Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 16, 2021

That’s a long way to the punch line

Lucy is horsing around.

Kinda rambles to a weak punch line

We can weather that remark.

Meteorologist are about as good at predicting meteors as with anything else.

This was from when meteors were thought to be an atmospheric phenomenon, (in a sense they are), hence the name.

Is, common sense = horse sense ?!?

A horse that’s smart enough to know the word “Meteorologist”.

I invite you to do some fun research about why “meteor” and “meteorology” have the same root.

I’m not a meteorologist, but I play one on TV.

Rainbows are meteors!

Nice, though they don’t come with unicorns!

Not gonna lie. When I was Danae’s age, I thought that’s what a meteorologist was too. I didn’t understand why my parents were laughing about it until a few years later.

Whatever a meteor is, it’s arriving late

Ah, a Star Trek tribute!

Of course it’s not just the dinosaurs that have gone extinct. There have been multiple mass extinction events over the course of Earth’s history. And there will be more.

We will be the cause of our extinction.

Up here in Canada, its been hard to find a Meteor since 1976.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Meteor

We are well on the way to our own demise. The threat of climate change was ignored in favor of monetary gains. Personally, I feel it’s too late to turn things around

If a meteor heads toward us now, we’ll just deflect it with our phaser beams

Ah, Lucy, meteor is what my ham bone was before I made pea soup.

And many of you ancestors’ legs before they were sent to the glue factory.

There’s a new movie called “Don’t Look Up” about this. Can’t wait to see it.

Actually, Mr. Miller, it was an asteroid, not a meteor. Meteors are balls of dust and ice, asteroids are big chunks of rock.

A killer meteor? Well, since a meteor is, by definition, an object falling from the sky that does not strike the ground, we’re talking about a very large bolide. This can be immensely powerful, but would only have local effects. Like the Tunguska Blast, or the smaller (but still very impressive) Chelyabinsk bolide a few years ago.

A meteorite, on the other hand, is one that hits the ground. And there’s no upper limit to how big these can be. There’s also approximately bupkis you can do about them at present. For the dinosaurs to save themselves, they would have needed a space program and a real good head start.

What would Danae be able to do if she knew of a meteor coming our way? Those of us with a brain know that climate change is real and we could be extinct if actions to reduce CO2 levels are not taken. But, still, there are those that still deny CC and choose to see all the signs of its existence as just a natural cycle of weather patterns. And I might agree that there has been a time when CO2 levels were many times higher than they are now, but humans weren’t.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we are going to mess around in space and accidentally push a meteor the wrong way and cream ourselves. Just saying. NASA and those guys are equipped by the lowest bidder and it is “Government work” after all. We all know what’s “good enough for Government work.”

There’s a 10% chance of meteor showers in the viewing area today -

People generally aren’t good at understanding logical arguments about impending disasters, even when supported with decades of legitimate research. Frankly, if you could point to a flaming asteroid in the night sky as the cause of imminent global warming, many people still wouldn’t believe it could affect them.

Dinosaurs got an asteroid. We are going to die of biological or nanite gray goo.

``Seeking A Friend at the End of the World"

We are watching. Nothin’ big enough is coming soon. Note that “soon” is just in the next year!

https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

I’d want to know! There’s so much to do before the end! Also, there’s my bucket list.

There are plenty of scenarios that could lead to the extinction of life on Earth. For those prone to worrying about such things, look no farther than the Yellowstone super volcano. It has erupted three times in the past two million plus years with devastating consequences to life on Earth and it could happen again at any time. It isn’t a matter of if there will be another mass extinction but rather when. The simple fact is, the asteroid 65 million years ago was a blessing for us because we wouldn’t even be here were it not for the demise of the dinosaurs. In geological terms, the human race has only been around for what amounts to a few seconds in a period of relative calm. But one way or another, we will go the route of all the past inhabitants of this planet, and the fact that we ever existed will only be attested to by plastic debris.

Dinosaurs aren’t extinct. You can have one for dinner at KFD Kentucky Fried Dinosaur.

Meteorites aren’t the only problem, child.

The proper term is actually meteoriticist.

You may be a horse, but there are plenty of humans…

Lucy has an interesting sense of humor.