The Darkness News Update for October 16, 2025

NAILD

Highlights from this episode: More Migrations Security Fund Raising Slow Growth  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 https://restoringdarkness.com/  Find the Darkness News Update on BluSky https://bsky.app/profile/darknessnewsupdate.bsky.social

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm recording this on October 15th, 2025, and that means two things.

00:09Hey, the Darkness News Update has its own Blue Sky feed.

00:12You can follow us there if you are at all interested in doing that.

00:18But otherwise, it is time for the Darkness News Update, brought to you by the National

00:22Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors, home of lighting distributors that actually

00:29care about doing their jobs well.

00:32We just had a big convention where we affirmed that in a lot of different ways, and that

00:36includes respecting everyone with our use of light at night.

00:43You can visit nailed.org for more, and you can also visit restoringdarkness.com for all

00:49the links to everything I'm about to talk about, because the news is a bit light this

00:55week, but let's get into it.

00:56We have a new metric for sky glow.

00:59This is a new method that combines the all-weather and all-sky indexes into seas, I suppose, the

01:07D-light method, and the simplified radiosity algorithm.

01:12And this metric might better describe more factors in terms of sky quality if adopted.

01:19The U.S. is on track for the lowest murder rate ever in the history of the U.S.

01:28Just nationally, per capita, murders are down.

01:34No one killing anybody right now.

01:36And did lighting help with that?

01:40Maybe.

01:41Crime stats are very complicated, and it's very hard to tell if street lighting or exterior

01:46wall packs or motion sensors did anything about it.

01:53Speaking of complicated, we have 10 miles of the California-Mexico border is going to have

02:01more fence and lighting structure on it than previously.

02:08This is near San Diego.

02:10It is going ahead on schedule despite the current shutdown.

02:15And yes, yes, the Department of Homeland Security did waive 25 laws to rush this into construction.

02:23Some of those include the National Environmental Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Act, and the

02:28Migratory Bird Treaty.

02:31We have a new study that calls for more interest in non-cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's, including

02:38circadian disruption.

02:39There is a lot of data to indicate that tracking all these early indicators of neurodegenerative

02:48disease is easier, cheaper, and perhaps more reliable than cognitive tests, and that we need

02:55to take more time to take care of people as they get older.

02:58Alan, light at night, has been linked with obesity in children and teens in China.

03:08This is a study of 628 teens in Shanghai that showed that they had higher BMI, a dubious metric,

03:18but also lower activity levels as light at night increased in their life.

03:22We also have another study of Shanghai teens, specifically 54,000 8th grade students in Shanghai that showed

03:32that their sleep duration was linked to their scores on standardized tests, which is to say

03:40that their average sleep duration, if it dropped below 8 hours a night, their scores on these

03:45standardized tests would falter and fail.

03:49Not necessarily fail, just drop some letter grades, really.

03:53The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has determined that snail proteins have circadian rhythms.

04:00Snail is an acronym that is very hard for me to say.

04:03Link in the show notes for details on that.

04:06I'm not going to try this one, sorry.

04:07But this is a protein in you, a human body, that helps with cancer protections, and that

04:16protein reacts to circadian stimulus, which is to say that a well-entrained circadian rhythm

04:22can prevent cancer a little bit better.

04:26Again, cancer, very complicated.

04:28Don't always know how that's going to work.

04:29We have a study from Harvard Medical School and Boston University that shows that self-reported

04:36insomnia is linked with self-reported cognitive impairment.

04:41This study is calling for more objective measures of both of those things to see how they relate,

04:47because it probably has something to do with that Alzheimer's study I'd mentioned two minutes

04:53ago, actually.

04:54Because, yeah, it turns out that, again, sleep quality is great for life quality.

05:00We have a new study that shows that circadian regulation is linked with the Epstein-Barr virus

05:06in fruit flies.

05:08This is a viral infection related to herpes, and when fruit flies have it, it changes their

05:14circadian rhythm, which probably carries up to larger animals.

05:18We'll see if this study generates more research in a way that affects mammals.

05:24We have a new document for assessing marine protected areas.

05:29This is a new document and guidance from Salvador Barra and Fabio Falci that hopes to improve

05:37how we assess shorelines for lighting use.

05:41We have a meta-study showing that frogs are struggling under light pollution, and this study

05:48published recently covers exactly how light pollution affects different frogs in different ways.

05:55It's based on a bunch of different data sets.

05:59Light pollution is leading to home invasions by ladybugs.

06:04By ladybugs.

06:05If you light your house too bright, the ladybugs will find their way in, and there is some useful

06:11advice for people if they want to avoid that.

06:16Light at night has been linked with slower leaf aging in lacewood.

06:22They have determined that street lighting keeps lacewood plants growing longer and later into

06:28the season.

06:29On the dark side of things, we have two softball fields in Apache Junction, Arizona, earning

06:35recognition from Dark Sky International.

06:38Both Prospector Park and Superstition Shadows Park are recognized by Dark Sky International

06:43under their sports field lighting program for their efforts to shield, control, and otherwise

06:49mitigate light pollution from, you know, just the field lights.

06:54Because we can do that.

06:55We can do that.

06:56It's a good thing when we try things.

07:00In Palmer Lake, Colorado, a proposed Buc-ee's gas station expansion has been deferred to

07:08a special election.

07:09Yeah, the town council has kicked the buck up to the next election, specifically a public

07:18referendum to determine if, again, the amount of light from this gas station slash general

07:25store slash fast food location would be bad for everyone.

07:30Gotta love democracy.

07:35It's the only thing we got.

07:38In Texas, the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center is undergoing renovations to the tune

07:45of $3 billion.

07:46And local bird advocates are hoping that those $3 billion might be spent on lighting that protects

07:53birds from hitting the side of it during migration season.

07:58Because it is still migration season and we are still raising awareness about the hazards

08:04of light pollution as birds move south for the winter.

08:07Speaking of, the Detroit Zoo has cut off the uplighting to their water tower for the birds in the hope

08:14of raising awareness throughout Detroit about doing the same.

08:19Speaking of doing the same, Louisiana, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation is promoting lights out for

08:26the season.

08:27Bird groups in Wisconsin are calling for lights out as well, as is going ahead in Washington.

08:33In Missouri, the Audubon Society is specifically targeting people who own buildings with a lot of

08:40windows.

08:41But again, awareness building all the same.

08:44In Idaho, their Dark Sky Alliance is seeking funds to support their new observatory.

08:50They are already building a home for a 14-inch telescope, but they are hoping to raise about

08:56$200,000 for better light fixtures in the surrounding region.

09:00This is the Central Idaho Dark Sky Preserve.

09:03It's pretty big, but it could always be better.

09:07And hey, they're already $50,000 towards that goal, which is pretty rad, actually.

09:14In Quinty, Ontario, they are debating pursuing a Dark Sky Preserve status.

09:20The Prince Edward County Council has met with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada about

09:27securing that.

09:28And it's a pretty good region for it.

09:29It's very parky.

09:30There's a lot of provincial parks.

09:32They could probably manage it.

09:34I'm saying this based on purely my local tourism interests.

09:39In Georgia, the town of Gwinnett, police cruisers will be running their blue lights, their flashers,

09:45their spinners, all night long.

09:48All the time.

09:49Even if it's not an emergency.

09:51Even if they're not really on call.

09:52This is, of course, supposed to be a deterrent to crime and also to make the cruisers more

09:59visible, as police cruisers tend to be involved in traffic accidents more often than other

10:06vehicles for some reason.

10:08There is no evidence that running your flashers all night does anything to affect crime rates,

10:15In Kingsborough, North Carolina, town council has debated expanding light and noise pollution

10:23regulations to data centers because the land in the area is valuable to data center operators.

10:31And despite being empty buildings, data centers tend to be very noisy and very bright in a

10:38way that it doesn't make sense to me.

10:41I'll say that much.

10:43In Hill Country, Texas, they are celebrating Night Sky Month with three formal events in

10:50October, but plenty of other activities throughout the region and throughout the weeks.

10:56Salida, Arkansas, has hosted a new dark sky education program with new free talks about

11:03lighting and light pollution.

11:04These are for adults.

11:06They also are doing specialty kids programs as well.

11:09From October 24th to October 31st is Bat Week in Wisconsin, with education events planned

11:17throughout that entire time, including raising awareness for the needs of bats vis-a-vis light

11:25pollution over in Ireland at the town of Castlebar is the subject of some complaints from darkness

11:31advocates.

11:33Specifically, Castlebar is at the edge of the Mayo County Dark Sky Park and the county

11:38council on the environment and climate change strategic party policy committee are raising

11:44issues from the neighboring town because their lighting is probably too bright and they could

11:48fix it.

11:49And in Spain, the historic fortress town of Molina de Aragon has new up lighting and it's

11:56really terrible.

11:58It's super bright.

11:59It's on all night.

12:01Nobody really likes it.

12:02And I think they think that will keep the Moors from invading them.

12:09Can somebody tell them that the Moors have not mounted any invasions recently?

12:15I don't know what to tell you.

12:17What I can tell you is that my name is Scott Wachter and I want to thank you for your time,

12:21your attention and your support.

12:23That support can be direct monetary contributions to this series, or it can just be a rating,

12:31a comment, a review, a recommendation to a friend.

12:35This podcast is still spread by word of mouth more than you believe.

12:39Until next time, in two weeks, take care of yourself.

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