Slashdot Mirror
One Fifth of World's Population Can't See Milky Way At Night
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos Magazine: "Light pollution has caused one-fifth of the world's population — mostly in Europe, Britain and the US — to lose their ability to see the Milky Way in the night sky.
'The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark location is part of our planet's natural heritage,' said Connie Walker, and astronomer from the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.
Yet 'more than one fifth of the world population, two thirds of the US population and one half of the European Union population have already lost naked eye visibility of the Milky Way.'"
Oh, the Milky Way at night,
Vastly over-rated sight.
Better still the suds of morn,
By which unsightly stubble's shorn.
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
2/5ths of Americans can't see their own toes.
I can almost always spot the Milky Way.
It's usually right next to the Snickers.
By that reasoning, I suppose you could look down and see part of the milky way too.
I live in NYC, here you can't even see the sun.
Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
You're lucky! There were a hundred and twenty six of us living in a cardboard box in the middle of the road...
I looked up and shit my pants.
So you managed to spot Laxitiva Major? I have some great practical joke stories about that star.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
When did Britain get moved to a different continent? Or did we get upgraded?
no taxation without representation!
I'm selling my house in Spokane. You can generally see the milky way, and hang out with the deer and elk while you do it.
Nice spot, 10 acres of farmland within viewing distance of a lake (barely), miles of bike trails along the river, ... but I couldn't take the trade-off.
You see, to get all that you have to live in Spokane.
Leela: "I don't get it."
Professor: "I'm sorry, rattaroaz, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2008 to end that stupid joke once and for all."
rattaroaz: "Oh. What's it called now?"
Professor: "Urectum."
I live in a small town in Finland. Actually at the outskirts of the town. I just love the sensation, when on a clear winter night, I tilt my head back I can see the steam emanating from my body, illuminated by the moon. And after couple of seconds of adjusting can see a clear image of the milky way across the sky.
After this I roll naked in the snow, take a shot of Koskenkorva, yell 'PERRRRKELE' and head back to the sauna. Amazing! =)
(Haha, no need to thank for the mental image!)
Bot Assisted Blogging
Pro-tip: turn on your headlights.
And no, I don't know what that is in the metric system
American Degrees are called "Degrees" in metric. The conversion factor works like this:
American Degree = d'
Metric Degree = D
D = -(d' * e^(i*pi))
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
'It was very dark.'
I remember once, while camping, it was so dark, it took three of us to see if the fire was lit.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.