But where can I read more?Aug 13 2010

There's Snarkmarket and Twitter and I'll be able to announce something else very soon, but Stephen Fry (by way of David Dobbs) has the very best answer.

Always remember: in the sky, after Copernicus, a constellation is an illusion:

Instead, it's a two-dimensional flattening of a three-dimensional reality. Actually, we should probably say a FOUR-dimensional reality. The light from stars at varying distances, leaving their sources at various times in the distant past, gets mistaken, from our earthbound point-of-view, as a simultaneous two-dimensional pattern.

BUT! That distortion, that accident, produces something extremely powerful -- both imaginatively and practically.

They help us navigate, and they tell us stories.

Thank you, Kottke readers, for putting up with my crazy constellations. And thank you, Jason.