h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

how does it stay hot if it's frozen?

There is a story (it may be an urban myth) that back in the 50s good catholic girls did NOT wear patent leather shoes because the leather was so reflective that the evil boys would look into the reflection in the shoes and see the girls panties.
Oooooh waaahhhh!!!!!

I think its just a myth as they couldn't attract blokes with the other bits cause they weren't aloud bra's or something like that.

Oranges and Lemons, the Belles at St Trinians - now I finally know what that song was really about

any way
getting back to the subject of time
didnt some ancient geezer like galileo or someone
describe time like
a river
flowing only in one direction?

No it's all in your mind time nor rivers really exist

Wonders why sundials do not have dials. They are sort of like early cell phones - thick and heavy. Hey spot the world-leading nation that looks like sun dials.

Your question about how we sense time:- Memory is our ability to organise events that have occurred to us. There is a part of the brain called the hippocampus which is able to distinguish important events from not so important ones and, so to speak press the 'record' button. If something is important, it gets encoded in memory.
This part of the brain has, on occasion been destroyed by an attack of encephalitis in a few unfortunate patients. These patients lose the ability to form new memories and can't remember things that happenend to them moments ago. You can place small objects in their hand, they close their fingers round them and when asked what they are holding, they are unable to say. Yet these patients can remember episodes and biographical facts from the time before their illness.

There is also a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (catchy, what? - a nucleus of neurons located above the optic chiasm - the importance of which will become clear in a minute) which is responsible for the setting of the body clock. As you know we rely on a circadian rhythm which is actually 25 hours (experiments with people staying for very long periods in caves have shown this) to time our daily activities. The suprachiasmatic nucleus responds indirectly to the arrival of light. This is achieved by receiving input from the optic chiasm the crossing-over point of stimuli from the retina on their way to the cortex at the back of the brain where visual stimuli are processed. This light stimulus sets the clock back to zero - the start of another day.

The importance of the neurotransmitter (chemicals used to transfer signals in the brain) melatonin in mood regulation has recently been recognised. Its production is governed by out exposure to daylight. The shorter days in winter lead to less melatonin production, in turn leading to depression known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in some people. (Affect is psychobabble for mood.)

There is a Basic Rest-Activity Cycle (BRAC) which doesn't seem to be controlled by any particular part of the brain but is important in understanding psychological time. It runs over a period of about 1.5 hours. Most work activity is based around this cycle; anything carried on for much longer than this seems to become boring, and time seems to drag. When you have sustained period of work, study, listening to relatives, etc to deal with it's a good idea to take a break as the 1.5 hour point comes up.

So there are in fact several brain mechanisms which govern our perception and measurement of time over short, medium and long cycles as well as the vividness and interest of some memories and expriences rather than others. Hope this is of some, er, interest.

Always? Aren't you just remembering the annoying times when you missed the bus and forgetting all the occasions when you just arrived at the stop, the bus arrived after a reasonable wait and you got on. We only remember the memorable.

Thank you for this - i found it so fascinating that I copied it into a new thread to make it easier to find and share.
Hope you don't mind

You have to take up smoking for the magic cigarett effect.
Just light one up while your waiting at the bus stop and before you've taken your secound toke the bus arives