Goatview
Farm - The Saint Report |
www.goatview.com |
June
30
Saints
celebrating feast days today include Theobald of Provins (patron of
charcoal burners, by which I don't think they mean hibachis or Webers),
Martial, and Bertrand.
***
Lena
Horne is 90 (1917, Brooklyn) years old today.
***
Tunguska
Event
Today
is the anniversary of the Tunguska Event, the 1908 Siberian explosion
that has for years puzzled scientists and given fuel to UFO enthusiasts.
What
seems to have happened is that either a comet or a stony asteroid
entered the atmosphere over the Stony Tonguska River north of Vanavara
and shattered in a series of explosions, blowing trees down like toothpicks
all in the same direction (must have looked like the Mt. St. Helens
eruption photos) over an area the size of Rhode Island.
Click to see larger image
Since
the area under the explosions was Siberia, and the casualties
were primarily fairly primitive reindeer herders, and also since it
was 1908, the event was not thoroughy reported even though atmospheric
side effects occurred worldwide. The first expedition to investigate
the phenomenon set out twenty years after the fact. Though many others
have followed, none has conclusively determined the cause. The UFO
people believe it was an exploding nuclear reactor in an extraterrestrial
craft.
Here
is something off the net (taken directly from the Southworth Planetarium
web pages - they cite Duncan Steel's book Rouge (sic) Asteroids
and Doomsday Comets for the list below) that should give you plenty
to think about. It fits nicely in my theory that almost every truly
important thing in your life is almost totally out of your control.
But more on that later.
Table
of Terror
About
2,000 objects massive enough (1 km diameter) to cause global catastrophe
are known to cross Earth's orbit. Such an impacting object would wipe
out 25% of humanity.
About 10,000 objects of 500 m size cross Earth's orbit.
About 300,000 objects of 100 m size cross Earth's orbit.
About 150 million objects of 10 m size cross Earth's orbit.
Some 70% of potential impactors are asteroids, the rest are comets.
About 50% of the Earth-crossing asteroids most likely are extinct
or dormant comets.
Frequency of Impactors:
Pea-size meteoroids - 10/hr
Walnut-size - 1/hr
Grapefruit-size - 1/10 hrs
Basketball-size - 1/mo
50-m rock that would wipe out an area the size of New Jersey - 1/century
1-km asteroid - 1/100,000 years
2-km asteroid - 1/500,000 years
A "nemesis" parabolic comet impactor would give us only
a 6-month warning
Now, have a happy day.
UPDATE:
I received the following in response to this Saint Report:

Letter
to the Editor
Subj:
Re: Saint Report - June 30
Date: 97-06-30 06:58:13 EDT
From: Nita5234
To: Goatview
If you're going to scare us half to death with large objects falling
out of the sky, please also invoke the proper saints to ward them
off. You give us somebody who looks after charcoal burners. Big deal.
And a couple of wimps named Marshall (your source must have spelled
his name wrong) and Bertrand who don't have any missions and therefore
aren't earning their keep as saints IMHO. Please send the right saints,
and soon.
Actually, I'd prefer a saint who wouldn't actually prevent the comet
from striking but who would allow me to choose which 25% gets wiped
out.
Sincerely,
Faithful reader
----------------------------------
There's a saint for the birds and a saint for the bees,
There are saints who fight whirlpools and bladder disease,
But no saints are assigned (let's write John Paul and get some!)
To protect us from heavenly flotsam and jetsam.
-Marilyn
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© Marilyn Jones 2001-2008
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