Starship Asterisk*

Ann wrote:
This reminds me about something I read about an astronomer, possibly of German descent, who was semi-quarantined in the United States during the Seond World War. He was allowed to work at an observatory and was able to take advantage of the enforced blackouts of the time, which made the stars above him sparkle like never before. This astronomer managed to take a number of photographic plates which revealed more of the night sky than had ever been seen before.

Bruce Mardle wrote:
I keep hoping for a powercut at night in the town where I live so I can climb the nearby hill and see how that affects the light pollution.

Sadly, our electricity supply is very reliable!

http://jamie.workingagenda.com/blog/2010/06/12/who-said-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/ wrote:

<<Some focus on the anonymous quote, “be careful what you wish for,” from the tale of The Monkey’s Paw, by W.W. Jacobs, published in 1902, but the use is clearly much older, and probably untraceable. There are similar phrases found in French folk tales, and undoubtedly in other languages and cultures.

In 1874, An author identified as Mrs Day, wrote: Goethe says, “Beware of what you wish for.” (Rough Hewn. Hurst and Blackett, London. 1874. Page 307.) In 1922, James Joyce wrote, in Ulysses, That may be too, Stephen said. There’s a saying of Goethe’s which Mr Magee likes to quote. Beware of what you wish for in youth, because you will get it in middle life. In 1944, Fleming MacLiesh wrote in the Cone of silence’: Goethe said, ‘Beware of what you wish for in youth, lest you achive it in middle age.’ And you agree, and go on still desperately wanting all the things you want now in your yourth. Learn the hard way.

The earliest version I found in Google Books of the exact phrase “Be careful what you wish for” is from a 1891 edition of the Atlantic Monthly. “Be careful what you wish for in this world, for if you wish hard enough you are sure to get it. I once heard a very wise many say this, and the longer I live the more firmly I believe it to be true.” -A Native of Winby, Sarah Orne Jewett, The Atlantic monthly, Volume 67. 1891. Jewett [had] used the quote [previously] in 1883. “be careful what you wish for, because if you wish hard enough you are pretty sure to get it.” -Betty Leicester’s English Christmas, by Sarah Orne Jewett, in St. Nicholas: a monthly magazine for boys and girls, Volume 23, Part 1. 1883

In 1900, Gale and Buss Newcomb used the quote “Be careful what you wish for,” in the story Someone to Crawl Back to.

In 1937, there was: “Be careful what you wish for because you are liable to get it,” she thought with a delicious anticipatory shudder. - From these beginnings, 1937, by Jane Annixter. page 173.

C. Joseph Touhill, Gregory Touhill and Thomas O’Riordan, like many others, attribute the quote to a Chinese proverb: “Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.” The origin of this famous quote is fuzzy and frequently attributed to an old Chinese proverb, but most people agree that it sums up an important lesson in life. - Commericalization of innovative technologies: bringing good ideas to the marketplace, 2008. In a 1958 textbook for elementary school reading, Paul Paul Andrew Witty asked: Why did the author quote the Chinese proverb: “Be careful what you wish for; you are apt to get it”? - Reading roundup, Volume 1‎ – Page 45

I have not yet seen any actual Chinese proverb that use this quote. A search of Google Books before 1950 does not find a single instance of the quote being attributed to a Chinese proverb. The more common reference is to Goethe, to unidentified wise men, or the common advice of mothers or grandmothers to young children. Google books does not attribute the quote to a Chinese proverb again until 1975, in Deathbird stories: a Pantheon of modern gods By Harlan Ellison. The quote would be attributed to a Chinese proverb 14 times in the 1980s, 67 times in the 1990s, and 306 times in the past decade, according to a June 13, 2010 text search on Google Books.>>

Bruce Mardle wrote:I keep hoping for a powercut at night in the town where I live so I can climb the nearby hill and see how that affects the light pollution. Sadly, our electricity supply is very reliable!

saturno2 wrote:Darkened City
Strange City

stephen63 wrote:

saturno2 wrote:Darkened City
Strange City

Definitely creepy. It could be used in one of those "Life After People" documentaries.

Beyond wrote:

stephen63 wrote:

saturno2 wrote:Darkened City
Strange City

Definitely creepy. It could be used in one of those "Life After People" documentaries.

"Life after people"?? Just what would be doing the documentary

stephen63 wrote:Don't you mean who? Well, since it's strictly hypothetical, there are still people around to produce the program!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People

kopernik wrote:'This forum is not tolerant of "contrarian scientific concepts" at all.' wrote Chris Petersen.

Hi folks, he did not expressly forbid me to post messages; so here goes.
A brief explanation of speculative concepts in science – a proposed hypothesis does not develop out of thin air. Most arise from the piecing together of multiple bits of information, hopeful that a discernible pattern will arise. As more and more data becomes available that fragile premise will be strengthened, or will instead be proven false. When collected data do not fit the asserted idea, then the concept has to be rethought. Repeat, when the available intelligence does not fully agree with the hypothesis, it is the concept that has to be adjusted. Contra indications may in some circumstances indicate the data is wrong, or merely incomplete. The latter poses the greater problem for scientists, even though we have a wealth of data sources from space probes and detectors of various sorts. Sometimes the collected data piles up on computer hard drives so rapidly it cannot be sufficiently examined and evaluated. Then it happens that those persons most intimate with that particular set of collected data do not have the broad view necessary to correlate that information with some adjacent science discipline. For example, a technician may be fascinated by data from his instruments that indicate the temperature of the corona of a star is many times greater than that of the star’s surface, but he does not wonder why. Someone else happening upon that information will be reminded of the temperature variations in the atmosphere of a black hole, and wonder about a common mechanism (and, is dark energy involved?).
So, even though it may be fashionable to ridicule the thinker that comes up with outrageous ideas, a few of those notions will survive and become common knowledge a few years from now. As history has demonstrated over and over. K

"Darken City" illustrates the above view - One plus Two results in or creates a unique third effect. The juxtaposition of two unrelated views stimulates many lines of (your) thought that did not exist until this image was conceived.