Here’s a fun little article from the Boston Globe on the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year:
It is actually the day when the angle of the sun is as its minimum,” said Dani LeBlanc, a producer and educator at the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Science. “Since the equinox, the sun has been getting lower and lower in the sky.”
The earth is tilted at a 23.5-degree angle and the northern hemisphere is currently leaning at its farthest point away from the sun. But the distance is not what accounts for the waning daylight or winter cold. It’s the angle, forcing much of sunlight to bounce off the earth and leaving the ground relatively cold.
I tend to suffer from winter blues – mild (in my case; not always mild for everyone) depression that seems related in me to lack of sunshine and darkness and short days. I want to eat every carb in sight as darkness falls; whereas, sunshine feels almost like a food group. I’ve started aggressively compensating in the last few years – spending as much time as possible out of doors in the sunlight, vitamin D supplements, exercise, lightboxes – something has helped over the last couple of years, and hey, I’m good with placebo effects.
However, at this time of year, I cannot resist the deep inner belief that the sun is going to slide and go away and not return. And that we have come to the end of the 5th epoch because, at this time of year at least, I have discovered my deep religiousity and it is … Aztec. The only way to ensure the return of the sun is to enact the New Fire Ceremony, using a worthy law student. Or two, or three. The problem is, there are so few worthy law students any more!
drunkdriver says:
Brother, I feel you on the winter blues. Gets me every year. I can’t wait for the glory days of June . . .
December 21, 2009, 2:25 pmMore Importantly... says:
And even fewer worthy law professors.
December 21, 2009, 2:29 pmalittlesense says:
Does the law student have to be a virgin?
December 21, 2009, 2:32 pmKenneth Anderson says:
More importantly: I don’t disagree! The sacrifice of your humble law professor blogger would not cause the return of minor moon of Saturn, let alone the Sun.
December 21, 2009, 2:32 pmKenneth Anderson says:
A littlesense: We operate on a GPA basis, sorry. An unblemished academic record. Also have to attended class and participated, even in one’s later law school semesters.
December 21, 2009, 2:34 pmMarkCh says:
The issue with the angle isn’t about bouncing. It’s about the amount of sunlight received by each square meter of surface. Consider a square meter of cardboard held so that the sun shines directly on it. Now, tip it so that it is at a steep angle with respect to the sun: in this position, it obviously intercepts less light. That is why it is colder in the winter.
December 21, 2009, 2:35 pmgasman says:
Oops… The sun reached it’s highest point in June with the summer solstice. At the equinox it was mid point between extremes. So much for science educators in America.
December 21, 2009, 2:36 pmjccamp says:
“The Celebration of the New Fire ceremony…described by Sahagun..involved abstinence from work, fasting, ritual cleansing, ritual bloodletting, destruction of old household items and observance of silence.”
No need to sacrifice a law student. Except for that last item , it sounds much like passage of the new health care bill…
December 21, 2009, 2:38 pmLe Messurier says:
MarkCh says:
That’s what he said!
December 21, 2009, 2:38 pmFace the Facts says:
Odds are . . .
December 21, 2009, 2:45 pmLarryA says:
You also have fewer hours for the sun to warm the earth, and more night hours to radiate away that heat. Winter is a combination of effects.
Reason #366 why I live in Texas. It’s cool here, at 63 degrees.
December 21, 2009, 2:46 pmBrett says:
“Winter blue”? Interesting. I’m much more of an “overcast day” guy, so the main thing that bothers me about winter is the shorter day more than the weakened light.
December 21, 2009, 2:50 pmDan Hamilton says:
Remember for the sacrifice to be accepted the one sacrificed has to be willing. If they are not, why would they deliver the message.
I’m sure that some Multiculturalist Law student would be willing. After all, all cultures are equal and their practices are good if not better then ours.
December 21, 2009, 3:01 pmlatinist says:
Hmmm. I note that the blog mentions this search for law-student sacrifices four days after the post titled “Who are you (lawyers, law students and the like)?” I’ll bet some readers are starting to regret responding to that post….
December 21, 2009, 3:02 pmTamerlane says:
The gods may be appeassed even if you sacrifice inferior law students. But there must be many of them and they must suffer greatly.
December 21, 2009, 3:22 pmRyan Waxx says:
Well, we’ll just have to figure out how many unworthy law students equal one worthy one, and sacrifice them!
Lets see, if a good law student is worth his weight in gold, and gold becomes more valuable against the coming inflation, and if worth can be measured in dollars, then the un-worthy must be some value unable to be measured in dollars, and we really really want to be sure the sun comes back (remember, per climate change logic, the likelihood of the disaster is of no moment, only the consequences of being wrong… and the sun never coming back is BAD BAD BAD)…
I conclude we must sacrifice anyone who is, has been, or has even thought of being a law student. Immediately.
December 21, 2009, 3:29 pmConnie says:
If by “the northern hemisphere is currently leaning at its farthest point away from the sun” he means the northern hemisphere is at its (not it’s!) farthest point from the sun, that is incorrect.
December 21, 2009, 3:55 pmrarango says:
Question: are the worthy law students burnt? or do they have their beating hearts cut out? and in the case of the latter form of sacrifice, how would you be able to find their hearts in the first place–after all they are fledgling lawyers :)
December 21, 2009, 4:07 pmElmer says:
Ali G: Do you think man will ever walk on the sun?
Buzz Aldrin: No. The sun is too hot; it is not a good place to go to.
Ali G: What happens if they went in winter, when the sun is cold?
Aldrin: The sun is not cold in the winter.
See the controversy play out here. Given that most writers and readers of this blog are not space scientists, it can be hard to judge between competing claims. All we can do is to make sure all voices are heard, and trust that the truth will become apparent over time.
December 21, 2009, 4:08 pmMichelle Dulak Thomson says:
gasman,
Well, he’s technically correct; since the [autumnal] equinox, the sun has been getting lower in the sky, yes? But obviously he meant the summer solstice. You’re right, that’s a rather alarming messup for someone employed as an “educator” at a planetarium.
December 21, 2009, 5:02 pmNunzio says:
It’s the summer solstice in Buenos Aires. When I get rich and old enough, I’m spending my Dec. 21s there.
December 21, 2009, 5:43 pmJohn Burgess says:
I suggest that as an exercise, and considering the shortage of law students who make the grade, we try it with Congressmen and women. This year, they don’t have to be willing participants–a variable we’ll have to account for, granted. When we repeat the experiment, we can use willing Congressmen and women.
The National Mall would be a suitable location, but perhaps the Ellipse would be even better… pour encourager…
Is there a Customs regulation banning the importation of obsidian knives, I wonder?
December 21, 2009, 5:53 pmRyan Waxx says:
Well John, given that a large percentage (and still growing) of Congresscritters are former law students/lawyers/etc, that appears to be a perfectly justifiable choice.
December 21, 2009, 6:52 pmNickM says:
Even if the gods aren’t appeased, there’s no problem.
rarango – at lower-tier law schools, they do not cut out the beating heart until just after graduation, because the main requirements at many of those schools are $40K a year and a pulse.
Nick
December 21, 2009, 7:02 pmWinter Solstice Brings Out the Inner Aztec to Defeat Winter Blues | Liberal Whoppers says:
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December 21, 2009, 7:06 pmtheobromophile says:
Prof. Anderson: there might be a high correlation between that and not getting laid very often. :)
As for the winter blues: me, too, and it makes me understand why the Romans always had such a big party at this time of year. The holiday celebrations do add a lot of fund to the otherwise depressing time of year.
You want carbs; I’ve eaten something like three pounds of almonds in the past two months (not counting marzipan, which just adds more).
December 21, 2009, 7:10 pmLaura(southernxyl) says:
But you have eaten essential oils in your almonds, Theo, so it’s all good.
When I crave some theobromine, I (1) walk to the store, and (2) buy the kind with almonds. I figure that has to cancel out any calories I get. Right? Right?
December 21, 2009, 7:47 pmFub says:
But if the sun goes away and stays away, it would solve the whole global warming kerfuffle.
And all that stuff about the Earth tilting is pure bunk. Just look around. Everything is just as level (or not) today as it always has been.
December 21, 2009, 7:52 pmLaura(southernxyl) says:
Further, the stuff about the Earth being round is total crap. Think about the largest parking lot you have ever stood in. Was it not flat?
The round pictures of the planet they get from space? …Erosion.
December 21, 2009, 8:41 pmChrisIowa says:
Silly naive lawyers.
Anywhere it ever rains, no parking lot is flat. Small ones slope to the edges, large ones slope to the edges and to low spots in the middle. Clearly the earth is dimpled like a golf ball so it will fly through space with less resistance.
December 21, 2009, 8:54 pmjcm says:
The equinox was 3 days ago. The Pope fixed the date according to get back the holly days to the dates according to the Letran Concilium ( 4 th century, ). By then the equinox was already moved 3 days.
December 21, 2009, 8:58 pmUsing the Julian calendar you would have the real date
ChrisIowa says:
BTW I find shoveling snow to be exhilarating. You might try that to cure your winter blues. Is better when the fist few snows are 6 inches apiece so you can get in shape before the 16 inch snow. Is also better when the wind is blowing at something less than 30 mph. Anything up to 6″ with no wind, pure exhilaration.
December 21, 2009, 9:03 pmtamerlane says:
Actually, no. The winter solstice was December 21 this year. It may fall on the 21st, 22nd, or 23rd of December in the Gregorian Calendar. In the original Julian Calendar the Solstice was set to 25 December. Because the Julian calendar did not properly adjust for the fractional days in the earth’s rotation around the sun the date of the solstice in the Julian calendar fell further and further back. Pope Gregory oversaw a calendar reform that was essentially scientific and designed to bring the calendar days into better correspondence with the earth’s rotation around the sun. The calendar reform had nothing to do with the Lateran Council. Eventually, even the most recalcitrant of non-Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian Calendar because it is extremely good at reconciling calendar dates with the earth’s position around the sun. The last holdout was Russia which adopted the Gregorian calendar after the Revolution. I am curious where you dredged up your “facts” though.
December 21, 2009, 9:23 pmBleepless says:
According to an article in The Journal of Irreproducible Results, the tilt of the Earth proves that God has an inner-ear problem.
December 21, 2009, 10:12 pmChrisTS says:
Prof. Anderson:
I would be more than happy to supply a significant number of unworthy undergraduates to bring the sacrifice up to par. Call me.
December 21, 2009, 11:24 pmJmaie says:
Of course the earth is not round, it is an oblate spheroid. I couldn’t think of any way to make that funny.
December 22, 2009, 12:52 amAlan K. Henderson says:
Was Aldrin basing his opinion on raw or massaged data?
:-)
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December 22, 2009, 2:46 amKirk Parker says:
latinist wins the thread!
December 22, 2009, 4:09 amChamry says:
Define “worthy”….
December 22, 2009, 10:22 amlonetown says:
its not that the angle causes the sun to bounce off the ground! its because there is more energy per unit of area at a normal angle.
WTF?
December 22, 2009, 3:49 pm