Where chaos stops and more chaos ensues. Where Filia plays the electric keyboard.
Where anything goes.
-//o_O\\7 *Home of the Awful, Mediocre and Pathetic* -//u_u\\7
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Where chaos stops and more chaos ensues. Where Filia plays the electric keyboard. Where anything goes. -//o_O\\7 *Home of the Awful, Mediocre and Pathetic* -//u_u\\7 |
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Tuesday, June 08, 2004 Venus' transit across the Sun was observed by millions across the globe today. Unfortunately, yours truly had not the slightest glimpse of it largely owing to the fact that, not possessing the proper instruments necessary for viewing such an astral phenomenon (and the knowledge of how to build a pinhole camera availing her nought) and desirious to preserve the well-being of her eyesight in spite of her rather frail attchment to life itself, and repeated curses imploring the heavens above to strike her sightless (e.g., "Cor blimey!"). Nevertheless, Charlotte shrugs off the rather unfortunate circumstance of having to miss an astronomical event 'not witnessed by anyone alive' (claim the newspapers and scientific journals, and which I do not doubt in the slightest) with the consolence that millions more (heck, billions) similarly missed such an opportunity of a lifetime, that the second transit will happen in 2012 (since transits of Venus across the Sun occur in pairs), and that the event itself is of limited astronomical significance (claim the slightly more enlightened newspapers and journals) apart from allowing the layman to view solar phenomena of a longer duration than the ephemeral event which is a solar eclipse by the moon, which happens on a far more, though still greatly limited basis. What I find particularly interesting is that people in the past actually had the knowledge or intuition to derive not simply a use for an event whose effect is insignificant ("Help! A tiny wotsit is eating up the Sun, and failing miserably!"), but to actually notice said event, and to even predict dates for its occurence. The pair of transits in the 1600s were the first to be so observed, and, somehow predicting the date of its next occurence in the 1700s, governments actually had the perceptiveness to send out scientific expeditions to measure the transit from different points around the known world in an effort to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun, by good old Cartesian trigonometry. It is rather amusing to consider that perhaps, if it was not for humanity discovering Venus' transit across the Sun and gathering interest in it, Captain Cook would never have been sent on his scientific expedition and Australia and New Zealand would never have been found, or at least not early enough to make them what they are today, magnificent counterbalances of white power across the globe and in the opposite hemisphere and time zone. Or I guess they would have been founded eventually, possibly late enough such that scientific awareness in protecting national diversity would have grown enough to protect now extinct animals such as the Great Auk and the Tasmanian Devil (and similarly keep unwanted critters such as rabbits and cane toads out)? As the Aussie would say, it's all fair dinkum, though I haven't the slightest notion what that means. Hm. Just a little thought about something which I never even saw in the first place, though I tried viewing a live broadcast from NASA's website, but unfortunately, it was so clogged with traffic that it refused to load. And besides, the Sun is so bright, not to mention so hot, that I'm burning with jealousy (being dim and, um, not hot) and I can't see eye to eye with it. Because I end every casual piece of writing with some lame comment which spoils any climatic effect which may have been generated in a bid to lower the reader's expectations. posted by Charlotte | 4:49 pm
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Disclaimer : The Slayers and Filia Ul Copt and all images thereof are the property of Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. I don't own any of them, although if I had a choice I would want Filia ... ~//n_n\\7 |
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