Starry Night

Starry Night – by Vincent van Gogh

It was a starry night tonight.

When Charles and I headed out for dinner this evening, we looked up at the sky and were amazed by the starry night we have in the city. Indeed, living in a metropolitan city like where we are, it is not easy to see stars up in the sky when we are surrounded by millions of lights. Unless we go to a beach or up to the mountain, chances to see stars are very slim.

According to National Geographic, the lights we have in urban areas which affecting the night scene is called light pollution. http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/light-pollution-2221.html

Unfortunately, the busier the city is, the more serious light pollution we have. I remember my mom told me that she used to see lots of stars when she was young. We don’t see stars very often nowadays, as if they are gone missing, some years later, they will be “disappeared”.

The reason why the stars amazed us tonight is not because we can see one or two, but a lot! All out of a sudden, we felt like we were on the road to New Hampshire or on the way back home after sunset. We could see the Big Dipper http://www.astropix.com/HTML/C_SPRING/URSAS.HTM#. It was such a good sign when the sky is clear, the moon is full and clear, and the stars are shining bright.

7 billion: National Geographic Magazine

This is a powerful video with bold graphics and text illustrating how a typical person is like NOW from the National Geographic Magazine.  The video is a yearlong series starting from March examining challenges and solutions we face as the world population reaches 7 billion people in 2011. Right now, the largest ethnic group is Han Chinese. However, that will be replaced by the Indians by 2030. I wonder why though. I guess Chinese is still the most fast growing race. Simply look at the people at the Chinese church here, the congregation is growing in a fast speed. Even many priests have the same comment on the growth of the Chinese community.