Every forum needs a Humour Section...

[Boreades]

Meanwhile more seasonal titillation awaits the TME revisionists as they watch tonight's lamb to the slaughter.

Roman Britain from the Air.

They claim:
The Romans were the first to invade and occupy Britain and their architecture and way of life have left a legacy that has lasted 1,600 years. Christine Bleakley takes to a helicopter to view remains that are best seen from the air, while historian Michael Scott is on the ground to explore further what each sky-high vantage point reveals. Their journey takes them from London, across to Wales and north to Hadrian's Wall, visiting fascinating sites that include the best-preserved Roman legionary barracks anywhere in Europe, the 6,000-seat amphitheatre at Caerleon and town walls that stretch for more than a mile.

ITV, 8:00pm-9:00pm (1 hour ) Tue 23 Dec

I await the verdict of TME's armchair critics.

[TisILeclerc]

Will it expose the extent of the Roman ice cream trade? That's why they built all those roads, to get their tricycles moving.

[Mick Harper]

Half right. As we pointed out in TME, in order to transport grain (or flour) economically, efficient wheeled transport is necessary. Since the Roman Empire was based on cities (and standing armies) it was necessary to transport grain around in vast quantities. Therefore it was worth providing roads of a very high quality. Roads of high quality are never straight (that was the template left by the Megalithics).

In cultures not built on cities and with no standing armies eg Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, Tudor and Stuart England, it is never worthwhile constructing high-grade roads since rustic transport can make do perfectly well with ox-carts and packhorses. Only when cities (and a large navy) once again became important, after 1760, was it worth paying attention to the roads once more.

[TisILeclerc]

What the Romans did for us eh?

Ice cream, pizza and spaghetti junction.

[Boreades]

Happy New Year to all the inmates.

May the best you have ever seen be the worst you will ever see.
May the mouse never leave your grain store with a tear drop in its eye.
May you always stay hale and hearty until you are old enough to die.
May you still be as happy as I always wish you to be.

May you go forth under the strength of heaven, under the light of sun, under the radiance of moon;
May you go forth with the splendour of fire, with the speed of lightning, with the swiftness of wind;
May you go forth supported by the depth of sea, by the stability of earth, by the firmness of rock;
May you be surrounded and encircled, with the protection of the nine elements.

Lang may yer lum reek!

[hvered]

A splendid New Year post, thank you kindly. Will try to do better as they used to advise in school reports. Best wishes to you all.

[Boreades]

A couple of End-Of-The-World dates for your diaries.

1)
There will be a Total Solar Eclipse, on the Vernal Equinox as well (09:30 on 20th March 2015).
See http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/uk/swindon
Any suggestions that Swindon is always the end-of-the-world are unkind.

2) the next End-Of-The-World (as we know in IT know it) will be in 2038 when all our cars, aircraft and any embedded computers with 32-bit Linux clocks stop working.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

[TisILeclerc]

If everything is going to turn black perhaps it's time to mention crows, ravens and rooks.

Here's one for the inner crowman.



A young American girl who has been feeding crows in her back 'yard' has been getting presents back from them in return.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31604026

I had a crow moment of my own once many years ago. Or rather a rook moment. I was with my cousin and a load of rooks were returning to their treetops after a good day's pilfering not doubt. A later returner came flapping in and was met with a series of squawks, no doubt from his good lady wife. The squawks came out so clearly as 'Where the f**k've you been' that we looked at each other and said at the same time 'did you hear that'. Indeed we had.

Very uncouth language for a country village. No doubt learned from pirates and handed down through the generations.

[hvered]

That's a lovely crow story, very unusual for gifts to be exchanged (discounting food brought to offspring by parent birds/animals). But then, it's very unusual for someone to regularly feed crows since they're generally seen as a nuisance or worse. So back in the days when crows were of service, it was presumably common practice to feed them, even obligatory for, say, a hermit.

The girl's gift collection is remarkably similar to the trinkets left at various wells and standing stones that seem to have become 'shrines'. It's always assumed that people leave them but maybe the practice originated with crows, ravens or jackdaws, birds which are closely associated with the Megalithics?

[spiral]

Slate delights us with a discussion of the evolution of crow and other pies.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food ... ssert.html