4 ms·

Great set of posts! This one brought to mind: I think there's an unexplored niche of vampire movies where our protagonist lives 6 months in each hemisphere per

by Jun8 4y ago

Great set of posts! This one brought to mind: I think there's an unexplored niche of vampire movies where our protagonist lives 6 months in each hemisphere per year to minimize downtime in a coffin. With careful planning and a private jet, you can probably reduce sun time to a few hours per year. This would be an interesting calculation to do. Bonus Sunday thought: It's always said that ants are found on all continents except Antarctica, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant (surely there must be some ants in the buildings). I've always thought it would be interesting to try to introduce them there, sort of like a modern-day Herostratos.

sjs382 4y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Days_of_Night https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Days_of_Night
aflag 4y ago
Doesn't the poles get normalish day/night cycles during autumn and spring? If so, it would be a bit more than just a few hours of sun light each year.
- LadyCailin 4y ago
  No. That’s literally what the article is about.
- netsharc 4y ago
  Your question made me wonder why the cycle would be a year long. I realized that's because when standing at 90 degrees north or south you're just rotating on the spot. There's only the yearly day/night cycle because of the 23.5 degree tilt of the earth's axis, and this doesn't change relative to the plane of the orbit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9MU4TouzII&t=61 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9MU4TouzII&t=61 This also explains why across 24 hours on the video in the blog the sun just "revolves" at the same height across the sky. In reality it's setting but it's imperceptible. At less than 90 degrees (anyone know the longitude?), the earth's rotation comes back into effect and the sun does go "behind the earth", i.e. it sets, daily, for a few months.
  - jedberg 4y ago
    > At less than 90 degrees (anyone know the longitude?), the earth's rotation comes back into effect and the sun does go "behind the earth", i.e. it sets, daily, for a few months. I was wondering too. It looks like it's at about 84 degrees that there is a normal day night cycle (for some definition of normal, there is only a few minutes of daylight at the winter solstice).
  - aflag 4y ago
    Yeah, that makes sense. It's actually not that surprising when you think about it. I'm not sure how vampires deal with Twilight. There's a long twilight in those regions.
SoftTalker 4y ago
The vampire may be hungry though. Not too many people living in polar night regions, compared to more central lattitudes. As for the ants idea, introducing a species where it doesn't exist is usually a Bad Thing (TM).
telesilla 4y ago
Sam Raimi made quite a good version of 30 Days of Night https://youtu.be/8ClVrVK_y0E https://youtu.be/8ClVrVK_y0E
tialaramex 4y ago
Modern humans are much better at successful bio-insulation. New Zealand's first colonists couldn't help but bring rats, there were rats everywhere there were humans, they snuck about large boats, the colonists were humans, they brought rats and, (with some small but growing exceptions) there are still rats everywhere humans live on New Zealand today. However, by the time Amundsen Scott was built in 1956 we'd got much more conscious of why this is a bad idea and of how to prevent it. So the only reason there would be ants at Amundsen Scott would be if we intentionally wanted ants there, and I can't think of any reason why we would. If they "escaped" they can't live on Antarctica, the penguins make it look easy but it's really hard to live there, an ant colony would need human intervention to basically feed and protect the ants.

by Jun8 4y ago

sjs382 4y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Days_of_Night https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Days_of_Night

aflag 4y ago

Doesn't the poles get normalish day/night cycles during autumn and spring? If so, it would be a bit more than just a few hours of sun light each year.

LadyCailin 4y ago
No. That’s literally what the article is about.
netsharc 4y ago
Your question made me wonder why the cycle would be a year long. I realized that's because when standing at 90 degrees north or south you're just rotating on the spot. There's only the yearly day/night cycle because of the 23.5 degree tilt of the earth's axis, and this doesn't change relative to the plane of the orbit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9MU4TouzII&t=61 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9MU4TouzII&t=61 This also explains why across 24 hours on the video in the blog the sun just "revolves" at the same height across the sky. In reality it's setting but it's imperceptible. At less than 90 degrees (anyone know the longitude?), the earth's rotation comes back into effect and the sun does go "behind the earth", i.e. it sets, daily, for a few months.
- jedberg 4y ago
  > At less than 90 degrees (anyone know the longitude?), the earth's rotation comes back into effect and the sun does go "behind the earth", i.e. it sets, daily, for a few months. I was wondering too. It looks like it's at about 84 degrees that there is a normal day night cycle (for some definition of normal, there is only a few minutes of daylight at the winter solstice).
- aflag 4y ago
  Yeah, that makes sense. It's actually not that surprising when you think about it. I'm not sure how vampires deal with Twilight. There's a long twilight in those regions.

SoftTalker 4y ago

The vampire may be hungry though. Not too many people living in polar night regions, compared to more central lattitudes. As for the ants idea, introducing a species where it doesn't exist is usually a Bad Thing (TM).

telesilla 4y ago

Sam Raimi made quite a good version of 30 Days of Night https://youtu.be/8ClVrVK_y0E https://youtu.be/8ClVrVK_y0E

tialaramex 4y ago

Modern humans are much better at successful bio-insulation. New Zealand's first colonists couldn't help but bring rats, there were rats everywhere there were humans, they snuck about large boats, the colonists were humans, they brought rats and, (with some small but growing exceptions) there are still rats everywhere humans live on New Zealand today. However, by the time Amundsen Scott was built in 1956 we'd got much more conscious of why this is a bad idea and of how to prevent it. So the only reason there would be ants at Amundsen Scott would be if we intentionally wanted ants there, and I can't think of any reason why we would. If they "escaped" they can't live on Antarctica, the penguins make it look easy but it's really hard to live there, an ant colony would need human intervention to basically feed and protect the ants.