On Sun, 13 Jul 2003, Philip Hart 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. Possible. When I first put that up, Steve wrote to me something to the effect of "congratulations on unwinding the tricks I've been playing with time". I can't find the email now. #> 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... Studies in our world have shown that people adapt better to a longer cycle, like 28 hours, than to a shorter one, like 20. #Incidentally, how bright is it beneath the enclouding? Bright enough to #farm, obviously, and for Eastern-adapted eyes to work fine - this seems #odd. How long does it take for our eyes to adapt from bright sun to a medium-lit room? We can handle a tremendous range of variation in brightness. #> 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. Yeah... -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website