Apophis, The God Of Darkness And Chaos

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From time to time we wonder at the meteors that pass us by in the heavens and which sometimes give us spectacular sights at night. Yet we give little or no thought to the chances of a meteorite crashing into earth even though this does occasionally happen.

It seems that one asteroid, Apophis, named after an Ancient Egyptian god of evil, will be passing around 30,000 km from the Earth in 2029. So that should be a good sight.

However, the same asteroid will be passing us by again in 2036, and this time the US Space Agency reckon that there is a one-in-250,000 chance of it colliding with the Earth with a large loss of life resulting.

But not to worry, for the Russian space agency, ROSCOSMOS, has come up with an international plan to divert Apophis without the use of nuclear weapons.

I shan’t be around in 2036 to know whether the plan comes to fruition, but I wish it well for two reasons.

Firstly, anything which prevents the loss of human life is to be welcomed.

Secondly, because this is the best New Year Resolution I’ve heard so far!
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New Year’s Eve

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So 2009 finally disappears in a puff of smoke, like Cinderella's chariot, at the stroke of midnight and we all start looking forward to the New Year.

I have no New Year resolutions to make or to break. It’s safer that way rather than risk the sniggers of those who know my promises will come to nothing.

Maybe I’ll try to be less irascible, give up smoking and make a start on the novel that lurks in the deepest recesses of my mind.

But don’t hold your breath!
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The New Year

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So here we are. After weeks of preparation and expectation, Christmas has come and gone in a flash.

The conversation is about Auntie Caroline getting tiddly and talkative on Christmas Day, what young Peter said to upset his mother and how Grampa Grumpy spent most of Boxing Day afternoon snoring away contentedly in in his armchair. The shops are full of folk spending money in the seasonal sales in advance of the increase in VAT. The rubbish tips are filling up with the leftover food, wrapping paper and unwanted cardboard.

One definite sign that Christmas is over and that the New Year is rushing up upon us is the weekend’s newspapers and television programmes which are full of boring and repetitive reviews of 2009. I don’t want to know any more about 2009. It was not a notable year as we all know and I will not trouble to include a mini review myself.

I would prefer to look forward to the New Year which, in any event, is the time to look forward, make resolutions and be generally positive about things.

So, maybe 2010 will be the year that we have a new grandson, the year that my family will all stay healthy, the year that we come up on the lottery and the year that we can make a trip, first class of course, to Japan to see the cherry blossom.

Maybe, just maybe, it will also be the year we get some proper government and that our savings and pensions will actually be worth something - though, perhaps, that is asking too much!
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