In the Netherlands? You don’t say . . . wonder what’s in them greenhouses? 
While I do love this picture, and it’s undeniably beautiful and compelling, there’s a flipside to it as well. Much of that light, which is supposed to be illuminating the ground so we can drive and walk and see, is instead (obviously) illuminating the sky, wreaking havoc for professional and amateur ground-based astronomy. The International Dark Sky Association website has a lot of information on this topic. They also have some similar pictures at their satellite imagery page.
Check out the difference between Los Angeles in 1908 and the same view in 1988.
Am I the only person who is horribly saddened by this picture???
Sheesh, I’ll bet none of you care a flaming marmot’s arse about astronomy! That’s light pollution people! Those lights hinder our ability to actually see the night sky! It’s getting harder and harder to find good places to set up telescopes because of all that! To me, “Oohing” and “ahhing” at that picture is comparable to admiring the glow of a nuclear blast. That picture makes me sick.
WOW!! That picture is so beautiful it makes me tear up.
Dorky I know, but I’m the one who also cries at Folgers commercials and Designing Women.
Ok, at least I’m not alone. I missed pldennison’s post as I typed my rant.
And the reason I’m jsut a tad edgy is because of finals here at school yipee…
Oh, be quiet, you. It’s purdy. 
(Just kidding…)
I love this picture. akatsukami posted it to his LiveJournal a few weeks ago. psycat and I looked at it for hours. You can read some of our reflections on it at that link.
Light pollution my eye. Go climb a mountain!