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

Is it an enigma with variations?

4 4 time, I think.

A brief regarding Nimrod. In modern usage (North American at least), Nimrod is typically recognized as an epithet implying low mental capacity. This stems from a common misinterpretation of a joke in Bugs Bunny cartoons. Bugs Bunny often makes a sarcastic remarks refering to Elmer Fudd as "Nimrod". Most (American) viewers weren't that familiar with the biblical Nimrod's reputation as a great hunter and assumed Bugs was just calling Elmer a fool.

Nimrod was also the architect of the tower of Babel, an immense ziggurat established as a refuge against flood, in times in which the Tigris-Euphrates river system deposited as much as six feet of silt in the annual flood.

The native Americans of the Cahokia culture esrablished a similar system of mounds to the same purpose along the Mississippi to the same purpose.

Unfortunately their system of flood refuges did not prove equal to the demands of the New Madrid earthquake.

That is fascinating about the new meaning attached to Nimrod, from misunderstanding Bugs Bunny.

You learn the odd thing here.

Any connection between the (?mythical) island of Hy Brasil and the name of Brazil?

Early colonial era hypothesis, from before the continental character of South America was well understood.

As though the Gulf of Mexico had been named the 'Gulf of Atlantis'.

Officially Brazil is nothing to do with Hy Breasail but is named after a type of red wood.

But there's a strange oddity. Hy Brasil is described as circular with a narrow channnel through the middle. This is a perfect description of the symbol in the middle of the Brazilian flag.

Amphorae allegedly from a Roman ship dating to the 2nd Century were discovered along the shore of Brazil by Robert Marx.

There may be reasonable questions as to the actual antiquity of something like that, given, not least the modern illicit traffic in antiquities.

Myself, though, I doubt there has been a century since about 9,000 years ago without an occasional accidental crossing of the Atlantic.




With reference to item mentioned, for example, a Roman vessel out of Portugal, embarked for Roman Morocco or vice versa, might have been been caught in a storm, carried out to sea, caught in the trade winds and carried to Brazil.

I expect that that might have happened. There were one or two other Roman-era wrecks found along the coast up through Central America and Mexico.

I'm reminded of the tale of the Waponis in _Joe Versus the Volcano_.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eighteen hundred years
ago, a Roman galley with a
crew of Jews and Druids, got
caught in a huge storm off
Carthage. They were swept a
thousand miles off course, and
ended up on the wrong side of
the horn of Africa. Thinking
they were returning to Rome,
they sailed deep into the
South Pacific, and finally
ended by colonizing a lightly
populated, Polynesian island
which they named Waponi Woo.
Thus was born the Waponi
culture - a mixture of
Polynesian, Celtic, Hebrew and
Latin influences. The Waponis
are known throughout Polynesia
as having a peculiar love of
orange soda and no sense of
direction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope the actors in "Joe versus the Volcano" had some good direction. What I remember form that movie was how big the moon looked.

http://youtu.be/H1EOnVSSJYs

Yeah, that was one of the many reminders that it is a fairy tale.

Like Manhattan lit up in Rosco Gel colors.

http://youtu.be/Yh-Zjqa5_ys?t=1m22s