Tonight’s moon, almost toasted completely black again.
After a couple of relaxing snifters and a bit of brain-freewheeling to get in the writing mood, strange things sometimes occur to me.
Such as the ‘man in the moon’ (White Moon Man), an arrangement of craters that makes the Moon look like John Prescott when he’s sat on a tack. Well that’s how it looks from here.
What I wondered was, if you view the Moon from the southern hemisphere, are you seeing it the other way up? I’ve been east of here and a bit south but never crossed the equator. It seems to me that if you stand on the other half of the planet, surely the moon would look upside-down compared to the perspective of an observer on this half.
Then there’s the equator. I don’t think the Moon’s orbit is perfectly aligned with the equator but there must be some times and places when it is directly overhead. Can you see the ‘face’ then?
Also, does anyone have photos of the secret Nazi cheese mines, set up at the end of WWII? The Daily Mail are running out of Hitler stories, they are down to listing his birthday presents now. A photo of the cheese mines would liven them up.
Okay. I think my brain is now deranged enough to write something…
What I wondered was, if you view the Moon from the southern hemisphere, are you seeing it the other way up?
Must be. People in Australia are all standing upside down, so if we see the moon one way up, they must see it the other way up.
I’m never very sure what’s meant by the man in the moon. I think it’s a bit like seeing Jesus in a piece of burnt toast. The moon has dark areas (the maria or seas) and light areas, and I think these somehow form the Man in the Moon.
As for Hitler stories, I was fascinated by this one a couple of days back. I even added a comment.
Did you copy your comments across okay?
Nazi cheese mines? Ah, you want “The Secret History of Hitlers Gorgonzola troopers” By Kurt Von Emmental (1953 Pub. Grätz Verlag, Witzenhausen, 1954 UK. Porterhouse, Cambridge Press) The story of how a eugenics experiments designed to achieve ‘Die entlosung’ with strong cheeses failed.
Sadly out of print and no longer available. Wish I had the ISBN for you.
Ah, I see my profile has been appropriated by someone.
Yes, he’s back. Populating the blacklist now.
I see, was this a case of waiting for him to reveal himself and then unwrapping the banning stick?
I thought he might eventually cotton on to the one flaw in the login system. It’ll take time to fill the list so I’ll probably leave the place on login or mod while I’m not around.
I’ve just listened to Deborah Arnott being interviewed on LBC re a law being bought in about not smoking in your own back garden.
Firstly she stated that she lives in a flat in Central London and her neighbours smoke. She is happy at the moment as they smoke outside but is concerned that this type of ban will drive them indoors so she will be subject to SHS, (unintended consequences).
Secondly apparently there is HUGE support from both smokers and non smokers for the smoking bans already in this Country (really?)
Thirdly she tripped over her own whining lower lip while she was complaining about nasty smokers lighting up in public and being a hideous influence to the children. The interviewer said smokers have been forced outside by your legislation otherwise they would have been out of sight of the children inside the pub. Again unintended consequences.
The man in the moon is supposed to look like a rabbit from the Southern Hemisphere.
I wouldn’t know, never having been there and anyway “the man in the moon” looks more like a lady singing to me, if you watch long enough you can see her lips move.
But then again I do need glasses these days.
Off on a slight tangent, I saw the the moon last night too, L-i. What isn’t in the photo is that the “dark” bit was lit by earth light. It wasn’t quite black. Both were in the (North)West-ish and you can tell from where the white bit is where the sun must be, relatively speaking. The Earth was reflecting back some of the sunlight into space and some of it “hit” the moon.
This new layout is much easier to read.
The photo was through double-glazing so it isn’t very good. I planned to get a better one tonight but it’s cloudy now! Oh well, there’ll be plenty of other times.