Rotating Mirrors

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:
> From:
> To:
> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 5:35 PM
> Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Rotating Mirrors
>
> [snikt]
> > I agree that humans are adaptable, but only to a point. I grew up
> > deep in the hills of Kentucky, where the sun rises sometime in
mid-
> > morning, and the horizon is always visible, being the tops of the
> > surrounding mountains. When I moved to Central Kentucky, the flat
> > landscape drove me nuts. I still don't think flat, open areas are
> > truly habitable by humans, without psychological penalties. Maybe
> > people have somehow adapted to their unnaturally flat
environments,
> > but I'm not sure their faculties have remained intact. And how
they
> > can walk from place to place, without going up and down at steep
> > angles, still astonishes me.
>
> And so, I am not alone! ;-) I grew up in two cities here in Brazil,
Belo
> Horizonte (where I live nowadays), built in mountainous terrain and
> notoriously hilly (a few streets have an inclination of about 45
degrees...)
> and Rio de Janeiro, a coastal city built in flat shore areas
and "walled" by
> a mountain chain in the opposite side. So, I was used to walk in
flatness,
> but not to the absence of mountains in sight. And then, in my first
visits
> to the United States (to Orlando, Philadelphia and New York) I was
appalled
> by the absolute lack of mountains and I think that I started to get
a bit
> agoraphobic.
>

I grew up in one of the flattest places on earth, the Canadian
Prairies..clear views for forty miles in all directions. Then I
moved to Calgary, with the mountains as a backdrop (I've been here
for ten years). Now, when I go to visit my family, I find myself
feeling agoraphobic when I _don't_ have the mountains in sight.

:) ed

> Lighting and temperature was also a shock. Brazil is located around
the
> Equator, and so there are few noticeable changes in the duration of
day and
> night as seasons goes by. (In practice, we even don't have winter,
summer,
> spring and autumn, we just have a half-year season of rain and heat
and
> another half-year season dry and "cold" - tough of course not cold
enough
> for snow.) And then I was struck by the short days in the American
winter.
> Also, the fact that the Sun is always tilted around 30-45 degrees
in the sky
> (while in my country we usually have a hot fireball over our
heads), and
> that cities with tall building therefore have streets in nearly
perpetual
> shadow, was kind of strange. As for the unbearable cold - well,
*that's
> unnatural for me. ;-)
>
> Even though, I don't think that that alien environment drove me
nuttier than
> normal in the long run... And that gives me some hope that human
beings can