Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Greetings Infomaniacs,

Today marks the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, that is the shortest day of the year. But what does that mean? For one thing; the solstice marks the first day of winter.

Enjoy!

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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."

HINT: (1913 - 1960) an Algerian and French philosopher, author, and journalist whose views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. Won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.

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RANDOM TIDBITS
The whole reason we have seasons is because the Earth rotates on a tilted axis around the sun. But even though the solstice is the shortest day of the year, the coldest week of winter usually takes place the third or fourth week of January. That's because the planet is so big, it takes several weeks to fully react to the loss of daylight.

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The solstice is considered astronomical winter. Meteorological winter is a three month period that runs from December 1st to the end of February. It is the coldest three month period of the year in the northern hemisphere.

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Today the sun is at its lowest point in the sky at noon. If you look at the distance of the sun above the horizon at solar noon, or 11:42 a.m., it will only be 24.2 degrees above the horizon - that is as high as it gets all day. That is comparable with about 7:30 a.m. on the first day of summer.

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We have lost a lot of daylight since the first day of astronomical summer back in June - six hours of it. The speed at which we gain and lose daylight increases towards the equinoxes, and then slows down at the solstices.

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There is only around nine hours of possible daylight this time of year. We will only gain a few seconds of it each day for the rest of the week. But we will be gaining a minute a day by the end of January's first week, and two minutes a day by the fourth week.

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Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument located in Wiltshire, is carefully aligned on a sight-line that points to the winter solstice sunset. Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC and it is thought that the winter solstice was actually more important to the people who constructed Stonehenge than the Summer solstice.




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*** Weekly Mind-Scrambler ***
My head and tail both equal are,
My middle slender as a bee.
Whether I stand on head or heel
Is quite the same to you or me.
But if my head should be cut off,
The matter's true, though passing strange
Directly I to nothing change.

What Am I?

Submit your answer by clicking: TheDailyTease

Answer will be posted in Friday's Trivia Today. Good Luck! If your name appears in Friday's newsletter, EMAIL MICHELE your complete name and address to be shipped your prize.

Be sure to put "Winner" in the subject line.

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WHO SAID IT?
QUOTE: "In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."

ANSWER: Albert Camus