An Age of Magic

How ancient astronomers used their rocks.

If you spend a day at an astonomy gathering, or go all out and attend a solar eclipse somewhere in the world, the one thing you will notice is how seriously amateur astonomers take their hobby. This is one pastime that can become a time consuming and all encompassing passion.  On view will be telescopes and lens that come in all shapes, sizes and designs. Some that people even put together themselves, others that have paid a fortune for their equipment. And all for looking up at the stars.

Ancient man did all this but without the fancy rigging. And they knew a lot more about the stars than many of us know and learn’t it all the hard way. A stone formation, The Hurlers, on Bodmin Moor in England has been baffling visitors, and scientists, for many years. The Hurlers were placed in a pattern 1500 years ago and it seems an amateur astonomer has been the one person who has solved their mystery. The Hurlers are formed in a pattern that mirror the belt of Orion and it is believed it was used as a calendar by inhabitants of the area at the time.

This is when local people were going from being hunter-gatherers to being farmers and used the Hurlers as a way to monitor the changes in season.

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How do you choose your accommodation?

We have been fortunate to have been able to take several short-ish trips away this past year with one ten day holiday thrown in as well. When I say ’short-ish’ I am referring to basically a weekend or an overnight stay. Depending on what time of year it is usually we have no trouble finding a hotel to stay in given that our trips are usually spur of the moment type things.  Of course, this leaves us open to having to accept pretty much whatever accommodation rates are offered at the time.

When we do plan a trip though we always book our hotels online and have found that this is the best way to take advantage of cheap hotel reservations. Right now we are planning a long haul holiday that will take us to the USA and, hopefully, around the East Coast. We wont be leaving things to chance though, as we do here.  One thing that the internet gives you is that you can organise your entire trip, flights, car, hotels and all from the comfort of your own home! Sure beats the old days of sitting in the travel agency and paying commission.

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Dolphin ‘talk’

I always love it when I see any article that talks about dolphins. We already know how intelligent these beautiful creatures are but scientists are only just discovering just HOW smart these water-dwelling creatures are! Studies on dolphins in Queensland Australia have proven that dolphins have their own language with a specific vocabulary of over 200 ’sounds’.

These sounds consist of whistles and clicks and the mammals use them to communicate and hold their own conversations. Scientists studying them were already aware of twenty different sounds and their meaning but now a further 186 distinct sounds have been identified. These include a sound to signify ‘loneliness’, ‘excitement’, ’playfulness’ and when a group of the creatures find food. They also actually ’speak’ amongst themselves pretty much as we humans do when conversing.

Wonderful and fascinating stuff. And I’ll bet they make a lot more sense than some of us people do!

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