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 »

05/09/2008 by admin.

A parrot named Luna from New Jersey has fooled emergency services into an attempt to rescue a damsel in distress.  Concerned neighbours had called the police after they heard cries of, ‘Help me! Help me!” Police resorted to knocking the front door down, only to find a parrot was reponsible.  The owner wasn’t especially surprised as seven years ago Luna alarmed authorities by mimicking a baby’s cry for hours on end, triggering a visit by child welfare officials fearing an abandoned infant!  This is all very familiar given our story.

Meanwhile, in Kent, England, Leonard an African Grey has been showing off his repetoire of impersonations and moves.  The parrot was missing for about 4 days but has now returned home.  Here he is performing Beethoven’s Fifth and doing Dalek impressions - all features from our story!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7600955.stm

However, Sarah pointed out that this is nothing compared with Einstien’s performance. Now here’s a real superstar…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSDFzg8_Wfg

Posted in Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate? | No Comments »

19/08/2008 by admin.

Scientists have discovered that Magpies are able to identify their own reflection in a mirror; the first time that self-recognition has been seen in non-mammal. Dr Helmet Prior from the Geothe University in Franfurt found carried out the tests on 5 hand-reared birds, placing coloured stickers on the birds in places where they could only be seen in the mirror.   The magpies became focused on the stickers and sometimes succeeded in removing them.  What’s curious about the discovery is that Malachi refers to the ode, ‘one for sorrow, two for joy’ early on in our tale. The tune is, of course, synonomous with magpies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWqXZEngVc8

Dolphins have also been putting on a show off the coast of Australia.  It seems a wild dolphin is teaching other memers of her group to ‘tail-walk’.  Due to illness, one of the group spent a short time in a dolphinarium 20 years ago and may have picked up the trick there. Experts from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society cannot understand why the dolphins are doing it.  Maybe they’re trying to tell us something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKqutWejmTk&NR=1

Posted in Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q37 Do you know how to have fun?, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted? | No Comments »

29/05/2008 by admin.

The world’s rarest rhinoceros has been captured on film in the jungles of Java, Indonesia.  There are only 60-70 of the animals left in the wild. Curiously, the female rhino charged the camera, sending it flying. The footage provides a unique glimpse of the animal in its natural habitat.  Stephen Hogg, from WWF, who designed the hidden camera was baffled by the rhino’s attack, as they use infrared lights as illumination so as not to scare the animals away when the camera operates.  Perhaps the animal is rying to tell us something?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7424918.stm

Posted in Q76 Are you going to take action now to save our world?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q57 Have you ever spied on anyone?, Q56 Do you believe rules are there to be broken?, Q51 Have you ever taken part in a protest?, Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q17 Can you speak another language? | No Comments »

10/05/2008 by admin.

Ha Youngwoong, a cute three year old South Korean boy has become a worldwide hit performing The Beatles song Hey Jude, attracting over 4m hits! 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqXYwNDrU8k

Ben thinks the boy wonder has much promise. He’s truely obsessed with The Beatles and is wooing fans with his performances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dDhW_jJye8&feature=related

Closer to home, Ebbsfleet United FC won the FA Trophy at Wembley Stadium today.  Prior to May 2007 the club was called Gravesend and Northfleet.  The club is unique as, since February 2008, it’s been owned by the web-based venture MyFootballClub, whose members may vote on team selection and player transfers, instead of those decisions being made exclusively by the club’s management and staff as at most other clubs.  Lucy Ebbs would be delighted that such a team in her name has been victorious. 

Posted in Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q40 Can you play a musical instrument?, Q37 Do you know how to have fun?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion?, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q.1 Does your life have a purpose? | No Comments »

11/04/2008 by admin.

Jonas recently discovered this amazing video from Thailand of an elephant called Hong painting her ’self-portrait’. On a first viewing we were speechless.  take a look…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE

We just had to find out more about the elephant involved. Whilst doing so it became clear to us that although there are many elephants listed on the site below who have been trained to use a paint-brush, none come anywhere near this beautiful animal.  Curious that an animal renowned for ’never forgetting’ should paint itself holding a flower! Is this Mother Nature’s way of alerting us of the need to show her more respect? We think it is.

http://www.elephantart.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=69

Posted in Q66 Do you have a favourite flower?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q42 Do you enjoy drawing?, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

19/03/2008 by admin.

The Arctic is losing its old thick ice faster than in previous years. Olde flows are thicker and less saline than newly formed ice, meaning they can survive warmer spells better. Ice more than two years old now makes up about 30% of all the ice in the Arctic, down from 60% two decades ago. The shrinking of Arctic ice has global implications, as its white surface reflects solar energy back into space whereas the open ocean absorbs it.

“Bah humbug” was, of course, an exclamation made famous by Charles Dickens’ character Ebenezer Scrooge  - a cynical and negative businessman preoccupied with a selfish pursuit of money. It’s  a phrase also used by Bill Darvill during one of our discussions about climate change. Well, a Norwegian sailors has spied icebergs with markings that reminded  him of humbug treats that he used to eat as a child. Jonas says they remind him of a barcode! What price for the planet blue in a sea of black?

Experts have been left stumped by the marking’s origins.  Here’s the images taken by Oyvind Tangen from his research vessel.

“Bah Humberg”

Posted in Q36 Should a good life cost the Earth?, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »

05/02/2008 by admin.

To help celebrate 2008 as the ‘Year of the Assistance Dog’, The Royal Mail has issued a set of stamps which feature working dogs.  Although Samoyed’s do not feature in the collection, we especially like the image of a dog trained to deliver letters: A First Class Messenger overlooked by the Queen’s Head - all sound very familiar.  Take a look..

DRAMATIC ESCAPE: A baby has miraculously survived a horrendous fire after being thrown from a third floor apartment to firemen waiting below. The fire claimed the lives of at least nine others - including five children - in the German city of Ludwigshafen.

Posted in Q78 Do you want to be part of the picture?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q58 Do things happen for a reason?, Q52 Do you believe in miracles?, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion? | No Comments »

22/01/2008 by admin.

Following the sinking of the Ice Prince cargo ship last week, hundreds of tonnes of timber have washed ashore of the South Coast of England.  The wood is being collected by the Council and will be sold. 

Haymakers might see this as a warning from Mother Nature about global deforestation!

It comes as London recorded its warmest ever January night. Temperatures reached a balmy 13.2c on Friday, beating the previous high of 12.7c. 

Continuing with the frog theme, the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE project is focusing on the 10 most at risk amphibians, including the Chinese Giant Salamander, Malagasy Rainbow Frog and the Seychelles Frog. Anyone have a jar handy?

Posted in Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q35 Do you trust your instincts?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q12 Is our Earth enchanted? | No Comments »

15/01/2008 by admin.

‘The Messenger’, the first spacecraft to visit Mercury in more than 30 years passes the planet on Monday.  The fly-by is the first of 3 the Messenger probe will make in the coming years as it slows to enter into orbit around the strange, large unchartered, ‘oddball’ world in 2011.  This weeks pass takes place 33 million miles from the sun.  Messenger is operating in an extremely harsh environment.  Perhaps they ought to have named the probe Malachi!

More magic from nature: a newborn shark will grow up never knowing its father, because it was the product of a virgin birth.  The white tipped reef shark is the only European example of partenogenesis, where an egg develops without being fertilised.  Its mother, ibolya, lives at a marina in EAST HUNGARY, and has neve met a male: HAY GUEST RAN.

As if in recognition of our famed hero, Captain Lewin, a cargo ship called the Ice Prince has sunk off the Devon coast.

Three seafaring Queens made history when they met for the first and only time in the same port yesterday: The trio of Cunard luxury liners, the QE2, The Queen Mary 2 and the brand-new Queen Victoria. The trio sailed through New York harbour and in front of the Statue of Liberty.  The celebration began with a whistle salute.  Although there was no Queen Caroline, could it be they were symbolic of our 3 hearts - love, art and nature - reiterating the need for action before the figurehead of freedom?  

Posted in Q47 Do you know your history?, Q70 Do you like to look at the stars?, Q46 Do you value a good education?, Q23 Do you believe all the laws of physics?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q17 Can you speak another language? | No Comments »