This little town is in the dark and proud of it.

Where other places greet the night by lighting up their streets and tourist attractions, this one goes the other way — low-energy sodium lamps are shielded from above, and household lights must face down, not up.

The purpose: to bring out the stars.

The town of 830 people on New Zealand's South Island is on a mission to protect the sight of the night sky, even as it disappears behind light and haze in many parts of the world.

I really wish more places would do this. For us city dwellers, it's really hard to see a good night sky. And it's not like you can drive out of any given city and see a good sky either, because every little satellite town has a huge supermarket, gas station, or something that is casting out oodles of light. It's also wasted energy..

Is it too late to get this kinda pork in the stimulus bill?

ps-- Ok, really.. I'm going to try to start memeing regularly again.