Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for March 10, 2013

Andy, I think it’s the summer (and maybe the spring) sun that causes skin cancer, not the winter or autumn sun.

Well played Uncle Wally…

I really think they are too covered up to worry about getting too much sun. But Andy may of course use some sunblock if he feels it is necessary.

One needs to replace all those calories burned by exercise, right?

I go straight to the beer hydration and forgo the exercise. Saves time.

This is why some guys get married. They won’t have to go for a beer. They will have someone to bring them beer!

To be completely fair, he never said anything about getting ice cream. He just said they’d walk to the new ice cream place. ;-)

Get your vitamin D sunshine!!

Sunshine vitamin D, and ice cream/milkshake calcium – seems like a match made in heaven : D

This totally works at my house, too. Until our favorite bake shop closed, the kids would walk 2 miles each way just to eat one of their muffins.

Is that new ice cream place actually open? Here in Darkest Saskatchewan, there’s a seasonal ice cream stand that does a booming business from the date it opens to the date it closes. It entertaining to watch people lined up during a spring blizzard, waiting for their Milky Way fix. ;)

Actually, that is not quite correct. It’s all depending on latitude of course, but if you are far enough away from the equator the sun is less damaging in winter. The lower angle means that the radiation has a longer way through the atmosphere which acts as a filter (same reason why midday sun is more damaging than morning or evening sun). The winter sun is more dangerous only if there is snow and you are at an high altitude (the atmosphere is thinner higher up and the snow reflects the radiation on top of that). In countries above a certain latitude (UK for example) the body isn’t able to produce vitamin D all winter long, not because people are covered up but because not enough UVB radiation gets through the atmosphere to allow the body to produce it. Just call me Mrs. know-it-all ;-)

First Paris, then ice cream!That Wally is a great guy.Also, taking in a relative, with kids of his own.COOL!

Oh Yeah, they DEFINITELY got their Ice-cream alright…!

Added to what snarkm said, remember that the blue end of the spectrum is scattered more by the atmosphere than the red end (which is why sunsets are red and the sky is blue). Ultraviolet is even further in the easily scattered end of the spectrum than the visible blue. So, UV is definitely filtered out more thoroughly in winter than in summer, just as noon is the worst time of the day for sunbathing if you don’t want to burn in a short time.