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Hurry back, Sun
"Our globe tilts on its axis like a spinning top, going around the sun at an angle to its orbit of 23.5 degrees," The New York Times reports. "Yet the planet's shape changes minutely and its axis wobbles, thus its orbit fluctuates. If its axis remained stable and if its orbit were a true circle, then the equinoxes and solstices would quarter the year into equal sections. As it is, the time between the spring and fall equinoxes in the northern hemisphere is slightly greater than that between fall and spring, [because]the Earth - being at that time closer to the sun - [is]moving about 6 per cent faster in January than in July."
Is Santa a woman?
Some signs that the jolly old elf is female, Dancentury.com says:
- Santa remembers it's Christmas.
- Never explains what exactly you did to deserve that coal in your stocking; if you have to ask, maybe that's the problem.
- A man would simply not care if you were naughty or nice.
- Matching shoes and belt? Only a woman would accessorize a pantsuit like that.
- No guy would ever name his animals Dancer and Prancer.
Yuletide in prison
"Hundreds of [British]criminals are to be given four days a year off prison work - to celebrate pagan festivals," The Daily Mail reports. "Prison governors have been issued with a list of eight annual pagan holidays and told pagan inmates can choose four to celebrate. The festivals include Imbolc - the Festival of the Lactating Sheep - which falls on Feb. 1 and is dedicated to the goddess Brighid. … The Yule festival [Dec. 21]involves pagans 'casting spells' and dressing up as ghosts. … The number of prisoners declaring themselves as pagan has tripled in six years to 366 last year. Worshippers are allowed to keep tarot cards, a hoodless robe and a twig to use as a wand in their cell. They can also keep incense, a piece of jewellery and rune stones."
Gambit for the queen?
"It's no secret that men can be distracted by attractive women," The Boston Globe says, "but it looks like this phenomenon even extends to the rarefied world of international chess tournaments. Using data from thousands of chess games and independent ratings of player strategies and attractiveness, researchers found that men adopted riskier strategies … when playing against more attractive women. This did not improve, and may have worsened, outcomes for the men. Of course, as the authors of the paper are careful to note, 'It could turn out that playing a risky strategy against an attractive female player is beneficial for a male player outside of the chess game.' "
Panda-inspired art
"Chinese sculptor Zhu Cheng says his replica of Venus de Milo crafted from panda poo was inspired by the contrast of the preciousness of pandas and the prodigious amount of waste the creatures produce," the Los Angeles Times reports. "To some discerning eyes, the statue is a satire of classical aesthetics that judge beauty by Western standards. To others, the use of natural, recyclable materials shows the artist's commitment to the environment. … Lest anybody badmouth it as just another piece of, well, excrement, it should be noted that a retired Swiss diplomat who is one of the leading collectors of modern Chinese art paid $50,000 [U.S.]for the two-foot-tall statue by Zhu Cheng, a sculptor from Chengdu, home to China's main panda breeding reserve."
BaQa', humbug
In Chicago, The Wall Street Journal reports, A Klingon Christmas Carol poses the question: "What if Charles Dickens were a Trekkie? The answer runs an hour and 20 minutes and includes three fight scenes, 17 actors with latex ridges glued to their foreheads and a performance delivered entirely in Klingon - a language made up for a Star Trek movie. 'It's like an opera,' says Christopher O. Kidder, the director and co-writer. 'You know what's happening because you already know the story.' For those not fluent in Klingon, English translations are projected above the stage. … The narrative has been rejiggered to match the Klingon world view. For starters, since there is neither a messiah nor a celebration of his birth on the Klingon planet of Kronos, the action is pegged to the Klingon Feast of the Long Night. Carols and trees are replaced with drinking, fighting and mating rituals. And because Klingons are more concerned with bravery than kindness, the main character's quest is for courage."
Thought du jour
"Our brains have evolved to get us out of the rain, find where the berries are and keep us from getting killed. Our brains did not evolve to help us grasp really large numbers or to look at things in a hundred thousand dimensions."
Ronald L. Graham (1935-), American mathematician