The FT Jotter

[BoneDog]

Not sure if they're still called Jotters or if there's a new buzzword but they were in my day.

This is a good place to stick those comments observations and whatnot that you sometimes fancy making but you can't think of a thread to put them in so you don't bother. Often happens to me. No need to worry about punctuation either as it's a jotter but feel free to punctuate if it tickles your tart. I mostly use guesswork when it comes to punctuation especially with the complicated things like - : and ; but I think I often get it spectacularly right.

It's basically a thread for random or mundane baloney and it could flop but it could turn out to be half decent. You've got to shoot for the sky so I'm hoping for the latter and am looking to get some online hits so don't be shy.

One last thing - I know it's a Jotter, which normally means anything goes, but there are still forum guidelines that you must abide by or else.

Shit on a stick look at the time.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

I just won a free chocolate bar inside my Twix. Last time I got one I accidentally ripped the bar code in two so this time I used scissors.

Mundane enough for you?

[BoneDog]

I wouldn't say it's mundane - it's quite good news!

I've had about 20 Snicker bars since that promotion was out and every time I forgot to check inside the wrapper. Bloke at the shop kept asking me if I'd not won one yet and I kept saying I'll remember to check this time, but I always forgot. Probably lost myself about £2 in winnings.

[BoneDog]

Talking of corner shops reminds me of this Bangladesh newcomer family in the early 90's at our local. They couldn't speak much English at the time but whenever we bought a 4 pack of lager the bloke would say 'Big party?' in a strong Bangladesh accent.

His Mrs must have been learning from watching him and I once bought a Creme Egg and a pint of milk and she goes 'Big Party?'. Needles to say I cracked up!

Edit : Thinking about it she might have been being clever and taking the piss, but at the time I was sure she'd just mixed up her English phrases.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

His Mrs must have been learning from watching him and I once bought a Creme Egg and a pint of milk and she goes 'Big Party?'. Needles to say I cracked up!

Edit : Thinking about it she might have been being clever and taking the piss, but at the time I was sure she'd just mixed up her English phrases.

Bless .

UKIP councillor Rob Fraser used to run a corner shop local to me, so I get to doubly enjoy his latest Mercury-covered idiocy. The shop has recently re-opened and is now much better, owner isn't very talkative, though, which is a saddening trend these days.

[Webbo]

March the 31st is national cleavage day. This is the formula for the perfect cleavage;

[leicsmac]

Was reading some Bill Bryson the other day and one thing that utterly amazed me was that they discovered human remains on Australia that were 60,000 years old. So that meant humans were sailing then, as at no time between then and now has Aus not been an island. Insane stuff.

[DB11]

Was reading some Bill Bryson the other day and one thing that utterly amazed me was that they discovered human remains on Australia that were 60,000 years old. So that meant humans were sailing then, as at no time between then and now has Aus not been an island. Insane stuff.

Or the remains just washed up on the island?

[MooseBreath]

It's not that far from Poppa New Guinea Pig to the north coast of oz to be fair. You can probably see one from the other.

[leicsmac]

Or the remains just washed up on the island?

The remains were found around Lake Mungo in New South Wales, a good few hundred miles from any ocean either now or then.

Apparently the coasts of Papua New Guinea are around 60 miles from the north coast of Australia, so you have to assume as the closest land spot to Aus that was their starting point. But sailing across 60,000 years ago in sufficient numbers to establish a breeding population then travelling 2000 miles across Aus itself to get to Lake Mungo is incredible.

[The Doctor]

Was reading some Bill Bryson the other day and one thing that utterly amazed me was that they discovered human remains on Australia that were 60,000 years old. So that meant humans were sailing then, as at no time between then and now has Aus not been an island. Insane stuff.

Not necessarily - AMH have been around for about 200,000 years, and diverged from other apes a few million years earlier, perfectly plausible that humans were around before the land bridge disappeared.

[leicsmac]

Not necessarily - AMH have been around for about 200,000 years, and diverged from other apes a few million years earlier, perfectly plausible that humans were around before the land bridge disappeared.

But have we found any evidence of homo sapiens outside of Africa more than 100,000 years old? Not saying it's not possible, but if humans had spread out earlier than that we'd have found evidence to suggest they had.

Where do you stand on the Toba catastrophe theory?

But then I'm of the opinion that a quite advanced civilisation (not as advanced as ours, but close) lived 15,000-25,000 years ago and was wiped out by natural catastrophe leaving behind no evidence (apart from crystal skulls) anyway.

[Rocket-Ron]

Was reading some Bill Bryson the other day and one thing that utterly amazed me was that they discovered human remains on Australia that were 60,000 years old. So that meant humans were sailing then, as at no time between then and now has Aus not been an island. Insane stuff.

GOD PUT THEM THERE

[Trav Le Bleu]

Not sure if they're still called Jotters or if there's a new buzzword but they were in my day.

This is a good place to stick those comments observations and whatnot that you sometimes fancy making but you can't think of a thread to put them in so you don't bother. Often happens to me. No need to worry about punctuation either as it's a jotter but feel free to punctuate if it tickles your tart. I mostly use guesswork when it comes to punctuation especially with the complicated things like - : and ; but I think I often get it spectacularly right.

fanks4dat EL ihave bin frstr8td bi da rools and strick regs on dissite4solong now dis givsmea chance 2 rely exprs myslfprply dat pepscan rely unerstan an enjooy itsolibratin u dABes i thing dat diswillb da most ossum fred dat ft has scene4 dalongist tim mor PoWeR 2 yo arm bro an mch respek i gotta en dis now cos im in danjer of bin 2 kool

[The Doctor]

But have we found any evidence of homo sapiens outside of Africa more than 100,000 years old? Not saying it's not possible, but if humans had spread out earlier than that we'd have found evidence to suggest they had.

Where do you stand on the Toba catastrophe theory?

But then I'm of the opinion that a quite advanced civilisation (not as advanced as ours, but close) lived 15,000-25,000 years ago and was wiped out by natural catastrophe leaving behind no evidence (apart from crystal skulls) anyway.

Not that I'm aware of, but whether we'd find them or not is quite another question compared to were they there? Hominids, rather inconsiderately, don't preserve well with their lack of an exoskeleton or diet containing stones and hard shells.

I'd tend to agree with it - certainly a supervolcano explosion would reek havoc with life, it's a textbook example of bottle-necking ( quite literally, volcanoes have always been one of the first examples for how bottle-necks can occur) and the dating of our genetic difference from each other seems to put a near extinction about that long ago.

[leicsmac]

Not that I'm aware of, but whether we'd find them or not is quite another question compared to were they there? Hominids, rather inconsiderately, don't preserve well with their lack of an exoskeleton or diet containing stones and hard shells.

I'd tend to agree with it - certainly a supervolcano explosion would reek havoc with life, it's a textbook example of bottle-necking ( quite literally, volcanoes have always been one of the first examples for how bottle-necks can occur) and the dating of our genetic difference from each other seems to put a near extinction about that long ago.

That's true - it's perfectly possible early homo sapiens migrated to other places far before we think they did - it would just be nice to see evidence that they had. Tools would probably be the best bet, due to humans not exactly preserving well as you say. It might even be that Toba stopped the first expansion and encouraged another.

I've thought about this for a while...if humanity were to disappear today, how long would it take for all evidence that we were here to disappear or become indistinguishable from nature? The pyramids are obviously 6,000-odd years old and they're the oldest constructed thing we know of still standing (I think), so what would happen over a time period of 15-20,000 years? Think our longest legacy would be our radioactive waste, for shame. How would we know an advanced civilisation had ever been here once over 20,000 years had passed?

Again, this is why I do entertain the fantasy of another advanced civilisation before us (Atlantean? ) that was destroyed by some kind of cataclysm, setting humans back a few thousand years. Crackpot, I know, but fun to think about.

Edit: According to wiki, Pyramids are 4000-5000 years old, oldest known structure still standing with us is around 6500 (in France).

[lavrentis]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21988278

Coldest Easter on record.

Global Warming where are you????

[BoneDog]

Was reading some Bill Bryson the other day and one thing that utterly amazed me was that they discovered human remains on Australia that were 60,000 years old. So that meant humans were sailing then, as at no time between then and now has Aus not been an island. Insane stuff.

Interesting. I've read a couple of Bryson books but not the one you mention. This ancient civilisation stuff is one of my favourite subjects and I've often thought about starting a thread on it as there's quite a bit of evidence that points to civilisations being around long before we give credit for.

Where do you stand on the Toba catastrophe theory?

But then I'm of the opinion that a quite advanced civilisation (not as advanced as ours, but close) lived 15,000-25,000 years ago and was wiped out by natural catastrophe leaving behind no evidence (apart from crystal skulls) anyway.

Not heard of the Toba theory but sounds reet up my street - as I am a 'catastrophist' . I've got a good book by some German that talks about the weathering on the Sphinx among other stuff, and it seems to imply that the Sphinx is likely around 20-30,000 years old and not just 3 or 4000 years old. I think that the book also does a good job at proving that the Great Pyramid was also a much more complicated build than we are taught.

fanks4dat EL ihave bin frstr8td bi da rools and strick regs on dissite4solong now dis givsmea chance 2 rely exprs myslfprply dat pepscan rely unerstan an enjooy itsolibratin u dABes i thing dat diswillb da most ossum fred dat ft has scene4 dalongist tim mor PoWeR 2 yo arm bro an mch respek i gotta en dis now cos im in danjer of bin 2 kool

Took me about 3 minutes to be able to read that! I'm not up to speed on txt talk.

Not that I'm aware of, but whether we'd find them or not is quite another question compared to were they there? Hominids, rather inconsiderately, don't preserve well with their lack of an exoskeleton or diet containing stones and hard shells.

I saw a Time-Team episode the other day and they'd found an old grave but said the remains had vanished in just 4000 years, due to acidic soil I think it was. Saw something else recently that said heat, among other things, also plays a part in destroying bones in quick time.

I'd tend to agree with it - certainly a supervolcano explosion would reek havoc with life, it's a textbook example of bottle-necking ( quite literally, volcanoes have always been one of the first examples for how bottle-necks can occur) and the dating of our genetic difference from each other seems to put a near extinction about that long ago.

There is quite a bit in historical texts that tends to paint a picture of mass extinction due to a large number of eruptions in different parts of the world just a few thousand years ago.

I've thought about this for a while...if humanity were to disappear today, how long would it take for all evidence that we were here to disappear or become indistinguishable from nature?

I don't think it would take long at all. A few thousand years max for most of our legacy to disappear. Things like cars, and other metal and plastic objects wouldn't be around for long and would totally vanish. Steel framed buildings and glass wouldn't last too long. All evidence of technology would be totally destroyed in a pretty short time.

If catastrophism is true, then evidence of roads or layouts of cities wouldn't even stick around in most places - a few earth sinkings/risings here and there, along with the many eruptions from the earth would put paid to that.

What would happen over a time period of 15-20,000 years? Think our longest legacy would be our radioactive waste, for shame. How would we know an advanced civilisation had ever been here once over 20,000 years had passed?

Have you heard about the radioactive waste supposedly in the Indus Valley area from long ago? Rajasthan maybe. I can't quite remember where I got all my info on that from a few years ago. I think that some say the Great Lakes area and the Libyan desert also show signs of nuclear 'activity' dating back 10 or 20,000 years.

Oppenheimer was a big studier of ancient Indian texts and famously read a quote at the 'atomic bomb' press conference or whatever it was. Here's a passage from the Mahabharata:

“…a single projectile Charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as the thousand suns Rose in all its splendor… a perpendicular explosion with its billowing smoke clouds …the cloud of smoke rising after its first explosion formed into expanding round circles like the opening of giant parasols …it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas. …The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognisable. The hair and nails fell out; pottery broke without apparent cause, and the birds turned white. After a few hours all foodstuffs were infected …to escape from this fire the soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment.â€

[MooseBreath]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21988278

Coldest Easter on record.

Global Warming where are you????

Average global temperature hasn't increased for up to 15 years... It's all bollocks

[The Doctor]

The strongest ‘pound for pound’ muscle is the uterus: it weighs around 2 pounds but during childbirth can exert a downward force of 400 Newtons, which is one hundred times as strong as gravity and equivalent to the power in a fully extended modern longbow.

Why does this make me think we should use uteruses as weapons?

[BoneDog]

Instead of the ping pong balls they fire nowadays for fun, they could fire similar sized marbles or ball-bearings. Sounds quite dangerous.

Although I think I'm getting uterus mixed up with fanny.

[The Doctor]

The thai army has just become slightly more creepy I think.

Ladies, take aim.... fire!

[BoneDog]

All going well my brother is coming home from prison this week.

Hope he hasn't had to do any bumming against his will. He seemed in high spirits a couple of weeks ago so maybe not.

[FoxesAreBlue]

Was he the bummer as opposed to the bummee?

[BoneDog]

Hopefully neither! Awful business.

Edit : Not being homophonic, what gays do in their own home is not of any concern to me. Specifically talking about any possible crimes against humanity in prison.