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So let's say it's a sunny summer and an Eskimo is standing on the north poll watching the sun through his bone-slit sunglasses. Will he notice that the sun appears to change position as he rotates his head left to right and back? How is that different then the world speeding up or slowing down?

It isn't any different from the world rotating left to right and back. If both the earth and the sun where stationary then the sun would be where you see it.

What's your best evidence that this absurd-sounding idea is true? Why can't I replicate it on the merry go around? What is different between the merry go around rotating 180 degrees per 8.5 minutes and the earth doing the same?

As I patiently tried to explain before, your merry go round experiment is fine except that you have to pulse the water and laser to see what is happening and it would help if you used the outside of the center spinning cup instead of the center.

I think all of this spinning has you dizzy. I will give you three shooting examples. First when the skeet come by sideways you have to point the gun in front of them when you shoot them because it takes time for the shot to get to the skeet. Now lets put you in the back of a speeding pickup, with a rifle, shooting off to the side. The only difference this time is that you are moving not the target you still have to lead the target if you want to hit it. The amount of lead that you need depends on the speed of the bullet, your distance to the target and the speed of the pickup.

Now lets use a laser rifle and put you on a black comet, speeding by, shooting at me as I star gaze. Lets also say that your laser rifle illuminates the comet for a brief instant when you fire the rifle. Lets also say that it takes the light 10 minutes to get to me. Now when the laser pulse hits my eyes I will see you and your comet where you were 10 minutes ago. If you keep shooting laser blasts at me each blast I see will show me you and your comet 10 minutes in the past. Your actual position at the time I see you will be way in front of where I see you.

Said mrjesse: So let's say it's a sunny summer and an Eskimo is standing on the north poll watching the sun through his bone-slit sunglasses. Will he notice that the sun appears to change position as he rotates his head left to right and back? How is that different then the world speeding up or slowing down?
It isn't any different from the world rotating left to right and back. If both the earth and the sun where stationary then the sun would be where you see it.

So let's say this Eskimo has his staff stuck in the snow 10 feet in front of him, directly between him and the sun, and he's got a flashlight taped to the top, shining at him.

Are you saying then that as he rotates his head right to left and back, the apparent position of the sun to him will lag its real position due to the 8.5 minutes flight time from sun to earth, causing the sun to first appear on the left of his flashlight then on the right?

Said mrjesse: What's your best evidence that this absurd-sounding idea is true? Why can't I replicate it on the merry go around? What is different between the merry go around rotating 180 degrees per 8.5 minutes and the earth doing the same?

I've mentioned two different merry go around experiments. The first one was in 472 where I talked only about the sun's apparent lag and merry go around RPMs. I didn't mention a thing about water jets or laser pulses on the first merry go around experiment. Then in 488 you said "Your merry go round experiment conclusion was wrong " but never explained how or why it was wrong!

It wasn't until 490 that I first introduced the second merry go around experiment, which I introduced by saying "Here's another merry go around experiment." I proceeded to describe an experiment with me on a merry go around with a laser and water pulses shooting at me from the same position and timed together. But I never mentioned any cup in the center. Are you thinking of the "Turntable experiment" I described in 469?

Anyway, since you had proclaimed that my merry go around conclusion was wrong before I had even posted the second merry go around experiment, you must have been talking about the first one. In any case, here are my two merry go around experiments again, in order:

Said mrjesse:
Lets say that I'm on a mountaintop park, where there is a merry go around. It's a beautiful bright sunny warm morning, and as I sit on the merry go around, I look out and notice that the sun is exactly horizontal. Now let us further pretend that I get the merry go around rotating at 17 minutes per turn. This way, it'll have turned 180 degrees in the time it takes the light to reach the earth from the sun. So now let's say I have a very sensitive gravity meter which can measure the sun's gravitational pull.
Now let me ask you - which way will the sun's gravity appear related to it's light? Will the gravity of the sun be in the east while its gravitational pull will be toward the west?

And here's merry go around number two:

Said mrjesse:
If I am on a merry go around, and it's turning, and there is a pulsing water jet and laser (which pulse in unison) both pointing at the center of the merry go around. The pulse rate and turn rate of the merry go around are such that no water pulse overlaps the life of the previous, and the merry go around turns 1/4 of a turn in the time it takes the leading edge of a water pulse to reach the center of the merry go around. Now it's a warm day and I'm sitting in the middle of the merry go around, with a good water proof compass. The water jet and laser are exactly north, 20 feet, of the center of the merry go around.
Will I not find that every time either light or water hits me that it will be coming exactly from the north?
Logical answers would be "Yes, No, or Yes but this doesn't carry over to the situation with the sun and its apparent position."

So which is it, on these two experiments? They are careful and simple, and a simple "yes" or "no" would be perfectly reasonable and would solve a lot of confusion.

Thanks,

-Jesse