Ant 220 on the Night Sky
It’s a weird paradox of my life: I’ve lived under some of the darkest skies in the country (at 9,000 feet in the Eastern Sierra), as well as under some of the brightest (in Los Angeles). And while I’ve been an amateur astronomer for most of my adult life, spanning both those times, my interest in stargazing has waxed and waned in inverse (and perverse) relationship with the darkness of the sky under which I’ve lived. That is, I’ve been more interested in looking at the sky at precisely those times when it was least visible, and vice versa.
I think this says something about human nature. Or at least about my nature.
Anyway, the above YouTube clip from Ant 220 of Pinky’s Ant Farm expresses quite succinctly and profoundly how I feel about the sky. Highly recommended.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Except that that’s not true at all. Before electricity, human beings rarely thought of space as being vast and infinite. Humans beings have almost never thought of the Earth as being small.
In fact, the default assumption throughout most of history has been that the Earth was the center of the universe. Most humans thought the stars in the sky rotated around the earth, or were painted there by the gods.
It’s only relatively recently that we discovered the vastness of space, and I think we’re more aware of that than ever before, light pollution or not.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Hah! Once again, the multipurpose nature of the lies.com domain name comes to the rescue. I can post something I think is profound and insightful, and it can be enjoyed and viewed as apt content for the site by people for whom it seems exactly the opposite, all thanks to its being hosted under ‘lies.com’.
Sweet.
September 17th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Yeah, I was actually thinking the same as Steve watching this. Also, it’s a little funny that much of the impressive imagery used was taken from hubble, outside the light pollution, or from deep space observatories pulling down images the naked eye could never see. I do find that looking into a deep, dark sky is a very profound experience, but I think that experience is built upon the context of the knowledge of the universe that we have through technology.
September 18th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
The vastness and utterly uncountable number of stars one sees from a desolate location is undeniable, whether one believes the earth is at the centre of the U or not.
To suggest otherwise as Steve does, is simply a debating position. (Thanks for taking the losing side, Steve!) If a peoples’ myth says that the stars were painted there by gods, that belief must have been an attempt to explain the inexplicable, and it served to amplify the glory and power of the gods.
Beholding the night sky in a desolate location at the height of the Pleiades meteor showers, and/or gazing at the Northern lights singing across the sky, are events that scream about the vastness and power of what lies above us. That keeps one humble, whether that person believes that it is caused by magic or whether that person knows astronomy.
The difference is that believing it is magic can lead to a fear of the awesome powers of the gods, while having an understanding of physics makes it clear that the only thing to fear are the high priests or kings who want you to continue believing those myths. Such people usually want their peasants to be afraid of those “gods” and to become subservient to “gods’” wishes always as interpreted by the kings or their high priests on behalf of their subjects.
Thankfully, our civilisation has advanced to where we can find scientific explanations for otherwise incredibly awesome and near unbelievable fear instilling events. Rather than improbable and highly speculative (almost magical) explanations provided by wizards appointed by the “king”, we have wonderfully intelligent, independent and questioning people like these:
Scientists: http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/09/jones.html
Architects & Engineers: http://www.ae911truth.org/
Structural Engineers: http://www.georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/05/structural-engineers-question-collapse.html
October 11th, 2007 at 4:16 am
this is to test the block quote again
I have closed the block quote
and now i have spaced down again
October 11th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Looking Good
this is to test the block quote again
I have closed the block quote
and now i have spaced down again
now we will see how this line thing works
so what happens
if we put it on a different line
October 12th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
this text should me Italicsno italics
October 13th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
making a list item
is this a second item
is this a third
making a list item
is this a second item
is this a third