Free Republic

Light Pollution At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity is losing a valuable and beautiful part of its heritage. For the first time in history, poorly designed and badly aimed lighting is denying vast numbers of humanity a view of the night sky. Urban sky glow now pollutes nearly all of Britain's night skies. As amateur astronomers we have a responsibility to guard our night time environment against light pollution. What is light pollution?  Light pollution is the popular name for sky glow - a brightening of the night sky caused by the scattering of artificial light by aerosol...

According to the U.S. Department of Education, in 2001 57 percent of high school seniors had a “below basic” reading proficiency level. Those who have analyzed the data put out by the Department of Education suggest that as many as 100 million adults in America do not possess the literary abilities “to function effectively in society.” In 1988 and 2000, U.S. companies surveyed by the American Management Association said that 32 percent of job applicants lacked the reading skills required for the jobs for which they applied. All applicants interviewed nationally for a position by Motorola failed tests on seventh-grade...