Timothy Kroesen

He threw himself on the pike, so to say... <g>

Tim K

"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Martyred by a top posting flamer?
    > --
    > Martin

B Vaughan

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 10:37:00 +0000, [email protected]
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and
prestwich tesco 24h offy) wrote:

    >Des Small <[email protected]> wrote:
    >> [email protected] (David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the
    >> duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco 24h offy) writes:
    >>
    >> > I rather like this time of year. Still, one of my favourite literary
    >> > works is Donne's "A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day." (That was
    >> > yesterday, by the way.) I 'warmly' recommend it!
    >>
    >> You warmly recommend yesterday?
    >I believe in it!
    >> I missed it, I'm afraid.
    >>
    >> But St. Lucy's Day is actually the 13 December, I'm afraid. (See
    >> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_day> and
    >> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy>, for example.) I happen to
    >> know this because all good Zwedishes celebrate the nice Sankta Lucia
    >> (and this is also when the Nobel prize ceremony happens).
    >>
    >> But you're probably wondering why the saint of the shortest day is
    >> f�ted on the 13th. It is a calendar reform thing:
    >Now, that's something else I didn't know and do know now- thanks. (I'd
    >always associated St. Lucy with the shortest day of the year, so just
    >assumed December 21.) Yes, the poem plays so much on the shortest day
    >(and the irony of the name) that I would have been a bit suprised if the
    >symbolism was all out of whack. December 12 is St. David Horne's day
    >BTW! :)

In Italian, there is a saying, "Santa Lucia, il giorno piu' breve che
ci sia." I have a feeling that before the Gregorian calendar reform,
St. Lucia really was the shortest day. However, I've never bothered to
look that up.

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

Andy Pandy

"Padraig Breathnach" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > ><geek alert>
    > >
    > >> Tomorrow the sun will rise a little earlier,
    > >
    > >Actually to be pedantic, it won't. The sun will carry on rising later each
day
    > >for about another week or so.
    > >
    > Oh, I don't care. I'm more of an night person, anyway.
    > >> and set a little later --
    > >
    > >Which it has been doing for about a week or so already...
    > >
    > Isn't there a grand stretch in the evenings?
    > >This effect comes about due to the non-circular orbit of the earth, I think.
    > >
    > Bloody square orbits! They mess up poetic interpretations of the way
    > things are.

It seems I'm not as much of a geek as I thought because that's not the reason
(not the main reason anyway). It's to do with the solar day being longer at the
solstices than at the equinoxes.

The earth takes about 23 hours and 56 minutes to complete a revolution on its
axis, ie the stars will be in the same position in the sky every 23 hours and 56
mins. But a solar day (high noon to high noon) is longer because of the
revolution of the earth round the sun - this works against the revolution of the
earth on its axis so lengthening the average solar day to 24 hours.

But because of the tilt of the earth on its axis, the effect of the orbit round
the sun is to lengthen the solar day more at the solstices - when the orbit is
parallel to the equator - than at the equinoxes - when its angled the most.

Or for a more detailed explanation:

http://www.larry.denenberg.com/earliest-sunset.html

Well I thought it was interesting anyway.

--
Andy