Thursday, August 30, 2007

The Hole Ti Bang


I attended the Amelia Earhart lecture at AMP the other evening and came away with the impression that these folks are milking a ghost cow.

While Thomas King, an archeologist of some standing was well prepared and presented his material well, there was just not much real material to present. The data was nebulous and fuzzy at best and a real stretch much of the time.

The TIGHAR group, a lost aircraft hunting society, now theorizes that Nicumaroro island in Kiribati is the lost landing place of Ms Earhart back in 1937. The problem is they have no substantial evidence to prove it. Even calling the evidence presented ‘circumstantial’ is a stretch. It consists mostly of might be’s, could have’s and didn’t finds. Lots of holes, not any hard evidence.

I wouldn’t run out and volunteer to help fund their next $600,000 per trip venture to the tiny atoll if I were you. On the other hand I did learn something valuable from the lecture: Kiribati is not Keer-uh-bot-ee but Ker-ee-ba-she. Ti is pronounced she.

Okay, Dr. King so where is ti really?

9 comments:

A G Gatto said...

Was PowerPoint involved?

lol.

:)

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Bruce A. Bateman said...

Yes, but it wasn't very pointed. (:-))

Hey, what has happened to the Rota Blog? Did you click the wrong setting or was it your intention to restrict it to invitees only? If so why?

Jeff said...

I saw the interview on tv, and drew the exact same conclusion you did, Bruce. It's amazing the extent people will go for the possibility of notoriety -- more noble than eating bugs on tv, but not really important or a worthwhile use of money in the whole scheme of things.

Anonymous said...

It was an accident and I forgot to fix it.

It works now. Sorry about that.

:)

:::

Dominic said...

I always thought Kiribati was pronounced Kee-ree-bas? three syllables

Anonymous said...

I just can't understand what would make someone go to all that trouble! Seems like one big waste of time and money :-((

A G Gatto said...

Anonymous,

Welcome to the CNMI! Now fill out these forms in triplicate.

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Anonymous said...

Sorry to diminish your pun or play on words, but as Dominic has alluded to above, in Gilbertese, the "ti" combination is pronounced like an "s", not an "sh" or "she".

So Kiribati is indeed pronounced KEE-ree-bas, which is derived from the English "Gilberts." Similarly, Kiritimati (KEE-rees-mas) is derived from Christmas.

Bruce A. Bateman said...

Thanks for cluing me in Anonymouti #2708. And you too Dominic.

Guess I'll have to go back to the Pun Mine for more material.

Back to the original subject, here is someone with a different idea:

www.electranewbritain.com