The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light

[malignd at aol.com]

So your argument is what?  Turn off the lights because they're ineffective, based on your expertise at playing hide and seek?   


Also, lit areas make an interesting terrain of light and shadows that a clever 
criminal can use.  As a kid we used to play hide and seek at night  with outside 
lights and because of those lights and the contrasts they created I found I 
could stand in shadows which physically were open to and close to home base  and 
be completely unseen. No one else wanted to do it because they felt that because 
they could clearly see the seeker the seeker might see them.  I suspect this 
principle is known to those criminals who work in the dark.





-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
To: P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Fri, Sep 6, 2013 9:04 am
Subject: Re: The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light


This seems obvious. But there is a huge energy savings possible in at least 
bringing the lighting down to where it does the job without blotting out the 
human connection to the night.  

Also, lit areas make an interesting terrain of light and shadows that a clever 
criminal can use.  As a kid we used to play hide and seek at night  with outside 
lights and because of those lights and the contrasts they created I found I 
could stand in shadows which physically were open to and close to home base  and 
be completely unseen. No one else wanted to do it because they felt that because 
they could clearly see the seeker the seeker might see them.  I suspect this 
principle is known to those criminals who work in the dark. 

On Sep 5, 2013, at 10:10 PM, David Morris wrote:

> Oops  "Send"
> 
> Lights in the City are required for survival.  Crime and cockroaches like dark 
in the City.
> 
> On Thursday, September 5, 2013, David Morris wrote:
> 
> 
> On Thursday, September 5, 2013, Joseph Tracy wrote:
> I live in Vermont about 500 yards from the nearest steetlamp and maybe twice 
that from the highway that passes through town.  Having lived in many rural 
places I treasure the unimpeded starlight and the blackness of an overcast 
evening. The only noise is the small volume of traffic on our road and the creek 
across the street.   A few of us have helped prevent more lights from going up 
in town and argued to reduce what we have or get lamps that are efficient and 
direct the light down.  When one flies the sheer volume of energy being used on 
excessive light is disturbing even though the patterns are visually entrancing.


 
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