Another Mystery - ah, not so much!

While conducting the research for one of our previous blog entries (Conspiracies), we came upon some strange and other worldly markings on the hard packed dirt roads the fabulous Toyota FJ were taking us.

For hours the questions were thus:
Who had created such markings?
Where did they come from?
What did they mean?
How could they be there and no one has mentioned them?



Baffling to say the least.

Thoughts of Nazca came to mind from the trip to Peru years back when J and L, with daughters in tow, wondered if the natives had simply had an itch to scrape lines in the rocky surface so future generations would scratch their heads and ponder - huh? Or was it something more tantalizing from
space aliens that allowed them to have directions from the heavens above so they could land safely in their fire ships?

Conversations occurred. Answers pooh-pooed. More conversations happened and more answers that didn't pan out.

Nothing.

And one had to remember this was in range of Area 51. Anything was possible. What is the government hiding beneath our noses or at least our tire treads?

Suddenly the world awoke and there in front of us was the resolution of our verbal quest.

Yes, these wild burros like to follow each other nose to the other end of the head leaving a solid and distinctive path no matter the surface they traverse.These trails are followed religiously, though we're not sure what religion burros follow, day in and day out, leaving discernible markings.

What a let down for us wanna-be conspiracy hunters. But anyway - the truth was out there.



The burro (the Spanish word for donkey) did not come over from Europe until 1495 when Christopher Columbus brought a handful (rather large hand) to Hispaniola from whence they were transported here and there across the ever expanding empire until finally these beasts of burden ended up crossing the Rio Grande in 1598 with explorer Juan de Onate. They were then used for many purposes and some escaped (like all enslaved animals ultimately do) and bred in the wild. Thus populations of wild burros (and horses too) roaming the deserts of Nevada and other states in the southwest is not uncommon.

Really - that was the solution to another possible conspiracy? Sadly yes, and that's no manure.

Caisleann Bhun Raithe

Beautiful Ruins

Another Castle Stop!

Stealing a peek

Castle walls

We had seen so many castles in the Irish countryside that even the dauntless explorers, J and L, had to think three or four times before stopping by one of Ireland's premier tourist attractions. Thousand year old structures in the middle of the rolling green hills we had crawled through on hands and knees, clambered to parapets over broken stone circular stairwells, and even walked through an underground mud pit to flash a light into what was once a dungeon.

Looking down the upstaircase

Why would we want to pay 15 Euros to follow lines of visitors traipsing through a restored 15th century castle by the 7th Viscount Gort in 1956? But, then again why wouldn't we?

So, as we drove along the N19 road between Limerick and Ennis a stop in the center of Bunratty Village looked like a good idea.

Ratty River, Shannon Estuary

One of the better decisions, and there were a lot of them, during our summer trip to the green island. A chance to wander the grounds of an area reported to be one of the first Viking settlement/trader camps in the County Clare. According to local legend the settlement was destroyed by Brian Boru in 977 CE. With this story though no evidence of the settlement has been found but then again there is always tomorrow and  a possible bonanza archaeological dig.




We'll stick with the local tradition for now, much more romantic and deadly.

Walking through history is a trip not all can take but going from the 21st to the 15th century by simply slipping past a turnstile was well worth it.

Bunratty Castle

The weather was perfect for a pair of travelers making their way from one exhibit to another with the sun making a strong showing every few moments between drops of rain. A lovely summer day in the middle of the Republic of Ireland.




Bunratty Castle (Caisleann Bhun Raithe) is located on a large open air Folk Park covering 26 acres and housing over thirty buildings which contain shops, ancient and more modern structures (the late 19th century showing what life in a small community was like through the centuries.


While walking through the village we came upon a thatched roofed cottage, rather large in comparison to the other ones we had viewed, with a peat fire in the hearth and met a woman in period clothing busily pounding dough on a large wood table.

"I'm making dumplings. The best in all of Ireland."

Ardcroney Church

And indeed they were as we learned while visiting the small pub next door. Though we didn't eat any more during visit to Ireland, so they were indeed the best we had had.


The rain fell softly and warm but did not deter two eager adventurers from exploring the small but delightful Rose Cottage to the Ardcroney Church of Ireland at the far end of the Folk Park.

Interior, Great Hall

Four hours and four tired legs later J and L had witnessed all the park had to offer including the magnificent castle.

Narrow and steep stone spiral staircases on all four corners of the interior allowed visitors to truly experience what life must have been like five centuries earlier in County Clare.

The Library,
a writer's favorite

Cold, wet, smelly (with peat burning all day and night), smelly (bathing usually was not a daily occurrence), often times hungry depending on a good or bad growing season. And was cold and wet mentioned already?

As we departed from our trip into the past both of us were glad to get into the comfort of our rented 21st century vehicle and heading to our hotel instead of having to live the reality of bunking down for the night inside an airy thatched roofed home.

J and L, Researching and Exploring in Ireland

Romantic? Maybe but still cold and wet most of the times. Or perhaps, that is what it makes it so charming.

The Past is Our Future

As the end of the year approaches, you see everywhere the lists of the best and the worst of the year in retrospective. It is, we think, an interesting commentary on our lives as humans that we spend more time, often, looking back than looking forward. And, as the warning etched in the mirror warns, what we see in the rear-view mirrors of our lives, are closer than they appear. Some of the greatest discoveries of the past year never really made big news, but as we look back, these discoveries may have an incredible impact on our future.

Skull 5

So, the tale begins, as we look back on some of the most intriguing scientific discoveries of the year, and ponder their impact of our lives.

Let's start with the discovery of an incredibly well-preserved skull found in Dmanisi, Georgia. This 1.8 million year old skull  may be a missing link suggesting we, the members of the Homo genus, may not have been a distinct species coexisting with the likes of Mr. Neanderthal, but instead, branches from the same tree which has brought us to us. This skull, referred to as Skull 5, was found with others of variable characteristics demonstrate that hominids flourished outside of Africa at a significantly earlier date than previously believed. This could be the turning point in rewriting the theories of how we became to be as we are.



And now, from evolution to faith, we have the completion of a ten year investigation and criminal trial involving an Israeli antiquities collector who acquired an ossuary, a limestone burial box inscribed with the earliest known references to Jesus. The conclusion: it's the real thing. On the side of the ossuary, the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," is chiseled in an Aramaic script, and the investigators have concluded it is legitimate.

Ossuary of James, brother of Jesus

This would be an unbelievably rare find scientifically, historically and spiritually -- physical evidence of Jesus and his family.






Now, from the awe-inspiring to the curious. The linguist in me was utterly mesmerized by this next little tidbit. Those who study such things, have known since the 19th century that all modern Indo-Eurpoean languages have descended from one root. This single tongue, aptly named Proto-Indo-European, (or PIE for short -- mmmmm, pie) was spoken by our ancestors from roughly 4500BC to 2500 BC. They left no written texts, yet academics working together all over the world have managed to recreate what they believe the spoken word may have sounded like. Click below to listen.

6,000 years ago    

And now to the truly fantastic: the US Government finally released classified documents confirming the existence of Area 51 as a real government testing site. The report is a snoringly long 400 page (the pdf is available on the link below. Although significantly redacted before release this year despite having been written more than twenty years ago, the most interesting fact about this document, is that it makes no reference to the status of Area 51 after 1974.

CIA files on Area 51   

From science fiction fantasies to science fact: 2013 also witnessed the confirmation of the existence of a new element, never before discovered. This 115th element, Ununpentium, is a super-heavy element discovered in Germany, and confirmed by Russian chemists. Now, not to get too excited, this element has an incredibly brief life-span (measured in milliseconds) and is in the company of five more elements awaiting confirmation. But it is exciting to think that since the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev published that first periodic table with fifty-nine elements in 1869, how much we have learned about our the make-up of our own planet. 

And now, for science fiction meets fact :  Voyager I has left the solar system. After a thirty five year journey, which began one year before this image made famous in the first Star Trek movie, Voyager has reached interstellar space. This is a milestone -- travelling almost 19 billion km from the sun, this is the first human creation to reach out beyond our own solar system neighborhood. 

 And so we end our trip looking back on 2013 with an eye to what lies ahead. Discovering the truth about ourselves, our past, and the world in which we live, is, we believe, a noble goal for the future of J and L.