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Re: equinox
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Mar 21, 15:41 -0400
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Mar 21, 15:41 -0400
Heh-heh, it's not spring yet here,
either. The snowy landscape around here certainly doesn't look like
spring should, in my personal opinion. I would have loved to celebrate the
vernal equinox some place with green grass and warm waves, instead of frozen
yards and icy shores.
I missed the whole thing anyway: I was
digging of just another night shift in Emerg at the time. But the sun
finally is shining a lot more of the day, and it's hot when it gets a chance to
beam through spring cloud cover.
This is the month when oceanic organisms in
the northern hemisphere respond vigorously to rapidly increasing
photoperiod. I studied walleye pollock and hake populations in BC waters
during the 70's. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fish are setting up
restlessly to spawn this time of year, their endocrine systems finely tuned
underwater to the sun's declination above water. They know the sun's changing
position through photosensitive organs attached to their brains.
People also seem to stir
restlessly during this period of peak photoperiod lengthening. I
haven't seen any scientific literature about human behaviour and the first point
of Aries, but around here we feel that people's impatience and irritiability run
higher in March and April than during other seasons. Part of that is
frustration with winter taking so long to finally leave our lawns and
harbours, but I have no doubt that our photosensitive endocrine systems drive us
subconsiously just like the fish, making us more restless and energetic. I
wonder if that's a holdover from ancient days, when winter settlers turned into
roaming summer migrants?
In any case, the vernal equinox certainly is
a defining time for earthly life, either approximately or
precisely.
Jim Thompson
jim2@jimthompson.net
www.jimthompson.net
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-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Gary HarkinsAnd who cares anyway, it's cold as most winter days here regardless of what the calendar says.
