Re: The Eleven Days

[John Cowan]

Clive D.W. Feather scripsit:

> See also  and the Easter Act 1928.

Most interesting, and an excellent Web site.

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Re: The Eleven Days

[Clive D.W. Feather]

John Cowan said:
>> What, I wonder, did the various churches do about the Eleven Days?
> Why, nothing.

It's a bit like coppery.

>> They can hardly have been taken down and rebuilt at a slight angle,
>> after all.
> Orienting to saints' days was an architectural nicety, not a dogmatic
> requirement.

Indeed.

> Even the general principle of aligning the church to the
> East is frequently violated in modern times, where churches have to fit
> into city grids like Manhattan's (which is aligned to the long axis of
> the island, so that "north" (or "uptown") is about 30 degrees, not 0).

Or for no reason at all, like the local church where I grew up (which was a
semicircle with the altar in the centre of the straight side on the north).

> The 1751 Act of Parliament that changed "the legal Supputation of the
> Year" explicitly excepted certain recurring dates from the change,

But saints' days stayed on the same nominal days.

> (Full text: http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-British.html)

See also  and the Easter Act 1928.

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The Eleven Days

[John Cowan]

Clive D.W. Feather scripsit:

> What, I wonder, did the various churches do about the Eleven Days?

Why, nothing.

> They can hardly have been taken down and rebuilt at a slight angle,
> after all.

Orienting to saints' days was an architectural nicety, not a dogmatic
requirement.  Even the general principle of aligning the church to the
East is frequently violated in modern times, where churches have to fit
into city grids like Manhattan's (which is aligned to the long axis of
the island, so that "north" (or "uptown") is about 30 degrees, not 0).

The 1751 Act of Parliament that changed "the legal Supputation of the
Year" explicitly excepted certain recurring dates from the change, so that
they would occur on the same "natural Days" as before, and consequently on
different "nominal Days": terms of courts and the dates of markets, fairs,
opening and enclosing of commons, and payments of rents and annuities.
(The dates specified in contracts for the delivery of goods, for the
commencement and expiration of leases, and the legal majority age of
individuals born before 1752-09-14 Gregorian, were similarly adjusted.)
Consequently, the beginning of the tax year in England remained on Old
New Year's Day, 25 March Julian, until 1900, when it should have been
updated to April 7 Gregorian but wasn't.  Oh well.

(Full text: http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year-text-British.html)

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Re: our customers' needs

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Rob Seaman said:
> Our modern sensibility may lead us to discount Egyptian and Druidic (or
> earlier) world views, but surely the many cultures worldwide that
> produced pyramids and other monolithic structures do demonstrate the
> frequent centrality of spirituality in human decision making.  Those
> cultures most definitely knew the motions of the Sun, Moon, stars and
> planets intimately.  Steve Allen already provided a convincing real
> world example of the response of a more recent mainstream religious
> community to civil calendar issues.

This would be the point about sunrise on saints' days?

All these issues have one thing in common - they pre-date the introduction
of atomic time, but rather date back to when mean solar time was assumed to
be constant rate and therefore unchanging.

What, I wonder, did the various churches do about the Eleven Days? They can
hardly have been taken down and rebuilt at a slight angle, after all.

> At this critical point in world
> history, what possible justification could there be for truncating the
> discovery process for uncovering similar requirements placed on civil
> time by the great religions of the world before making a large change
> in the definition of civil time?

I have no problem with trying to identify the issues involved. But we can
reasonably ask whether the alignment of a few buildings in Oxfordshire [*]
is grounds for forcing the whole world to cope with the kludge of leap
seconds for the next thousand years.

[* Usual Cambridge-Oxford rivalry deleted for brevity.]

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Re: Crustal rebound

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Steve Allen said:
> In brief, the ice load caused the mantle to flow toward the equator.
> Lately it has been flowing back from the United States toward Canada,
> from central Asia toward Siberia.  So the earth as ice skater is
> pulling its arms in as it gets less oblate.

Thanks. That makes sense, and I'll pass it on to him.

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Re: Crustal rebound

[Steve Allen]

On Thu 2005-01-27T07:45:33 +, Peter Bunclark hath writ:
> I guess the ice melted, flowed into the oceans and the whole planet is
> closer to hydrostatic equilibrium. The crustal rebound must have a
> counterpart in ocean-basin depressing (since presumably magma is an
> uncompressible liquid).

In brief, the ice load caused the mantle to flow toward the equator.
Lately it has been flowing back from the United States toward Canada,
from central Asia toward Siberia.  So the earth as ice skater is
pulling its arms in as it gets less oblate.

Try this for recent details and changes.
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020801gravityfield.html

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