2006

From "Thru the Arched Window" Blog. I enjoyed this so much I wanted to share. Thank you "Trismestigus":

What will happen in 2006?
Commentators say that the outlook for 2006 is uncertain and most of them have different opinions on what will or will not happen. This is not new. The world has always been essentially unstable and unpredictable. For “world” also read “existence”. Perhaps the most mindblowingly absurd fact to colour one’s view of being is that we all live on a relatively thin, cracked crust of basalt and granite floating on a cocktail of boiling rock which is ready to detonate in an all obliterating sulphurous fireball. This sphere is not only spinning on its axis but is also is hurtling through space at over 107,000 km/h. This is quick. The muzzle velocity of an M16 rifle is 3,510 km/h and Concorde used to cross the Atlantic at 2,171 km/h. Oh, let us not forget the pieces of rock, asteroids and black holes which are peppered along the way. And there are no brakes and nobody is steering. Our journey through space can be compared to a Japanese tourist crossing Trafalgar Square on a Saturday. That scares the bejeeeesus out of me. Philosophers and other strange people have considered whether the Earth and the Universe are the grains of sand in a desert of a giant parallel universe or whether in fact a grain of sand on Blackpool beach is in turn a universe containing billions and billions of stars and planets teeming with life. The more I think like this the more my headache gets worse, but hopefully, we now have uncertainty in context.