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Archive for the Q41 Do you like surprises? Category

Sofia the lion tamer

A lion named Malik has reacted fiercely to a young girl staring at him through strengthened glass in his enclosure at Wellington Zoo. The moody lion swipped his front paws against the 33mm glass, perhaps to defend his meal, but Sofia aged 3 stood firm. She seemed surprised but didn’t kepy her cool.  Its not the first time Malik has charged the glass and is probably because he’s trying to eat his food and is trying to chase off possible rivals.

However, perhaps Malik had a deeper message - afterall in our novel Wellington chaired the meeting of the Blakesware Set, the group behind the Haymakers Survey.  And, Malachi the messenger and voice of the animal kingdom is likened to the lion statue around which the magic of time travel in our story unfolds. Malachi is also abbreviated many times in the story, including to Malik.  Maybe Malik the former king of the jungle is letting us know that nature’s patience with humanity is fast running out?

Here’s the video clip..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0RWuyqkzeE

Teddy Bear’s Picnic

Our Haymaker Caleb Hitch asked us to report that in Vancouver, Canada a cheeky black bear surprised everyone by hitching a ride on a rubbish truck in the centre of the coastal seaport city.  The British Columbian Conservation Officer Service suspect the bear climbed aboard in North Vancouver.  The bear was tranquilisedand caught in tarpaulin before being returned to a rural area.

vancouver-bear.jpg

The bear took the ride in Downtown Vancouver, close to Point Grey - one of Canada’s most affluent areas. Point Grey is also home to a diverse and ecologically appreciative populace.  Maybe Fanny Ebbs - the distraught Lady in Grey in our novel - would have something to say about the bear’s actions.  She symbolises the impact of the industrial revolution on the natural world. Maybe the bear was making the point that we’re throwing nature in the rubbish?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9EMWQGeWmc&feature=related

Hardly a teddy bear’s picnic?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuNf70eV6sY

Snow Pumpkins and the Temple of Floods

Our 26 October ‘Ides of March’ post anticipated Mother Nature would put on a show to the developed world as a wake up call.  

Well, surprise surprise. Just days after North-Eastern Americans were basking in an Indian Summer, temperatures plummeted 40 degrees as heavy snowfall swept in. New York City and the East Coast were hit with snowfall before Halloween for the first time since records began.

 pumpkins-in-snow.jpg

Parts of the North East received more than two feet of snow as records for October tumbled.  This is climate chaos in action. Warmer global temperatures is bringing more extreme weather events.

Take Thailand the ‘Land of the Smiling Faces’ is experiencing prolonged flooding after heavy monsoon rains in July. Much of the country is underwater with many thousands of people displaced with the threat of insect-borne disease. 

 temple-of-floods.jpg

It’s a humanitarian crisis, possibly forewarned by the recent celestial vision in the Eastern hemisphere.

smile-in-the-sky.jpg

Faster than the speed of light

Scientists at Cern are baffled by ‘crazy’ results that appear to show subatomic neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light - widely held to be the Universe’s ultimate speed limit. If the results of their ‘routine’ experiments are vindicated then the implications for the world of science are immense. It pulls the rug from beneath the feet of modern physics which is based on nothing being able to exceed the speed of light. Try as they  might scientists are unable to explain what is happening, after 15,000 batches of neutrinos have produced the statistically significantly confirmation.

faster-than-speed-of-light.jpg

We’re just loving this potential earthquake in the world of physics - as we envisaged through our question in this survey first posed some three years ago now. Perhaps this vindicates our view that there’s a deep magic to The Haymakers Survey. What say the rational minds and doubters now?

Special Relativity? Einstien-a-go-go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weJeiN8IVTg

Yohan Blake takes gold

Yohan Blake has unexpectedly won the 100m final at the 2011 World Athletics Championship.  The Jamacian raced to victory after the defending champion Bolt caused a real shock after being disqualified after an obvious false start.  The triple world record holder and Olympic champion clearly jumped the gun to everyone’s surprise.  

We’ve run several features about the magnificent Usain Bolt and his record breaking exploits because we viewed these as a clear indication of the need for humanity to act with all speed to protect the natural world.  We were sorry to see him disqualified. However, let’s take a closer look at YOHAN BLAKE. 

 yohan-blake-world-champion.jpg

An anagram is HAY ON BLAKE!  Which is very curious as the mystical artist William Blake had so much to say about the spiritual nature behind The Haymakers Survey.  It was revealed in Charles Lamb’s journal. Is this a game player?

Nature in Art lifts the spirits

The Haymakers Survey uses art as a medium to help inspire love for Nature. Well. there’s an award winning museum and art gallery in Sandhurst, Gloucestershire which is the world’s first dedicated to art inspired by Nature.  Aside from the aesthetic and cultural appeal of what it has to offer we’re drawn to it today because of magical events in neighbouring Quedgeley.

tesco-tree-frog.jpg

The village of Quedgeley has close connections with the RAF. Its official name was No 7 Maintenance Unit, RAF Quedgeley with the motto, Omnibus Ubique Servimus which means, “We Serve All, Everywhere”.  Interesting…

The Haymakers Survey tells how if you put a frog in a jar of water and slowly heat it the frog will die as it fails to react in time to the threat that eventually brings its demise. It’s a parable often used to highlight the threat to humanity presented by global warming.  Is it just coincidence then that Donna Hunt discovered a tropical tree frog amongst strawberries purchased from her local Tesco store in Quedgeley? She found it at the bottom of her fridge and thought at first it was a mouldy strawberry. Is this rare event so close to the home of Nature in Art a clear message that humanity needs to ‘cool down’ the Earth by reducing its CO2 emmissions and moving away from our dependency on oil?

We’re not the story tellers - Mother Nature is. Is it weird or what?

http://nature-in-art.org.uk/

Maybe the frog arrived with a message from the creator…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4o8TeqKhgY&feature=related

What is sustainable development?

I was at a sustainable development conference in London today.  It was fabulous to see so many committed people from an array of backgrounds, experiences and expertise come together to explore issues.

sustainable-development.jpg

The coalition government for England and Wales claim to be the ‘greenest government ever’ using the Big Society idea to stimulate partnerships at local level to ensure communities work together towards common environmental goals and solutions.  It was pity then that a government minister wasn’t at the event to reaffirm that commitment. However, this was more than compensated by presentations and panel discussions involving senior representatives from a number of key organisations including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Future’s Forum. The event was sponsored by British Gas and it was surprising to learn of their environmental care initiatives, including a £2m scheme called Green Street. Though serious questions remain on whether their actions go far enough given the extent of their record breaking £2billion annual profits just announced. We also witnessed presentations from companies doing retro-fit on buildings.

Having reflected on the day one of the challenges on sustainable development may be the term itself.  It may work for practictioners, Radio 4 listeners, Newsnight viewers and readers of the quality press but will it enthuse and engage the wider community?  It’s a confusing, clumsy, limiting and arguably overly positive term.  It suggests ‘business as usual’ to many with a bit of tweaking here and there. We need a more viable and sexy alternative expression. If you want to be understood speak in the language of your audience.

Here’s a story about stuff which underpins challenges on sustainability…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM&feature=related

So western society as a whole is ‘making hay whilst the sun shines’ and had been doing so since the 1950s.  We’re programmed to consume and aspire to levels of wealth, possessions, comfort and experiences.  We want to see a new form of Haymaking - where people are empowered to live sustainably in partnership with nature led by businesses demonstrating genuine transparent corporate responsibility. 

Being a Haymaker also means reconnecting with Nature. Remember the passion of the people in protecting our woodlands made the government U turn? Maybe we should do more to harness that passion to redirect it to the wider environmental cause. This is part of our vision to make people happy.

Ancient statue uncovered by Israel storm

A huge winter storms in Israel has brought 100kmph winds and 10 meter high winds crashing onto the coast. The harsh weather brought disruption and chaos but also revealed an unexpected surprise - the discovery on an amazing ancient 2,000 year old Roman statue in amazing condition.

 roman-statue.jpg

The headless marble figure of a woman was found on the beach at Ashkelon after the partial collapse of a cliff due to the wind, high seas and rain.  The woman is thought to be Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love.

Given the significance of Roman marble statues in the Justice Hall at Blakesware Manor where the Haymakers Survey was first conceived, we wonder is this another poignant reminder from Mother Nature to love the natural world? In our story Caleb Hitch advised us to look to the Holy Land as a point in the curious mystical triangle of magic behind the Haymakers Survey.

It’s unbelievable to be part of this.

James and the Golden Locket

Using a metal detector, James Hyatt, a 3 year old boy from Essex has unearthed an amazing engraved 500 year old gold locket estimated to be worth £2.5m. Believed to have once belonged to royalty the locket carries an engraving of a woman - assumed to be the Virgin Mary holding a crucifix and depicts a rose bud. The figure is also standing on a mesh or web. On the reverse are five bleeding hearts. On the sides are the names of the three kings or Magi who visited Christ after his birth, including Jaspar in Latin. Experts believe the locket once held alleged parts of Christ’s thorn of crowns.

boy-finds-locket.jpg

James found the lost treasure in a field near Hockley when out with his father, a web designer. James said, “I was holding the detector and it went beep,beep,beep. Then we dug in the mud and there was gold there”.  

james-hyatt-hockley-locket.jpg

The discovery of a gold locket in mud against a web-log is central to our story - see free sample. A metal detector is also a key part of the journey of discovery. The locket in our novel belonged to a Great Creator and represents Mother Nature. It was heart shaped and brings a message of faith and hope. A message that we need to take care of Planet Earth and the natural environment. The locket’s discovery shows us that humanity is at the crossroads. It’s the begining of the journey that led to the Whittenbury Watch and the magical events recorded on this site.  A rose bud also features strongly in our tale - to symbolise the beauty of our world and we are warned that the rose is dying.

We believe the discovery is priceless. It vindicates the messages in the Whittenbury Watch. Afterall the very final words in the book are ‘To Jasper - we did it!” Do you believe yet?

jaspar-locket.jpg

It’s all a matter of faith!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=883t2Pac8pk 

A one in four trillion chance

The state lottery in Isreal has drawn exactly the same six numbers as the draw 3 weeks before - an event statisticians claim was a one in four trillion chance. The numbers that rolled out on a live TV broadcast were 36,33,32,26,14 and 13. The chance of 6 identical numbers being drawn in this way was judged as a 1 in 10,000 year event.

lottey-numbers.jpg

The six numbers were the same as those drawn on 21 September - which took place at the autumn equinox - a date so significant to The Haymakers Survey.

The questions for these numbers are

Q36. Should a good life cost the Earth?

Q33. Do you believe in life after death?

Q32. Are you afraid of the dark?

Q26. Do you take poetry seriously?

Q14. Do you believe your stars?

Q13. Have you ever been mistaken for someone else?

Maybe these questions will prove significant in the weeks to come. Let’s see!

We believe this remarkable coincidence is designed to draw people to the magic of The Haymakers Survey. This watch is overwhelmed with remarkable questions. Our readers will know all about the message left by The Emperor in our novel on the prospects of life on Earth in its current form - see page 159.

We like these surprises. We love pulling the rug from under your feet.