So how’s this for a science-fiction idea come to life: there’s a village high up in the Italian Alps that goes without sunlight for three months out of the year, so the townsfolks have erected a giant mirror to reflect some rays into the town’s piazza during the winter. It even tracks the sun under computer control to maximize the usable light yield. What a stroke of genius… so long as there are safeguards to prevent some evil genius from refining the mirror’s focus into a coherent heat-beam and zapping people into ashes, of course…
Dec192006
it’s just so fun when you see the little puff of smoke and then the eyes “pop” – oh, wait, we’re talking people here aren’t we. pay no attention to my prior remarks.
“As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods./They kill us for their sport.” King Lear IV.i