Hard News: Event Season
194 Responses
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Aye. ;)
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Paul Williams, in reply to
Arrr, I see what I did there...
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Why have we not heard much more about this vehicle? Why are the Link buses not all of this type?
Er, because they probably went overseas for funding?Therefore to the victor goes the spoils.
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Murray Hewitt, in reply to
P-classes armed with industrial strength lasers would be really cool
I think you mean frikkin' lasers
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nzlemming, in reply to
There are more ways to get around heaven and earth than just cars.
Perhaps, Horatio, but we were talking about electric cars, right here and now.
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Farmer Green, in reply to
tomorrow’s Mid-Autumn/Moon Festival
That’s interesting that Asian cultures are using the Sun calendar to determine the seasons, just as the natural world is governed by daylength. So mid Autumn or Spring occurs at the equinox, and the longest day is mid summer. Spring in the Southern hemisphere would begin in early August, around Candlemas. (or St Brigids day, the start of the Celtic spring in the Southern hemisphere.)
I wonder why modern Western cultures opted to use temperature (?) rather than day length.
The corresponding Harvest moon , referenced since 1706 is attributed to “the country people”. I’m guessing that means farmers etc. , for whom day length is more relevant than temperature. -
David Hood, in reply to
I wonder why modern Western cultures opted to use temperature (?) rather than day length.
Julius Caesar
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29611/why-does-new-year-start-january-1 -
Farmer Green, in reply to
And the Celts and the Asians stayed with the solar seasons.
“In East Asian Solar term, spring begins on 4 February and ends on 5 May. Similarly, according to the Celtic tradition, which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February (near Imbolc or Candlemas) and continues until early May (Beltane).”
It always made more sense to Farmer Green to use day length to mark the progress of the year , because that’s what the grass does. The change from vegetative to reproductive usually marks the peak milk flow. Or it did in the days before PKE and "dairy support" etc. -
Farmer Green, in reply to
Speaking of Hamlet, last night on Concert FM, Django Bates , between songs , mentioned that if every living person in the world today was to be simultaneously playing the role of Hamlet , there would not be enough skulls from those humans gone before us to go around.
Kinda (if its true) puts the present world population in perspective doesn’t it? -
Chris Waugh, in reply to
that Asian cultures are using the Sun calendar to determine the seasons
Farmer Green, I really can't answer any of your questions, having pretty much zero expertise in the area of calendars. All I can say is that last I heard the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, that is, a basically lunar calendar adjusted (unlike, from what I've heard, the Islamic calendar) to keep time with the solar year. What you say of the Celtic definition of Spring certainly seems to jibe with the Chinese definition. What we get on the Chinese calendar is leap months to rejig the calendar to keep pace with the sun rather than the moon. Why we don't get a leap Dragon Boat Festival when we get a leap 5th month I don't know, but that's ok, I don't much like zongzi and I can't imagine leaping dragon boats being all that great an idea.
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It sounds like Dango Bates was repeating a fairly common urban legend, maths explained here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16870579 -
So long as the year is lined up with the circumnavigation of the sun, the choice of starting day is pretty much arbitrary. The choice of months being roughly a lunar circumnavigation is of little use really, and the choice of 7 days per week seems to be entirely religious.
Not everyone is a farmer, but the seasons are still important to pretty much everyone. No matter what day the solstices are farmers will still work around them rather than the names of the days, and most people will still prefer to holiday in the summer and work in the winter if their work isn't related to the seasons. Since the timing of the seasons is opposite on the different hemispheres, there's no way the start point can be universal.
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Lilith __, in reply to
Not everyone is a farmer, but the seasons are still important to pretty much everyone.
Our familiar 4 seasons are particular to temperate latitudes. Farmers in tropical climates may raise several crops per year, and are more interested in when rainfall is abundant. Farmers in high latitudes have to deal with a winter that lasts most of the year.
Regarding calendars, it's impossible to fit lunar cycles exactly within the solar cycle, and any calendar which respects both is a mathematical compromise.
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Ross Mason, in reply to
Since the timing of the seasons is opposite on the different hemispheres, there’s no way the start point can be universal.
Well the northern hemisphere WAS the universe once. There in lies the beginning of it all.The "points" of the "year" were obviously the northern and southern most movements of the sun -midsummer and midwinter. it didn't take much to divide that by two and get the solstices. Bingo. Four seasons in one day... er... year. (It's not NZ).
The problem was, once the "Discoverers" of the world came upon other cultures who - shock horror - used their sun but not the same dates as the discoverers, then the power and rage of religion frowned upon these heathens. Some changed. Some didn't.
Here endeth the lesson. Awomen.
And for all us athiests, it is good to see that Frank has opened the door to our salvation. Ta. I can continue to live life to my unconscionable fullest.
"Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven".
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Lilith __, in reply to
it didn’t take much to divide that by two and get the solstices
equinoxes. :-)
Also - equal duration of night and day. -
BenWilson, in reply to
Not everyone is a farmer, but the seasons are still important to pretty much everyone.
Our familiar 4 seasons are particular to temperate latitudes.
That is true, but regardless of what kind of seasons you get, they're going to follow the same cycle relative to the solar year, so that one makes sense from a universal point of view. You can mark whatever are the significant dates on your calendar, and they'll be the same dates next year, roughly. But where to mark the significant points is clearly going to be different for everyone, so it's very much arbitrary.
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Regarding calendars, it’s impossible to fit lunar cycles exactly within the solar cycle, and any calendar which respects both is a mathematical compromise.
Well, a compromise in so far as one of those will get lip service only. So why bother with the moon? It's only real importance to earthly affairs is its effect on tides which is limited to affecting coastal people, and it's entirely regular in that effect, you get two highs and two lows every day spaced nearly the same time apart, and changing when they are within the day. The importance of trying to make any kind of milestones around that is far less than the fact of what the climate is like, which affects everyone with a regularity that applies around the planet.
But which day is the "first" day, is not really that important at all, except symbolically. So it's not something that is really worth the huge cost of changing.
The most important completely arbitrary time division I see is the week. Why 7? It's actually really, really important when and where we put our work/rest cycles. Why do we have this particular one? For historical reasons. But the inertia to change in that idea is cultural, and massive.
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Farmer Green, in reply to
So he was out by at least an order of magnitude. In his defence though , he did reveal that it was another member of the trio who had asked him to broadcast the "fact".
Never mind , the concert was a great celebration of the work of Charlie "Bird " Parker.Some might like his take on New York:-
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Farmer Green, in reply to
? It’s actually really, really important when and where we put our work/rest cycles.
Every day!
Even better is to have restful work. Some seem to manage it. -
Farmer Green, in reply to
why bother with the moon? It’s only real importance to earthly affairs is its effect on tides which is limited to affecting coastal people,
Many farmers in all sorts of climates would take issue with that statement. The ascending/descending moon rhythm is used in both agriculture and forestry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_nodeHave you heard of the Moon Stamp on tropical timber?
In modern agriculture this cycle is used mostly for haymaking/seed planting (ascending) and seedling transplanting (descending).
It appears to come from peasant lore /observation. I guess that when you are cutting and turning hay by hand for months that you would notice this effect.A quick gargle found this , which is related but not quite the same:-
http://www.wlbcenter.org/drawer/journalclub/Vogt%20etal2002_TEK-lunar%20rhythms-chemistry.pdf
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Lilith __, in reply to
So why bother with the moon?
It's the basis of our months. And our week is the lunar cycle/4, plus a remainder. You may not wish to bother, but our ancestors did. :-)
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why bother with the moon?
Well, it keeps coming up...
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Happiness Stan was quite bothered with it.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Where at man, where at...
Happiness Stan
I am sitty comftybold two-square on my botty,
do begin...
;- ) -
Rob S, in reply to
"Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven".
A Catholic heaven presumably.
Better than the alternative/s one presumes.
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