Technologies

The Longest Night: A Short Guide to the Winter Solstice

The winter solstice arrives later this month, and here’s what that means.

For many people in the US, winter has come a little early, as a few waves of snow and blisteringly cold temperatures have colored the landscape white. It isn’t officially winter yet, and it won’t be until Dec. 21 when the winter solstice takes place. So get ready because Earth’s shortest day is on its way.

What is the winter solstice?

The winter solstice has a few different meanings, so here are all of them. The most common definition, and the one you’re most likely familiar with, is that it denotes the shortest day and longest night of the year on Earth. These times vary depending on your location on the globe, but the further north you live, the less sunlight you’ll get. In the tropics, they’ll get about 12 hours of sunlight. In Sweden, it’ll be closer to six hours. In Svalbard, there isn’t any.

The reason this occurs is due to the second definition of the winter solstice: During this time, the North Pole is tilted as far away from the sun as it can get. According to The Farmer’s Almanac, the moment at which the Earth’s axis is physically tilted as much as it can be is at 10:03 a.m. ET on Dec. 21. After that moment, the process will begin to reverse until the South Pole takes its turn during the summer solstice. At that point, the North Pole will be at its closest tilt to the sun, giving us the longest day and shortest night of the year for the Northern Hemisphere.

How much sunlight will we get?

It’ll vary by location. The southern US will have the most sunlight, with Florida getting a little over 10 hours during the winter solstice. The Midwest and Great Lakes portion of the country will get roughly nine hours. The Pacific Northwest can expect a little less than nine hours. Southern Alaska will get about six hours, and the northern areas of Alaska will see around three hours.

If you want to see how your area will fare, Time and Date has a sunrise and sunset tool you can use. Input your zip code into the search bar, and you’ll be able to see your sunrise and sunset times.

The city of Utqiaġvik, Alaska, will have it worse than most in the US: It won’t get any sun at all. The sun won’t rise there again until Jan. 22. We hope the people living there packed their vitamin D supplements.

The difference between a solstice and an equinox

The autumn equinox was just a few months ago, so you may be curious about the differences. A solstice occurs when the Earth’s poles are tilted as far away from the sun as they’ll be over the course of one year, which is also one orbit around the sun. The equinoxes take place at the halfway points between each solstice. The autumn equinox takes place in September between the summer and winter solstices, while the spring equinox takes place in March between the winter and summer.

During an equinox, the poles are minimally tilted, and the days are as even as they can be. This also has a couple of other interesting side effects: The sun is pointed directly at the equator during an equinox, and the sun will rise and set directly east and west, respectively.

Humans use the solstices and equinoxes to mark the change of the seasons. There are two equinoxes and two solstices, which mark the start and end dates for Earth’s four seasons.

Celebrating the winter solstice

While the solstice is close to the holidays, celebrations for the winter solstice have been around for significantly longer, and some winter solstice traditions have become Christmas traditions as well. One of the most historically famous winter solstice celebrations is Yule, a winter festival originating thousands of years ago among the Ancient Norse. It became commonly celebrated in Europe and involved bonfires and massive feasts. Yule celebrations also included decorating with evergreen tree decorations, like holly and ivy.

If these sound familiar, it’s because Christmas co-opted many of those traditions centuries ago, and the two traditions have kind of merged into a single seasonal holiday. The terms Yule and Christmas are often used interchangeably these days in many cultures.

So if you want to celebrate the winter solstice, just do all of the stuff you would normally do for the holidays. Burn a Yule log, decorate a tree, eat a big feast with your family and hang up mistletoe and wreaths — those are all hat tips to traditional winter solstice celebrations.

Technologies

Tim Cook Riffs on Retirement Rumors, AI, Phone Addiction and Trump

The Apple CEO discussed a range of topics on Good Morning America.

Tim Cook isn’t going anywhere just yet — not during Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations, not with the company preparing to introduce its first foldable phone, not while the tech giant is trying to figure out how to beat the AI race.

In a sit-down interview with Good Morning America host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan this week, Cook, who turned 65 in November, said there was no truth to the rumors that he is considering retiring from Apple. He became CEO of the company in 2011, 13 years after joining from Compaq.

«I love what I do deeply. Twenty-eight years ago, I walked into Apple, and I’ve loved every day of it since,» Cook told Strahan. «We’ve had ups and downs, but the people I work with are so amazing. They bring out the best in me, and hopefully I can bring out the best in them.»

Strahan interviewed Cook during the Apple CEO’s visit to Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Harlem, where students use Apple technology through the company’s partnership with the nonprofit Save the Music.

Speculation about Cook stepping down has been circulating since last November, when the Financial Times cited unnamed sources saying that Apple was preparing to usher in a new CEO «as soon as next year.» Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman threw water on that report, saying he «would be shocked if Cook steps down in the time frame outlined by the FT.»

During Cook’s tenure as CEO, Apple’s revenue has nearly quadrupled, with the tech giant adding dozens of new iPhone models, several more iPads, and updated Apple Watches and AirPods. This year, Apple has launched several new products, including the MacBook Neo, which at $599 has disrupted the budget laptop market. The company’s first foldable phone could come later this year.

Touch some grass

The GMA interview was short but wide-ranging, including Cook’s thoughts on how much people use their iPhones. Many studies estimate that people across most generations spend at least 4 hours a day on their phones, with millennials and Gen Z spending 5 to 6 hours.

When asked what he worries about most regarding Apple products’ impact on society, Cook weighed in, telling Strahan he doesn’t want people using iPhones «too much.»

«I don’t want people looking at the smartphone more than they’re looking in someone’s eyes,» Cook said, «because if they’re just scrolling endlessly, this is not the way you want to spend your day. Go out and spend it in nature.»

More on Apple from CNET:

AI and privacy

Cook told Strahan that AI «can be so positive,» but his response when asked whether he was «worried» about it was fairly flat.

«Technology doesn’t want to be good, and it doesn’t want to be bad,» Cook said. «It’s in the hands of the user and the hands of the inventor.»

Strahan questioned how much of iPhone users’ private lives are feeding Apple’s AI learning machine. Cook told him that because the smartphone is encrypted, Apple doesn’t have access to it. He went on to say: «When we can’t answer a question on your device, we send it to something called private cloud compute, which is essentially a big device in the sky that has the same kind of security and architecture as your phone.»

On its website, Apple says that it «does not use our users’ private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models.»

To date, Apple has been cautious in diving into the AI scrum. While Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are spending nearly $700 billion combined on AI tech this year, Apple is «only» investing $14 billion.

Trump and tariffs

Cook has been criticized for being too cozy with the Trump administration: donating $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration; giving him a 24-karat gold plaque; and attending a White House screening of Melania, a film about the First Lady.

The Apple CEO told Strahan that he’s «not a political person» on either side.

«I’m kind of straight down the middle, and I focus on policy,» Cook said. «So, I’m very pleased that the president and the administration is accessible to talk about policy.»

One of those policies has been tariffs, which Trump has imposed on many nations to varying degrees during his second term in office, purportedly to pressure companies to shift their manufacturing to the US. The president has largely spared Apple, which promised to invest $600 billion over four years to make more products in the US.

Cook told Strahan that the glass for the front and back of an iPhone will come out of Kentucky by the end of the year, and that 100 million chip engines will be manufactured in Arizona this year. He also noted that 20 billion semiconductors will be made in the US. «We’re a very proud American company, and we want to do as much here as we can,» Cook said.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 19, #1012

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 19 #1012.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features another tricky purple category, where words hide inside the clues and you have to dig them out. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Children’s stories.

Green group hint: Lucky charms.

Blue group hint: One color, then the next.

Purple group hint: Hidden words relating to music.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Folk tale characters.

Green group: Good luck symbols.

Blue group: Things that change color.

Purple group: Ending in music genres.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is folk tale characters. The four answers are Chicken Little, Frog Prince, Gingerbread Man and Goldilocks.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is good luck symbols. The four answers are evil eye, four-leaf clover, horseshoe and rabbit’s foot.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is things that change color. The four answers are chameleon, mood ring, sunset and traffic light.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ending in music genres. The four answers are baby blues, pet rock, scrap metal and soda pop.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 19, #542

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 542 for Thursday, March 19.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is tricky. Remember that many athletes’ surnames look like common words, so if you’re having trouble sorting the answers, think about whether a particular word could be someone’s last name. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Football division.

Green group hint: They catch the pigskin.

Blue group hint: College hoopsters.

Purple group hint: Where’s the glass slipper?