Spaceguard

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. On June 30, 1908, Moscow escaped destruction by three hours and four thousand kilometers — a margin invisibly small by the standards of the universe. On February 12, 1947, another Russian city had a still narrower escape, when the second great meteorite of the twentieth century detonated less than four hundred kilometers from Vladivostok, with an explosion rivaling that of the newly invented uranium bomb.

In those days there was nothing that men could do to protect themselves against the last random shots in the cosmic bombardment that had once scarred the face of the Moon. The meteorites of 1908 and 1947 had struck uninhabited wilderness; but by the end of the twenty-first century there was no region left on Earth that could be safely used for celestial target practice. The human race had spread from pole to pole. And so, inevitably…

Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama

Happy birthday, Elsie!

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Thought:

“Chaos overshadows us. / Unsheltered sorrow shuts upon us. / We are strangled by bitter light. / Our bones shake like sticks. / We snap. / We grope. / We pant and go dry. / Our tongues are black. / All day is endless. / Nights endless. / Our skin crawls, it cracks. / Our room is a cat who plays with us. / Our hope is a noose. / We take our flesh in our teeth. / The autumn blows us as chaff across the fields. / We are sifted and fall. / We are hung in a void. / We are shattered on the ocean. / We are smeared on the darkness. / We are slit and drained out. / Little things drink us. / We lie unburied. / We are dust. / We know nothing. / We can not answer. / We will speak no more. / BUT WE WILL NOT STOP. / For we are the beloveds. / We have been instructed to call this His love.”

Anne Carson | “God’s Beloveds Remain True”