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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.'"

6 of 612 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, the Milky Way by smittyoneeach · · Score: 5, Funny

    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. Another interesting stat by suso · · Score: 5, Funny

    2/5ths of Americans can't see their own toes.

  3. Re:Milky Way, hell... by justin12345 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I live in NYC, here you can't even see the sun.

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    Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. Re:Well... I could. by dotancohen · · Score: 5, Funny

    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))

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    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  6. Re:Well... I could. by Mikkeles · · Score: 5, Funny

    '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.

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    Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.