April 23, 2008: Chicago at night

[Undertoad]

IotD has always enjoyed the "at night" images, and here's one offered up with a Creative Commons license that permits us all to enjoy it as long as it's attributed to flickr user myelectricsheep.

My first instinct was to pull up a session of SimCity's latest incarnation; the game designers' approach usually gets you that grid pattern of roads and streets.

My second thought was: I've seen this. In Flight Simulator. There's O'Hare off to the upper left, Midway's actually one of those dark squares, but I'm going to bear right and aim at little Meigs Field... which no longer exists in real life.

Do I game too much? Well of course.

It's funny to think that it hasn't always been this color, and may not be this color forever. Before the bright sodium lights became the standard streetlight, it would have been dimmer and whiter. With all the research going into low-power lighting, maybe there will be a time when the light at night is once again a whiter, more natural shade. I don't think any of us would choose that particular shade of nighttime light, if we thought about it.