(...) Wanda La Claire believes light pollution is not only a blight on the landscape that spoils our enjoyment of the night sky, its long-term effect is even more insidious.

"Excessive light at night has a profound affect on the body. It not only deprives us of sleep, it stops us from developing a sense of awe by depriving us of the thrill of seeing stars," she says.

"I believe this is one reason children are not developing their powers of critical thinking: They are not being forced to think and question more deeply, something that tends to happen to you when you see the vastness of a starry night." (...)

LIGHTS OUT,
Our starry night sky has been steadily disappearing over the past 50 years,
Steve Whysall, The Vancouver Sun, 22 de Septiembre, 2007

"Amamos junto a nuestro dolor: Tal es el precio del amor"

[ Frase leída en un sueño, en torno a la lectura
de una autobiografía de Ingmar Bergman ]

"He went on to explain that Eastern Europeans have a different view of the devil from that commonly held in the West. "The devil is very close to man, he represents a part of ourselves," he told me.

In such a view, the devil is part of the natural world, and in some ways a personification of the forces of nature. The devil is also a joker, though one with a sick sense of humour, and is motivated by mischief rather than outright evil. In many ways he is similar to the Norse god Loki, another earthy figure deeply involved in the affairs of men, and a thorn in the side of the organised and predictable. He is associated with chaos, always on hand to stir up trouble if things look to be going too smoothly. In Pagan times the devil had equal status with the gods, accepted by the people as a normal part of life; it was only after the advent of Christianity that he was reviled and demonised."

Rachel Bignell, Devil Museum, Kaunas, Lithuania,
Fortean Times, 2007

"Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Novial are dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any [...] legends"

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, 1981.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it

Frederic Lord Leighton (1830-1896)

[ Fatiga estructural ]