[Island Chris]

We have a nice example of a blend of astronomy, engineering, art, and biology on our west-facing wall above a deck. My brother in law Remi came from France to visit and make a sun dial (Cadran solaire). These have been made for hundreds of years and you can see them on walls in southern France (Provence for example):

http://www.fantasticprovence.com/section...ght_a594/1

Island daughter studies birds and she did the art. Remi is an engineer. Our sun dial is accurate within a minute or two after using the graph on it to correct from solar time to Eastern daylight savings time.

Here is a link to Island daughter's art part of her blog, and the sundial is a little way down, along with some explanation. The metal rod is parallel to the earth's axis of rotation, and points to the North Star. It shows the curves traced at solstices and the straight line traces at equinoxes, and there is a line for the sunset.

http://buam.tumblr.com/search/art

[Skywise]

Thank you for sharing that, Chris. That is really awesome.

Which reminds me, a sundial is another great piece of evidence against the tilting axis quackery. If the Earth's axis titled, you'd notice it on the sundial, especially one like this.

Brian

[Island Chris]

Brian,

Hmm, not sure I want to ask, but what is the tilting axis quackery? Funny how all the stars spin around the North Star. Although I heard a long time ago that stars are moving so fast relative to each other, even within our galaxy, that the constellations did not look the same when pyramids were built.

While we are on quackery, I avoided all social media and nonsense like how many friends you have. But, last winter I registered for ResearchGate and for Google Scholar because someone suggested I do so for a promotion at work. For Research Gate you get a score, which has to do with number of publications, and activity on Research Gate such as followers, and questions and answers, etc.

Some Russian lady has a higher score than I do and one of her "publications" is something she published on line about dark energy and giant whirlpools and seismicity having to do with the disappearance of Flight 370, and stuff in the Bermuda triangle while she was at it.

An American male has a similar score to mine and he posts about expanding earth (no subduction). The rates of earth expansion would have had earth half the diameter (or something) about a quater of a billion years ago. Sigh.

Hey, we don't want you (Brian) to quit, so we have to keep you amused...or is it appalled?

Chris

[Skywise]

(04-20-2014, 12:10 PM)Island Chris Wrote: Hmm, not sure I want to ask, but what is the tilting axis quackery? Funny how all the stars spin around the North Star.

It's a 'conspiracy theory' that the axis of the Earth has titled form it's textbook value of about 23-1/4°. The conspiracy part is the allegation that the astronomers and governments of the world know this and are keeping it a secret. The problem is, as you note, the stars rotate about the north celestial pole, very close to Polaris. If the Earth's axis tilted then the rotation would be about a new point, and every amateur astronomer would notice, so unless we're all in on the conspiracy too... See, when we set up our scopes we have to align them to the Earth's axis based on our exact latitude otherwise the scope won't properly track the stars. This is extremely important for photography.

A few years back I did a short animation addressing this exact issue.

http://www.skywise711.com/Skeptic/Axis/axis.html

(04-20-2014, 12:10 PM)Island Chris Wrote: Although I heard a long time ago that stars are moving so fast relative to each other, even within our galaxy, that the constellations did not look the same when pyramids were built.

That's true, but over that time span it's a very small movement on the sky. The bigger change is due to the precession of the Earth's axis. The axis of the Earth moves around in a circle (but still at that 23-1/4° tilt) - just like a top - every 26,000 years or so. So in about 13,000 years the north celestial pole will be somewhere near the star Vega.

As I understand it, the Great Pyramid today is not perfectly aligned with the NCP, but is almost perfectly aligned for when it was built several thousand years ago.

(04-20-2014, 12:10 PM)Island Chris Wrote: While we are on quackery, I avoided all social media and nonsense like how many friends you have.

I did facebook for a while and nearly all the people I bumped into that I used to know in school and the like have changed so much, I don't know them any more. After contacting three or four I gave up because I was so disappointed.

(04-20-2014, 12:10 PM)Island Chris Wrote: But, last winter I registered for ResearchGate and for Google Scholar because someone suggested I do so for a promotion at work.

You sure they weren't trying to get you bumped instead? From your description of the places they sound very unprofessional if they let in wackos like that. Kinda reminds me of the problem with Arxiv, papers do not have to be peer reviewed.

(04-20-2014, 12:10 PM)Island Chris Wrote: An American male has a similar score to mine and he posts about expanding earth (no subduction). The rates of earth expansion would have had earth half the diameter (or something) about a quater of a billion years ago. Sigh.

I had fun with an Earth Expansionist back after the Sumatra quake over in usenet. Same kind of fallacious logic, failure of cognitive skill, and misunderstanding of science as most other 'wacko' beliefs. Sure, plate tectonics doesn't answer ALL of the questions, but EE answers even less. Besides, I did some calculations and determined that if EE were real, it cannot possibly be occurring at all today because it would be detectable by GPS and gravimetric instruments.

(04-20-2014, 12:10 PM)Island Chris Wrote: Hey, we don't want you (Brian) to quit, so we have to keep you amused...or is it appalled?

I am appalled. It's interesting that you mention this. I've been in the online world in one form or another since the early 90's, starting with BBS's. I went into the virtual world to get away from the 'dumb humans' of the real world. I found like minded folks with similar interests (geeks, nerds, brainiacs). But now with everyone and their canary being online, I'm losing interest in it. "online" no longer has the charm and glimmer that it once had. Online I find all the things I came here to get away from. Years ago I used to struggle to do all my online stuff in the 4+ hours a day I spent on it. Now, I'm done in 15 minutes. I might become like you, Chris, in that Earthwaves will become the only forum I participate on.

Brian

[Island Chris]

Brian (and all),
Just addressing one of many points in your email: non-peer-reviewed papers. I get a lot of invitations to submit manuscripts to journals I never heard of. They tend to be run by Indians (south Asians) or Chinese. While some of these may be peer-reviewed, I suspect that there is a lot of stuff published in these journals that would not be published elsewhere.

On the other hand, some professors where I work have a dim view of the long-established Journal Tectonophysics. While there may be some papers published that are not too high-quality, I, and Island wife, like the journal, and I published in there in 2012. It may be more widely-read in Europe that Geological Society of America (GSA) publications. And, it has a higher "impact factor" than Geosphere, the GSA online journal. The manuscript I have been working on is going to Geosphere.

Chris