Sunday 31 August 2008

The arch of time - # 08/205

400,000 years ago an "interglacial hominid" - homo erectus - stood here on the high, dry ground above a soggy river valley and looked out to where the first glacier had stopped just short of today's London and poured out its mass of sand and gravel.

He looked, and dropped his bag of tools.

A second glacier came, stopped and washed out its sand and gravel.

Homo erectus evolved into homo sapiens. He discovered the science of metallurgy and the principles of mathematics, developed the science of glass making and optics and electronics, and made up games like football to amuse himself.

Modern engineers then built the brand new Wembley Football Stadium (the home of football) on the spot where the glacier had stopped and poured out its gravel.

I came, and stood on the very spot where archaeologists had found the "hominid's" abandoned bag of tools and took this photo of the Wembley Arch. The tool bag had no name tag inside, so cannot be returned.

The arch is about 7 miles distant. In the photo you can also see the surrounding structure of the rest of the new stadium. The detail that can be seen is a remarkable tribute to the science of opitcs and lens making.

(With acknowledgement to David McDowall and his "the Walker's Guide to Richmond Park" - an excellent little pocket book.)





9 comments:

  1. Wait till Strangetastes over at St. Louis DP gets a load of this! Dueling arches, it could happen! Great shot and info today

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  2. I tell you - you should charge money for this. I come to your blog, I fall about with laughter, sometimes I cry with laughter - such cabaret and it's all free. Charge I say!

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  3. I thought I would answer your comment here on your blog. Anyway...

    I remember the Lone Ranger on Saturday morning who shot a lot of crooks with a silver bullet. I got a couple of spammers and one site hijacker I would like to shoot with one of his bullets.

    I also used to like to listen to Buster Brown Show (shoes by that name were a bit hit over here during and after the War). He had a dog, his dog, Tige.

    I listened to Dick Tracy, Batman, Spider Man, and a host of others I have long since forgotten.

    Due to the spamming and the hijacking I have been working on abestown.blogspot.com to see if I can come up with something that is more obvious if you click one of the photos.

    Thanks for the visit.

    Your narrative about Home Sapiens and Homo Erectus was interesting to me. I have no doubt that some of my ancestors were there with your's as mine all came from England.

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  4. A wonderful text which resumes our history in a few words! About everything is said here!

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  5. The arch looks pretty cool when its lit up....and when it isn't, it doesn't.

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  6. Such an excellent choice to go with in B&W. The arch positively glows even from that distance.

    Multiplex probably used the hole to Australia that the boys were banging on about - could explain some of the delays: commuting problems, Yer Honor!

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  7. @Julie...Ha! Ideal. The "green pond" is just down the slope from the crest where I snapped Wembley. You could be right!

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  8. I echo Virgina on the duelling arches and Jilly on the narrative. Now I have at time shall we say, an unusual way with words, but yours are just unique, funny and educational.

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  9. I can almost imagine the voice of Attenborough intoning this text.

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