StuLand

so I was channel surfing last night, looking for something decent on (it was wednesday night, and as we all know, wednesday night is just one big void in decent programming, so addicts are forced to settle on hoping they'll find something good).
I ended up settling on a CBC program--that's right, I watch the CBC... it's good for more than just H. Night in Canada, you know--on a show called 'Asteroid: The Doomsday Rock'. It was all about what asteroids have done to the earth in the past ( ie, the theoretical wiping out of the dinosaurs), and what they could potentially do to the earth again in the future. It unto itself was a pretty interesting show. NASA and the European Space Agency have been watching the skies for a few years now looking for pieces of misdirected celestial junk that could potentially wipe out humanity as we know it. cheery subject!
Apparently, there is very little chance of anything hitting us--which is nice to know--but there are a few identified objects that, within 30 years or so, will have a few 'near misses' with ours, the third rock from the sun. the asteroid 'they' are most concerned about is due to cross our path again in 2028 and
zing on by somewhere between us and the moon. Universally speaking, that's pretty damn close! it's only about 1.1 KM long in size though... which didn't seem to be too large, until I find out that a rock of that size would hit the earth at 20,000 km an hour, probably slam into the ocean, drving straight down to the bottom. as an analogy of what it would do, here's a theory. you know how a drop of water hits a puddle, bounces back up, then spreads out again? same thing here. it's expected that this space pebble will blow a hole in atlantic ocean 19 miles around, and as deep as the ocean, send a huge plume of aqua back up into the sky, then it all comes crashing down again. long story shrot, they expect that if not evactuated, the neighbouring continents would experience wave after tidal wave, wiping out around 50 million of us in an hour. And this rock is one of the smaller ones identified by NASA and the ESA. some of these bad boys are like, 34 Km long.

yikes.

Now to the point of all this recapping. it got me to thinking... if there is, out there somewhere in the black maw of the infinite universe, someone or something in control of it all, and they don't like what we've done with this green and blue planet, I'd say we're fucked. One miss-fire in their Cosmic game of tiddlywinks, and it's all over, folks. it doesn't even have to be on purpose, really. just a quick hit from an omniscient finger nail that didn't quite get the right angle, and we've got a speck of dust (universally speaking) speeding out in space with our name on it.
Even if there isn't a universal puppet master ( by the way, I believe strongly in God, and I don't think that last scene would play out...at least I hope not), the universe is never ending, right? just this huge void so full of stuff and things the human mind couldn't even begin to fathom it. So who's to say the chaos that exists within it won't set things topsy turvy at anytime anyway? just becuase NASA scientists have used their computers and brains to figure out that one rock is due to swing around earth again in 2028, it doesn't mean that they know anything about what's gonna happen between now and then, or what else is flying under their radar. it'scary shit, I tell ya! Is Bruce Willis going to be available at a moments notice to get fired off into space to go save the world for us?
And if something was going to happen, and the gov't knew it for sure, would they tell us? I can see the six o'clock news right now... : good evening ladies in Gentleman. the gov't announced today that an unstoppable celestial body is hurtling towards earth, of which we have no hope of stopping. It will wipe out life in its entirety. Smoke 'em if you got em folks, 'cause it's all over. Thank you, this concludes our broadcast day. Have a good afterlife.
YEAH RIGHT! The anarchy that would ensue would be unbelievable! Hell, I'D even do some looting!!!
I guess in the end, it's not up to you or me what happens. I guess there is a moral to all of this: live it like it's your last. (minus the looting and raping and pillaging, of course), cause you never know! maybe it is! c'est la vie and Carpe Diem. We only have so much control over our own lives, I guess, but certainly not over what goes on around it!

man, my brain hurts. I need a nap.