Happy Winter Solstice !

Winter may be the Cruelest Season, but it's also the Shortest Season !

Today, 21 Dec at 10:03 a.m., is the Winter Solstice¹. Here in South Central Indiana we shall have 9 hr and 24 minutes of daylight, and 14 hr 36 minutes of darkness. Tomorrow the length of daylight will increase by a couple of seconds. We won’t notice any change for the better for awhile.

The “death of the Sun” and its resurrection, has been celebrated by religions for thousands of years (Christmas in our culture). In the Spring, at the Equinox, Easter² in our culture, religions celebrate the light overcoming the darkness (days now being longer than nights).

Winter is the “Death Season”, the time of the year when people die at the highest rate, as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Death Rate in the U.S. The CDC is charged with counting death certificates. It takes them about 3 - 6 months to get an accurate number. The counting-of-death-certificates is one of the few numbers from the CDC that I consider to be DATA and use for calculations and analysis.

In the Winter people are inside more of the time, and not getting as much fresh food, fresh air, exercise, AND SUNSHINE³ — the source of all life on earth⁴. Big Pharma would like you to believe that this increase in the death rate is because it is the “Flu Season” and encourage you to take your “Flu” injections, but there are no DATA showing that these injections will affect, for the positive, your chances of getting the Flu, your health, nor your life expectancy.

And here is the GOOD News !

Winter may be the cruelest and deadliest season, but, in the Northern Hemisphere, it is also the shortest season, as shown in Figure 2.

Fig. 2. Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is the shortest season. At least for now. Due to the 20 thousand-some year period of the precession of Earth’s Axis, in 10 thousand or so years, Winter will be the longest season in the Northern Hemisphere. Maybe that is when the next Ice Age will begin⁵?

Winter is the shortest season in the Northern Hemisphere because, now, the Winter Season occurs close to Perihelion, when the Earth is closest to the Sun, as shown in Figure 3. The Earth’s orbit is not round, but elliptical (Kepler). And one of Kepler’s “laws” states that the area swept out by an orbiting body per unit of time is a constant. So, when the Earth is closer to the Sun, it moves more quickly along it’s elliptical orbit.

Fig. 3. Winter in the Northern Hemisphere occurs close to Perihelion, when the Earth is closest to the Sun.

My best wishes to everyone this Holiday Season. Dec 15th it was -6.8 oF in the early morning. On Christmas it is forecast to get up to 65 oF ! I’m planning on a cook-out! I hope you too enjoy this wonderful season of Darkness. Some celebrate it⁶!

When saying Grace before meals, one of my beautiful friends always wished for “Peace on Earth”. I too wish for that.

1. The Earth’s axis of rotation, a line, and the position of the Sun, all lie within a plane at instant of Solstice. During the Winter Solstice, the Northern projection of the Earth’s axis points away from the Sun.

2. Easter is the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Equinox.

3. The Sun needs to be above about 45 degrees above the horizon for enough U.V. to get through the atmosphere to produce significant Vitamin D production in the human body. Today, in South Central Indiana, the Sun will only get 27 degrees above the horizon at noon, and won’t rise to 45 degrees above the horizon at solar noon until 03 March. I encourage everyone to take Vitamin D, but also note that Vitamin D production is only one of the benefits of sunshine, and is not substitute for sunshine. I, Doctor TimE., prescribe a visit to Ajijic Mexico or Matagalpa Nicaragua, Nairobi Kenya, or anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere.

4. All life on earth is dependent upon the sun, with the exception of weird alien creatures living by vents deep in the ocean (and of course vampires).

5.

6. Celebration of Darkness !