OK. Feeling thankful here. About seven years ago NPR did an April Fool's Day piece on the launch of a new Coca-Cola Billboard that was due to do a Geosynchronous Orbit in the U.S. night-sky. Sadly, I was taken in for five or six minutes and was actually pissed off about it. Then I realized the date and shut off my radio--'cuz I felt like a complete idiot. [Which is fair, considering the fact that I am...]
Well, our obviously-not-yet-paid-enough-by-the-billboard-lobby Congress has been approached by the F.A.A. and asked to enable legislation that would keep the advertisers of the planet from doing just that.
<<snip>> For instance, outsized billboards deployed by a space company into low Earth orbit could appear as large as the moon and be seen without a telescope, the FAA said. Big and bright advertisements might hinder astronomers.
"Large advertisements could destroy the darkness of the night sky," regulators said.<<snip>>
So you can rest easy that Sirius Radio won't be brightly shining down on you from where you used to see the dog star back-in-the-day. [And no, this is not about toobs, but it is about public displays of affliction. Grin.]
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