Intro
(from The New York Times)
ROME- Under a full moon, shortly before midnight, Vittorio Giunta, a Roman
hairdresser, trimmed the hair of Isabella Morandi, 30, a client who is
convinced that this phase of the lunar cycle will make her locks grow back
faster, and thicker. The haircut, however, also broke the law. No police
officer raced in to arrest Giunta, but his small act of civil disobedience
is not likely to go unnoticed. Giunta, 48, is fighting city government,
two hairdressers' unions and dozens of small trade associations for the
right to keep his shop open when the moon is full. He and some of his
clients believe that the best time to cut hair is under a Full Moon, an
ancient superstition that has not entirely died out in Italy. There is
plenty of basis for it. Cutting lawns or hair on a waning moon retards its
growth, whereas cutting on a waxing moon encourages growth. Therefore to
cut only leading up to a Full Moon makes sound economic sense. Harvesting
fruit on or around Full Moon is said to ensure best juiciness and colour
but also fastest deterioration. And if you wish to preserve or dry fruits,
only pluck them on a NEW moon. If I was a lawnmowing contractor I would
only work during the fortnight of the waxing moon. Maybe that's why they
say that the best money to be made from a lawnmowing round is when you
sell the business.
Weather: coming
The Moon turned at its southernmost point for the month at 10pm (NZ
time)on Sunday evening. When you see the Full Moon rising over these
current days it is in the southeast and rises each day progressively north
from now on. Result? Cold fronts bringing polar air up from the SW of NZ
will continue for a few days. But no storm weather is due. Generally N or
S declinations cause severe weather in the opposite hemispheres, so the US
will be getting a few dumps this week. Locally you can watch the Moon's
influence on your weather map on the TV news. The big high situated in the
west Tasman Sea is still poised to cross the North Island of NZ, and the
northbound Moon will draw the high even more to the north.
Weather in US
(AP) -- Last week saw storms in north from the Dakotas into Minnesota and
Iowa, rain from Wisconsin and northern Illinois through Great Lakes into
central New York and Pennsylvania, tornadoes in Colorado, New Mexico,
Nebraska, North Dakota, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio, flood warnings from Iowa
into Illinois and Wisconsin. Southeast had scattered showers and
thunderstorm. Showers covered Florida to South Carolina into parts of
Tennessee and over to Alabama and Mississippi. Mostly clear skies along
the West Coast. California's still the place to be!
Q: Would there be a difference in the Moon's effect on the weather between
a pair of small, mountainous islands in the southern ocean, like New
Zealand, and a large, varied land mass like North America?
(Mary Coleman, USA)
A: The local topography determines what weather actually falls and the nodal cycles ensure the same weather comes back to the particular place 19 years later.Ý Winds bounce off cliffs and around bays, friction sets up air/water and air/dust patternsÝ over vast expanses, and a country like NZ which is just a thin ribbon hardly ever gets tornados because heat and wind don't get a chance to gather and roll.
Q: In your book you say that without a moon in the sky there would be no
liquid water on earth.
A: Sorry, I meant no life on earth, but there probably could still be
seas, only I would think much shallower. With no Moon the sun would draw
more of the earth's atmosphere to its side, creating a high atmospheric
tidal bulge with the earth rotating inside it. The heat of the sun would
cause the moisture evaporated from land and sea to form a giant cloud
facing the sun, stretching right across the hemisphere. No one would ever
see the sun past the deep cloud. As all the seas in the world would only
be an average of a kilometre deep everywhere if they covered the whole
earth's surface, there's not as much water as people thing there is, and a
deep atmospheric cloud wouldn't leave much left.Ý With no Moon, sunlight
would not reach earth but some heat-generating rays would. The days would
be continually cloudy and the nights freezing cold, but with very starry
skies. Winds would be different and stronger. Tides would be less, ranging
only by about 9% due to sun and planet gravitational pull, rather than the
30% we have now because of the Moon. No trees or life would exist, as air
would be very scarce and bitterly cold for half the day, and no
photosynthesis could occur because of the absence of sun's rays.
Scientists looking for other planets with life need to look first for a
planet with a Moon like ours.
Dissect a frog
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/frog/
Skeptics Society
http://skeptic.com
NASA pics of all Earth from space
http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/
Astrology in NZ
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~lianne9/
World's newspapers
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/
Decrypting the Eclipse
http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast06aug99_1.htm
Weird found/not found site
http://www.eskimo.com/notfound.html
Contact
Editor: Ken Ring
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Postal: P.O.Box 60197 Titirangi, Auckland 7, New Zealand.
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