h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They got the costumes and props? Brilliant!

However the robot is not a prop, that's a real robot they have brought with them to ISS.

A trip to the ISS sounds ghastly.

You know that story about the old axe...?
Looks as good as new...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30197084

I grimaced at this bit - "The axe seems to have been jammed into what was once the seabed, perhaps as part of a ritual offering". Why is the assumption that almost everything they find has some ritualistic meaning?

Probably not one of the beebs better headlines


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-30177505

SWL
I doubt the beeb writer knows anything about it.
I'll bet that was in the press release from the archaeologists.
In this case ritual is probably not a daft guess as it looks unlikely to get buried like that by accident or chance.
but I agree they do seem to use ritual to mean "B******* if I know why its there" far too often.

Oh, I dunno... I can picture some stone age fellow finding a good spot to fish in the shallows, realizing he left his big rock anchor at home and jamming that ax in the muck and tying his boat to it. Then he falls asleep, the tide rises lifting his rope over the top of the ax handle and he drifts away losing it there. Several thousand years later, some over educated folks would naturally think there had to be some ritual involved because no one would be so daft as to lose a perfectly good stone ax in the muck like that.

I have seen how quickly and straight down an axe will sink when
dropped overboard in clear cold water. I have also spent long hours
trying to lasso the wooden handle as it wafts back and forth in the
submarine wave motion.

Should you ever find yourselves involved in such ritualistic activities
please note that it is necessary to drop a noose all the way down
the shaft, then slide some weight down along the line to ensure the
noose will tighten as near to the axe head as possible.

A quick tug (if the head has not sunk deeply into muck) may cause
the axehead to come up like an anchor if it is snagged sharply
before the rope can slip upwards and off the wooden handle.


~jwf~

The readiness to describe something as 'ritualistic' always surprises me too, as does the way it's often assumed our ancestors had deep religious beliefs. Until we find a skull with a fossilised thought inside, we won't know what went on inside their minds.

It's a bit of an in-joke amongst archaeologists, that anything they find that can't be explained is "ritual"

Ah, it's the old "votive offering/midden" dichotomy.

That's right... You know some archaeologists.

I really enjoyed our walk.

Sacrificial rites where young maidens are tossed off cliffs
also seems to be a somewhat short-sighted explanation of
many young female skeletons that died violently. Is it not
possible that teen suicide is not just a modern problem?

~jwf~

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/27/pleb-andrew-mitchell-loses-libel-case

the whole stupid mess that is plebgate

didnt police officers loose there jobs? and now a court has said mitchell was guilty after all so... what happens to the police officer who has now been proven correct surely

However you look at it, its probably fair to assume that Andrew Mitchell isn't a friend of the ordinary working person. With that in mind I'm not going to lose sleep if a judge decided to give him a metaphorical kick in the nadgers.

M1 cheese lorry fire: Drivers facing delays near Crick

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-30395272

He'll have to drive more Caerphilly next time.

I think it was this driver's fault.

http://www.ydr.com/business/ci_26569409/allegro-winery-case-accident-cheese-crackers

My first thought on reading the start of this was...
No one would notice due to the SEP.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/dec/10/why-do-we-play-cricket