Been a while since I last posted; sorry for the delay

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, my only excuse is that I have been very busy, with classes and side-trips.


Photos: http://www.facebook.com/photos/?ref=ts#/album.php?aid=2267231&id=11832732
I realize that this was a while ago, but I wanted to comment on Stonehenge before I forget some of what I learned on the tour. There are several myths associated with the site; one of them being that King Arthur wanted to build something to commemorate a battle in which a large number of Briton's died. Merlin said to move a stone circle from Ireland to England as a memorial; unfortunately the task proved too challenging to Arthur's men. Merlin eventually became upset at the delay, and used magic to move and orient the stones.

Another story mentioned was that Stonehenge is an important burial site; which is true, in the sense that there are a large number of bodies buried in the area. The exact myth I am concerned with is that Stonehenge is the burial site of Aurelius and Uther Pendragon; two brothers who were high king over Britain. The names are even more significant in that they are the Uncle and Father of King Arthur. I got 'chills' from being at a place which some consider significant to Aurthurian legends (I really love the tales of Arthur, chivilry and honor above all, etc...).

One final thing about Stonehenge is that people still have no idea how it was constructed. Apparently, the source for the stone is several hundred miles away. There was a former theory that the slabs were hauled to the ocean near the source, then loaded onto rafts and floated over the ocean, to a river, then up the river to a point about 8 miles from Stonehenge. However, people have tried in modern times to duplicate the feat, using stone and the best rafts that were built at the time (to our present knowledge), and the raft sank as soon as they loaded the stone on. This suggests that the current theories are incomplete or completely inaccurate as to how the builders got the material there in the first place. I find it impressive either way; the massive size of the stones to move, and the exact alignments they are in (see next paragraph).

I am also impressed by the accuracy of placement of these several ton rocks. They are positioned so that on the summer solstace the sun rises and casts a shadow from a 'pointer' rock through the center of the arches to the exact center of the henge (the circle, for those non-anthropologists out there). What is more impressive to me is the arches in general; they can be used as a callendar at least 5 months out of the year (if the other arches were standing I mean). This is because for the May, the sun rises and is visible from the center of the henge through the left arch. June it is visible through the center, and July, the right arch. The same pattern was observed where the previous arches stood. Think about the engineering required for this - the math would have to be worked out ahead of time, because it would be impossible to just move several ton rocks around if you put one two feet too far right. Also, this means that you have to know exactly where everything will go before you actually put it there, because you don't want to ruin your solstace marker when you put in the next set of arches. The math/engineering skill required simply amazes me.



Other stuff I have been up to:
I tried to go to Tywyn last weekend, the site of the Tal-y-llyn railroad; where the Rev. Wilbert Awdry volunteered and was inspired to write the Thomas the Tank Engine/Railroad series stories and is a working steam railroad with two engines over a hundred years old and still running. It took 5 hours to get there my train, and once I got there I found out that the museum was closed, and was opening this weekend instead (the website had an inaccuruate starting date). So I made the trip for nothing, but I did learn how to get around on the British train system, and I learned where the museum is for when I go back - there is no way I am going to miss this while I am in the UK.


Non-trip stuff:
Classes are going well I guess. I am enjoying 2 of my 3; the third (modelling computing systems) is ok because I have had most of the material before in other classes. My history class is very interesting, we covered 'tourism' in 1650-1800 and how it changed; 'tourism' was originally a method of 'spying' on others and their inventions. If France has developed a new structure for a castle, it's a good idea to copy it and learn how to use it, in case it is used against you. My computer graphics class is very fun; I am learning how to do 'filtering' of images, what photoshop does only I am learning the algorithms for altering images. It is a very fun class; I am learning how to do things I have never done before in java.


Sorry this is such a short post, it just hit me that I haven't updated this in a couple of weeks. I wanted to try and catch people up to what is going on now.