'Tis the season

[zuben el genub]

Here we go.
Neighbors' Letter in Newton, Massachusetts: Christmas Lights Are 'Flagrant Display' of Religious Beliefs | Fox News Insider

I don't like the lights but not on religious principles. Light pollution! Do you realize that if another star appeared, in major metropolitan areas you wouldn't see it? Venus gets reported as a UFO quite a bit.
Light Pollution

Satanists want in the act:
Satanists Join Atheists in Quest to Combat Christian Nativity at Florida Capitol | Video | TheBlaze.com

Personally, I like the lady who put up the flying fickle finger of fate and upset the neighborhood.

ACLU supports woman's middle finger Christmas lights display | wwltv.com New Orleans

I want luminerias or a programmable message board but the Vulcan is afraid of what message I'd
use.

Big stink about what color Santa Claus was. One of the Wise men (Los Tres Reyes Magos) was a Moor.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/177637/santa-claus-and-white-racial-panic

These people probably resemble those at the Last Supper than the Italian models that Leonardo used.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/muslim-last-supper-photo_n_4455289.html?utm_hp_ref=uk&ir=UK

 

[Rukbat]

Here we go.
Neighbors' Letter in Newton, Massachusetts: Christmas Lights Are 'Flagrant Display' of Religious Beliefs | Fox News Insider

If they want to make their front lawn look like the local amusement park, that's their business. Laws against idiocy are probably unconstitutional. Didn't we fight the British so that we could keep the right to be stupid?

I don't like the lights but not on religious principles. Light pollution! Do you realize that if another star appeared, in major metropolitan areas you wouldn't see it?

Well ... that would depend on where it was, I guess. Stars "appear" all the time. (The universe is kinda big.) And there are no major stellar nurseries that close by.

But, yeah, I know what you're saying. I grew up in NYC, and you could seldom distinguish stars from the rest of the lights, even if you weren't in midtown.

By comparison I now live in the country (you could probably dump this burg in Central Park and the muggers wouldn't have to make much room for it), and the sky is still pretty lit up. But stand way out in the country, on a hilltop, on a frosty night, and you're definitely going to elicit "Ahhhhs" from the city slickers - the only place they've ever seen a sight like that is in a planetarium.

No, folks, the planetarium is a make-believe kinda-sorta reproduction (a pretty complex one, let me tell you - I worked on a Zeiss Series VI from the inside) - that stuff overhead is the real galaxy (plus a few other close ones) you're looking at.

Venus gets reported as a UFO quite a bit.

Probably about as often as rain gets reported as being wet. What part of UNidentified don't they get. "It's an unidentified flying saucer!" No, you ninnie, if it's a flying saucer, you just identified it, so it's not UNidentified any more.

These people probably resemble those at the Last Supper than the Italian models that Leonardo used.
Muslim 'Last Supper' Photo Offers Interfaith Tribute To Da Vinci's Masterpiece

I'm not too sure about that open-collar checked shirt, though.

Hey, isn't silly season (our European friends may know it as "cucumber time") in late summer? What's it doing here in the winter? There's not enough real news going on?

 

[mikedt]

I don't like the lights but not on religious principles. Light pollution! Do you realize that if another star appeared, in major metropolitan areas you wouldn't see it? Venus gets reported as a UFO quite a bit.
Light Pollution

Try North Korea. They got no light pollution apparently.

...the night sky is pretty good where I am as well. :thumbup:

 

[zuben el genub]

City slickers usually freak out. Major blackout will bring out astronomy enthusiasts and scare the hell out of the rest of the population.

This city turned off half the lights to save money one year. I could see the Milky Way from where I live.

I've seen research posted where too much light upsets circadian rhythm to health's detriment.

Where did you work on a Zeiss projector?

@mikedt - Can you see the light bubble from Beijing from there? Looks like you could on the low horizon if you are in flat country.