Friday, November 16, 2007

Comets - who needs 'em?

Comet Holmes has been causing a stir among astronomers and astrologers recently. We managed to see it for the first time on Wednesday evening, when the skies were completely clear over the old homestead. Opinions vary as to this comet's astrological significance, inevitably some are gloom-laden and depressing. I'm going to ignore those - I can see more depressing items than you can shake a stick at, every day in news articles on the web. I sure as hell don't wish to think about anything extra that Comet Holmes may have in store for us!

In the 21st century we don't need comets to bring us death and destruction, we can do it all freehand, thank you very much. War in Iraq, potential attack on Iran, dreadful events in Darfur, famines, greed, torture, sick children without health care, environmental destruction, the USA slipping silently and uncomplainingly into fascism. We are playing a blinder, aren't we? Anything that Comet Holmes can bring, on top of that lot, is likely to be pretty insignificant in the great scheme of things.

Comets have been fascinating Earth's population throughout the centuries, a few examples of this below, from Wordcraft.net. The first two, plus small illustration at the start of the blog entry, are from 1910 (Halley's Comet), the third is from the 15th century, and the last from the 19th century.









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Oh - I nearly forgot ! Happy Birthday Oklahoma! Oklahoma became a state on this day in 1907, today it celebrates its Centennial.

Paint it "blue" in 2008, Okies, and then.....(singing)

"You're doing fine Oklahoma,

Oklahoma OK

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A, Oklahoma!!!"




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