After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, Scottish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the Scots, in the weeks that followed, English scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters, and shortly after, headlines in the English newspapers read: "English archaeologists have found traces of 200-year-old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the Scots."
One week later, "The Kerrymen," a southwest Irish newsletter, reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 meters in peat bog near Tralee, Paddy O'Droll, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Paddy has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Ireland had already gone wireless."
I like it! But Paddy O'Droll had not taken on board the basic archaeological principle that it is unwise to generalise too much from negative evidence (i.e., digging a hole and not finding stuff).
It is unwise because it is liable to stop grants coming through to keep on digging holes indefinitely. The digs might be equally futile but they keep a lot of diggers in beer money.
Lovely. Tee hee hee! ... yep, from experience of scratchin' skin scrapings for Sarcoptes Scabiei mites from recently deceased canids, I can say, fer sure, fer sure, that just because they didn't find any doesn't mean they weren't there.
An Alternative Mountaneering event,
North Sea Gas,
Osama Van Leyden,
Whoever got lost in The Lowlands Low,
Positive proof that Dutch cheese is actually deep-mined subsoil,
- or other wonders of the nether world. Though I'm not out to diss Dutch cheese, I like it very much.
Failing to find horse bones whilst excavating a Bronze Age settlement in Pembrokeshire, archeologists have concluded that the horseless carriage was in use in SW Wales over 5000 years ago.
You still see them there occasionally to this day.
Not only did they have the best music...
Not only did they have the best music...
After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, Scottish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the Scots, in the weeks that followed, English scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters, and shortly after, headlines in the English newspapers read: "English archaeologists have found traces of 200-year-old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the Scots."
One week later, "The Kerrymen," a southwest Irish newsletter, reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 meters in peat bog near Tralee, Paddy O'Droll, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Paddy has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Ireland had already gone wireless."
# Posted on February 22nd 2009 by JosephC
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Brilliant. lol.
# Posted on February 22nd 2009 by fiddleruairi
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
I like it! But Paddy O'Droll had not taken on board the basic archaeological principle that it is unwise to generalise too much from negative evidence (i.e., digging a hole and not finding stuff).
It is unwise because it is liable to stop grants coming through to keep on digging holes indefinitely. The digs might be equally futile but they keep a lot of diggers in beer money.
Or did when I was a digger.
# Posted on February 22nd 2009 by nicholas
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
I'm inclined to dig a hole of 40 meters over here in Holland, see what we got here (probably water, but you'll never know)
# Posted on February 22nd 2009 by Dark Raven
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Good one!
# Posted on February 22nd 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Lovely. Tee hee hee! ... yep, from experience of scratchin' skin scrapings for Sarcoptes Scabiei mites from recently deceased canids, I can say, fer sure, fer sure, that just because they didn't find any doesn't mean they weren't there.
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by Clear Drops
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
@Dark Raven:
You might find:
An Alternative Mountaneering event,
North Sea Gas,
Osama Van Leyden,
Whoever got lost in The Lowlands Low,
Positive proof that Dutch cheese is actually deep-mined subsoil,
- or other wonders of the nether world. Though I'm not out to diss Dutch cheese, I like it very much.
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by nicholas
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Osama Van Leyden - wasn't he the guy who enjoyed a jar or two?
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Failing to find horse bones whilst excavating a Bronze Age settlement in Pembrokeshire, archeologists have concluded that the horseless carriage was in use in SW Wales over 5000 years ago.
You still see them there occasionally to this day.
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Digging 10 metres deep round here? Too rocky.
Otherwise you might find iron ore: proof that the wires had already been re-naturalized.
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by kuec
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Genius...
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by snowyowl
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
kuec - you mean, the Greens had got there first!
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by nicholas
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Teehee - I'm not telling you which party I'm in
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by kuec
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
And ragaman - everybody knows that the people of Pembrokeshire always travel by UFO, and have done since the dawn of time.
Why try to prove otherwise?
For a grant, of course..!!..
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by nicholas
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
kuec - can it be The Anarchistic Pogo Party of Germany?
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by nicholas
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Could be - but they don't have a local group
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by kuec
Re: Not only did they have the best music...
Start one!
# Posted on February 24th 2009 by nicholas