27/09/2008 by admin.

Earth’s most ancient rocks, with an age of £4.8bn, have been found on the shores of Hudson Bay.   The sample of ‘Greenstone’ is estimated to be 250m years older than any previously identified.  The stone may reveal evidence of the earliest life on Earth.  The Professor of Geology leading the study said, “The rock contains a very special chemical signature - one that can be found in very, very old rocks only.  Nobody has found that signal anywhere else on Earth. Everyone is so excited!”  As Rev. North asked in out story, ‘What do these stones mean?” Lets take a closer look at the image of the Greenstone. 

Notice the X at the heart of the stone?  Is the really a poser,”Do we have the X-factor?” as explored in our story? A signal that we need to adjust our way of life to live in balance with the natural world. Perhaps Bill Dan has the answer…

Bill is a performance artist who has been wowing crowds in San Fransisco Bay with his amazing designs involving resting different sized rocks on top of each other.  His gravity defying work has led many to refuse to believe he doesn’t use glue or some other trickery.  If you’re watching Bill, we believe in the magic of the stones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZItqAdaYPQM&feature=related

Let’s consult the Rolling Stones for advice on what humanity needs to do to avoid eviction from planet earth.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ8xM83fMhU&feature=related

Meanwhile Yves Rossy has succeeded in his quest to make the first single jetpack flight across the English Channel. It took him just 10 minutes to fly across the 23 mile stretch of water. History is littered with man’s attempts to fly like a bird and now someone has achieved that dream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzrKlEtxTx4

Posted in Q74 Do you like puzzles?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q65 Have you ever wished you could fly?, Q46 Do you value a good education?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q23 Do you believe all the laws of physics?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

26/09/2008 by admin.

The magician and illusionist, David Blaine, has completed a daring 3 day stunt in which hung upside down in New York’s Central Park.  Medics had warned him about the potential serious effects to his body, but he pressed ahead with the performance regardless.  

Trouble is it seems most people have not been that impressed by his attempt to turn the world upside down for 60 hours, arguing that he ‘cheated’  by taking regular breaks to respond to the call of Nature.  For ten minutes at a time, he would stand upright on a platform to take in water, relieve himself and have medical checks.   Sadly these fundamental needs have led some critics to give him a hard time - with even some booing from the audience.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTcYa71zwfg

So the magicians efforts to look at the world from a new perspective were largely unappreciated - many promoting and working for the environmental cause know how that feels!  

Posted in Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q39 Do you believe in magic?, Q18 Do you let your heart rule your head?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion? | No Comments »

25/09/2008 by admin.

There’s no cause for a-Lamb, but there’s blue sheep roaming the fields of Tyneside! The blue sheep are the result of a farmer putting blue dye on them so he could check whether mating had taken place. Only trouble was that the rams chose to fight amongst themselves, spreading the dye over their bodies in the process.

All very quaint yet the curiosity for us is that in his diary the colour blue was especially precious between Charles Lamb and Lucy Ebbs! Time to celebrate with some animation …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C81NxEQW01U

And a song…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ejP-KZ_tk8

Meanwhile, further South, the former Beatles singer, Sir Paul McCartney has performed in concert in Israel.  The concert comes 43 years after The Beatles were banned from playing in the country for fear of corrupting the nation’s youth.   During his visit he went to Bethlehem. Outside of the Church of the Nativity, where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born, Sir Paul said, “All we need is peace.” 

What’s remarkable about the visit is that in our tale, Caleb Hitch tells of the curious triangle surrrounding Keeper’s Cottage, with its lines leading east towards Stonehenge, north towards Royston Cave and south towards the Holy Land in Israel - which we suspected was too far to count, but clearly not!  The curious link between our story and The Beatles rolls on.  Here he is performing at the concert singing the Long and Winding Road!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS58AOGpLCQ&feature=related

Posted in Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Star Question - what happened to the blue ribbon?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q73 Do you like nursery ryhmes?, Q66 Do you have a favourite flower?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q40 Can you play a musical instrument?, Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Q.9 Do you feel in control of your life? | No Comments »

23/09/2008 by admin.

The autumn equinox is a key part of our story, so it comes as no surprise that the London edition of the cultural and events magazine Time Out is celebrating its 40th Anniversary edition.  The edition features a look back over previous iconic covers, interviews with global celebraties and identifies 40 London Heroes since the birth of the magazine.

So, we have a significant TIME OUT anniversary on the Autumn Equinox! Are we out of time to take remedial action to save our natural world? Let’s consult the Cranberries…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O28YoOIaXMA

Posted in Q78 Do you want to be part of the picture?, Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Q35 Do you trust your instincts?, Q24 Do you get enough time to yourself?, Q.4 Have you ever wanted to stop the clock? | No Comments »

22/09/2008 by admin.

Summer? What summer? The season officially ended yesterday - in an ironic blaze of sunshine.  But the warm weather could not save this year’s summer from a place in the worst top ten on record. There was 14 inches of rain and 464 hourse of sunshine - 7% less than the average.  As mentioned earlier on our ‘Watch’ August was a particularly gloomy month.  The poor weather was blamed on a jet-stream of fast winds high over Britain which blocked warm weather arriving from Southern Europe.  All very interesting given Mary Shelley’s role in our story and the reference to ‘A year without a summer’ which led to her writing the famous Frankenstien story.

Meanwhile, the number of fake £1 coins in circulation has doubled over the past 5 years, and now stands at nearly 30 million.  A Survey conducted by the Royal Mint revealed some 2% of £1 coins are now fake.  There are ways to tell a forgery from the real thing, you just need to know what you’re looking for. This curious to us given our discovery of coins from the Maundy Ceremony and Julia’s observation, “Are the coins genuine?’ Coincidence?

And finally, habitat loss is contributing to the worldwide decline of populations of common birds, with Birdlife International reporting fa fall in numbers of 45% of Europe’s common birds.  Farmland birds were the worst affected with the number of European Turtle Doves falling by 79%.  The study shows that environmental degregation is having a major impact, not just on birds but on bio-diversity in general.  Readers may recall how Emma Isola and Ralph Emerson sing a lament to the newly weds, Captain Lewin and Lady Katharine on Christmas Eve, which is all about two Turtle Doves!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCB4-JWZ1kQ&feature=related

Posted in Q65 Have you ever wished you could fly?, Q76 Are you going to take action now to save our world?, Q33 Do you believe in life after death?, Q28 Have you ever lived in poverty?, Q10 Have you ever seen a ghost?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination? | No Comments »

21/09/2008 by admin.

A millionaire businessman in Yorkshire has become so spooked by his haunted mansion that he fled and left it to the bank.  The owner, Anwar Rashid, described how he and his family became so terrified after hearing screams, knocking and seeing apirations in the mansion at Clifton Hall.  He compared his experience to Nicole Kidman’s movie, The Others. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu494-Dr5po

If Charles’ diary is to be believed, perhaps he ought to pay a visit to Blakesware Manor to witness the ghostly events there too? 

Posted in Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q16 Have you ever had a psychic experience?, Q15 Do you sometimes fear the worst?, Q10 Have you ever seen a ghost? | No Comments »

20/09/2008 by admin.

The Corpus Clock, perhaps the strangest clock in the world has been unveiled by Professor Stephen Hawkins at Cambridge University.   The 24 caret gold-plated £1m mechanism features a giant grasshopper and has 60 slits cut into its face which light up to show the time.

The clock’s creator, Dr John C Taylor says he wants to make time keeping interesting.  He turned the clock inside out so people can literally see the seconds being ‘eaten up’.  he wanted to depict time as a destroyer - to show that once a minute has gone you can’t get it back again!  Let John explain further…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHO1JTNPPOU

Curious this should happen as time is of the essence given the environmental challenges today and in the years ahead.  Some music maestro..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntm1YfehK7U

The final verse is especially relevant to our tale!

Posted in Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q72 Are you a good time keeper?, Q24 Do you get enough time to yourself?, Q.4 Have you ever wanted to stop the clock?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

19/09/2008 by admin.

Today, BBC Three Counties Radio Beds, Bucks and Herts featured an item about a crop circle at Barton le Clay in Bedfordshire, which was first reported on 14 August.  The radio announcer described the circle as extraordinary and questioned how it could possibly have been made by human hands. Well, the circle is the closest to Noblin Green we’ve witnessed during our watch so we decided to take a closer look.  Here’s a picture of the circle:

Commentators describe it as a ‘key circle’ and focus on the mysterious inner pentagram - a shape which was very important to the Pythagoreons. For us the circle seems to resemble a spider’s web - our fabled Web of Life! 

It’s also curious that the circle was in a field at Barton le Clay, given our ‘treasures in jars of clay!’

Posted in Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted? | No Comments »

17/09/2008 by admin.

A rare upside down rainbow has appeared in the skies above Cambridgeshire.  The arc was formed by sunlight bouncing of ice crystals high in the atmosphere.  It appeared in the sky for just the briefest of moments but was caught on camera by a local astronomer, Dr Jacqueline Mitton.  Dr Mitton, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from Cambridge University, said, ”I’m 60 and I’ve never seen anything like this before.”  Seen against a setting sun, the dazzling sight was accompanied by a phenomenon known as ’sun-dogs’ , which are gleaming spots on a halo around the sun.  The Dr added, “It was just an amazing combination of events that happened at the same time.”

Arc rainbows are rarely seen outside of the polar regions. What’s interesting about the location is that the Royston Cave is on the Herts/Cambs border! Our readers will know of the significance of the cave in our story.  Beyond that, our curiosity is simple - first, our story begins against a setting sun; second, Charles Lamb’s journal recalls how he observed 3 rainbows simultaneously at a time when Malachi emerged from beneath the centre of the arc; and, third the sun-dog event is strange, given that  our Samoyed, Malachi is the messenger! 

Let’s celebrate with a song…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2Jt4WOxN8

As if to herald the rainbow, the famous hourly Greenwich time ‘pips’ on BBC radio stations were a little late this morning!  The delay was unprecedented and put down to a computer error. Listen in…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7621996.stm

Meanwhile, across town, the artist Damien Hirst has donated a a pair of his heart-shaped butterfly paintings to two London children’s charities, amounting to a £1.4m gift. 

It represents a slice of the record-breaking £111m raised from auction of his work at Sotherby’s.  The amount is ten times the amount raised by a previous auction dedicated to one artist.  His famous animal corpses in tanks were the best sellers. One, the Golden Calf, went for £10.3m.

So, what does this mean for us? Well - the heart is the most obvious link, but beyond that we’re interested in the 111 or Nelson.  Readers may recall Malachi’s reference to the supposed misfortunate number, related to the admiral’s downfall.

Posted in Q72 Are you a good time keeper?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q23 Do you believe all the laws of physics?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

15/09/2008 by admin.

Long lost tapes documenting Agatha Christie, recording her autobiography have been uncovered at her home in Devon, nearly 33 years after her death. The recordings of the best-selling fictional writer of all time were hidden for more than 40 years and discovered hidden in a cardboard box by her Grandson, Matthew, in a storeroom at her former home in Greenway.  The reels of tape were working notes for her autobiography.  Only a handful of recordings of her voice are know to exist. Matthew said, “The one thing you can count on is Agatha’s unending capacity to surprise.” The tapes probably date from around the mid-sixties.  An extract of the tapes include a discussion about comparisons of the characteristics of the fictional Miss Marples with Agatha’s Grandmother. 

Here’s the face of the woman who set the template for fiction…

The connections with our story are a mystery too - links to a curious Grandmother, a long-hidden discovery in a box, revealing a past life story and many a surprise.  The plot thickens!

Posted in Q80 Have you ever searched for buried treasure?, Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q15 Do you sometimes fear the worst? | No Comments »