User talk:ClemRutter/Archives/2012/January

Thanks
Thanks for the friendly welcome, Clem. I appreciate it.

In terms of the distinction between highest and tallest, I was simply going on Wikipedia's own definitions as evidenced on the highest and tallest bridges lists, which seem to be linked to from many of the relevant articles on individual bridges. It seems a very reasonable distinction to me: a simple concrete span bridge built over a 600m deep ravine is obviously a different proposition from a suspension bridge with 400 metre high piers. Both would be remarkable structures to visit, but they're remarkable in different ways.

I do not know if the Baluarte bridge is yet open to traffic. I believe it is not -- I read on a BBC news story that it had been inaugurated by President Calderon, but I don't think the route as a whole is open yet. Not sure though.

JasonNoble (talk) 15:34, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

Thought you might like this
Parrot of Doom 16:39, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Discussion at Talk:Appreciation
You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Appreciation. – Fayenatic (talk) 18:13, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Southern hemisphere sundial
Hi Clem:

You made an edit to the "Sundial" page today, with this comment:

"Moved new image. We needed a southern hemisphere dial to show the inverse movement. It would be better if the photographer could upload an image of the dial face.)"

Right. But first you must find such a dial. They are, to put it mildly, rare. I've searched in South America and couldn't find any sundials with horizontal plates. There are a very few very old dials, like the Paraguayan one in the image you moved, which have vertical plates attached to north-facing walls. On these dials, in the Southern Hemisphere, the shadow of the gnomon moves clockwise, so the hour marks run clockwise, like on horizontal-plate dials in the Northern Hemisphere. In fact, it is possible to take a Northern-Hemisphere dial and move it 90 degrees of latitude southward, attaching it to a vertical north-facing wall in the Southern Hemisphere, and it will work just fine. But a picture of such a sundial, with numbers running clockwise, would not be particularly interesting in Wikipedia.

The only plausible explanation I've seen of the scarcity of sundials in the Southern Hemisphere is the one based on the Equation of Time, which is in the Sundial article. But, explained or not, the scarcity is real. In fact, most South Americans have never heard of sundials. The phrase "reloj del sol", which dictionaries in Spain include to mean "sundial", does not appear in Chilean dictionaries I've seen. South Americans don't even have a word for the device.

DOwenWilliams (talk) 01:19, 25 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for comment. I was just trying to encourage a new contributer- who had not seen the note at the top of the page re posting unrelated images- that and the fact that this was the first image I had seen from South America. The bigger question is why are we writing a section on something that doesn't exist,--ClemRutter (talk) 10:42, 25 January 2012 (UTC)


 * One of my tutors at university was a recognised expert on sundials. I'll drop him a line & see what he has/knows. - Sitush (talk) 11:25, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Sundials do exist in the southern hemisphere, but they are extremely rare. I made one in Santiago, Chile, about ten years ago. I had been searching for one, and some friends of mine had become curious, so I made a sundial just to show them. It may have been the only sundial in the country. I don't know if it still exists. There have been a couple of big earthquakes since then, so it may have been shaken to pieces.

I read somewhere about a sundial that was made in Argentina just a couple of years ago. A Spanish guy who now lives there made it. In its inauguration speech, he described how there are sundials on every street corner in his home town in Spain, but he hadn't seen any since moving to Argentina, so he had designed this one to show people there. It's a big, complicated thing. Not just a simple sundial.

A friend of mine tells me that there is one public sundial in New Zealand, but it has been in disrepair for a long time. The gnomon is missing. Apparently, nobody there knows how to fix it.

If you want a picture of a sundial with the numbers running anticlockwise, just look at the first image in the "Sundial" article. It shows a vertical dial in England. If you turn the picture 90 degrees, you could pretend that it's a horizontal dial in the southern hemisphere!

DOwenWilliams (talk) 15:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I just found this image of a sundial that was recently made by a hobbyist in Antarctica.


 * http://www.shadowspro.com/photos/users/barnfield1.jpg


 * The gnomon points almost vertically upward, showing that the dial is designed for use near the Pole, and of course the hour numbers run anticlockwise. The hours include almost the whole 24-hour day, since in summertime the sun is above the horizon the whole time, or close to it.


 * DOwenWilliams (talk) 00:26, 27 January 2012 (UTC)


 * There's a lot more information about that same Antarctica sundial, which was actually made in South Africa, on this page:


 * http://www.sundials.co.za/page9.html


 * However, I do not believe the claim that it is accurate to within 3 seconds! 3 minutes, maybe... Possibly.


 * The same people who made that dial also produce a whole lot of other southern-hemisphere dials. I don't know if any of them are in practical use, but there are some pretty pictures of them here:


 * http://www.sundials.co.za/page4.html


 * If you can sort out the copyright situation, any of them would look good on the Wikipedia page.


 * DOwenWilliams (talk) 04:40, 27 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Nice stuff- needs some follow up as this does change a few things. Give me thinking time. --ClemRutter (talk) 11:50, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

User talk:Chigirinsky Alexander
Welcome. Thank you for compliments. 1. Primarily I do use standard copyright license. 2. Yes, I can mod more exact local terrain to illustrate 403 m height above the river - it is possible. However I have to warn that such a model can not be published in the Google Earth 3D-layers - GE does allow to create embankment on its terrains, it does not allow to dig the trenches there. So, it will be standing-alone model-with-terrain only. IMHO such a job ought to be ordered because it seems to be a specific work. 3. Yes, I can do - no problem - the "Millau Viaduct" from scratch, however there is a good deal of the "Millau Viaduct" on-the-shelf models in 3Dwarehouse right now. 4. I gain wide experience in the bridge modeling (about 90 bridges): http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=Chigirinsky+bridge&styp=m&scoring=t&btnG=%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA&reps=1 5. I will do any 3D-job could be paid. 6. I could advice you about high ranking SEO-efficiency of SU-models both in 3Dwarehouse and in the GE layers, e.g. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=271&t=38316&start=0#p338608

Sincerely,

Chigirinsky Alexander (talk) 19:08, 29 January 2012 (UTC)