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Stonehenge Version 2.0 Completed 256

Posted by Zonk from the sound-for-what? dept.
Antarctic Lemur writes "The Stonehenge project previously mentioned has been completed near Wellington, New Zealand. This newer version utilises multiple ancient astronomical technologies (scroll down) and the BBC reports it is wired for sound."
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Stonehenge Version 2.0 Completed More

Stonehenge Version 2.0 Completed

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  • First Monolith! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:32AM (#11686243)
    There can be only one!

  • easy (Score:4, Funny)

    by esteric ( 859523 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:35AM (#11686260)
    Tourism.

  • Units of Measurements (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrwoody ( 856093 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:40AM (#11686287)
    Before building it, remember that ' is feet and " is inches.

    let's see how many people notice anything weird

  • Nebraska offers you an alternative (Score:5, Interesting)

    by helioquake ( 841463 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:40AM (#11686288) Journal
    Bleh, this is nothing compared to Car Henge [carhenge.com] in Nebraska.

    Screw astronomy. It's about used cars, man!

  • Uh-oh.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by evel aka matt ( 123728 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:40AM (#11686290)
    Eddie Izzard will have to update his routine now...

    • Re:Uh-oh.. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:25AM (#11686491)
      And we had the Pagans in Britain. You didn't really have the Pagans here. You had the Native Americans and it was much more of a warrior, aboriginal-type existence, and... we had the Pagans. They were into sex, death, and religion in an interesting night-time telly type of way. And we had the Druids! Long white robes, long white beards, early transvestites, didn't get their shaving together; and they built Stonehenge, one of the biggest henges in the world. No one's built a henge like that ever since. No one knows what the fuck a henge is! Before Stonehenge, there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge, but a big bad wolf came and blew them down, and three little piggies were relocated to the projects.

      found the transcript after a bit of googling some random place [auntiemomo.com]

  • What.... (Score:2, Funny)

    by mbrewthx ( 693182 )
    You wanted it 18'???
    But look here you wrote down 18"
    • "I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been...that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. All right? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object."

  • Did they build the whole 18" of it? (Score:5, Funny)

    by EuropeanSwallow ( 662253 ) <joaoluispinto&gmail,com> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:42AM (#11686308) Homepage
    Stonehenge
    Where the demons dwell
    Where the banshees live
    And they do live well

    Stonehenge
    Where a man is a man
    And the children dance to
    The pipes of pan

    Stonehenge
    'Tis a magic place
    Where the moon doth rise
    With a dragon's face

    Stonehenge
    Where the virgins lie
    And the prayer of devils
    Fill the midnight sky

    And you my love
    Won't you take my hand
    We'll go back in time
    To that mystic land
    Where the dew drops cry
    And the cats meow
    I will take you there
    I will show you how

    Stonehenge by Spinal Tap

    Sorry, couldn't resist... ;)

  • If a replica is good enough for you.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by PopeAlien ( 164869 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:45AM (#11686323) Homepage Journal
    .. and you're in or near washington state, you might want to check out the concrete version in maryhill washington [legendsofamerica.com]. It was built as a WWI memorial by the 'eccentric' Sam Hill after he was mistakenly told that the original Stonehenge was used for sacrifices.

    its not terribly accurate, and its not 'wired for sound', but its kinda cool none-the-less.

  • Too bad it's fake (Score:4, Informative)

    by Capt'n Hector ( 650760 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @01:49AM (#11686344)
    It looks like it's made from plywood or some other material (not stone), from the pictures in the original wired article. Had they built the thing from real stone, it would last as long as the original Stonehenge - but given the price of such huge rocks, and the difficulty of building things with it, I can't say I blame them.

    • Re:Too bad it's fake (Score:2, Insightful)

      by IGTeRR0r ( 805236 )
      Eh, well, a sequel is just never as good as the original...:(

    • Re:Too bad it's fake (Score:2, Informative)

      by tahii ( 758556 )
      If I remember correctly, it is made from wood, steel reinforcing and spray-on concrete.
    • That way when humanity is dead and gone and the original stonehenge has crumbled to dust, the alien species that finds our planet will know that someone was here. They'll STILL conclude that there was never any intelligent life on the planet, but they'll damn well know someone was here!
    • Could you imagine the future if it was made to last?

      3000 years from now it will be called a form of ground to orbit communication... an ancient way to launch spacecraft... the center of a great sport or TV show... the remains of a great work of art... the first particle accelorater... or evidence that technology and intellegence where not globally spread.

      --Cam
      PS I so wanna be there when the first archaeologist finds a 20th century time capsule. Just to watch them try and figure out WHY we did it.

    • Re:Too bad it's fake (Score:4, Informative)

      by CProgrammer98 ( 240351 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @04:47AM (#11686934) Homepage
      the construction method is described in the BBC article... timber frame, drywall, then sprayed with concrete.

      "But the New Zealand group had to eschew the ancient in constructing the henge as even with modern building equipment, the henge would have taken too long to construct and would have been too expensive.

      The eye of a 5-metre tall obelisk points to the south celestial pole

      Instead the society's team concocted pillars and lintels from wooden frames, covered those with cement board and wire mesh and sprayed concrete over the structure."
    • From the BBC link: NZ$56,500, or $40,000 US. Yeah, 40 grand's gonna get you:
      • 24 upright pillars and connecting lintels that is 30m in diameter and about 4m high. In the centre of the henge is a 5m-tall obelisk, the eye of which points at the south celestial pole.
      • a tiled mosaic that runs out from the obelisk
      • a 10m analemma, the figure of eight pattern that the path of sun traces over a year.
      • six heel stones, the markers for the rising and setting points of the sun at solstice and equinox.

      While I fin

    • Maybe it should be called Woodhenge then.
  • Seeing as how we're not a barbaric society any longer, they should just send them my way.

  • This Stone henge is illegal (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:08AM (#11686426)
    There is already a patent on stonehenge dammit. It is covered under international patent law.

    America invented stone. And henges.

  • For Christmas... (Score:5, Funny)

    by TrippTDF ( 513419 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {dnalih}> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:11AM (#11686432)
    I want my own henge. I'll even settle for one made of cheese.

  • 2.0-RC1 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kernel_dan ( 850552 ) <slashdevslashtty ... m minus math_god> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:14AM (#11686448)
    Version 2.0-RC1 [legendsofamerica.com]

  • Always preferred Avebury (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Centurix ( 249778 ) <centurixNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:26AM (#11686498) Homepage
    Mainly because my old local pub is smack in the middle of the circle. Ah, the days of sipping Wadworths 6X in the summer garden!

    There are several circles similar to Stonehenge in the area around Wiltshire, one not so well known circle is Woodhenge, which is a few miles north east of Stonehenge just past Amesbury. The whole area is full of barrows and free-standing stones. A lot of them are in the middle of farm land which makes it difficult to get to, and there are a lot of ancient forts around too.

    One funny thing I remember, walking past the entry gates to the stones one saturday morning walking the dog and there was a bus of American tourists doing the rounds, and I actually overheard one say "It's nice, but why did they have to build it so close to the road"...

    Something that a lot of people don't realise about the circle is that a lot of the stones were moved around a lot during the early part of the 20th century. Six stones were set up-right in 1918 from their horizontal positions by the office of works and the stones were closed off to the public. They've also been moved backwards and forwards to London for inspection and maintenance a couple of times in the past, they certainly haven't been standing untouched for the last 3000 years!
    • Was that the ones that a Doctor Who episode from many moons ago was set around? From memory there were stones in a vague circular arrangment amongst buildings.

      I could also be wrong as this was a looong time ago.

    • Re:Always preferred Avebury (Score:4, Interesting)

      by I confirm I'm not a ( 720413 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @07:11AM (#11687309) Journal

      Mainly because my old local pub is smack in the middle of the circle.

      I'll second the motion for "Avebury whups Stonehenge's arse", precisely because you can actually walk around and within Avebury's ring (and drink 6X in the centre - if there's a better beer I've not found it). The security-guards-plus-tourists-plus-carparking-at-L ondon-prices that dominates Stonehenge just pisses me off; at least at Avebury you can wander and dream and imagine without a fluro-jacketed tour-guide prodding you every two minues.

      Got to say I disagree about Woodhenge, though: I pretty much thought "nothing to see here, move along please" - just a whole bunch of concrete markers informing you where the original wooden henge was. Still, each to their own! I guess my imagination ain't up to the job ;-)

    • Did you grow up there?

      I visited Avebury last July, went to have dinner at the Red Lion (IIRC), but their dishwasher was broken, so they had no plates and no dinner...

      It was quite spooky (and the "town" is absolutely tiny) but I was curious why it appeared to me that the "dry moat" surrounding the place was backward - big hill on the outside, ditch on the inside.

      That, and the loooong stretch of standing stones that head out - I think East - off towards Marlborough. Had a good dinner at the Oddfellows Arm

  • Stonehenge attracts Hedge Monkeys (Score:3, Funny)

    by pomgolian ( 799719 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:42AM (#11686549)
    Driving past the original Stonehenge, one gets to see many hedge monkeys, you know the sort, unwashed and all that. I wonder if the replica with have kiwi monkeys instead?

  • Is it still "working"? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Exluddite ( 851324 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @02:45AM (#11686562)
    Precession must have some bearing on Stonehenge, and it looks like one hell of a thing to have to calibrate.
    • Yes.

      If "working" is defined as "does what it was originally intended to do", we may or may not be 100% certain of that, ever.

      The people of that era believed in Magic, in terms that specific rituals could coerce the divine to take action. If that was ever possible, it required Druids (no, not your D&D character), and we have lost a key element of the ritual.

      However, what we do know is that it had religious signifigence to ancient celtic people, and still today, there are people that will make a
      • I am not sure what kind of evidence there is to suggest it was used for religious purposes. It seems to me that almost any archaelogical object which people don't understand the purpose of is labelled as a "religious artefact"
      • Stonehenge wasn't built by Druids. It was built thousands of years earlier. "The Druids" were not even a race, nor even religious sect as many believe. They were just one of the three learned groups in some Celtic cultures. (Another of the groups was the Bards who were expert in poetry, the arts, etc.; they are still honoured in Welsh Eisteddfords). They existed long after Stonehenge was completed and had only slightly less insight into its purpose than us.

  • stonehenge (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Dr.Opveter ( 806649 )
    Stonehenge [wikipedia.org] is one of those things i always like to see on discovery channel shows.
    I think it's fascinating that it's hard to figure out what's the deal exactly. I wonder if this will happen with anything of our age in like 5000 years.

  • Goldendale Stonehenge (Score:5, Informative)

    by serutan ( 259622 ) <snoopdoug@RABBIT ... minus herbivore> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:01AM (#11686620) Homepage
    Near Goldendale, Washington there is a full-scale replica [happydeathinc.com] of Stonehenge [viamagazine.com] that's made out of concrete [aaroncgilbert.com]. It was built in 1918 by a concrete tycoon named Sam Hill as a memorial for those who died in WWI, and is said to be the most accurate Stonehenge replica in the United States. There's also an observatory nearby with one of the country's largest public-access telescopes. Pretty interesting place to stop if you are going through Washington in the summer.
    • There's also an observatory nearby with one of the country's largest public-access telescopes.

      That would be Goldendale [perr.com]

      I was there a few years back when the state threatened to cut finding from this public park/observatory. They seem to still be in operation though.

      You should make it clear it's south central Washington right next to the Oregon boarder. Worth the trip to see the Maryhill [maryhillmuseum.org] museum of art and the observatory near by, but still 3 hrs by car from Seattle.

  • Someday, people will worship this (Score:4, Funny)

    by mveloso ( 325617 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:20AM (#11686681)
    Someday in the far future, people will worship this and marvel at the exquisite craftsmanship, while others argue whether the astronomical alignments are coincidences (as they must be, since they could not have known some of the alignments without advanced astronomical knowledge) or actual (because such precise alignments are impossible to be coincidences).

    Maybe stonehenge 1.0 was the original prank meme?

  • Snow reveals more details (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bananahammock ( 595781 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:20AM (#11686682)
    What is definitely cool is that after it snows, the so-called "Avenue" is revealed. Here's one link: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/filestore/stone hengeinteractivemap/timetravel.html [english-heritage.org.uk]

  • One thing that often gets overlooked; (Score:5, Informative)

    by Biotech9 ( 704202 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @03:55AM (#11686784) Homepage
    ...when stonehenge is being discussed, is that a few hundred miles away in Dublin, Ireland, there is a megalithic tomb that is far older than stonehenge and the pyramids, and still functions today as an astrological calender. It illuminates internally only twice a year, on the longest and shortest days of the year.

    Certainly Stonehenge is impressive, I find it far more impressive that a 5000 year old tomb with clock function still works even today. resources [knowth.com]
  • The welsh were the likly culprits who erected the first stone henge (well THE stone henge) as noted hyah, hyah, and hyah [discovery.com] (cartman)

    5005 years ago.

    Welsh builder: alrigh' butty, you see we is going to be building dis 'ere, ok now, tell me again, what the fuck are these big sticky out ones

    Foreman: stones...

    Welsh builder: aye, stoaoaoaones. we have some of them in the valley. OK, whose coat is that jacket?

    Foreman: listen how long with this take?

    Welsh builder: not long, I have to be home to watch the sheep

  • Why bother-Stonehenge is depressing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @04:18AM (#11686853)
    Believe me, I've passed it often enough on the way to and from Heathrow. It is actually depressing. Not too be too snobbish or prone to flamebait, but the site is surrounded by a poorly maintained wire fence, has a hideous car park, and in the summer is full of gawpers who seem rapidly to have lost interest. And the heritage industry wants to turn it into a kind of theme park., which probably means even worse. Strangely, the problem is not really the roads that go past two sides of the site, but the appalling state of the site itself. It is clearly administered by people who really do not care. I suspect Stonehenge is so well known only because of its very accessibility and because of the lunatic books written about it.

    Unfortunately it was ever thus. There are some really ancient monuments on Malta and Gozo which are far more impressive - the Maltese one even has some of the carving still visible. Last time I was there I was really upset and embarrassed because I had to tell a group of US tourists to stop climbing on the stones. They had no idea how to behave on archaeological sites, or that they were doing damage.

    At one time it was seriously suggested that the real Stonehenge be closed off to the public and replaced with a concrete replica. Perhaps this is the answer to all valuable ancient monuments: make accurate replicas for tourists, ban the general public from the real sites and only allow access to people who can prove, perhaps by taking some sort of test, that they have a bona fide interest in the subject and understand that monuments must be treated with care for their own protection.

  • Wired for sound? (Score:3, Funny)

    by David Horn ( 772985 ) <david&pocketgamer,org> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @05:23AM (#11687029) Homepage
    *Start deep mysterious voice*

    "This is God speaking... did you know you can get a 2 for 1 Big Mac meal at the Stonehenge McDonalds. Hurry - offer can't last!"

  • Time's up... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by OSXexpert ( 859428 )
    I haven't worn a watch or cared what day it is let alone what time it is for the past 19 years. It amazes me how many folks I know that don't know how to look up at the sky or at shadows and tell what time it is. If you want to know what time of the year it is, stand outside for a few minutes and sense the weather, the air, the brush... Maybe the important of Stonehedge is to get folks to pay more attention to the world around us and less to the overwhelmingly growing 40-65% of net income being spent on
  • The builders of Stonehenge would not have been impressed. The outside of the real thing's ring and the lintels are actually smoothly curved into a proper circle instead of having those ugly corners jutting out. Not to mention the central "horseshoe" of stones, several of which would require specialised equipment to move about a field today.

    This thing may have all sorts of unlikely stellar alignments in it, but that too is almost certainly nothing like the original, which has a few solar alignments.

    3/10. M

  • A better one in the central US (Score:5, Informative)

    by vrmlguy ( 120854 ) <samwyse AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @07:16AM (#11687319) Homepage Journal
    The University of Missouri at Rolla has a half-scale version of Stonehenge on campus. (See http://web.umr.edu/~stonehen/ [umr.edu]) This one is constructed from solid granite, not easily eroded sandstone (like the original), nor wood, drywall, and sprayed concrete (like the one in New Zealand). Sam Hill built his version of Stonehenge in Maryhill, Washington before anyone knew much about the original and so it has no astronomical alignments; UMR Stonehenge has additional features and alignments beyond the original.

  • Quote and comment (Score:4, Funny)

    by thomasa ( 17495 ) on Wednesday February 16, 2005 @07:24AM (#11687337)
    Astronomy is the oldest of sciences.

    It's not the oldest profession though.
  • I like the idea of creating modern wonders- equivalents of the pyramids or stonhenge for today. We've got all of our technology and power, but we've built very little that is absolutely monumental. ...But the execution of this one seems a little lame. Why merely imitate an existing structure? And what is it made out of? I think James Turrell's work in Roden Crater [infomagic.net] in Arizona is much more interesting...
  • Stonehenge was nearly crushed by dwarves...

    (for all us ST fans out here)

  • woodhenge (Score:2, Funny)

    by spacepimp ( 664856 )
    theres an older creation called woodhenge, which i made the mistake of visiting. complete waste of time though cos wood rots. so i drove an hour from stonehenge to see concrete stumps in a field of sheep. quite the let down. yes this is off topic mod me down
  • Let me see if I got this straight - we've managed to slashdot a bloody great pile of concrete and chicken wire.

    Or was it merely trod on by a dwarf?
  • Better make sure your altitude stays below 2,000 feet...

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