M.A.Howard, Cardigan:
Regarding recent discussions in NE concerning the so-called 'hummadruz' of 'The Hum', readers who did not hear it may be interested in an interview Michael Parkinson did with the actor Brian Blessed on Radio 2 on 8-2-98.
Blessed was describing his mystical experiences communing with nature while climbing Mt Everest. One thing he specifically mentioned was the silence in the Himalayas, except for a strange background humming noise. When he mentioned this to his climbing partner, he was told it was "the sound of the Earth turning on its axis".
This anecdote was related quite seriously and I don't think that the explanation for the hum was meant to be a joke.
Ed: Reference was made to tinnitus in my hummadruz article; readers on the Net might like to note that there is more information at www.tinnitus.org.
Michael Behrend, Cambridge:
Philip Heselton's article on straight line plotting (NE 73) brings back memories. In the 1970s I worked out formulae (simpler than the OS ones, but accurate to a few cm) for calculating lines and geometrical figures extending over hundreds of kilometres. Like Philip, I no longer have faith in such theories, but at least the formulae were valid and might come in useful one day. They show that the error caused by neglecting the Earth's curvature is seldom very large. To take the famous St Michael's Line from Cornwall to Suffolk as an example, the maximum discrepancy between the true line and a straight line on the projection is about 18 metres on the ground; only about 0.36mm on a !:50000 map, but just enough to matter at larger scales.
Many were the misspent hours with an Odhner machine or pocket calculator. Nowadays the thing to do would be to write a PC programme and make it available on the Internet, but, as Philip says, does anybody still care?
John Palmer, Den Haag:
I doubt Scarre's explanation for the Breton symbol on Stonehenge (NE 73). Sarsenis extremely hard stone for carving, harder than Breton granite. Carving a 'diagram for the masons' would take dedication. Best judge yourself by looking at close-up pics of the carving, which is more than a mere groove.
John Hall, Liverpool:
The Robin Hood Stone at the junction of Booker Avenue and Archerfield Road, near Paul McCartney's old house (NE 73), is a contender for Robin Hood's Butt. The 8ft-high sandstone monolith - moved and turned to expose its cup-and-ring marks - is only a short distance from its original setting and relatively free, for Liverpool, from vandalism and graffiti. Its deeply grooved surface has given rise to speculation about arrow sharpening, whence the Robin Hood connection may derive. A nearby field called Stone Hey was apparently home to archer's butts in Henry VIII's time, and is also supposed to have been the stone's original position. Someone has suggested that it was removed from the Calder Stones (below) and set up as a rubbing post, but other evidence seems to conflict. A geological survey map shows a fault line very near to its original site.
The much-moved Calder Stones are visible in a circular arrangement through a delapidated greenhouse in a local park. They are supposed to have been part of a chambered tomb in the park, arranged in a 'druid's circle' in 1845 at a point where three manors - Allerton, Woolton and Wavertree - met. First excavated in 1765, burial urns containing ashes and ornaments were found and subsequently lost. In 1568 the stones were referred to as boundary markers. In 1954 they were removed to Council storage and were finally put into Harthill Greenhouses, where they are today.
Mike Haigh, Mytholmroyd:
The note in NE73 about a Native American arrowhead found at Guisborough reminded me of a conversation I had with a salesman in North Wales sometime during the mid-1980s. I was attracted to the store by a window display of interesting geological specimens. Once inside, I found that he also sold a variety of objects made of flint, including a selection from America. During a subsequent conversation, he revealed that he occasionally left the odd Native American artefact at places where he knew the local archaeology group "went flinting" in the hope of fooling them. The item alluded to makes me wonder if this "gentleman" ever went to North Yorkshire for his holidays.
Simon Shepherd, Ainsdale:
Ref. crop-circle pictograms: Could it be that by these means terrestrial creatures (e.g. rodent, insect, crustacean - as in woodlice - or bird) are either accidentally or deliberately manifesting an intelligence as yet unsuspected by us? Rabbits' and some birds' eyes light up in the dark - the mysterious lights reported during alleged nocturnal formations, perhaps?
I submit that I can think of no less unlikely an explanation for crop-circle pictograms than the self-amusing activities of, say, the humble ant or earthworm, or those of some as-yet unrecognised creature, and that, the great scheme of things being what it is, viz incorrigibly perverse in its unfathomable simplicity, the likelihood is that this explanation or one akin to it is likely to be proven factual.
Who knows, maybe John Billingsley's fave phenomenon of late may be nothing more than holidaying bees enjoying a pleasant day's crop-circling!
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