Dec 21 2023 - Shortest Day is here

 

Dark, darker, darkest.  Tonight at 10:27pm.  How is it the shortest day when the occurrence is marked at night?  Solstice is when the North Pole is tilted furthest away from the Sun.  And that seems to be the precise moment of greatest distance.  So I guess they go backwards and decide it is the shortest day.  Have we always done this as a calculation?  Or maybe there were observations in the past  The shortest amount of daylight doesn't explain why it is so dark in the day?  Typically, the reference to dark days refers to short days.   Our dark December days may be explained by the angle of the earth, but probably it has to do with weather patterns and cloud cover.  January 2023 was the darkest January on record in Southern Ontario. It was an "eastern flow" that caused that situation.  The Great Lakes contribute to the problem - being largely open and unfrozen, the provide moisture to help cloud development.  In comparison, the North Pole hasn't had sunlight or even twilight since early October.  And it will continue until early March. How did we get to deciding that Santa and Superman should have to live in the North Pole? Because we decided that.  It didn't come as some enlightenment from a bolt of starlight in the Heavens.  Is it because they are both faster than the speed of light?  They both wear red, both fly and so both should live in the North Pole.  Could they be one person? One silly Quora entry says that Mrs. Clause made Superman's suit and that it's essential the same design inside out.  Another Reddit entry says how much the person loves how Superman still believes in Santa.  Another entry is Biblically headlined: Superman 1.26: Let It Go.   So here's to the shortest day, it can only get longer from here.

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September 23 2020 - Head Lines in the Headlines

 

I don't think this would be considered helpful to the people arranged in it. Its title is: Hollywood's Leading Men, Arranged in a Helpful Graphic.  Moreover, it weighs in at the low end of the height scale of 5 fleet tall and ends at 5'9".  What is wonderful is that the graphic puts all these people on one page at one time for us to marvel at the different heights.     Here's the alternate way of considering this graphic with more celebrities  and the concentration at the high end of the scale this time.  What makes this so much fun is that when we are watching movies we don't know who is the tallest or who is the smallest.  Hollywood does its magic with the camera and the lens.     This is one of those Google-curated retrievals - with the first few pages carefully put together to retrieve articles by paid sponsors.  By page 4, the retrievals go "off-topic" and turns to the shortest celebrity marriages in Hollywood.  My assumption is that these are also sponsor-paid retrievals. There are one or two articles on height related to income analysis but mostly these are jaunts through Hollywood with breezy and witty commentary that is very engaging. The interest in this topic is substantial as there are many variations on the theme.  Here's one:  short actors who appear taller - e.g. Tom Cruise, Gillian Anderson, Dave Franco.   We learned about camera lenses and their impact on the appearance of width/weight.  They also relate to height and articles assert that shorter actors are easier to film than tall ones.   As we enter Fall, this is the time of checking reflections in the water.  This is the case at Toronto Botanical Gardens, where there is great colour next to a stream at the perfect time of day.

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