The Darkness News Update for September 5, 2025

NAILD

Highlights from this episode: Lights on the Borderlands Turtle Records Migrations Anyone for Tennis? Intro and outro music by Doctor Turtle   Sponsored by The National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors visit https://naild.org/  Headlines and Sources can be Found at www.RestoringDarkness.com

Transcript

00:00Hi there. I'm recording this September 3rd, and that means two things.

00:09Temperatures might be dropping, but UV indexes aren't.

00:13So if you're going to be out for too long, do find some shade, cover up, get your sunglasses on, wear layers if you can.

00:21This PSA is brought to you by the Darkness News Update.

00:24And the Darkness News Update is brought to you by the National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors,

00:30the only lighting organization that cares about darkness as much as it does about fixtures.

00:36Let's get into the news.

00:39Marnie Schindelman took long exposure photos of ice detention centers.

00:45These were all published in the Oxford American.

00:47She was trying to highlight just what the impact is, even at a distance from these facilities.

00:52We don't actually have any photos of the Big Cypress, Florida facility that just shut down.

01:00That's why I bring it up.

01:01It was the subject of complaints related to the Environmental Protection Act, but it's also shut down.

01:11There was some kerfuffle.

01:12There was a bit of a saga there where Florida State Department of Corrections want to appeal a federal judge ruling,

01:17but DHS has shut it down, ice is out, everyone will be out of there in a few days.

01:24But the Department of Homeland Security is accelerating construction on the Mexico border

01:29by waiving dozens of wildlife protections.

01:32A bunch of environmental laws have been suspended for the construction,

01:36and even afterwards, as more fence posts and wall facilities come in,

01:41and stadium-grade lighting will be up and running just in time for Monarch butterfly migration season.

01:48Further north, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is planning on lighting sensors and drones for the northern border.

01:56Canada, the longest unprotected stretch of border ever.

02:00And it'll be home to a wall system that will have, you know, cameras and everything.

02:07And I'm sure it's going to be great for all those moose.

02:10I don't have a transition out of this, so I'm just going to hit the pop culture reference button.

02:16Tell me how many lights you see.

02:25How many?

02:35How many lights?

02:37This is your last chance.

02:38The guards are coming.

02:40Don't be a stubborn fool.

02:42How many?

02:54There are four lights!

02:58I've been waiting to use that one.

03:08Just haven't had an excuse.

03:10Your brain burns fat while sleeping.

03:13This is a UMichigan study that has determined that your hypothalamus manages fat differently while you are asleep,

03:19which is a big deal for metabolic research going forward.

03:23We have a Korean cohort study of adults 40 to 70 and that found that if you regularly sleep less than seven hours or regularly sleep more than eight hours a day,

03:34you are at higher risks of all-cause mortality.

03:37Sleep disturbances have been linked with mental health changes.

03:40This is a study showing that sleep dysfunction literally changes your EEG readings.

03:46Chronic diseases like hypertension and mental health issues also lead to poor sleep and circadian disruption.

03:54We have a discovery that light exposure after dark harms the mood and symptoms of bipolar people,

04:00and that lighting interventions that keep their rhythms entrained improve their sleep quality and improve their moods.

04:07A bright light in the morning boosts your white adipose tissue transcriptome,

04:12which is going to help us understand obesity a bit more.

04:16Your plasma, its proteomes type of protein, has a circadian rhythm.

04:23And that's really more important for when doctors take and test samples than anything else but chronomedicine.

04:30It's real interesting.

04:32Chinese adults like it when parks have lighting.

04:34This is a survey of 646 people over 50.

04:38They found 70% of them do like a little activity before bed,

04:41and they would rather do it in areas that are well-lit.

04:44Blue LED light harms rat retinas.

04:48This is a study that observed both cell loss and cell damage,

04:52even under short amounts of blue light.

04:55The future of lighting might be growing in my windowsill.

04:57We have a study from the Southern China Agricultural University that injected phosphors directly into succulents,

05:08the low-maintenance plants that you can really take care of pretty easily.

05:15Their goal is to have alternative plant-based lighting,

05:18but right now it's just about maintaining longevity and color quality.

05:22We have a study from Holland, the Netherlands,

05:26that shows that sky quality meter networks do need maintenance.

05:30Apparently, the ones they have are dealing with the effects of age and not delivering accurate results.

05:36Dark Sky International will begin recognizing ports.

05:39This is the Port Marine Lighting Program that will recognize better lighting projects at shipping ports,

05:46starting with two years of work at Port Tampa Bay.

05:50Breckenridge, Colorado has been recognized by Dark Sky International with two years of work.

05:54They are the first ski resort town to score this recognition,

05:58skipping over the Dark Sky accommodation option.

06:01Princia has secured $15,000 in light pollution research funding.

06:05This is from the Animal Welfare Institute,

06:08and they will be backing work and studies from Ruchel Kukreja.

06:12Light pollution is extending bird activity by 50 minutes per day.

06:18That's an average.

06:19Researchers took 60 million sound recordings of bird calls,

06:23tracked it across 583 species,

06:26and found that more light is extending daytime activity cycles.

06:31Fort Myers has set a record for sea turtle strandings.

06:34Volunteers spotted 24 nests that were dealing with disorientation issues.

06:40They're being rehabilitated as best they can.

06:43Meanwhile, in Sarasota, Florida,

06:45they set a record for successful turtle hatchlings,

06:47with 22,000 turtles counted by workers this year making it to the sea.

06:54And it is fall, which means it is fall migration season,

06:58which it is the season of awareness campaigns for fall migration.

07:01So, bird lovers, including the Audubon Society,

07:05are working with local municipalities to, of course,

07:08raise awareness about responsible wetting use during this period.

07:12Here's a list of places that are specifically working on it.

07:14Texas overall, Doylestown, Pennsylvania,

07:17Hamilton, Ontario, Bucks County, Pennsylvania,

07:20the entire state of Michigan, the entire state of North Carolina,

07:22and Fort Worth, Texas, is launching its own Lights Out campaign.

07:28New Mexico State University professor is calling for revisions

07:32to the New Mexico Night Sky Protection Act.

07:35The rules, while extensive, do not cover LED lighting

07:38because when they wrote it, they didn't have LED lighting,

07:41and you should probably revise your laws periodically for that sort of thing.

07:45Lakeville, Illinois, admits that they can't actually enforce their lighting bylaw.

07:50The building commissioner says that the way it's worded makes it kind of unenforceable.

07:56So, the Open Space Committee is looking to reword it and put it before council.

08:01Humboldt, California, sets new lighting regs,

08:04opting for Dark Sky International's model ordinances.

08:07Mendham, New Jersey, has passed a new lighting ordinance

08:10where new developments will have to just shut off after 10,

08:14rely on motion sensors for security,

08:16and they will not be allowing any purely decorative lighting late at night.

08:23Deschutes County, Oregon, held hearings on ordinances.

08:27These were public events that were well attended on August 27th.

08:31Virgin Utah debated new lighting ordinances

08:34with a classic safety versus conservation debate going on between counselors there.

08:39Mineral County, Nevada, is debating adding lighting to trails,

08:42which would lead to off-road vehicles causing even more damage to the desert.

08:48Sierra Vista, Arizona, wants to add lighting to their driving range.

08:53And their neighbors don't.

08:54This is probably going to come down to a light trespass lawsuit pretty soon.

08:58Fort Pierce, Florida, pushes back on lighting plans for a proposed Buc-Eyes gas station.

09:03This one wants a 100-foot-tall sign,

09:07which would mean it would probably be visible for at least 9 miles.

09:11We've already seen a Buc-Eyes do damage to turtle habitats in Georgia,

09:15and they're 12 miles from the beach.

09:17The residents of Osage County, Kansas,

09:20are taking some complaints to the sheriff's office.

09:24The problem?

09:25The sheriff's office is engaged in lighting trespass.

09:28The new lights are spilling into the neighborhood,

09:31and they would really like it if the sheriff policed their lighting a bit better.

09:37The Church of Latter-day Saints has officially broken ground on a temple in Haber Valley, Utah.

09:43The locals are going to the state Supreme Court to appeal.

09:46The LDS has already promised that this will be their dimmest temple.

09:51Low bar, but you know, they're trying.

09:53I appreciate the effort.

09:54The state of Florida allows LED billboards on the back of trucks.

10:00How is that good?

10:02So this is the I saw a thing on Reddit School of Journalism,

10:06where someone on r slash whatwtf

10:10just spotted the back of an entire large truck

10:15turned into an LED sign for T-Mobile,

10:17and there was no room for the How's My Driving number on there,

10:22so they just had to complain to the internet, not the trucking company.

10:26It's a really distracting sign.

10:28I don't know how that's street legal.

10:29I do not know.

10:31In the UK, we have a Dark Sky Roadshow going across Yorkshire in the October.

10:36There will be lectures, presentations, and activities in various towns.

10:41That's how roadshows work.

10:43Bats are back on the Rhone River,

10:45which means that bat night tours are being made available

10:48to raise awareness for the needs of bats.

10:50Over on the sports desk, the U.S. Open opted for compliant sports lighting.

10:56The 17 courts, until recently, had been lit by ceramic metal halides,

11:01but they have now switched to brand new shielded LEDs on all 17,

11:06and they would like you to know that that's a change they made.

11:10Still talking about tennis, this isn't sponsored,

11:14but AXS Sports Fixtures has a new tennis court lighting system

11:19for municipal clubs and residential courts.

11:22They are 3,000K shielded fixtures and luminaires.

11:26They didn't pay me to say that.

11:27I just think they're neat, and we were already talking about tennis anyhow.

11:31We are going to close up with Chapel Rowan's new song,

11:34The Subway, hit the charts in the top five on July 31st,

11:38and includes the lyric

11:40which led to a spike in searches of what a Saskatchewan is

11:51and what you do there,

11:52which led to an 1,800% interest

11:56in the Saskatchewan Summer Star Party

11:59that ran from August 20th to 24.

12:02Because I guess that's what you do in Saskatchewan.

12:04I've been Scott Wachter.

12:07I want to thank you for your time, your attention,

12:08for accepting a slightly delayed episode,

12:11and I want to thank Nailed for supporting all these efforts.

12:17I'll be back in two weeks.

12:19Take care of yourself.

12:20Take care of yourself.

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