Origins of Blarney Stone Revealed 47
sciencehabit writes "Kissing the Blarney Stone, which involves hanging upside down from the battlements of Blarney Castle near Cork in Ireland, is meant to bestow eloquence and persuasiveness. Such claims are not known to have been put to the test in a clinical trial, but then not much is known about the rock itself. Some say it is made of Welsh bluestone, the same material used to make the monoliths of Stonehenge. Others say it was cleaved from the Stone of Scone, which forms the coronation seat used by the kings and queens of Scotland and Great Britain for hundreds of years. Now, some light has finally been shed on the stone's mysterious origins by the chance find of a microscope slide in the Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Analysis of the sample, which is cut thin enough to be transparent, by geologists at the museum reveals that it is not a bluestone, nor is it sandstone like the Stone of Scone. In fact, it is a 330-million-year-old carboniferous limestone typical of that corner of Ireland and contains fragments of fossilized brachiopod shells and bryozoans."
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe, but how old was the clay he used?
In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
I always laugh when i see idiots kiss the stone. When drunk, the locals have a habit of urinating on it.
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're going to let a little piss get in the way of your fun, you're in for a boring life.
Re: (Score:1)
True. Some of the bests spots to play in have piss streaming across them several times a day (unless for some reason they're particularly dehydrated that day.)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
That locals like to urinate on the Blarney Stone seems almost as well-known as kissing the Stone.
In other words - you wouldn't catch me kissing it.
At least the urine is sterile. The same cannot be said for the lips that are kissing it.
Put your back in it, man! (Score:2)
Whose Mom worked as some kind of a carny
And so says my miss
The locals would piss
Ensued then quite a bit of hilarity.
Re: (Score:2)
When drunk, the locals have a habit of urinating on it.
There's a rumor that a few people did that with the Black Stone in the Kaaba. Apparently, it just seems like the right thing to do with stones that people are used to kiss, wherever you live!
OBLG: Futurama (Score:4, Insightful)
So according to The Fine Article ...
Those who want to kiss the stone should basically go "Kiss Our Shiny Fossilized Asses"?
The Stone of Scone (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Nor to be confused with the Scone of Stone [lspace.org], the famous dwarf bread upon which rests the authority of the Low King.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, the O'Callaghan's scones. I'd almost forgotten about them. Thank you for this thoroughly informative comment.
Frist Oragne post, so it is (Score:2)
Top o' the morning to you all and fuck the pope, to be sure to be sure.
How Do You Slice A Stone So Thin? (Score:1)
How do you slice a stone so thin that it becomes transparent?
I have enough trouble with blocks of cheese.
LMGTFY (Score:2)
here [about.com]
Re: (Score:3)
How do you slice a stone so thin that it becomes transparent? I have enough trouble with blocks of cheese.
You start by cutting it into a thin, but not extremely thin, block. Then you grind away material until it's thin enough to transmit light. See Thin Sections [wikipedia.org].
It always amazed me (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The view from up there, while you are hanging out of the castle battlement, is terrific!
So in other words... (Score:2)
All the myths around it's special origins was just a bunch of Blarney.
OH NOZ! (Score:1)
Thanks... (Score:1)
for clearing that up for us.
Once you see it in person it is obvious (Score:2)
Of course these days it has been ruined by some metal bars that make it impossible to fall off of the castle and die.