FORMER Python Terry Jones has helped uncover a plot to land a French invasion force in Wales.
While working on a new television programme, the historian stumbled upon plans to land Louis XIV’s forces on the Mid Wales coast at Aberystwyth.
The 17th century conspiracy – apparently hatched after Charles II had signed the Treaty of Dover in which he plotted with the French King to restore Britain to Catholicism – came as a shock to Colwyn Bay-born Terry and programme makers.
They had thought they were just going to follow an ancient map to see if a roadway depicted still exists today.
Programme producer Alan Ereira said he thought they were in for a gentle, but fascinating trek across Wales using the world’s first road atlas, created by John Ogilby. Ogilby, born in Scotland in 1600, is best known for his Britannia Atlas, which set the standard for those that followed.
But they found something far more sinister – no less than a plot for revolution, which could have plunged England and Wales into a bitter civil war.
“It was a fascinating find,” said Ereira.
There’s a joke there somewhere about France trying to slip in through England’s backdoor but I’ve got a sinus infection and can’t quite nail it.
SYDNEY: A reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles could happen sooner than we think, according to Dutch scientists who report that the planet’s magnetic field is becoming gradually less stable.
A reversal could affect everything from navigation and communications equipment to the composition of the atmosphere, say experts.
The report, published today in the U.K. journal Nature Geoscience, found that reversals have been far more common in the last 200 million years than they were deep in the planet’s history.
Sure, it may create disasters (or may not), but it still sounds like it would be kind of cool to experience.
The wraps have come off one of Westminster Abbey’s least known treasures, a medieval marble pavement foretelling the end of the world, while conservation experts consider how to preserve the ancient stones for the next 740 years.
Few modern visitors have ever seen it, although since 1268 kings and princes, queens and cardinals have walked across a symbol laden mosaic as intricate as a piece of jewellery.
It is made up of rare marbles and gemstones, including some recycled from monuments 1,000 years older, and pieces of coloured glass, set in complex allegorical patterns into a framework of Purbeck marble cut as intricately as a jigsaw puzzle.
“When this floor was new it would have blazed with colour,” Vanessa Simeoni, the abbey’s head of conservation said. “The materials were chosen for their brilliance and shine, and the quality of the craftsmanship is actually shocking, the ultimate that could be achieved.”
The mosaics are known as Cosmati work, after the four generations of a Roman family of marble workers who perfected the technique. The Westminster one, regarded as the finest north of the Alps, uniquely has an inscription boasting of its makers - and a cryptic message about the end of the world.
LAKE CITY — Rumors surface every few years. Ever since the historical siting on April 28, 1871, there have been stories about a monster in Lake Pepin.
The Lake City Tourism Bureau has decided to try and find out the truth. The bureau is enlisting the public’s help by offering a $50,000 reward to anyone who can prove the existence of the creature living in Lake Pepin that is commonly referred to as “Pepie.”
The native Dakota people who lived along the Mississippi River were afraid to travel on Lake Pepin in birchbark canoes because of “large creatures” that would surface on the Lake and puncture the thin birchbark skin, according to tourism bureau spokesman Larry Nielson. They would only travel on the lake in the more stoutly made dugout canoes.
I missed Dario Argentino’s Pelts when it came out in 2006 on the Masters of Horror series. Caught it tonight. Excellent gory film of cursed fur pelts that result in horrific deaths to all that touch them. Meat Loaf proves to be an accomplished actor in his role of a fur dealer with lust for a dancer at a strip club who won’t give him what he wants until he is rich. But the pelts carry a high price of a different sort.
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned this here yet - Blair Witch Project director Daniel Myrick’s latest movie, The Objective (heavy Flash). The (as of this time) one comment on the YouTube trailer takes the obvious cheap shot: Predator meets Afghanistan. Personally, I think that’s a touch too glib - but we’ll see.
Looks pretty good to me! Wired (which is probably where I first learned of the film) has an interview with Myrick here.
