It is the considered,expressed opinion of my family, that my head is chock-a-block full of useless information, although some have been known to refer to this stuff in a derogatory manner, I shall refrain from being explicit.
As those that are interested in UI know, the Equinox, is usually celebrated, on or about the 20/21 March & September each year, and signifies our ⭐ crossing the equator. The beginning of spring and autumn (fall for those inclined that way). The Sun rises and sets at the same hour; am & pm on those days.
Well just as a matter of UI, this happened in Sydney yesterday the 19th September; Helios his Chariot of the Sun with sturdy horses pulling mightily came bounding over the horizon at the ungodly hour, of 5.48am. and for the next 12 hours had a high old time before slipping off the otherside at 5.48pm.
So there you have it. The Equinox 2 days early!
Now how do I know this lot of twaddle? Simple!
Somehow I don’t suppose anybody has ever scrolled down on the opening page of this site of mine, but if anyone has they might well have noticed way down on the right side there’s a weather thingy, and by clicking on this, you get a right up to the minute insight as to what is going on in Sydney.
Now this weather gadget/widget thingy is pretty good and gives more useful information than a UI junkie wants or needs, but back in June at our winter solstice I happened to scroll through this weather thing and came to the box marked “Astronomy” and the last line tells what the length of the day will either increase or decrease by.
Well on this 21st day of June it gave a reading: Tomorrow will be 0m0s longer. Had our earth stopped?
No way it was going to reverse course so that the Sun would head south again, so being an adherent to UI, I promptly got a spread sheet going, four columns starting 21/06/2016 and the fourth finishing 21/06/2017 and started recording each date the increase in the length of each day.
We gradually picked up speed and as at yesterday we were picking up an extra 2minutes 5 seconds of daylight a day.And that’s when I noticed that the Equinox was here/ there; yesterday, whatever; I’m starting to confuse myself in all the excitement! 🙄
Now if that isn’t Useless Information then somebody better tell me what is! XD
LordBeariOfBow 
At least you noticed. I’ve been too busy thinking if I don’t get to the mountain this week, I’m going ot miss the best of the fall foliage. But while it’s fine for me, I certainly wish all those other people doing the same thing would just stay home and not cramp my style.
BTW, I just noticed a saliling ship in that picutre of the Sydney bridge. What ship is that? I apologize if you’ve mentioned it before and I’ve simply forgotten.
LikeLike
That’s the replica of the HMB Endeavour; Capt. Cooks ship which was the first English/British/Royal Naval ( that should satisfy all) ship to sail into Botany Bay and claim the land for King George III, who upset the 13 United Colonies, so luckily for His Majesty he had somewhere else to send his unwanted rogues, with the sailing of the “First Fleet” of convicts in the year of 1787 shortly after you people gave him the boot XD
Sightseers are a nuisance completely ignorant and should stay in there own back yards and not ruin the pleasure and privacy of the locals. XD What do you reckon XD
LikeLike
No, no, you got it right . . . pretty useless information. To wit, did you know there’s also a winter equinox? It’s nominally on the 21st of December . . . no, wait; that’s the Solstice. Our vernal equinox is on March 20th and here, in Hawaii, it will be at 12:29AM HAST.
Here’s another interesting but useless thing . . . precession. It done messes with Soltices and Equinoxes. Plus, eventually, the North Star (we have that in the northern hemisphere) will stop being the North Star and another star will be the North Star. I’ve heard it say the southern hemisphere ain’t got the equivalent, and that’s why you blokes get lost a lot.
Also, most people can’t name our closest star.
LikeLike
You seem to forget dear boy that at the moment we are so far ahead of you that it’s no longer funny 1615 hours Tuesday the 20th Sept Sydney Australia,
Hawai’i 2014 hours Monday 19th September XD
We don’t need a north star cos we aint going anywhere we already here!
Where have you been hiding? I don’t get notifications about your stuff anymore thought you must have blocked me
LikeLike
Or, you could be a year behind. Did you consider that?
I’ve not been hiding. If you would have read my last post, I’ve been attending HawaiiCon, and hence I’ve not posted anything for lack of time and fortitude. Will post something soon.
As for blocking, never had to resort to it. My natural charm is sufficient in driving undesirables away. Often, desirables too.
LikeLike
I can believe that 🙂
LikeLike
Why would I even think of giving such an imbecilic suggestion a moments consideration.Australia lies to th east; that’s this way >>>>E, to the Americas and as a consequence gets to see the sun first.
Perhaps you’d like to steal the Greenwich Meridian from the English; you’ve pinched so much and polluted it so far you might find some way to stuff up that too! 👿
LikeLike
This imbecile thinks the current demarcation and time systems are not dictated by a divine or even demonic force, but is instead arbitrarily agreed to, and by not that many people, at that. That includes the apparently precious reference point for the current system.
http://dailym.ai/2cPqYsd
LikeLike
and with all that he forgot to say that the northern hemisphere is down under and the souther hemisphere is on top, I don’t know what the worlds coming to I really don’t
LikeLike
. . . did you click on the link? You can see a map of the world “flipped”.
The world is not coming to anything; it was here before us and will be here after we are long gone. It’s only the mantle of our arrogant perception that is ever-changing and occasionally questioned. The system we have works because we agree it works. A completely different system would work as well as long as we’d all agree on it. Subsequently, we could argue its merits and vehemently defend it by citing some mystical reason for being.
Probably something tied to a forgotten glory and an enlarged sense of self-importance.
LikeLike
Yes I did, but didn’t find the flip, that’s why I questioned it, it was an obvious follow up to everything. I’ll go have another look.
The amount of time I’ve got left I really do have better things to do, if only I could think what; and here I am plodding along on this stuff
LikeLike
Ah yes they were trying to confuse me, and succeeded, but I found it; it really is logical that, Australia is moving down towards the equator and will eventually bump into bits of Asia or India and then the fear mongers will be vindicatd as all the excess Indians and Asians pop over and take over Australia, at which time nobody will give a damn, cos we’ll all be dead! XD
LikeLike
Really, don’t bother. If you want to spend some time reading interesting stuff, read this . . .
https://priceonomics.com/why-do-tourists-visit-ancient-ruins-everywhere/
If reading strains you too much, this is an interesting look at music in movies:
If you want to examine the genius of one of my favorite old stars . . .
. . . and if you just want to stare at something mesmerizing . . .
LikeLike
enjoyed the Buster Keaton stuff but it does seem to be influenced by the work of Charlie Chaplin, perhaps Chaplins work was more in the way of pathos
LikeLike
as for mesmerizing I was gobsmacked getting closer and closer to the screen fascinated. I’m sorry I watched the second one and read the comments where someone said how this was done
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not sure what you watched that apparently ruined the illusion. It’s pretty clear he holds one steady and moves the other around it. The mesmerizing thing is the mastery of it.
You might like this one as well . . .
LikeLike
What I watched revealed that the 2 rings are permanently connected in a figure 8, I’ll check the new one later
LikeLike
That was truly amazing I was spellbound the whole way through from start to finsh it was so unusual never seen anything like that before.
As you can see I thought it was alright.
LikeLike
Again, yes. The mastery is in moving them so as to appear to move relative to each other. What’s incredible to me is how they can rotate the ring that appear stationary without moving it up/down or left/right. I think it takes some practice.
LikeLike
they probably haven’t got much else to do with their time, 😈 seriously though they are masters of their art. their dextrity make me feel clumsy
LikeLike
I reckon our closest star is the sun which shines brightly on Australia and the Sandwich Isles XD
LikeLike
Wrong . . . that would be Don Ho.
Eh, you’re right, of course. Can’t fool old folks.
LikeLike
Makes a change, me being correct 🙂
LikeLike
I doubt I’ll ever go to Sidney again, so, from my perspective, definitely UI
LikeLike
Me too, don’t think I even know where Sidney is, in fact the only Sidney I ever knew was Sid James, still theres always a chance you’ll get to my Sydney again, after all, it’s the centre of the known universe XD
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 Carry on, me Lord
LikeLike
You may depend on it Dear Boy XD 🐻
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brian,
I don’t base my start of Spring on meteorolgical data, but on the botanical evidence in my backyard. Some of the botanical folk base it on the flowering of the jasmine [Jasmine is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family. It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Australasia and Oceania. Scientific name: Jasminum. Higher classification: Jasmineae. Rank: Genus], but I always mark the start of Spring with the flowering of my wisteria [Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the Eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Some species are popular ornamental plants. Scientific name: Wisteria. Higher classification: Faboideae. Rank: Genus]. I think the jasmine bloom comes too early, it is more the harbinger of the end of Winter. The wisteria bloom comes just at the right time for the beginning of Spring; it bloomed last week.
Neill.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Talk about “Useless Information” this tops the lot! XD XD XD
LikeLiked by 1 person
UI. Otherwise known as a fount of irrelevant trivia. In a world of death and destruction and rantings and ravings, how sublime to get something so interesting that doesn’t refer to catastrophe.
LikeLike
Well thank you John, I’m inclined to blush 😳
LikeLike