Fiat Lux

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Yesterday some of you mentioned that any act of rebellion, of truth, of standing up to those who would crush us reverberates and gives courage to others who might otherwise be too timid to rebel.

Rebellion is a contagion. A good one.

I missed Earth hour this year. It was three days ago on the 22nd. I’m terribly sad, because every Earth hour I turn every light in the house on, including those in the closet, which can’t be seen, but I think they might be able to tell from the substation.

My goal is to stand and say “We won’t go quietly into that night. We will not surrender without a fight.” Coff. Independence Day Movie. “We will survive. We will stay alive.”

You might think it’s all in my head, that turning lights on matters. And maybe it is.

First, there’s a whole lot of symbology with light. Second, I came from a place where light was rare, expensive, troublesome.

I’m told that there were no longer oil lamps in use at grandma’s house when I was born, but I remember them. I remember it was my older cousin’s job to clean them and trim them.

Now both of these are possible. After all, I know even in my teens, the electricity went down quite often, due to an extremely inadequate power grid. So even when my parents moved away to their house, when I was six, we always had candles on hand, and I tried to ruin my eyes by reading by candle (or moon) light.

Because of that, because the lamps that existed were small, distant, usually hanging from the ceiling a long way off, because winter days were dark and depressing (the area I grew up in has the same climate as London) I craved light. And was always ridiculously impressed by light.

I remember when i was very little, they used to line the tower of the church with white lights for the local feast. In my mind that was almost miraculous, a sign for the ages. (In retrospect, it was probably paltry and dim.)

I loved light in abundance and in all its forms. Abundant light made a bad day better.

To be fair, even without knowing it was Earth hour, there’s a good chance that every light was on in the house. My kid used to joke you could tell our house from orbit. We could tell it from three blocks away, that’s for sure.

And I remember when the Soviet Union was trying to put down the Solidarity rebellion in Poland, we were asked by our priest to put a candle on every balcony to show our support. And we did. Everywhere in the village, there was a candle burning for Poland.

Did it make a difference? Did the Soviets see lights everywhere (we weren’t the only ones) and realize they were losing public opinion?

I don’t know. I know that seeing other people light candles WE realized that the Soviets were losing public opinion. We weren’t alone. Communism was not winning everywhere.

Communism still isn’t winning. And we must not let it win.

It might seem we’re alone, atomized, lost.

I find it telling they try to get us to turn the lights off when lights are the hallmark of civilization. If you fly over communist areas, they’re all dark. the opposite of civilization. Energy is civilization. And energy is light.

Refuse to be kept in the dark. Turn a light on. Speak up. In the measure of possible, refuse to collaborate with the people who want to destroy light and humanity.

Fiat Lux.

*I did not forget Festus Pragnel and the green man of greypec. It’s been a difficult week for reasons beyond my control. I will hopefully do my post on it tomorrow. Friday at the latest – SAH*

130 thoughts on “Fiat Lux”

      1. The light we must bear is the light we must share
        Is the light that illumines the darkness
        The promises kept, give us strength to accept
        This burden of bearing the light

        He will walk beside us, a strong friend, Barnabas
        He will be that sure shoulder to lean on
        The promise we share is our burden to bear
        And our light tells the darkness to be gone

        The light we must bear is the light we must share
        Is the light that illumines the darkness
        The promises kept, give us strength to accept
        This burden of bearing the light

        He will come after me, this young Timothy
        Looking for someone to guide him
        I will kindle his light, make him strong for the fight
        I will promise to be there beside him

        The light we must bear is the light we must share
        Is the light that illumines the darkness
        The promises kept, give us strength to accept
        This burden of bearing the light

        And so we must claim in His powerful Name
        The promise the Bible has spoken
        We must understand that a cord of three strands
        Cannot be easily broken

        The great need of a Saul, a true mentor, a Paul
        Who has travelled the road that’s before us
        He has made good the pledge to take the light on ahead
        We can follow his footsteps before us

        The light we must bear is the light we must share (light we must bear)
        Is the light that illumines the darkness
        The promises kept, give us strength to accept
        This burden of bearing the light (bearing the light)

        The promises kept, give us strength to accept
        This burden of bearing the light (bearing the light)
        This burden of bearing the light

        by Michael Card

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Light is the true bane of the predator, and what we face is the grand alliance of the only real predators humanity still faces.

    This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…

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          1. Note that I’ve never served in the military, never even applied. I just read a lot, and learn many things from what I read. Including the correct usage of “repeat” on the radio.

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  4. Pingback: Bearers of the Light – At The Rainbow

  5. I understand craving light. I like to open all the curtains & let in the light. One of my favorite things about living in northern CO was 325+ days of sunlight. It has taken me a couple of years to adjust to not having that much light has been tough.

    But I continue to use light in many ways…sunlight & other light. Thank you, Sarah, for shining your light.

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      1. Same here; one of my favorites. And if I hadn’t read the Black Tide Rising series I’d have never heard of it. Or Nightwish. Or Cruxshadows.😒

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  7. Israel might do some good resettling Druze and Alawite refugees from Syria to Gaza. Suitably armed, neither group is going to tolerate any nonsense from the Hamassholes.

    Druze are already well-integrated into Israel proper. They routinely serve in the IDF and have achieved high rank.

    The Alawites of Syria are begging for help from Israel, but are too remote from the current border for an effective defense.

    And would -that- not totally annoy the idiots in Gaza and Judea?

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  8. Don’t worry, Dear Hostess. You may have missed your chance to mock them this year on Earth Hour. However, Earth Day (AKA Be Sure to Compost/Recycle Your Girlfriend Day) is on April 22nd you’ll have a whole 24 Hours to mock them then.

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    1. April is a good month this year. In addition to Easter, the 19th is the 250th anniversary of “the shot heard round the world”:

      Concord Hymn
      By Ralph Waldo Emerson

      Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837

      By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
      Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
      Here once the embattled farmers stood
      And fired the shot heard round the world.

      The foe long since in silence slept;
      Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
      And Time the ruined bridge has swept
      Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

      On this green bank, by this soft stream,
      We set today a votive stone;
      That memory may their deed redeem,
      When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

      Spirit, that made those heroes dare
      To die, and leave their children free,
      Bid Time and Nature gently spare
      The shaft we raise to them and thee.

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  9. For anyone keeping score at home, the Hebrew is in the “jussive,” and the Greek is in the imperative.

    Interestingly, the Latin is subjunctive, but it is the “hortatory subjunctive”, done in the present tense, for issuing more friendly commands. (Or something like that. The example sentences are stuff like, “Hey, guys, let’s kill the bandits!” So maybe, “Hey, light, happen!”)

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  11. I know people who seem to live in the dark and I don’t get it. Every light in my house is 100watt equivalent LED and I installed extra lights. I want it bright.

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    2. I’d heard abut how LIGHT is GOOD from religious folks, and from others. BUT… my EXPERIENCE was that EVIL happened in “broad daylight” ( what’s NARROW daylight, hrm?) So..I learmed. I learned that NIGHT IS RIGHT (END LIGHT POLLUTION!) and that EVIL walks in “broad daylight” as people figure that cannot be. It is. Oh, how it IS.

      Yes, there are Things in the night. At worst, they will merely kill me. The stuff during daylight? That crap is EVIL!

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      1. The stars and moon ARE lights. And out here, away from the city lights, they are bright.

        “The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave the luster of midday to objects below.”

        I’ve seen the moon so bright as to cast shadows. I bet you have, too.

        Light polution just ruins people’s night vision so they cannot see in low light. It’s only truly dark here when it’s overcast and raining.

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    3. Hubby and I don’t turn on much for lighting at night, preferring to wind down naturally in the evenings for better sleep. But, of course, in the dead of winter when nights are so short we do turn on lots of lights.

      And then there is our Christmas display.

      They will know we are Christians by our lights, by our lights. Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our lights!

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    4. Our living room reading lamps are wonderful — way brighter than 100 watt equivalent. They are Microsun — metal halide, I think they are actually 60 watts or so, probably equivalent to at least 200 watt incandescent, and daylight white. They also get insanely hot, but the fixture is built for it.

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    5. Another dim light fan here. I prefer directed, relatively bright light to flooding the room. It is easier on my eyes, and I’m mildly photophobic, as well as a natural redhead (yes, the sunlight burns. I can feel it as it happens.) That, and I grew up hearing, “Turn off the light if you’re not using it!”

      “The baby bat

      Cried out in fright,

      ‘Turn on the dark!

      I”m afraid of the light’.” Shel Sylverstein (no surprise there, is there?)

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    6. When trying to sleep I can’t stand light at all. So in the evenings, I go with lamps and try to minimize blue light. While I can certainly appreciate the symbolism of light, I do prefer to the dark when trying to sleep. Being able to see the stars is good too.

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  12. Minds, I LIKE properly un-lightpolluted skies…. BUT I think kerosene is one o The Great Wonders of the 19th century (it SAVED THE WHALES!) and electricity is a WONDER OF THE WORLD. Credit Edison, Credit Tesla, Credit Westinghouse, Credit Steinmetz… don’t care. WONDER! There is the BEFORE and there is the AFTER.

    Much like… do you CARE who “figured out iron”? No? But the “Iron Age” was an improvement upon the “Bronze Age”. Crappy iron, seriously crappy iron, beats bronze…. GOOD iron, let alone STEEL…. well now. And you lot have BEER to thank. Really. The brewers found charcoal wasn’t good enough, so used coke. Eventually a fellow who knew at least a TINY bit about beer got mixed up in steel and recalled that coke beat charcoal. And… OFF TO THE RACES!

    Then, suddenly, inexpensive (or at least not STUPID-EXPENSIVE)… GOOD steel could be had…. And the World Changed.

    $ENGINEER: If only I could get inexpensive steel that wasn’t utter crap…
    $HISTORY: HAVE AT!

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      1. In addition, iron (and iron ore) is very easy to find.

        Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, while copper is easy to find, tin was more difficult to find.

        Thus, items made of Bronze were more expensive to make than the same items made of iron.

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    2. Iron doesn’t require tin. Therefore, when your trade networks break down in the Late Bronze Age Collapse, iron you can get is better than bronze you can’t.

      China transitioned more smoothly, and definitively only when they developed blast furnace techniques.

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    3. Much like… do you CARE who “figured out iron”?

      —

      Abraham Darby, at Coalbrookdale, on 10 January 1709, some time in the morning.

      People knew of iron back in antiquity, but it was too expensive for most things. Darby made repeatable batches of known composition, in commercial quantities. And other people made boilers, steam engines, rails, and ship hulls out of it.

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  13. One of my friends lived in Romania for a time before 2000 but after the fall of the wall. He said you could tell who were the locals and who were the Americans simply by looking at the lighted windows at night. Americans shelled out for and used the highest wattage bulbs available in every light socket, turned on if they were home, as opposed to locals who used much dimmer bulbs and only in rooms in use.

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    1. There was a joke among some of my parents’ friends and relatives living in Germany in the 1970s, to the effect that at any university you could tell which of the students were from Norway (known at the time, and maybe still today, for relatively cheap hydroelectricity). The Norwegians left the lights on all the time.

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  15. I don’t think I would have survived the WuFlu hysteria, nor the Biden reign of error, without this site showing me I was not alone in the darkness.

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    1. Me too, BGE. Me too.

      I looked at the Diamond Princess data and thought, surely I can’t be the ONLY person who sees this?

      And I wasn’t.

      Thank you, Miz Sarah. You have saved sanity and lives.

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      2. You are not alone; everyone here owes you a debt for their sanity, or at least for preventing actions that were, in retrospect, probably not the wisest course. I was trained at one time to kill people and break things; patience does not come naturally, and there are many “target-rich environments”. I now know I chose wisely.

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      3. You ain’t alone, sister Sarah. Never that. We may be but pixels on a screen, the most of us, but we’re with you.

        The incandescent rage at those Communist wannabe bastards that ruin our fair country for the sh!ts and giggles. The yearning for dangerous freedom. The adamant refusal to bow even in the slightest to tyrants, be they petty or terrible. We “see the hypocrisy, the fraudulent scams, the blatant smirking lies in our very faces, the utter corruption, the degradation of morals, values, and more.

        We are not blind to their utter filth. It becomes damned hard to be, if you’ve the lest little bit of suspicious bone in your body, methinks.

        One the other side of things, the glory that was, and is America the Beautiful is equally arresting and unmistakable. Yes, really. The story of America is one of courage, heroism, sacrifice, and in some ways miracles. It bloody well should be known by all citizens, and celebrated for the utter rarity and value that it is.

        The very thing that the left spits on, we treasure. Our rights to liberty, property, and lethal force in protection of same. Of free speech available to any man, be he debt-ridden pauper or rich as Croesus. Of freedom to worship as we please, in any form save that which contravenes the rights of another. Of proper capitalism, the rights to keep what we earn and grow it, risk it, or spend it as we please.

        And most importantly, the rights to tell those who are charged to represent us faithfully, respect and follow the Constitution without fail, and execute their tasks on our behalf primarily, to get f*cked.

        We, your readers, some of us are also writers. Most are readers, lovers of sff, and aficionados of the English language. You may call each of us you chose friends. We may be separated by many miles (first wrote that as “many moles”- Neighborcat has been on a mole hunting spree of late), but consider this:

        You say what a lot of us feel, too.

        And, Ace’s COB’s crib from this blog every now and again. Heck, he even used the “Democrats are revolting. Well, they always were, but now they’re REBeLLING” schtick we’ve been saying here for years. So we’ve got that going for us, at least.

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    3. Same. I discovered this place during the Time of Puppy-Related Sadness but fell off reading sometime during Trump 1.0. Then, during the covidiocy, it occurred to me to wonder what the unusually smart and sensible people over here were saying about all that stuff. I’m glad I wondered. Was feeling very alone and isolated at the time, and this place was like a light in the darkness.

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  16. Sadly, light costs money.

    Making it more of a statement than ever. Lighting a candle or turning on a bulb=”I care enough to SPEND MONEY on this”.

    We just got an electric bill and damn. It’s gone up….again. So we’re TRYING to conserve. (Turn the electric heat off. Turn the lights off when you leave the room. Etc.) Making it prohibitively expensive to light the place is probably a minor consideration of the Powers That Be, but I’m certain it hasn’t been overlooked.

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    1. For all that EWEB is supposedly owned by the users, our power costs are crazy high. Not as bad as California, but still. High enough that we still made money enough to pay for putting in natural gas furnace, including adding vents and infrastructure needed. VS ceiling electric heat. At the time we were primarily heating with a wood (stove)! Turns out, short of turning off the ceiling heat at the breaker, not recommended for back of house. Eight year pay off VS 4 because of wood heat. Even with costs up, we are still saving money 18 years later.

      We had to wait to get gas until it was available on our street, or we’d have done the swap when we bought. Couldn’t get a gas water heater back then, the side venting for these were not available then.

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      2. For California, depends on where the power comes from. PG&E is notoriously awful, but we only have them for gas (furnace and water tank.) SMUD—the local utility district—is so much cheaper and responsive that it’s almost as if PG&E were paying its shareholders instead of maintaining its infrastructure or something.

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        1. Re CA. I know.

          One of the software modules at my last company (government cost accounting – city, county, and federal/tribes) is for Public Utility. Because more than a few counties got tasked with managing neighborhood utilities. One county has 3 different utilities they are managing, both power, and water. I remember getting a change request. Simple formatting and summary change. When I went to test the change and the numbers (and remember I’ve been retired from this job now for 9 years) were so high I thought I’d broken it. Double checked. Ran some numbers manually. Called the client. Answer: “Yes, that bad!” Other counties weren’t that bad.

          I think our EWEB bill is high. Back then wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the example above. It still isn’t even with our rate increases.

          What I miss are the Cowlitz county Washington public utility rates of the late ’70s/early ’80s. Even local EPUD which we had late ’80s. EPUD was still higher than Washington, but a lot lower than EWEB. We just aren’t in their service district, darn it, for all that we aren’t that far away from the house we rented.

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        2. Current PG&E “normal” rates are $0.41/kwh up to your “baseline” then $0.51/kwh above. Across all of their various time of use / EV rate plans, rates range from a low of $0.31/kWh during off-peak to a high of $0.73/kwh for peakiest peak.

          Current PG&E rate plan rates (hopefully this link to their pdf will work for those who want to be more glad they are not here): https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/residential-electric-rate-plan-pricing.pdf

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          1. PG&E is ridiculous. After I read that I checked our rates (Phoenix area), and got the following:

            SRP – Varies depending on the month, but averages around $0.14/kWh.

            APS – About the same; way more complicated rate structure than SRP, including differential charges for EV charging.

            ED3 (my local co-op in Maricopa) – Averages just over $0.13/kWh.

            One more reason to emigrate from CA…

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          2. Not sure if PGE was to blame, but during an ‘electricity supply crisis’ some years ago the operators of one power plant bid their generation at $7,000 a megawatt-hour when most bids were in the $28 to $32 range. When nobody would agree to pay 200+ TIMES the going rate, they shut down the plant due to ‘lack of demand’.

            Then there were the ‘price caps’ on electricity generated and used in Kalifornia. None of the imbeciles that imposed that idiocy ever imagined the electricity brokers would simply sell the power out of state, then turn it around and bring it back in to bypass the caps.

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    2. When I sold my urban home and bought this one, I used part of the difference for solar. My power bill last month was $7. No way I could afford this house otherwise. Based on complaints from others living in this area, the amount spent on solar would have paid an average electric bill for 5-6 years.

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      1. We decided to install solar in 2010; the cost was fully amortized around 2019. With peak summer AC bills running in the $400-500/month range even at $0.11 to $0.13 per kWh (“summer” being late April through mid-October), I think we made a good choice.😉

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        1. Two (one on our street, one on mom’s) when they had their roofs reroofed, did not have the solar panels reinstalled. “Not worth it” was the reason.

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          1. Whether it’s worth it depends on the climate; in the PNW it would never pay for itself. Here in the Phoenix area it’s definitely worth it; with electric bills in summer running over $400/month for several months, my $32/month is a pretty good reason to keep solar, and as I noted, our part of the installation cost was paid for with lower bills in around 9 years. Everything after that is gravy.

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            1. “worth it depends on the climate; in the PNW it would never pay for itself“

              –

              100%

              That or running a power line is so expensive that solar, and home wind, will pay for itself immediately. About the only way off grid power options pay for themselves in PNW, no matter the hype.

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  17. My therapist, Jean, wrote my sister and I a poem, I think for Christmas this past year. Titled “Be Light.”

    Physically and figuratively light is essential to hope and progress and rebellion and magic. All the good things.

    Light is the great “FU” to the people and systems that would crush us.

    It matters immensely, and this was a great post, Sarah. Thank you.

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    1. For the people and systems noted, the light works best which is coherent and a megawatt or so. Just sayin’… :twisted:

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    1. Yes. Given that the three pillars of communism are lying, stealing, and murdering, you’d expect that.

      There’s a wonderful book predicting the fall of the USSR at least a decade in advance, by French historian Emmanuel Todd. The English translation is “The Final Fall”. Great stuff.

      As I recall, Heinlein once wrote an essay, collected in one of his bundles, in which he argued that such basic stats as the population of the USSR and of Moscow were clearly far inflated. One of his arguments was based on logistics: the Moscow infrastructure could not possibly support the claimed population of the city.

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      1. Yup, Soviet propaganda claimed Moscow had a population close to New York; the CIA ‘experts’ parroted that. RAH actually went to Moscow and counted trains, among other things, and calculated that the observed transport capacity could support no more than 300,000.

        Decades later, RAH was proven right.

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        1. Counting trains is one of the standard military reconnaissance/intelligence techniques, so if RAH could do it, so could the embassy military attache guys. And so could the CIA et al. So why didn’t they? Or did they, and it was denied as being good evidence?

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          1. As I understand it, inside CIA there’s a major divide between the Ivy League academic types and the neanderthal field types, and the academic analyst side drives the table on what positions go up the chain, tending to override anything that come in from the field people.

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      2. I also recollect reading – that just looking at google-earth views of many cities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East – that they can’t possibly be as well-populated as their various governments claim/

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    1. In order to switch to medieval-style subsistence farming we would have to either cultivate 4 times as much farmland, or ‘lose’ 3/4 of the population. Either way, 80% or more of them would have to be busting ass in the fields all day every day.

      But the ‘green’ morons are smugly certain it wouldn’t be their asses toiling in the fields.

      There should be subsistence farms set up around the country. Every ‘Green Activist!’ should be sentenced to subsistence farm labor for a year, only allowed to eat what they personally grow in the fields. Who knows, they might actually learn something useful.

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      1. The Marxist intellectuals and agitators always think they’ll be the ones in charge, but mostly they fill up the space in the mass graves after the upper classes get put in first.

        Stalin and Mao eliminated everyone up through their revolutionary comrades, then started culling their loyal followers, so they could stay on top of their respective mountains of skulls.

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        1. They all audition for the role of Stalin, forgetting that they’re more likely to end up being cast as Trotsky. If they’re very, very lucky, they might land the role of “Zek Number 12” in the ensemble cast. Gives them a chance to live long enough to be still on stage when Act Three opens….

          Or, as Stalin Sez:

          “There is no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ but there is ‘U’ in ‘GULAG’!”

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      2. They’re no different than the young heads full of mush promoting communism. Certainly both groups are a bunch of mindless jerks. And both would likely have the same fate as the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

        >

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        1. No different because they are the same thing – watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside) is a truism, as well as a trope.

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  21. There’s been uproar in this state, due to a sudden increase in power bills, partly due to green energy incentives. It seems people object to paying for other people’s heat pumps. https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/02/19/massachusetts-natural-gas-bills-eversource-national-grid-expensive-delivery-rate

    I’m a klutz, so I am wary of open flames. If your electricity rates are too high, what about trying solar lanterns for indoor lighting? The ones we have give off a good amount of light, and are easily recharged. We have them on hand for power outages, but there’s no reason they can’t be used more frequently.

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  22. Don’t hide your light. If something seems wrong, speak up. I guarantee that there are others who think something is wrong too. It only takes a spark to start a forest fire. And not all fires are bad.

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  23. Some of us, for various reasons, enjoy the dark. And avoid the burning orb of pain that mysteriously flies through the sky most every day.

    But we dimness/darkness dwellers don’t normally push our peculiar lives upon others.

    Stupid Urf-dei and Urf-hour. I like bright places when I shop and try to read. Save the world, shoot a marxist!

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    2. Your first paragraph reminds me of a quiz I once saw about how hardcore a computer geek you are:

      Q: You’ve just wrapped up a coding session at 8 AM. Stepping outside to get more Red Bull at Circle K (you need some caffeine to come down from your caffeine-fueled coding session), you notice that the light outside is brighter than usual. What is your reaction?

      A. “Huh. I thought the forecast was for rain this morning.”

      B. “Wonder what that big glowing ball is up there?”

      C. “Aaaahhh! The Daystar! It burns, it burns!”

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      1. One very rainy spring and summer, my sister’s local newspaper did an article about a strange glowing ball that had appeared in the sky, terrifying the locals, but scientists were able to assure them that this was a natural occurrence.

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  24. Damn, C and I missed Earth Day, too. We’ll have to turn on all the lights tonight. . . .

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            1. The activist who started campaigning for Earf Day murdered his girlfriend and parked the corpse in a trunk, before fleeing to France. Can’t recall now how long it was before she was found, and if – or if ever – he was extradited.

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                  1. On the other hand, Niven & Pournelle had a man who put his “victim” into his compost pile but since he managed the compost pile, nobody suspected what was hidden there. [Twisted Grin]

                    His victim was a reporter and “had it coming”. [Wink]

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                    2. Yes and No.

                      The Military was looking for that reporter but were looking for a Live Reporter not a Dead Reporter. [Evil Grin]

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                    3. “Footfall”

                      He was a reporter. And yes, he did have it coming (betray your species for a story; what could possibly be wrong with that?)

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                  2. Putting the corpse in someone else’s pig pen is also said to be a reasonably good idea, if rapid destruction of the body is a primary goal. Unless, of course, the person into whose pig pen you put the corpse routinely checks on the pigs, in which case you may well end up with a smoking gun trail leading right to you.

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                    3. A few decades back (three? four?) a story out of Canada made the news down here in WA. Someone used the “pig farm” method of body disposal. BUT–pigs pass human teeth unaltered. So once the suspect was traced down to the pig farm, they got teeth out of the muck in the pens and matched dental records to the missing persons.

                      There’s more than one way to trail, etc.

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            3. IIRC the man behind “Earth Day” killed his girlfriend and left her body in his closet.

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          2. I could get behind Earth Day, as slightly edited:

            Earth, Soon to be Just Another inhabited Planet, Day.

            But of course 99+% of ’em likely really mean

            Only One Earth, forever, Day.

            Spit!

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      2. Frankly, I hope we can put off immantizing the eschaton for at least another couple of years. I’d like some time to travel the country without work schedules getting in the way. Another decade or two would be truly awesome.

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  26. I spent too much of my life in bunkers, windowless SCIFs and aircraft with very few windows. Low light levels were often necessary to read the map boards, monitors and other equipment.

    So yes, I like working and living in lighted areas these days. I’ve done my time in caves.

    “Tis better to light up the world with tracer fire, Willie Pete and Napalm than curse the darkness”

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    1. Needing low light levels for displays is an indication of obsolete technology. It certainly was true at one time, but modern displays work just fine in light levels near those of a moderately bright outdoor day. And there is a very good reason for turning up the lights: your eyes’ resolution improves (because the iris closes down).

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      1. This was in the 80s. The map boards with the grease pencil used by the plotters show up on the plexiglass needed low light to be seen from across the center.

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  27. I choose to decrease the light level at night; I sleep better if the light hasn’t been too bright beforehand. That’s a personal choice, though, and to each his own.

    I fear Europe, especially the UK and Germany, are choosing to leave the industrial era by making electricity too expensive for citizens and companies.

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    1. Yup. When trees started vanishing from urban parks to be used as firewood, because of the cost of heating, it should have been a CLUE. But no, the Watermelon Party has to roll things back to the early 1900s, if not earlier.

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  28. I enjoy brooding in the dark, hiding in the shadows fighting hordes of dust bunnies in my mind. I have a desk lamp that chases the darkness away. All of your words and writings are enough to lift my spirits. So when the bonfire is ready I’ll be standing there roasting a weenie and making Smores, can’t eat them anymore but I can enjoy the smiles on everyone else’s face. Who was it who said, “If we don’t stand together than surely we’ll hang alone”? Ben?

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  29. Sometimes a tiny light can be the difference between life and death. In a regional MN/Dakotas book “Looking for Candles in the Window” it relates how during a winter blizzard, settlers would put candles in their windows in the hope that a traveler lost in the cold howling darkness might see one and be guided to safety.

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  30. do none of your commenters know that you didn’t miss it? It’s in April. Not March 22. April 22. The communists didnt put that holiday in March.

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  31. “My kid used to joke you could tell our house from orbit.”

    Perth, Western Australia actually did that during John Glenn’s first American orbital flight back in 1962.

    Bill King, a journalist at The West Australian, was looking for a local angle on the story and suggested Perth residents leave their lights on to see if the city would be visible from space.

    King took the idea to Perth Lord Mayor Sir Harry Howard, who branded it a waste of public money.

    But Premier David Brand approved and left street lights on until dawn and the people of Perth responded with enthusiasm, leaving on porch lights and hanging Hills Hoists with gas burners and globes and draping white sheets to amplify the light.

    And, yes, it actually did work.

    At the Muchea tracking station, former astronaut Gordon Cooper radioed Lt-Col Glenn to look for the light show in his honour.

    “That’s affirmative,” Lt-Col Glenn radioed back. “Just to my right I can see a big pattern of lights, apparently right on the coast. I can see the outline of a town and a very bright light just to the south of it.”

    Colonel Cooper: “Perth and Rockingham you’re seeing there.”

    Glenn: “The lights show up very well and thank everybody for turning them on will you.”

    So, Perth See Us From Orbit Night is February 20th. Too late for this year, yes, but maybe next..?

    [[source: https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/remembering-john-glenn-and-the-city-of-lights-ng-ya-125345]]

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  32. “Fiat Lux”

    Were those the folks that originally published/produced the Americanized “Speed Racer” in the late 60s?

    (grin)

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  33. This is off to one side, but the early blooming ornamental trees and the daffodils are in greenery now. The conservative stance of the oak trees is affirmed this morning by the light frost on the top of my neighbor’s house across the road. And, of course, the pollen is abundant.

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  34. I’ve come to a place where I refuse to go out of my way to accomodate my enemies. That includes turning on lights (that aren’t normally on anyway) in protest of a stupid movement. My rebellion is not to trouble myself to rebel. Strikes me as reactionary. I prefer to be proactive. Surgical strikes.

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  35. There’s a NASA photograph often found online as “Earthlight.” It’s a composite orbital view of the world at night.

    “Let there be light!” So much we can cast it into the heavens, a mark of our type of civilization.

    Africa truly is “the dark continent.” The divide between North and South Korea is stark. You can see the path of the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia, from the lights of the towns and stations along the tracks. And surprisingly, you can see tiny Reykjavik (population 140,000) shining brightly into the night.

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