$2.6M for 440 people. That's some expensive sunshine.

January 21, 2005 12:08 PM

As a sufferer of Seasonal Affective Disorder, I was interested to discover this village's proposed solution. Were they inspired by Gustav Graves, d'you think?
posted by Specklet (10 comments total)

Remember the sadistic little neighborhood kid who liked to toast ants by using a magnifier or mirror to redirect sunlight into a sort of sidewalk laser? Those villagers better make sure that the person in charge of their mirror has a comprehensive psych consult. Either that, or build themselves one hell of a bigass
JiffyPop.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 12:29 PM on January 21, 2005

Couldn't they just. Um. Move out of the shadow of the mountain?
posted by ao4047 at 12:46 PM on January 21, 2005

Why not blow up the mountain into tiny little pebbles?
posted by dov3 at 12:48 PM on January 21, 2005

Sounds like a disaster film waiting to happen.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:53 PM on January 21, 2005

Other possible schemes:

• Znamya
• Close school in the winter, not the summer, so people can get the hell out of there during the gloomy months. Send the retirees and kids to sunny places, maybe as apartment swaps with folk who live in sunny spots and want to ski in Austria. (Or maybe not: "Local businesses also suffer in the winter months as the number of visitors dwindles to almost zero despite the village's reputation for fine glass making." Heh.)
• Spend the money on antidepressants and Viagra.

posted by pracowity at 1:15 PM on January 21, 2005

The cold sun comes and goes but stays fixed in one spot across the valley; shadows do not move. Your carpet fades in a precise stripe leading to the window. One evening, there's a town hall debate about moving dawn an hour later.
posted by jeffj at 1:37 PM on January 21, 2005

shadows do not move

That doesn't sound right. The direction of the reflected light should change, even if it's apparent source doesn't.

/pedantic
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:53 PM on January 21, 2005

its. dammit.

/apparently insufficiently pedantic
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:54 PM on January 21, 2005

Nebula, that would be true if the mirrors were stationary, but the article indicates that they would move, presumably to reflect the light in the same direction.
posted by teg at 2:04 PM on January 21, 2005

It sounds like a great idea. And it's much easier and cheaper than moving the whole town to the other side of the mountain. It's no panacea but it's worth a try.

Oh and nebula, to be sufficiently pedantic you'd need to use your SHIFT key on the first letters of sentences.
posted by davy at 1:10 PM on January 22, 2005