As the Whorl Turns

Does anybody know which way the Whorl turns? I had assumed that if you viewed the Whorl from outside looking toward its front, it would turn clockwise. — But it could just as easily be turning counterclockwise. — Any evidence in the books? Best wishes, Jack

I don't have the books with me, but when Silk first looks out of a lander in Lake and sees the short sun rising, are there any tidbits there? ________________________________ From: John Smith <jsmith2627 at att.net> To: urth at urth.net Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 10:07:06 AM Subject: (urth) As the Whorl Turns Does anybody know which way the Whorl turns? I had assumed that if you viewed the Whorl from outside looking toward its front, it would turn clockwise. But it could just as easily be turning counterclockwise. Any evidence in the books? Best wishes, Jack

"looked across a benighted plain of naked rock." "The somber plain was pitted like the cheeks of a child who had survived the pox, and far more parren tha tne sheer clifss of the Pilgrims' Way; no tree, no flower, no least wed or dot of moss sprouted from its rock." "The plain of rock had blanched unwatfched, and was streaked with sable...." So, we have a plain of benighted rock which is pitted like a pox survivor. Sounds like an asteroid to me.

This indicates the original asteroid was massive enough to flatten gross irregularities into a plainlike smoothness, and of a sufficient scale for its spheroidal curvature to look like a plain at Silk's distance from it. This also means that the outer surface is probably the original, ruling out the Cole process (melt the asteroid with solar mirrors, then expand it into a bubble with steam) The "sheer cliffs of the Pilgrims' Way" is also informative about the interior geography. Oh, and I found some classic illustrations of asteroid habitats, complete with axial light sources and unshadowed interiors. http://www.fabiofeminofantascience.org/RETROFUTURE/cole1small.jpg http://www.fabiofeminofantascience.org/RETROFUTURE/coleanalog.jpg

Love the space age tractor..I want one!! ???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624 ???? Skype? stuart.hamm myspace.com/stuhamm ? ??? stuarthamm.net --- On Tue, 1/27/09, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote: From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> Subject: Re: (urth) As the Whorl Turns To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net> Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2009, 10:01 AM

Way; no tree, no flower, no least wed or dot of moss sprouted from its rock."

Sounds like an asteroid to me. This indicates the original asteroid was massive enough to flatten gross irregularities into a plainlike smoothness, and of a sufficient scale for its spheroidal curvature to look like a plain at Silk's distance from it. This also means that the outer surface is probably the original, ruling out the Cole process (melt the asteroid with solar mirrors, then expand it into a bubble with steam) The "sheer cliffs of the Pilgrims' Way" is also informative about the interior geography. Oh, and I found some classic illustrations of asteroid habitats, complete with axial light sources and unshadowed interiors. http://www.fabiofeminofantascience.org/RETROFUTURE/cole1small.jpg http://www.fabiofeminofantascience.org/RETROFUTURE/coleanalog.jpg -- Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com < http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

You should be able to get a reasonable estimate of the interior cross-section of the asteroid from the fire descriptions in BotSS Jeff