David Brinicombe wrote:
>> In fact, sound IS light.
>
> Only in that they are forms of transmitted energy. Sorry to be
> pedantic.
>
> While I'm apologising, I'm about to rain on the parade. I've always
> been interested in astronomy from my father, but light pollution is
> everywhere. I'm lucky to live in a remote valley where I can still
> see the Milky Way through the light pollution of Barnstaple 12 miles
> away, but it is a rare sight for most people today. Many kids don't
> even know it is there.
Most, I would say. See earlier reference to NASA images of the world at ni=
ght.
Beautiful, some say. Terrifying, I say <no G>
> Both sound pollution and light pollution it is ubiquitous for the vast
> majority of people who put up with it. Without reordering society,
> these pollutions are here to stay. We have banished silence along
> with the night sky.
Habituation conquers all. And we are not aware of it. Not really, to the =
full
extent, even those of us who like David have both the desire and the opport=
unity
to get away from the "din of civilization".
> A problem I see with publicising quiet places is that people will
> then want t drive there to experience it, defeating the object.
<G> but actually not funny at al!
> In my quiet dark valley, I still get helicopters, airliners, military
> jets, a distant train, passing motorbikes and sports cars with
> deficient mufflers, tractors, farmer's quad bikes, and a grain mill a
> mile away.
>
> 20 to 30 miles away, Exmoor is relatively quiet in places, so I noise
> pollute my way there is a car to find quiet. That's the irony.
One of them. It's multi-layered.
I lived for a year (1986) in extremely rural Spain, where the way to visit
neighbors (several miles away, each) was to grab not a car but a horse, and=
ride
across the fields. Since then Spain has joined the EU and most of what I k=
new
there has vanished. Where I now live in California - you could not be much=
more
remote, at least by looking at a map - military jet fighters practice pursu=
it
manoevers right over our heads (because they suppose nobody is there to be
bothered, they couldn't do it within earshot of "civilization" without prov=
oking
an uproar). Talk about deafening. I haven't any B+K sound level measuring
gear, but it's over the pain threshold for minutes at a time. In the name =
of,
er, "readiness". Well, they have to practice somewhere (and in another par=
t of
past life I've had occasion to be very thankful for "air support")
But I still resent it when on several days each week they create literally
deafening noise for maybe two or three hours on end.
John
---
John E. Burchard, Ph.D.
Tepe Gawra Salukis
http://saluqi.home.netcom.com/
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