Thomas Harris' four part series on Hannibal Lecter is very good.
Early John le Carre is good but not so much his recent stuff IMO
Posts by cofty
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38What novels have you been reading recently? Recommend any?
by LoveUniHateExams ini've always been a bit of a reader - but only reading about topics i find interesting, e.g.
natural history, dinosaurs, etc.. recently i've started to select, buy and read novels.. this year i've bought and read frankenstein (mary shelly), dracula (bram stoker), the hound of the baskervilles (a. conan doyle), 'salem's lot (stephen king), jurassic park (michael crichton) and the firm (john grisham).. i have an inclination towards horrors and thrillers.. what fiction have you been reading?.
could you recommend anything?.
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34
Found Another Medieval Coin This Evening
by cofty ini got in an hour metal detecting this evening and found this almost immediately.. it is a silver penny of henry ii minted in london by "davi" between 1180 and 1189. this adds a king i didn't have in my collection.
i now have the series of henry ii - john - henry iii - edward i - edward ii - edward iii.. i now need richard the lionheart to fill in the gap.
he was the brother of john and reigned after the death of henry ii.
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cofty
have you ever scoured beaches, or is it not worthwhile? - The Searcher
Your username would be perfect for a detecting forum!
I haven't done beaches but it is quite popular. You will find modern coins and jewelry and a lot of fishing tackle. I'm more interested in history. It would be an option in the spring and summer when all the fields are under crop.
Blondie - Series 1 was very good. They captured a lot of the nuance of detectorists who are somewhere between amateur archeologists and stamp collectors. Second series was disappointing.
Tornapart - Finding a trove is always the dream. It was not uncommon to bury hoards in order to keep them safe. Then the owner died and it was never recovered. Yes I love TIme Team. I reckon they could do a good episode here where I live.
was the place inhabited before 1066, i.e. would there be any chance of finding Anglo-Saxon objects?
Yes it is listed in the records along with two other local villages as part of a Saxon "Thanage" I have yet to find anything Saxon but I am confident it will happen. There is also a crop mark of an Iron Age enclosure on the boundary of the estate. You can see part of the circular double ditch & ramparts in the pic below.
Here is a flint knife, probably paleolithic that I found about 50 yards from where I am sitting now. You can see the percussion marks where it was shaped by a hammer stone. I found one of those too! Amazing to imagine somebody walking by this spot and dropping their favourite penknife before some people even believe humans existed. It is a beautiful fit in my hand.
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34
Found Another Medieval Coin This Evening
by cofty ini got in an hour metal detecting this evening and found this almost immediately.. it is a silver penny of henry ii minted in london by "davi" between 1180 and 1189. this adds a king i didn't have in my collection.
i now have the series of henry ii - john - henry iii - edward i - edward ii - edward iii.. i now need richard the lionheart to fill in the gap.
he was the brother of john and reigned after the death of henry ii.
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cofty
SBF - The biggest challenge to getting started is finding permissions from landowners. A lot of people buy detectors and then realise they have nowhere to use them. I got a machine because I live in the countryside and had the ok to detect anywhere on the 1400 acres of the estate.
One way around that is to join a club who organise rallies. You could google where the closest is to you. They will be more inclined to welcome you if you come with some permission you can share though. For me I prefer to detect alone. It's a great way to relax after work for an hour walking in the countryside. If you find something interesting that's a bonus.
Machines range in cost massively. Mine is a mid-range Garret AT Pro. The problem with cheap machines is a lack of discrimination. I have a good idea what the signal is before I dig it but with the basic detectors you will end up digging a lot of rusty scrap.
There are some that boast about having a lot of depth but the reality is most of your finds will come from the plough soil which is no deeper than the blade of a normal spade. It is considered bad form to dig deeper than that as you are potentially disturbing archaeology.
Legally everything you find belongs to the landowner. I show everything interesting to him and he is going to set us a display cabinet in the "big house". If it is a valuable item you are entitled to 50% of its value and of course there are laws about what you must declare as treasure. In Scotland the laws are far more restrictive than in England.
For me a big part of the hobby is building up a picture of the history of this one location. It features a lot in historical records so I have been able to put together a timeline.
Edited to add - That David coin is a beauty. I have a coin of the Scottish king William the Lion who was captured at Alnwick by Henry II. Not as valuable as that one sadly.
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52
how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...
by Ruby456 inor do we give in to social constructivism?
to relativity?
or is there a way to be real and then to say whats real that everyone agrees to?.
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cofty
That has no connection to the conversation.
Why on earth did you post that? You Google keywords and copy-paste stuff you don't understand.
I am opting out trying to interrupt your frustrating monologue.
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52
how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...
by Ruby456 inor do we give in to social constructivism?
to relativity?
or is there a way to be real and then to say whats real that everyone agrees to?.
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cofty
I agree that chemiosmosis is central to lane's hypothesis - no probs from me
The point is the "free lunch" provided by natural proton gradients in hydrothermal vents. This is what frees the origin-of-life from the barren metabolism or replication first debate.
I am going to do a series of threads to explain it in the near future.
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52
how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...
by Ruby456 inor do we give in to social constructivism?
to relativity?
or is there a way to be real and then to say whats real that everyone agrees to?.
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cofty
Contrast and compare.
biochemists are committed to metabolism first explanations. I tend to favour the latter like Martin and Lane do. - Ruby
"There is an old rift between origin-of-life researchers about what came first, metabolism or replication. It's a barren debate" - Nick Lane
Lane's main hypothesis is based on metabolism first. therefore I am not misrepresenting him. - Ruby
Perhaps you could write to Nick Lane and tell him he doesn't know what the is talking about.
You have missed the whole point about chemiosmosis. It is THE central idea of Lane's hypothesis.
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34
Found Another Medieval Coin This Evening
by cofty ini got in an hour metal detecting this evening and found this almost immediately.. it is a silver penny of henry ii minted in london by "davi" between 1180 and 1189. this adds a king i didn't have in my collection.
i now have the series of henry ii - john - henry iii - edward i - edward ii - edward iii.. i now need richard the lionheart to fill in the gap.
he was the brother of john and reigned after the death of henry ii.
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cofty
I wonder if you are on some kind of archaeological site
I live on a rural estate that appears in the records as far back as the 11th century. It has a very rich history. It was the property of Norman Knights since soon after the Conquest. I know a bit of the history of most of the families that owned it over the centuries. I have written it up for the current landowner.
There was a medieval village here but due to it's proximity to the Scottish border it was attacked many times. It is likely that it also fell victim to the plague.
One interesting highlight is that The earl of Bothwell hid here for a few nights in 1563 when he was on the run from being imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. He was betrayed and recaptured here in the middle of the night and taken to the Tower of London. He later went on to murder Lord Darnley the husband of Mary Queen of Scots and to take Mary as his wife. He vowed revenge on the owner of the estate who had betrayed him.
As well as coins I find a lot of everyday objects.
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34
Found Another Medieval Coin This Evening
by cofty ini got in an hour metal detecting this evening and found this almost immediately.. it is a silver penny of henry ii minted in london by "davi" between 1180 and 1189. this adds a king i didn't have in my collection.
i now have the series of henry ii - john - henry iii - edward i - edward ii - edward iii.. i now need richard the lionheart to fill in the gap.
he was the brother of john and reigned after the death of henry ii.
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cofty
Very interesting episode in the life of Henry II involved his relationship with Archbishop Thomas Becket. Henry appointed his friend because he thought he could control him, but Becket turned out to be his own man.
After one altercation on Christmas Day 1170 Henry uttered the words "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four of his knights failed to recognise this as a rhetorical question and went off and murdered Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.
Henry spent most of his life doing penance for this crime. To pick up a coin that nobody has touched since those times is a real buzz.
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34
Found Another Medieval Coin This Evening
by cofty ini got in an hour metal detecting this evening and found this almost immediately.. it is a silver penny of henry ii minted in london by "davi" between 1180 and 1189. this adds a king i didn't have in my collection.
i now have the series of henry ii - john - henry iii - edward i - edward ii - edward iii.. i now need richard the lionheart to fill in the gap.
he was the brother of john and reigned after the death of henry ii.
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cofty
I got in an hour metal detecting this evening and found this almost immediately.
It is a silver penny of Henry II minted in London by "Davi" between 1180 and 1189. This adds a king I didn't have in my collection. I now have the series of Henry II - John - Henry III - Edward I - Edward II - Edward III.
I now need Richard the Lionheart to fill in the gap. He was the brother of John and reigned after the death of Henry II
It's a great feeling to pick up a coin that nobody has touched for well over 800 years in a world that was so different. Even more so as it was only about 200 yards from my front door.
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52
how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...
by Ruby456 inor do we give in to social constructivism?
to relativity?
or is there a way to be real and then to say whats real that everyone agrees to?.
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cofty
You are totally misrepresenting Nick Lane for the third time. He specifically rejects the "metabolism first" position and the alternative and lays out at great length why it is a "barren debate".
You claimed before that he said religion is of the greatest inventions of evolution - he did not.
Then you claimed that "the black hole at the heart of biology" is a metaphysical one about what makes us human - he says no such thing.
Now you have made it a hat trick by distorting the central premise of his ideas.