What If Boudicca beat Gaius Suetonius Paulinus?

What if the Iceni warrior queen had not lost her final battle? If Boudicca, the Iceni warrior queen, had defeated the Roman Governor of Britain, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, at the final battle along Watling Street; what would she have done next? 

To the north was the Brigante Kingdom ruled by Queen Cartimandua. She enjoyed friendship with Rome and was known as collaborator queen. This would not have gone well with the Iceni warrior queen and her Trinovante allies. Also in the south west of the Isle, at today's Exeter, was the II Augusta Legion. This Roman Legion had been held back from aiding Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. Maybe they were getting ready to evacuate - expecting the Roman governor of Britain to be defeated.

Which force would Warrior Queen Boudicca of Iceni have faced first after defeating Gaius Suetonius Paulinus in our alternative reality? Perhaps the last Roman stronghold at Exeter? For the Roman allied Brigante Queen Cartimandua in the north would not be going anywhere else and could be put on ice for later attention. That is if; the II Augusta Legion stayed put and tried to defend their stronghold at Exeter. These political consequences must have been real and acted upon - especially by Cartimandua. Surely she did not remain quite for she too was a sovereign of great prowess. Perhaps more so then Boudicca for she would have been Queen of the Brigante for about sixteen to seventeen years by the time of 61 AD.

What was going through Brigante Queen Cartimandua's mind? She would surely dread the prospect of victorious Boudicca and her Iceni horde, yet there is no mention of her helping Gaius Suetonius Paulinus and his Romans. Her exiled and divorced husband Venutius might have tried to side with Boudicca, yet if he did; there is no mention of such. Venutius had good reason to hate Rome and must have much to gain by joining Boudicca's uprising. He was always looking for ways to usurp Cartimandua and this opportunity would surely not be missed. There is no historical record of this, yet something must have happened among the feuding Brigantes while the Iceni and Trinovante tribes went on their killing spree of Roman occupied Britain.

The Brigante southernmost boarders would have been about where Manchester is today - maybe a little further south. If the last battle against Suetonius was around the Midland area; then surely Boudicca and Cartimandua might have been closer then expected in the final days of Boudicca's great war against Rome. Perhaps Cartimandua of Brigantes left her great hill fort and patrolled the southern boarders. Maybe she needed to keep her own Brigante subjects in check for it is plausible that they might have wanted to join Boudicca's rebellion. It was, after all, an intoxicating time of British victory over the hated Roman occupiers. How did Cartimandua's Brigante subjects become reluctant to help Rome if she was a good and loyal client queen to the Roman Empire? Did she contain her own people from rebelling and joining the Iceni and Trinovante by imposing her presence along the southern boarders? Would this leave her northern boarder with Caladonia's Picts unprotected (presuming Venutius had sanctuary here) All these problems must have weighed heavy and how was Venutius kept at bay during this time - if he was. Perhaps the rebellion happened so fast, that there was little time for Venutius to act - if he was in exile up north in Caladonia with the Picts. 

I would love to be able to go back in time and see Cartimandua of the Brigantes and witness how she dealt with the situation. What did she think of Boudicca? What did Boudicca think of Cartimandua? How did Cartimandua keep her Brigante out of this turbulent trouble? So many questions and no historical records to show. Cartimandua of Brigantes still remained in favour with Rome after Boudicca was put down, so she must have aided the Roman Empire in some way. Eight years later during the Year of Four Emperors; Rome held true to Queen Cartimandua and aided her escape from the Brigante lands when Venutius, her divorced husband, did overthrow her rule. They sent cohorts to rescue her and bring her south.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Fanfare For the Common Man

 

One of my absolute favourite memories was of Emerson Lake and Palmer doing Fanfare for the Common Man in a huge empty stadium that I heard was in Montreal, Canada. This was when I left school and started work. I went straight out and began to buy ELP albums and discovered an absolute joy of sound. Brings back very kind memories of my youth/young man discovering tiny bits of the world days.

CATS, CATS, CATS - Moggy Kitten - Our Little Lilly Cat

Today 7th April, we acquired this little Moggy Kitten called Lilly. She was born 5th February and is two months. She was meowing all the way from Canvey Island to Leigh-on-Sea, because she was a little confused. However, once indoors, she seemed to settle down and become very nosey concerning her surroundings. As I type these words, Lilly as fallen asleep on my lap. I think she has taken a shine to me.

We are going to allow her to have a litter when she gets older, but until then; no acne faced Toms are getting anywhere near her. She has become more settled and playful as time goes by. At first she was crouching nervously as she explored, but a little later, Lilly became bolder and started moving around with more confidence. 

She enjoys her toy mouse filled with catnip - a garden herb that cats are attracted to.

Next Day 8th April.

Lilly seems very at home now and is jumping and running about - climbing all over Carole and me while we watch tv. I'm wondering if she is enjoying the attention more, because there were about seven or eight kittens in the home we got her from. She uses the litter tray and is looking out through the conservatory windows into the garden. Obviously she is too young to go out just yet, but soon she'll be able to and then Lilly will be able to explore a whole new world.

Prehistoric Monster Snake Once Terrorised This Planet.

The sheer size of Titanoboa meant it had no trouble devouring prey as large as alligators

 A recently discovered prehistoric monster snake provides answers about the past - and raises questions for the future.

Around 58 million years ago, a monstrous snake slithered out of the swampy jungles of South America and began a reign of terror.

Weighing more than a tonne and measuring 14m (approximately 50ft) the giant reptile could swallow a whole crocodile without showing a bulge. But a few years ago, scientists never even knew it existed.

"Never in your wildest dreams do you expect to find a 14m boa constrictor. The biggest snake today is half that size," says Dr Carlos Jaramillo, a scientist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and part of the team that made the discovery.

'World of lost reptiles'

 

Thought to be a distant relative of the anaconda and boa constrictor, the snake - named Titanoboa - was not venomous. Instead, it crushed its prey with the constricting force of 400lbs per sq inch - the equivalent of lying under the weight of one and a half times the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Start Quote

Changing climates and changing continents are the fuel of evolution. But things that happen very quickly can result in the types of change we might not view very positively”

End Quote Jonathan Bloch University of Florida

The fossils were exposed by excavation at the massive Cerrejon open-face coal mine in northern Colombia. In 2002, scientists had discovered at that site the remains of a tropical rainforest from the Palaeocene Epoch - perhaps the planet's first.

As well as fossilised leaves and plants, they unearthed reptiles so big they defied imagination.

"What we found was a giant world of lost reptiles - turtles the size of a kitchen table and the biggest crocodiles in the history of fossil records," says Jonathan Bloch, an expert in vertebrate evolution at the University of Florida.

They also found the vertebrae of a colossal snake.

"After the extinction of the dinosaurs, this animal, the Titanoboa, was the largest predator on the surface of the planet for at least 10 million years," says Dr Bloch. "This was a major animal in any sense of the imagination."

Search for skulls

 

But scientists needed the snake's skull to get a full picture of how it looked, what food it ate and how it might be related to modern species. Last year, a team set out to find it, with little expectation of success. Because the bones of a snake's skull are so fragile, few survive.

"Unlike our skulls, snake skulls aren't fused together. Instead they're connected with tissue," says Dr Jason Head, a snake specialist from the University of Nebraska.

"When the animal dies, the connective tissue decomposes and all the individual bones are generally dispersed. They're very thin and fragile too and often get destroyed. Because Titanoboa is so big and the skull bones are so large, it's one of the few snakes that do make it into the fossil record."

To their amazement, the team recovered the remains of three skulls from which the reptile could be accurately reconstructed for the first time.

Giant animals in history

• Blue whale: still swimming today, blue whales measure 30m (100ft) long
• Brachiosaur: this dinosaur measured 23m (75ft) long and 12m (40 ft) high
• Chan's Metastick: this stick insect, native to Borneo, measures 56.7cm, (22.3 in)
• Pterosaurs - this flying reptile had a wingspan of 5.1 meters (16ft)

Source: US Geological Survey, National Geographic, New Zealand Museum of Natural History

From that, they were able to get a better sense of how Titanoboa lived and looked. A life-sized replica is now on display at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, and will begin a nationwide tour in 2013.

Aside from the excitement of discovering a new and enormous species of snake, the reptile can tell scientists a lot about the history of the Earth's climate - and offer a glimpse of the possible effects of global warming today.

Snakes are unable to regulate their own temperature and depend on external heat to survive.

"We think the Titanoboa became this large because it was much warmer on the equator after the dinosaurs died 60 million years ago," says Dr Bloch. "We think that's why reptiles in general were larger.

That ability to thrive in a warm climate could be relevant in the event that global temperatures rise according to the projections of climate scientists, Dr Bloch adds.

"It's evidence that ecosystems can thrive at temperatures of the levels that are being projected over the next one or two hundred years."

Return of Titanoboa?

But the climate changes that produced Titanoboa took millions of years. Scientists are less certain about the effects of sudden temperature change.

"Biology is amazingly adaptable. Changing climates and changing continents are the fuel of evolution. But things that happen very quickly can result in the types of change we might not view very positively," says Dr Bloch.

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The Cerrejon open-face coal mine where the fossils were discovered

As well as being warmer, CO2 levels were also 50% higher during the period of the Cerrejon rainforest.

"One big lesson we are learning from the fossils in Cerrejon is that tropical plants and the ecosystem in general have the ability to cope with high temperatures and high levels of CO2, another major concern with the current trend of global warming," says Dr Jaramillo.

"Perhaps the plants and animals of the tropics today already have the genetic ability to cope with global warming."

Does that mean the Titanoboa could one day return?

"As the temperature increases, you have the probability they will come back," says Dr Jaramillo. "But it takes geological time to develop a new species. It could take a million years - but perhaps they will!"

France Anger at UK Veto of New EU treaty.

It’s all getting very nasty now the French are throwing their rattles out of the pram. This sort of thing just hardens people’s resolve. The UK wants the Euro to succeed and get out of the mess it is in. The UK is outside of this but still a member of the European Union. Despite being outside of the Eurozone; (Countries that use Euro currency) the UK is still obliged and will help financially to get the Euro back on track. We will not sign the fiscal Union of the new amended treaty because it threatens our banking industry in London. We do not want to drive them overseas. Because our British Prime Minister David Cameron Vetoed the new treaty on the basis of the banks; France is now acting like a spoilt little baby and making an already bad situation worse. David Cameron came up against the Eurozone countries stubborn resilience concerning this matter. So he chose not to enter the UK into the new treaty agreement. He had no choice and the UK will not be blackmailed by France on this matter.

Again this wins votes for the anti-European movement in Britain. Many British people want the UK to remain in Europe, but there are a large number that want to quit. Sooner or later one of the main political parties will fight an election on the referendum vote. This could be dangerous for the UK, because decades of work within the European Union will go to waste. However, when one is confronted with this type of French winging; it forces one to wonder if being united with such a fickle government is worth it.

Moyra Melons Ear Rings on the Notability Scale

Moyra Melons was thinking about the way she might look sitting at a desk in the work place. She wanted her nice pearl ear rings to stand out and look good. Therefore she asked her husband to stand above her, while she was practising sitting on the garden bench.

"Right, pretend I'm sitting at my desk in the office," she said. "When you look down; can you notice them?"

"Well yes," he replied. "I can certainly see something."

"Yes but are they the first two things you notice," asked Moyra a little impatiently. She found it essential that her ear rings should be noticed. 

"Well not exactly the first two things dear, but they do come in a good second."

"That's no good - I want people to notice my ear rings first thing above all else. Is that a tall order?"

Her husband grinned and came over in another hot flush. "I think it might be Moyra."

"Why?" she asked a little perplexed.

"Well let's pretend I'm your work boss and I'll ask you to come into my office. There I can explain the finer points of why your ear rings will always look nice but still come second on the looking down notabilityometer."

"The looking down notabilityometer? I've never heard of such a thing," she replied tartly while following her husband into the house pretending it was his office. She thought she would indulge him on this particular matter. He told her she scored an amazing 11 out of 10 with this strange device when he looked down.

However, once he closed the door, she realised her indulgence stretched to two more things because of his notabilityometer. The lovely Moyra Melons got more then she bargained for... :)