October 17, 2017

"Imagine if everywhere you looked — even in the dark — you saw static, as if the entire world were an untuned analogue TV."

"For people with a mysterious condition called 'visual snow,' that’s the frustrating, often agonizing daily reality: endless static, often accompanied by floating spots, bright flashes, trails of light, and other visual phenomena that make it hard to see or concentrate."

(The Cut (NY Mag)).

12 comments:

rhhardin said...

It's cosmic rays and microwave background radiation.

Darrell said...

Sounds like the world of Democrats looking at Hillary.

Ann Althouse said...

"Incidentally, disturbance from cosmic background radiation is something we have all experienced. Tune your television to any channel it doesn’t receive and about 1 per cent of the dancing static you see is accounted for by this ancient remnant of the Big Bang. The next time you complain that there is nothing on, remember that you can always watch the birth of the universe."

Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition (Kindle Locations 250-251). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

rehajm said...

At parties that’s what I hear.

Jason said...

WILLIAM GIBSON YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!

buwaya said...

I've had this, mildly I guess, along with a lot of eye floaters since I was young enough to remember. Also severe myopia. It never really bothered me. I suppose my brain adjusted around it. If I pay attention I notice these things.

Much more annoying, with age and diabetes I have developed tinnitus.

ALP said...

I have tinnitus in both ears and those floater thingys as well. I can lie on my back in a grassy field on a sunny day, look at the sky - and see "birds" flying by to the sound of "music" - an art installation/concert wherever I go.

fivewheels said...

An "analogue" TV? Like, it's just a metaphor for something? Or is that supposed to be "analog TV"?

It's a shame that the great opening line of the greatest novel of my adolescence is now obsolete. "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Hannio said...

Same here. Tinnitus and floaties. Getting old is a bitch. Not sure why I have the floaties, but I ascribe my tinnitus to a lifetime of loud cars, music and women.

This is my first post on this blog, btw.

John Nowak said...

It's amazing how many ways the human body can screw you over.

Lost My Cookies said...

Analogue? In New York?

holdfast said...

Imagine if your hearing was like that most of the time. Especially when trying to sleep.

And imagine wanting to stop that from happening to the next generation of shooters.

But right, all the Dems and Gun Grabbers tell me that nobody needs a silencer. Fuck them.