Wednesday 9 September 2015

"Person of Interest"

Around the Christmas holidays of 2011, I had to do a trans-Atlantic flight, which means eight or nine hours in a cramped plane and the only entertainment is the video offering.  I sat and saw some five episode deal of a new CBS show....Person of Interest.  After viewing the original show, and the next four episodes....I had an interest in it.  For the remainder of the 2011 season, I probably watched a total of a dozen episodes.  After that, I just didn't have time to view it.

This past six weeks....I've been using Netflix and caught up with all the episodes of the first three seasons.  A fourth season was done for last year, and CBS has agreed to produce roughly a dozen episodes for what they believe is the final year.

After watching the sixty-six-odd episodes....I'm at a point where I'm keenly into the series.  On several levels....they've screwed up and accidentally produced a five-star series loaded with mistakes.  Viewership isn't where it should be and CBS thinks they are doing a good thing to let the series wrap up the ending.  There's talk that Netflix or Amazon might be in the background.....ready to pick up the series and run it for a season or two.  Maybe if huge numbers come up for Person of Interest over the final dozen episodes.....CBS might wake up and carry it for another season or two.

The big screw-ups?

1.  The name doesn't work.  It should have been "Man and Machine" or "Man in a Suit".  Person of Interest has zero appeal.

2.  The use of music within the video?  For the first season, they marginally did a good job on this.  For a couple of season two episodes....they did a five-star job and the rest fell between a two-star and four-star.  They should have hired some smart guys to gear music to the scenes.

3.  A lot of this storyline is about Artificial Intelligence (A-I).  For a large segment of the audience....they needed a real introduction to the science.  I think somewhere in the middle of season two, they woke up and did some explanations but they wasted tons of opportunities.

One of the big problems with the series is that you have to watch each single episode because they are laying down bits and pieces of secondary stories.   If you missed two or three episodes from season one, and two episodes from season two.....you'd be in hurt-status for grasping season three.

So, I'm kinda hoping that the series survives the short season, and someone picks it up.

Stonehenge II?

If you drive for roughly two hours west of London.....you will eventually reach Durrington....a small town with only one significant feature....Stonehenge.

I made the trip twenty-odd years ago.  You come over the top of some hill....and you look down to the right of the road, on a very low-grade slope, and you can see the stone monument off in the distance.  But you typically think of....at least in my case.....it's all a big cow-field.  Just open farm land with grass growing.

My little group spent about 90 minutes at Stonehenge.....walking the circle.  Once you've been there....you realize there's no reason much to return.

Well, this week....some researchers noted that they've found more to the whole Stonehenge thing.....except a much bigger site.

Around two miles from the current site....is this mostly buried site, with around ninety big stones (all buried, of course). They note the depth of the stones to be at least three feet under surface.

So, there are some basic facts, and then a lot of mystery.

They calculate that this was Stonehenge II (to have occurred after the original smaller episode).  They also calculate that this all occurred around 4,500 years ago (2500BC).  They also calculate that some of the buried stones are fifteen feet tall.

Purpose?  Unknown.

What folks have come to say is that Stonehenge I (the smaller site) was developed as a mystic ritual site and people were told far and wide that if you made a walk (like the Catholic Saint James Way from the center of Europe to the far west end of Portugal)....that some higher power would help in your life, cure ills, bring good luck, and and lift your outcome in life.

It's believed that a large assortment of people in Europe would find their way to Stonehenge.....bringing sick relatives with them, and believed that the mystic charm of the site would do something.

Why was Stonehenge II (the new site) buried?  No one is sure if it was buried intentionally (three feet of dirt is a lot).  There's no flood area there, and there's no possibility of landslides to disrupt site.  There's no possibility of a volcano being involved (as in Crete's case).  So you are left with the idea that some guys put a lot of effort into burying the site.

I would take a humble guess that some event occurred....of a pretty harsh and negative nature.  Enough people were standing there and believed that the Stonehenge II site was 'cursed', and they decided that it was best to bury it and never walk those grounds again.  A disease?  A plague?  Who knows?  The fact that thousands made the journey from Europe to Stonehenge I....meant hundreds probably had a disease and passed it along via the trail to Stonehenge. It was only a period of time before a large segment of visitors would arrive and be seriously ill while visiting the original site.

So, I'd suggest to the research guys.....broaden the search pattern slightly and look for a burial ground within a couple of miles of the second and newer site.  Once you find a large assortment of burials....look for clues.