
iStock
Fifty-four percent of kids suck on candy canes, while 24 percent go right for the big crunch.

fact
iStock
Fifty-four percent of kids suck on candy canes, while 24 percent go right for the big crunch.
Amid the whirl of the holiday season, many are vaguely aware of the approach of the winter solstice, but how much do you really know about it? Whether you’re a fan of winter or just wish it would go away, here are 10 things to note—or even celebrate—about the solstice.
The date of the winter solstice varies from year to year, and can fall anywhere between December 20 and December 23, with the 21st or 22nd being the most common dates. The reason for this is because the tropical year—the time it takes for the sun to return to the same spot relative to Earth—is different from the calendar year. The next solstice occurring on December 20 will not happen until 2080, and the next December 23 solstice will not occur until 2303.
Not only does the solstice occur on a specific day, but it also occurs at a specific time of day, corresponding to the instant the North Pole is aimed furthest away from the sun on the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth’s axis. This is also the time when the sun shines directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. In 2016, this moment occurs at 10:44 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). For those of us on Eastern Standard Time, the solstice will occur at 5:44 PM on December 21. And regardless of where you live, the solstice happens at the same moment for everyone on the planet (you can check what time it will occur for you here).
As most are keenly aware, daylight hours grow shorter and shorter as the solstice approaches, and begin to slowly lengthen afterward. It’s no wonder that the day of the solstice is referred to in some cultures as the “shortest day” or “extreme of winter.” New York City will experience 9 hours and 15 minutes of sunlight, compared to 15 hours and 6 minutes on the summer solstice. Helsinki, Finland, will get 5 hours and 49 minutes of light. Barrow, Alaska, will not have a sunrise at all, while the North Pole has had no sunrise since October. The South Pole, though, will be basking in the glow of the midnight sun, which won’t set until March.
The seeming death of the light and very real threat of starvation over the winter months would have weighed heavily on early societies, who held varied solstice celebrations and rites meant to herald the return of the Sun and hope for new life. Scandinavian and Germanic pagans lit fires and may have burned Yule logs as a symbolic means of welcoming back the light. Cattle and other animals were slaughtered around midwinter, followed by feasting on what was the last fresh meat for several months. The modern Druidic celebration Alban Arthan reveres the death of the Old Sun and birth of the New Sun.
The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth on December 21, 1620, to found a society that would allow them to worship freely. On the same day in 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium, ushering in an atomic age. And on December 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft launched, becoming the first manned moon mission.
Solstice derives from the Latin scientific term solstitium, containing sol, which means “sun,” and the past participle stem of sistere, meaning “to make stand.” This comes from the fact that the sun’s position in the sky relative to the horizon at noon, which increases and decreases throughout the year, appears to pause in the days surrounding the solstice. In modern times, we view the phenomenon of the solstice from the position of space, and of the Earth relative to the Sun. Earlier people, however, were thinking about the Sun’s trajectory, how long it stayed in the sky and what sort of light it cast.
The primary axis of the megalithic monument is oriented to the setting sun, while Newgrange, another structure built around the same time as Stonehenge, lines up with the winter solstice sunrise. Some have theorized that the position of the Sun was of religious significance to the people who built Stonehenge, while other theories hold that the monument is constructed along natural features that happen to align with it. The purpose of Stonehenge is still subject to debate, but its importance on the winter solstice continues into the modern era, as thousands of hippies, pagans, and other types of enthusiasts gather there every year to celebrate the occasion.
The holiday, which began as a festival to honor the agricultural god Saturn, was held to commemorate the dedication of his temple in 497 BCE. It quickly became a time of widespread revelry and debauchery in which societal roles were overturned, with masters serving their slaves and servants being allowed to insult their masters. Mask-wearing and play-acting were also part of Saturnalia’s reversals, with each household electing a King of Misrule. Saturnalia was gradually replaced by Christmas throughout the Roman Empire, but many of its customs survive as Christmas traditions.
The Iranian festival of Yalda is celebrated on the longest night of the year. In pre-Islamic times, it heralded the birth of Mithra, the ancient sun god, and his triumph over darkness. Zoroastrian lore holds that evil spirits wander the earth and the forces of the destructive spirit Ahriman are strongest on this long night. People are encouraged to stay up most of the night in the company of one another, eating, talking, and sharing poetry and stories, in order to avoid any brushes with dark entities. Beliefs about the presence of evil on the longest night are also echoed in Celtic and Germanic folklore.
December 21, 2012 corresponds to the date 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar used by the ancient Mayans, marking the end of a 5126-year cycle. Some people feared this juncture would bring about the end of the world or some other cataclysmic event. Others took a more New Age-y view (literally) and believed it heralded the birth of a new era of deep transformation for Earth and its inhabitants. In the end, neither of these things appeared to occur, leaving the world to turn through winter solstices indefinitely, or at least as long as the Sun lasts.
All images from iStock unless otherwise noted.
A version of this story originally ran in 2015.
December 20, 2016 – 6:00pm
December 20, 2016 – 2:40pm
The latest institution investing in autonomous road travel is Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. According to Fortune, the new-and-improved version of their driverless bus is set to hit campus in early 2017.
For the next-gen minibus, the French firm Navya took the design of its 2013 model and added a few upgrades. Called the Arma, the bus is capable of shuttling up to 15 passengers between the NTU campus and the CleanTech eco-business park, close to a mile away. The interior is air-conditioned and features touchscreen displays, while the exterior is equipped with sensors for detecting obstacles on the road. GPS technology and on-board cameras allow humans to remotely track each journey while the bus travels autonomously. Depending on how far it travels, the electric vehicle can run on a single charge for half a day.
Driverless buses are slowly rolling out around the world. The technology has been tested in Zhengzho, China and around Washington, D.C., and last May a fully realized version of the concept launched on public roads in the Netherlands.
In October, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority announced it was, in conjunction with NTU, working to outfit two regular-sized electric hybrid buses with self-driving technology. Those vehicles will also be tested along the NTU-CleanTech route.
[h/t Fortune]
December 20, 2016 – 4:30pm
If you spend most of your time napping, then the often-unconscious Snorlax just might be your spirit Pokemon. Let people know which Pocket Monster you most identify with by wearing these new slippers from ThinkGeek.
The one-size-fits-all footwear—which can be worn by any feet up to a men’s size 10 and a women’s size 12—even snores with every step you take. The sound effect is powered by three 1.5v button cell batteries embedded in each slipper. You can wear the Snorlaxes around the house, and on your way to your Snorlax bean bag chair.
[h/t Laughing Squid]
December 20, 2016 – 3:30pm
December 20, 2016 - 3:30pm
Other cultures may love the bidet, but Americans have long been loath to give their butts a good wash after pooping. But, if we’re going to get down and dirty about it, bidets can vastly improve your bathroom life—and for a relatively low price, too.
Mental_floss took a test run with a toilet-mounted bidet from Tushy, a company of “toilet crusaders” founded in 2014 that sells non-electric bidet attachments. Tushy’s models come in warm or cool and start at $69; we tested the cold-water-only device because hooking hot water up to the attachment requires open access from your toilet to the pipes under your sink. Our verdict? Once you get used to it, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Who doesn’t want a little cold spray to wake up in the morning?
As promised, the installation was relatively simple. Even with no previous knowledge of where toilet water even came from, this first-time plumber was able to install the splitter that allows you to channel water to both your toilet tank and the bidet (without mixing the two). The bidet comes with Teflon plumber’s tape, which is used to seal the joints where the parts connect. (Full disclosure: For a hot second during installation it seemed like no amount of tape would stop the water from spraying out of the connection between the hoses, but eventually the magic sealing tape worked and the water stopped leaking onto the bathroom floor.) A month later, the amateur plumbing job has held, so the easy-installation claim gets a thumbs-up.
The addition of that adjustable spray of water to a bathroom routine is, quite honestly, eye-opening. So fresh! So clean! Without getting too gross, it’s the difference between cleaning off your muddy rain boots with a hose or wiping them with a paper towel. For ladies, it’s a more pleasant way to get through the mess of a period, and if you’re spending a lot of time sitting on the pot, using water is a great way to avoid unwanted toilet paper chafe. Since you’ll be using less toilet paper, using a bidet also saves you money (especially if you rent your home and your landlord pays your water bill).
At first blush it might seem like the extra water a bidet uses with each flush would be wasteful, but compared to the manufacturing of toilet paper, a bidet is gentler on the environment. According to one estimate, it takes 37 gallons of water to create a single roll of toilet paper, and Tushy reports that Americans use 57 sheets of toilet paper every day. Compare that to the 1.3 gallons of water a week it takes for the typical user to splash themselves with the bidet, and the winner is clear.
Lest you leave the restroom dripping wet, a little bit of toilet paper is necessary to dry yourself after using the bidet. But if you are really looking to be eco-friendly, Tushy sells towels to replace your toilet paper. For someone who has used toilet paper for decades, the prospect of wiping your bum with a reusable towel (especially one that’s 100 percent bamboo fiber and soft enough to become your favorite face cloth) is horrifying. How is this sanitary?
In search of answers, mental_floss reached out to the company’s PR team. According to Tushy’s Elliot Friar, many people who have “mastered using Tushy” only wash their towels every few days. If you clean yourself thoroughly with the bidet, the only thing standing between you and truly green washroom habits is your own adherence to cultural bathroom norms. “They’re definitely something new and go against the booty belief systems we’ve created as a culture for hundreds of years,” Friar says.
In short: If you love your butt, get the bidet. A Japanese toilet that heats up and plays music may be overkill, but you can find bidet attachments on Amazon for as low as $20. Tushy’s bidets are more stylish than your average attachment, and the price reflects that. Either way, your bum and Mother Nature will thank you.
December 20, 2016 – 3:00pm
G. P. Schmahl, NOAA FGBNMS Manager via Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain
The Christmas tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, has some flashy gills. While the worms bury themselves in coral, only their colorful fir-shaped radioles—appendages they use for respiration and eating—are visible. They also make the world visible to the worm: That’s where their eyes are located.
Their bright-orange eyes are hidden inside the creature’s gills. If you look very closely, you can see them tucked away in the darkest-colored part of the animal like Christmas presents with neon wrapping paper.
The Christmas tree worm’s obscured peepers might be the only example of eyes located on gills in the animal world, as marine biologist Michael Bok told ScienceNews. Unfortunately for the worm, eyes shrouded by branch-like gills can be limiting. The Christmas tree worm can only see what’s directly in front or behind it, and when a shadowy predator passes by, the worm sucks its radioles down out of sight. Bok calls the worm’s eye position “really silly.” But, since most other fan worms don’t even have eyes at all, the Christmas tree worm is actually pretty far ahead in the visual acuity game.
Scuba divers from the Indo-Pacific to the Caribbean are fond of spotting the creatures on coral reefs, but they have to maintain a little distance lest they spook the worms into hiding. Earlier this year, scientists from UCLA studying this hiding behavior among Christmas tree worms in Mo’orea, French Polynesia, found [PDF] that the animals don’t seem to find strength in numbers: The more worms in an area, the more time individual worms spent hidden in the coral. Conversely, worms with only a neighbor or two spent more time in the open. It’s possible that a lot of eye-catching radioles in one place make the worms far too conspicuous to their predators, which include sea urchins, sea stars, flounders, and stingrays.
December 20, 2016 – 2:30pm
Cat and dog lovers will want to put these items on their wish lists (or buy them themselves).
When I adopted my cat Pearl three years ago, I was horrified to discover that she was a cord chewer—and that she loved my phone charging cord most of all. If one was dangling and I wasn’t paying close enough attention, she’d get her little teeth into it, and bye-bye, cord. I could have used this 4-foot-long cable. It’s wrapped in Kevlar—the same super-strong material that’s used to make bulletproof vests—which means cats, dogs, and toddlers are no match for this cord. It comes in three versions (Lightning, MicroUSB, and USB-C) and has a lifetime warranty.
Find it: ThinkGeek
We included the Petcube Play on our gifts for cats list, but it’s also a great gadget for helicopter pet parents like me. Setup was easy, and by logging on to the app, I can check in on my cats no matter where I am, at any time of day, to make sure that they’re fine (and that our apartment isn’t burning down). The camera streams in 1080p HD video, is equipped with night vision, and has a 138-degree wide angle view and a 300x zoom; the app is compatible with iOS and Android phones. You can set up sound and motion alerts and record video to the cloud.
In theory, we could play with the cats using the Petcube’s laser, which you move by dragging your finger across your phone screen, but my cats were only mildly interested in it (you can watch me trying unsuccessfully to engage Pearl with the laser here while Olly watches). They’re more interested when we fire up the two-way speaker, which allows us to talk to them. Dog owners should consider pre-ordering the Petcube Bites, which dispenses treats to waiting puppers when you’re checking in on them or when you schedule it.
Find it: Amazon
Keeping an apartment tidy when you have a pet or two feels like a near Sisyphean task: I’ve no sooner swept up stray cat litter than Olly and Pearl are in and out of the box, tracking litter all over the place again. Fur builds up in corners. Pulling out the big vacuum to deal with it every single day is annoying.
Enter the Quick Flip Pro. This cordless, lightweight handheld vac easily sucked stray litter up off of hardwood floors and rugs alike. Its Quick-Flip Crevice Tool allowed us to get stray cat hair out of every nook and cranny, and the upholstery attachment restored the cats’ tower to its previous unfurry glory:
The vacuum has a 16-volt lithium-ion battery, so it charges fast and runs long, and features like XL easy empty dirt cup and a rinsable filter make it a cinch to clean. I’ve never loved a vacuum so much.
Find it: Amazon
There’s nothing more awkward than carrying a plastic bag filled with stinky dog poop while you search for a trashcan to toss it in. The Turdlebag helps you keep it classy: It attaches to your leash and holds poop-filled plastic bags in a sealed pouch until you can throw it away. It also has a pouch for storing cash, credit cards, and your phone. You can bet I’ll be sending this to all the people whose dogs I pet-sit.
Find it: UncommonGoods
It’s an inevitable truth of being a pet owner then you’ll be covered with your animal’s fur all the time, no matter what you do, even when you’ve lint-rolled yourself before leaving the house. This Nite Ize device is made of rubber—which attracts fur and lint—and has a comb on one side (for use on heavy fabrics) and grooves on the other (for lighter fabrics). It attaches to your keychain, making on-the-go fur removal easy.
Find it: Amazon
Many pet owners harbor anxiety that their pet will get out of their home or away from them at the park and disappear. The Humane Society estimates that 10 million pets are lost or stolen every year. And while microchips are great (they increase the odds of your dog making it back to you by 238 percent, and your cat by 2000 percent), they’re passive—your pet first has to be found, and then taken to a vet or shelter, to make its way back to you. But with the Whistle GPS collar, you can track your animal’s location in real time via an app (compatible with iOS and Android). Set up a safe zone for your animal, and when your pet leaves that area, you’ll get a notification on the app or via text. The rechargeable, waterproof device attaches to collars and harnesses up to an inch wide and requires a monthly membership, which costs between $7 and $10.
Find it: Brookstone
Pet doors are great, provided it’s only your pet that comes through and not, say, a raccoon. Keep wild animals and strays out of your pad with the Smart Door. The system includes a door and a SmartKey (both battery operated). The key goes on your pet’s collar, and the door and the key communicate using radio frequencies. Set the door to automatic, and it will swing open when it detects your pet’s key (and swing shut when the key is out of range). The doors come in two sizes and are programmable for up to five pets.
Find it: Amazon
Litter boxes are the bane of a cat owner’s existence. They’re big, ugly eyesores that we try to hide away. (I’ve spent more time than I care to admit looking at hacks of IKEA furniture that conceal litter boxes.) This is not the case with the CURIO, a handcrafted litter box designed by Heather and Damian Fagan. “When we adopted our two cats … we were surprised by the lack of design-minded litter box options on the market,” Damian told mental_floss earlier this year. “Many were just decorative litter box covers that didn’t improve upon the litter management aspect and many were very expensive. We felt there was a real need for a functional and stylish litter box that was more affordable.”
CURIOs come in three designs—Maple, Walnut, and Walnut+Pattern—and have an opening on the side to allow cats to discreetly jump in and out. Inside is a custom-designed litter liner (sold separately) with high sides and handles to make it easy to lift out for cleaning.
I loved the box so much, I bought one—and it’s so well designed that when a friend visiting from out of town saw it, she exclaimed, “this is a nice new piece of furniture! What is this?” Imagine her surprise when I told her it was a litter box. Until you train your cats to use the toilet, this is the most subtle and elegant way for them to use the restroom. (And it’s not a bad hideaway for small pups, either.)
Find it: Etsy
December 20, 2016 – 2:00pm
Which other name in world history is more synonymous with tyranny, genocide, destruction, and being a political insult? It may not come to anyone’s surprise that such an award belongs to Adolf Hitler, leader of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945. Despite starting the Second World War in 1939, and causing the Holocaust, here are a few things that you may not have known about the most infamous man in human history. Hitler planned to raze and rebuild Berlin Adolf Hitler never admired Germany’s capital city. The metropolis was previously a place of sexual vice and leftist politics and
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