King Minos is accretion, longest day (APOD 20 Jun 2008)

[emc]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080620.html

Very nice image for commemorating solstice with the 2400 year old remains in the foreground... wish it were a larger format though to better fit a large monitor.

Today is also the longest day... since earth rotation is slowing down.

[neufer]

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1. Epimenides is a Cretan.
2. Epimenides states, "All Cretans are liars."
...........................................................
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080620.html

Wikipedia - <<Legend has it that Cape Sounion is the spot where Aegeus, king of Athens, leapt to his death off the cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea. The story goes that Aegeus, anxiously looking out from Sounion, despaired when he saw a black sail on his son Theseus 's ship, returning from Crete. This led him to believe that his son had been killed in his contest with the dreaded Minotaur, a monster that was half man and half bull. The Minotaur was confined by its owner, King Minos of Crete, in a specially designed labyrinth. Every year, the Athenians were forced to send 7 boys and 7 girls to Minos as tribute. These youths were placed in the labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur. Theseus had volunteered to go with the third tribute and attempt to slay the beast. He had agreed with his father that if he survived the contest, he would hoist a white sail. In fact, Theseus had overcome and slain the Minotaur (Fig.4), but tragically had simply forgotten about the white sail.

The earliest literary reference to Sounion is in Homer's _Odyssey_, probably composed in the 8th century B.C. Homer relates how, as the various Greek commanders sailed back from Troy, the helmsman of King Menelaos of Sparta 's ship, *PHRONTIS* , died at his post while rounding "holy Sounion, cape of Athens". Menelaos landed at Sounion to give *PHRONTIS* full funeral honours (i.e. cremation on a funeral pyre on the beach). The Greek ships were then caught by a storm off Cape Malea and scattered. It was this same storm that separately drove Odysseus' ship off course, to the land of the lotus-eaters (believed to be an island off the north African coast- probably Djerba, Tunisia). From there he sailed to the land of the Cyclops, where he and his surviving men were taken prisoner by Polyphemus. The sea-god was enraged that Odysseus had blinded Poseidon's son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. Poseidon wanted to kill Odysseus, but was forbidden to do so by Zeus, the supreme god, in response to pleas from his daughter the goddess Athena, who regarded Odysseus as her protégé and favourite.
.
Instead, Poseidon resolved to prevent Odysseus from ever returning home.>>
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<<The famous inscription of George Lord Byron, carved into the base of one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon, presumably dates from his first visit to Greece, on his Grand Tour of Europe, before he acquired fame as a poet. Byron spent several months in 1810-11 in Athens, including two documented visits to Sounion. Byron mentions Sounion in his poem Don Juan:

• Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,
  Where the waves and I can only hear,
  Our mutual murmurs sweep;
  There, swan-like, let me sing and die:

Byron, a passionate philhellene, returned to Greece in July 1823, to support the Greeks in their struggle for freedom from the Ottoman Empire. Based at Messolonghi (Acarnania, western Greece), he spent a substantial part of his own fortune on equipping a fleet and an army. He planned to lead an assault on the crucial Turkish - held fortress of Lepanto (Navpaktos, Aetolia), which dominated the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. But his plan was thwarted by his death from a fever at Messolonghi April 9, 1824, aged 36.>>

• Byron's body was returned to England *in a brine BARREL*,
  for burial in Westminster Abbey (the Church vetoed that,
  and Byron was entombed in the family crypt in Hucknall),
  but his *HEART* and viscera was inurned in Missolonghi.
  The urn exploded years later from the buildup of gases.
  ..................................................
  . Finnegans Wake (p. 41)
  .
  (our boys, as our Byron called them) were up
  and ashuffle from the HOGShome they lovenaned
  The *BARREL*, cross Ebblinn's chilled HAMLET

[Forelan]

This is a great photograph. When I was in elementary school, My family lived in a remote part of Maine. One morning I was waiting for the school bus and I remember seeing the moon on the horizon and it almost filled my field of view. I couldn't look away.

[TimeTravel123456789]

THere probably is some relationship to Poseidon, the moon illusion and the issues you describe.

The discussion of Greek and Turkish conflict is interesting.

In the United States, the elderly are sometimes tortured by states or counties for having experiences that are different than the experience of government employees. Younger lawyers and social workers in County government systems feel obligated to torture elderly with shots without consent, loss of rights, non release of records, taking elderly mail, dishonesty about not getting letters from elderly, loss of rights to avoid nursing home smoke, handcuffing people for trying to avoid smoke in nursing homes and disputing food, transportation and dental bills to make money for government,threatening caregivers and family with jail for trying to visit, know where family is or phone family, because government does not have experiences of past issues such as stories about moon illusions or knowledge that areas like Illinois profit from taxes on corporations producing weapons and missiles.

I like this discussion of difference. The moon around the Temple of the Poseidon. In Illinois,if your experiences are different than some lawyers they make you into a slave. We are all supposed to just profit from corporations producing missiles and weapons and be happy about it and not see it as a problem for some of Illinois court system. One county takes away rights and housing , because they are involved in taxing a corporation involved in war.

I like the moon illusion picture combined with your discussion of that location because it shows that people do experience different issues that do not require torturing people.

I suspect the dangerousness of the seas gave rise to the temple and the moon at solstice was a factor too. People do experience different things and that does not require enslavement as happens in Cook County.

[emc]

seeing the moon on the horizon and it almost filled my field of view. I couldn't look away.

Seeing the moon as "larger than life" on the horizon is a common illusion... which if you think about it makes it "real"... at least in a sense You could say we are all "moonstruck".

We can also be mesmerized by the stars... or ancient literature given the appropriate circumstances.

I think the imagined image of our galaxy is a mesmerizer also. (Currently my favorite APOD this month)

[iamlucky13]

It is a fantastic image. I was hoping to get a desktop sized copy, too. Alas...the original authors retain copyrights beyond that granted for the purposes of APOD. However, Anthony Ayiomamitis' site says he's very open about granting usage rights to his image, so contacting him might prove worthwhile.

http://www.perseus.gr/

You will probably recognize some of his other pictures from APOD. He's definitely got a talent and dedication to astrophotography. There's some hidden gems on that site.

He's got a really nerdy jokes page too:

Q - How many astronomers does it take to change a lightbulb?


A - 10^8 (because astronomers like really big numbers)

[emc]

Q - How many astronomers does it take to change a lightbulb?


A - 10^8 (because astronomers like really big numbers)

Brings up an interesting question... How soon will the astronomers accomplish changing the light bulb with such a large number of participants??? They may run out of time before accomplishing the task. Which leads me back to the longest day... today is always longer than tomorrow since the earth is decelerating by roughly 1.4 milliseconds per day per century http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html Just something fun to contemplate on solstice. 8)

I expect 10^8 astronomers will have plenty of time though... Unless some of them decide to reclassify the light bulb at which time there could be a lot of prolonged discussion and debate as to how to approach the change.

[snodome]

ahhh, the temple of poseidon, god of the seas, giver of knowledge to man...

reminds me of a bruce lee quote:

"Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you cannot conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless..."

[emc]

reminds me of a bruce lee quote:

"...And yet it all seems limitless..."

I for one cannot comprehend "limitless" but deceleration... I understand.

I am grateful to have accelerated and look forward to completing the deceleration.

[apodman]

People do experience different things ... in Cook County.

From http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... hp?t=14219 ...

In Chicago the Mössbauer effect has been used to demonstrate the influence of mass on time. At the top of the university building time is running faster than at the basement.

Our experiences are not compartmentalized. We get everything from sacred to profane, ridiculous to sublime, all mixed together in the same life. My escape into the reality of science through my love of things astronomical helps get me through the pits in the bowl of cherries. Yes, the pits can be very bad, and with my feet on the ground I must address the issues of the human condition; but like Jack says, "Keep looking up!"

Speaking of sublime and profane, they had to change the name of Jack's show in 1997 from Star Hustler to Star Gazer because search engines were leading children to pornography.

[emc]

Our experiences are not compartmentalized. We get everything from sacred to profane, ridiculous to sublime, all mixed together in the same life. My escape into the reality of science through my love of things astronomical helps get me through the pits in the bowl of cherries...

On the subject of ridiculous to sublime... Ever thought about the reality of the cherry pulp??? stuck in a bowl... waiting... waiting... tortuous waiting... with no means of changing their situation Bet they would like to escape too!

Or like the anonymous email I received that suggested we change our seasons to +/- 1.5 months around the solstices... there is a good example of uncompartmentalized thoughtful experience. I expect he/she could be thinking from outside the solar system in instead of the inside out. Basing the four seasonal divisions on orbital mechanics instead of lagging weather.