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 |   A Journal to impart knowledge and facts |
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July 22, 2015 I'm going to start today to record on a daily basis whatever happens to strike my fancy. So, it is a very cool breezy day. I just posted 5 short book reviews to The Monthly Reading Challenge. I'm suppose to put away some winter wood today from the woodpile outside but I'm playing hookey from work to write so starting this blog will get done. I'm having a daily fight with a flock of English Sparrows that are trying to take over my barn. They are making a terrible mess so they have to go. I have destroyed several nests so far they don't leave but they get out of the barn when I am around. I'm just starting the fight so I guess I don't know how far I have to go to discourage them. I'm trying not to spread myself to thin on WDC because I find so many things that are interesting here and I am trying to work on a new story. I really enjoy sitting at my desk with a cup of tea and reading blogs on WDC. |
 In the 1950s, workers uncovered a huge 40-ton rock near Berkeley, Massachusetts with strange marks and symbols carved on it. It had first been described around 1680 and was studied many times by scholars in the centuries after, as per New England. Because it appears to have both pictorial inscriptions as well as some letter-like carvings, not everyone thinks it is the work of Native tribes in the area, but possibly the work of sailors from Portugal or even proof of Viking or Phoenician visitation. Andre says, "If anyone can decipher this message, it would have to be a writer." Share your theory, and solve the message in the marks and symbols. Convince your readers that your theory is the only factual solution. DIGHTON ROCK Edmund DeLabarre's translation: “Miguel Cortereal. 1511. By the Will of God, leader of the natives of India in this place” reference from: The State Library of Massachusetts. Rock originally found in the Taunton River, which leads to Hopes Bay. I'm siding with the Portuguese population, who live in the area. One fact leads me. Miguel Corte-real, Portuguese explorer, was last seen searching for his brother, whose ship disappeared in this area of the Atlantic. There are hazardous waters off the coast of Massachusetts. TheOcean Graveyard is estimated to hold 1000 wreaks buried in the sands of the ocean. Ships listed lost as early as the 1700s. Or maybe lost even earlier? The best pictures I saw of the Dighton Rock writings are shown in the Library of Massachusetts. The pictures of the writings in Wikipedia actually look like kids defaced the original writings. It makes sense to me, both of the brothers Corte may have lost their ships to weather or coastal manipulations when sailing to close to the land. Miguel would easily make an impression on local inhabitants with his writing, gunpowder, and other implements of the age and became their leader. If he lost his ship? It would be his desire if any other ships came his way to leave a message. My Theory: Perhaps the Brighton Rock holds more than one type of writing. Carved at more than one age. It could even be laying on it's side, when first discovered. Earlier pictograms could be confusing the message, if the rock also held a message from an earlier age? The rock could have been some kind of marker of the place, where salt water turned to fresh which is a biological fact about sea inlets fed by fresh water rivers. The biological animals living in such places are interesting to hunters. Reference: Wikipedia and The American Heritage Museum Word Count: 307 plus prompt 431 apondia#1781748 |
 Prompt one of Mysterious 5 day challenge: Named after the island near where it was found by sponge divers 115 years ago, the Antikythera mechanism is an incredible machine of finely calibrated gears that appeared to be technology not available until at least the 10th century—but the mechanism was at least 2,000 years old. Then in 2016, it was found in Andre the Blog Monkey's luggage when he returned to Canada from a magical mystery ship vacation. Can anybody shed some light on this mysterious object?{{/b} Is Andre related to Curious George by any chance? I guess not they are both just often up to Monkey Shines. I have to say if this item was in Andre's luggage he must have visited the National Archaeological Museum at Athens. This is where the original parts and the more modern models of the Antikythera reside. The original Antikythera Mechanism is believed to have been built between 150 and 100 B.C. However, because the parts brought up from the sea at the time of the recovery were in such a difficult state of preservation it was not easy to figure out how the mechanism was used. Derek J de Solia Price, who lived from 1922-1983, was a Yale University Professor. He began to work on the mystery of the mechanism in 1951. He actually built a replica model during his lifetime, while he studied the original. Wikipedia has an article called Antikythera Mechanism, that contains a picture of Price with his model. If you click on the picture it gives other pictures, which show in depth, the original object taken from the sea and it explains many things in picture form about the object that Price built using his studies. The original mechanism is a calculator. Its' function is basically to use comparative science to reach conclusions about how the sun and planets revolved around the earth's two poles. Using data fed to the mechanism it predicted positions and motions of planets and moons. Also, it used gears and hand power. Most recently, because of new discoveries in 2021; about the ancient parts of this mechanism, by history scientist working for UCL. A new and more accurate model was built. Andre should return the object to the museum. Word Count = 382 this also contains the prompt at the beginning which makes the article 300. Reference: Wikipedia and UCL article /size} apondia#1781748 |
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