Melancholy molasses coasting beneath the eye of God

I've been in a rather off mood lately. Not exactly depressed, but not really wanting to do anything either. Just existing really.

[1] [2] I came across a picture of Earth as taken at night [3] and it has me both in awe and depressed at the same time. Awe at the level of civilization we've achieved. Here we are! A thousand points of light spread across the face of the earth as we've changed the long dark night into day (or at least twilight). [4] [5] And yet, depressed, for the very same reason. No longer can we see the thousand points of light spreading across the sky. The stars have fallen among us (and according to NORAD, tons of space debris are now poised to rain down upon us as well) such that just by light alone, you can make out the continents [6] upon which we live. I'm also sad that stellar objects like the Hourglass Nebula [7] may no longer be visible from the ground (and when I first saw the high resolution image of that, I immediately thought of Jerry Pournelle [8] and Larry Niven's Mote in God's Eye).

I think though, that I've finally snapped out of whatever mood I've been in. And you've been warned—I've got quite a bit of backlog of entries to write, and some of them are quite technical in nature.

[1] /boston/2002/05/01/earthlights_thumb.jpg

[2] /boston/2002/05/01/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

[3] /boston/2002/05/01/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

[4] /boston/2002/05/01/eye-of-god-thumb.jpg

[5] /boston/2002/05/01/eye-of-god.jpg

[6] /boston/2002/05/01/earthlights_stark.png

[7] /boston/2002/05/01/eye-of-god.jpg

[8] http://www.jerrypournelle.com/

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