On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 14:29:26 -0700 (PDT), you wrote: > > >On Sun, 13 Jul 2003, Mark A Mandel wrote: > >> On Sun, 13 Jul 2003, Philip Hart wrote: >> >> #It's 29 hours, according to some nice FAQ somewhere. >> >> It's 30 hours, well attested. See my writeup at >> http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/time.html#clock > > >For the record, I was misquoting >http://www.mojoworld.net/sil/ref/world.html > > >For the record, I think I could come up with reasonable arguments against >your position - basically I'd say that you've simply asserted a D-minute >equals an E-minute and trusted a variety of Brusts (or rather, trusted a >particular set of writings of the Brusts over others). Maybe _he_'s the >one with the thing about 17 - and has systematically (more or less) >mistranslated the Vladiad and the Paariad to suit, so 17^2 days = 1 D-year >= 1 E-year results in the 30 hours figure. > > > >> After living on Dragaera for over 200,000 years, I rather imagine that >> the humans (Easterners) have adapted well to the 30-hour day. > >Fair enough - I've fallen into the error of thinking humans aren't subject >to selection pressure any more. However, on the other hand I would >imagine that the adaptations might not result in 30-hour circadian clocks >- there could be societal adaptations, such as several sleep periods per >day, or a willingness to not be up at dawn every day or to say farm by >torchlight - which might be coupled with genetic changes... > >Incidentally, how bright is it beneath the enclouding? Bright enough to >farm, obviously, and for Eastern-adapted eyes to work fine - this seems >odd. > I always thought of the Enclouding as being a really heavy overcast, nothing more. > > >> Just don't ask how Terran languages remain recognizeable over such a >> span, and the Easterners haven't gotten past medieval tech. Just... >> don't. > >Damn - too late - many times too late... The former I've ascribed to "SB" >taking some liberty in translation, the latter to Dragaeran depredations, >the gods, and most of all the Cycle. Which works perfectly, actually. -- lazarus "Folly it may seem," said Haldir. "Indeed, in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him." -- J.R.R. Tolkien