pressing problem that needs to be resolved via the website of Horizon, the BBC's flagship science programme. It's called the Longitude Prize, up for grabs to anyone apparently.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxf

Which topic would you vote for?

[Boreades]

Yes, Amazon are kindly sponsoring a £10 million prize fund "to help solve one of the greatest issues of our time.". In aid of that, "Britain is reconvening the historic Longitude Committee "

Has anyone else read that lovely book Longitude (by Dava Sobel)? In which Harrison (the hero of the story) is buggered about by the original Longitude Committee, full of people with vested interests, who fudged their experiments and tests, and denied his claims and prize money for decades.

A visit to www.longitudeprize.org shows they (the new committee) have already decided what the greatest issues are. No surprise one of them is tied to climate change. They (the new committee) also have a certain whiff of "the usual suspects".

As a bit of trivia, my most-favourite episode ever of "Only Fools And Horses" was the one where Rodney's father-in-law discovers a missing Harrison Chronometer in their lock-up.

"This time next year, we could be billionaires!"

[Mick Harper]

This 'poor Harrison" business is a bunch of hooey. The truth is that his chronometer was so fiddly and so expensive that it would never have made a practical ship's instrument.

[Boreades]

This 'poor Harrison" business is a bunch of hooey. The truth is that his chronometer was so fiddly and so expensive that it would never have made a practical ship's instrument.

Harsh! You didn't expect him to get it right first time did you? True the first one was flakey, but he did make massive improvements. In the end, it was a practical and reliable instrument. Like much leading-edge military hardware, cost is not an issue if it gives you a strategic or even tactical advantage. Which it did.

[Mick Harper]

And he got his reward. It's all this 'vested interests' mullarkey that sticks in my throat. The powers-that-be are mostly right but authors don't make money saying so. And the lower orders are never happy believing so.

[Boreades]

It's all this 'vested interests' mullarkey that sticks in my throat.

Do I dectect an endearing reluctance to say that not all Honourable members of parliament are as honourable as they might be?

'Vested interests'? Indeed there were, since some of the Committee were working on their own Longitude schemes, in competition to Harrison. Nowadays we'd call it a conflict of interest. A bit (allegedly) like a Select Committee member having shares in (or a seat on the board of) a private company that receives government grants.

[Boreades]

As there seem to be a lot of blokes in the TME forums, it's no wonder that personal hygiene has been ignored. I don't mean there's a lot of smelly armpits here (how would I know?). But the niceties and pleasantries of megalithic life has never featured much in our discussions.

But the very nice history ladies here
http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.it ... rt_24.html
have written an article which sparked my interest.

Instead of daily lathering of soap and water (which can damage hair), they worked pomatum into the hair with their fingers, added powder, and then brushed and combed vigorously. The pomatum could have been made at home or purchased, and consisted of animal fat plus fragrance. The powder would have included some sort of finely-ground starch, with ground sheep or beef bones and ground orris-root for a light floral scent.

Which sounds like the kind of recipe that could have endured for thousands of years, handed down from mother to daughter. Just the kind of thing that would have been traded at megalithic overnight pit-stops / pathway enclosures.

[macausland]

The Ancient Britons are said to have used lime and clay to wash into their hair. I suppose that would keep the wee beasties at bay.

Speaking of which my attention has been drawn to an article in our favourite newspaper from two years ago. It deals with ancient dna in Britain and was presented to the Royal Society in 2012.

What is interesting is that after telling us that Cornish and Welsh dna is the oldest it goes on to say that East Anglians were also related genetically to the people of the west.


'The results show that those from Cornwall and Wales are among the most genetically distinct Britons on the mainland and carry DNA from the tribes that colonised Britain in the last Ice Age.

In contrast, those from central and south-east England are a ‘genetic cocktail’ with ancestors from tribes that invaded the British Isles.

Peter Donnelly, professor of statistical science at Oxford University, said the study also showed that those from Norfolk, who claim descent from the Iceni, a tribe led by warrior queen Boadicea, are genetically very similar to people from the West and South.

It also found that Scots had strong genetic similarities to the northern English.'

Looks like the roots are beginning to show. No mention of Essex girls though and their hair styles.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... finds.html

[Mick Harper]

What is interesting is that after telling us that Cornish and Welsh dna is the oldest

It always makes me laugh when academics talk about this lot's DNA being 'older' than some other lot's DNA. They do it all the time in Out-of-Africa debates. About three seconds thought will tell you that everybody on earth has a DNA which is exactly the same age as everybody else's DNA.

[macausland]

True, but what they say is that East Anglians who we are told were Germanic invaders have the same dna as the people in western Britain. Which means that they are closely related.

The other point made is that northern England and Scotland are closely related.

Which means that there is a link in the south east to west and further north a continuous link in that area.

When they say dna is old what I think they mean is that certain dna groups die out because for example some women have sons or do not have children which means that their mitochondrial dna is not passed on. The same goes for men and sons.

As for Out of Africa, there's a study by Russian academics which is on the web somewhere claiming that humans started off in eastern Europe and the middle east rather than Africa..