If you are ever in Atlanta (and I strongly recommend you visit Atlanta), I strongly recommend you visit the Georgia Aquarium.
Not only do they have a glass tunnel through which you can traverse a >6 million gallon aquatic exhibit, but they are one of only a handful of aquariums (“aquaria”?) in the world (and the only one in the US) that have succeeded in raising whale sharks in captivity.
There are plenty of good ones (one reason I thought NS's typical overwrought exaggeration was so comical.) We appear to be living in the Age of Aquariums.
On Irrationalist Modoxism, I wrote a response to the previous post about Feldheim censorship. In short, recent evidence shows that the erasure of that teaching is being reversed.
Natan, I think you should visit the US more often. You sound so much more civil in this post. The escape from Israeli sectarianism may be just what the doctor ordered.
My wife and I lived on and off in the mountains of Maine for a few years. The sky was absolutely incredible. The Milky Way was so bright. We now live in a yeshuv in the Galil (Israel). The light pollution here is horrible. I can only see a few of the brighter stars and the planets. Very sad. On the other hand, the need for security dictates the necessity for lighting in our yeshuv.
Although I am an amateur astronomer I don't own a telescope. Simply not worth it here.
This is more related to a post about 2 months ago - the midrashim related to the stones under Yaakov’s head. But similar to this post, absolutely amazing natural wonders.
I just read an article on “The Jerusalem Post” site, Titled “These ‘living rocks’ in Romania are able to grow and even move”.
It’s about these stones called “Tovants” which exhibit pretty stunning properties.
A quote from the article: “But these rocks are not only extraordinarily beautiful, they are also able to develop a "life of their own." They are able to grow and even move just like living creatures, which is how they got the nickname "living rocks." There are very few studies on these rocks, called trovants in Romanian, but they have attracted the attention of many geologists and tourists.”
One thing I found interesting from a midrashic point of reference is the fact that these rocks are found in Romania - Which is of course also where Dracula’s castle is.
So this (potential) connection between Yaakov and Eisav (who reportedly may have been a vampire) and now Romania is simply mind blowing.
I think the aquarium in Valencia Spain has a similar arrangement. You can walk thru a tunnel and see fish above and to the sides. I have seen pictures but have not gotten a chance to visit,
To convey the distances of space you need a much better math background than most Charedim are likely to have. I once learned that a million seconds ago, is what you were doing 11 days ago. But a billion seconds ago is what you were doing 33 years ago.
I have the privilege to live in a small village in Småland, Sweden. On a cloudless winter night I sometimes just lay down on a small road and look at the stars in the sky. The longer I lay the more stars I can see. And that exact part of the Bible is what comes to my mind.
At one occasion I had a weeklong problem with my computer. And admiring the sky I replaced the last part in that quote with ... why worry over a crashed hard disc? Next time I tried to start the computer all functioned!
"Light Pollution", you say. Light POLLUTION? Have you drunk so deeply from the cup of liberalism that you unwittingly use its tropes everywhere? You could simply have used the word "light", and stopped there.
As for the other paragraph - "Extraordinary...enormous... absolutely gigantic... a marvel of engineering... breathtaking". It's been noted before that you are given to hyperbole and exaggeration, but you need not give us so many examples all at once. Three such phrases would have sufficed.
As others have pointed out, "light pollution" is standard terminology. It has been used since at least the 1950s to describe the phenomenon of excess urban lighting interfering with astronomical observation.
But if it is comforting to you to see it as a "liberal trope" or "woke" or whatever, gezunte heit!
To attach the word "pollution" to simple constructs is very much reflective of the left wing mindset, and if you can't understand that, I can't help you. The reason one cannot see any more than a few stars at night is because there is too much light, full stop. Not "light pollution", whatever that even means.
On the topic of light pollution, I was once walking at night with my five-year-old son in the Catskills and he looks up at the sky and goes, "Hey, what are all those shiny dots?"
You have nothing better to engage your time than babble about an innocuous term like light pollution? So it’s not pollution, just plain old light, but the term pollution has been used for decades to describe the over abundance of man-made electrical light that obscures the sublime grandeur of our universe. Take a pill, go back to sleep and dream on about the rapacious liberals misapplying adjectives and nouns to conform with their nefarious designs. Even the most dim-witted liberal ( and those folks aren’t liberals, they’re progressive leftists) aren’t about to shut off your lights so I may enjoy the glory of our Milky Way galaxy.
“The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses.
….The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife. [He] was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot. And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space….“Have some sense of proportion!” she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day.
And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex — just to show her. And into one end he plugged the whole of reality… and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it. To [his] horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.” -Douglas Adams
If you are ever in Atlanta (and I strongly recommend you visit Atlanta), I strongly recommend you visit the Georgia Aquarium.
Not only do they have a glass tunnel through which you can traverse a >6 million gallon aquatic exhibit, but they are one of only a handful of aquariums (“aquaria”?) in the world (and the only one in the US) that have succeeded in raising whale sharks in captivity.
There are plenty of good ones (one reason I thought NS's typical overwrought exaggeration was so comical.) We appear to be living in the Age of Aquariums.
SS
Any plans to visit Lakewood? If you come speak here it will be a blockbuster event!
Welcome to America.
On Irrationalist Modoxism, I wrote a response to the previous post about Feldheim censorship. In short, recent evidence shows that the erasure of that teaching is being reversed.
https://irrationalistmodoxism.substack.com/p/a-revolution-is-brewing-in-the-chareidi
Yes, and BH for that!
Natan, I think you should visit the US more often. You sound so much more civil in this post. The escape from Israeli sectarianism may be just what the doctor ordered.
My wife and I lived on and off in the mountains of Maine for a few years. The sky was absolutely incredible. The Milky Way was so bright. We now live in a yeshuv in the Galil (Israel). The light pollution here is horrible. I can only see a few of the brighter stars and the planets. Very sad. On the other hand, the need for security dictates the necessity for lighting in our yeshuv.
Although I am an amateur astronomer I don't own a telescope. Simply not worth it here.
Sad 😕
A little off topic -
This is more related to a post about 2 months ago - the midrashim related to the stones under Yaakov’s head. But similar to this post, absolutely amazing natural wonders.
I just read an article on “The Jerusalem Post” site, Titled “These ‘living rocks’ in Romania are able to grow and even move”.
It’s about these stones called “Tovants” which exhibit pretty stunning properties.
A quote from the article: “But these rocks are not only extraordinarily beautiful, they are also able to develop a "life of their own." They are able to grow and even move just like living creatures, which is how they got the nickname "living rocks." There are very few studies on these rocks, called trovants in Romanian, but they have attracted the attention of many geologists and tourists.”
One thing I found interesting from a midrashic point of reference is the fact that these rocks are found in Romania - Which is of course also where Dracula’s castle is.
So this (potential) connection between Yaakov and Eisav (who reportedly may have been a vampire) and now Romania is simply mind blowing.
I think the aquarium in Valencia Spain has a similar arrangement. You can walk thru a tunnel and see fish above and to the sides. I have seen pictures but have not gotten a chance to visit,
To convey the distances of space you need a much better math background than most Charedim are likely to have. I once learned that a million seconds ago, is what you were doing 11 days ago. But a billion seconds ago is what you were doing 33 years ago.
The aquarium in Toronto has a similar walk-through tunnel. It's simultaneously very cool, and very unnerving.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/picture-devastation-worlds-largest-cylindrical-aquarium-bursts-1500-tropical-fish-inside
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=aquariums+with+walk+through+tunnels#ip=1
I have the privilege to live in a small village in Småland, Sweden. On a cloudless winter night I sometimes just lay down on a small road and look at the stars in the sky. The longer I lay the more stars I can see. And that exact part of the Bible is what comes to my mind.
At one occasion I had a weeklong problem with my computer. And admiring the sky I replaced the last part in that quote with ... why worry over a crashed hard disc? Next time I tried to start the computer all functioned!
"Light Pollution", you say. Light POLLUTION? Have you drunk so deeply from the cup of liberalism that you unwittingly use its tropes everywhere? You could simply have used the word "light", and stopped there.
As for the other paragraph - "Extraordinary...enormous... absolutely gigantic... a marvel of engineering... breathtaking". It's been noted before that you are given to hyperbole and exaggeration, but you need not give us so many examples all at once. Three such phrases would have sufficed.
Even after reading this comment a few times, I'm still not quite sure if it's satire or not.
Keep reading it, buddy, it will come to you.
As others have pointed out, "light pollution" is standard terminology. It has been used since at least the 1950s to describe the phenomenon of excess urban lighting interfering with astronomical observation.
But if it is comforting to you to see it as a "liberal trope" or "woke" or whatever, gezunte heit!
To attach the word "pollution" to simple constructs is very much reflective of the left wing mindset, and if you can't understand that, I can't help you. The reason one cannot see any more than a few stars at night is because there is too much light, full stop. Not "light pollution", whatever that even means.
Shabbat Shalom
On the topic of light pollution, I was once walking at night with my five-year-old son in the Catskills and he looks up at the sky and goes, "Hey, what are all those shiny dots?"
Poor little city boy didn't know what stars are!
@Garvin
You have nothing better to engage your time than babble about an innocuous term like light pollution? So it’s not pollution, just plain old light, but the term pollution has been used for decades to describe the over abundance of man-made electrical light that obscures the sublime grandeur of our universe. Take a pill, go back to sleep and dream on about the rapacious liberals misapplying adjectives and nouns to conform with their nefarious designs. Even the most dim-witted liberal ( and those folks aren’t liberals, they’re progressive leftists) aren’t about to shut off your lights so I may enjoy the glory of our Milky Way galaxy.
Nothing more hilarious than people who take the time to write comments criticizing the time management of other commenters...
(I agree the term "liberal" is outdated, I just used it for shorthand.)
“The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses.
….The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife. [He] was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot. And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space….“Have some sense of proportion!” she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day.
And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex — just to show her. And into one end he plugged the whole of reality… and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it. To [his] horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.” -Douglas Adams