Bright flash on Australian mountain 19 Jun 2009 A bright flash has occurred near Gin Gin in Queensland, followed by a fire on the mountain. Authorities are not saying what it was, but the locals have come up with the most likely explanation: space junk, rubbish that has re-entered. About ten years ago I was driving my kids and wife back from central Victoria at about 3am, when the sky lit up like a very large lightning flash, on a cloudless night. And then falling fire in front of me, for all the world like melting metal, slowly faded. It was, by my estimation, about 20km in front and at about 3km high or so. Nothing on the news the next day, so I was possibly the only person who saw it. In town it would have looked like a plane light or something. My family were, of course, asleep. But I am still convinced that it was a re-entering booster or something, that exploded after being heated to the right temperature on re-entry. Great fun. General Science
Biology Short sharp definitions 11 Aug 2010 Over on Twitter, Waterstones bookshops are running a competition to define philosophy in 100 characters. My definitions are below, but it got me thinking. Einstein, I think, said that if you can’t explain it in simple words you don’t understand it, and so I wonder if we can do this… Read More
Evolution Religion and science 15 Jul 2007 There has been a bit of a resurgence of science versus religion posts and chatter in various forums* that I inhabit when I’m not working lately. It occurred to me that it might be time to do one of my sermons. There are basically two popular views of the relation… Read More
About four years ago in Pennsylvania, I witnessed a gigantic green fireball that lit up the entire sky for about five seconds. It was the most incredible astronomical thing I’ve ever seen, but not reported anywhere on the news that I could find. Probably just a meteor, but you never know. Where I am right now, in the US West at 10,000 ft, it’s hard to look up at the night sky without seeing a meteor. And at that altitude on a clear moonless night, the milky way is a spectacular, living, glowing thing.
I saw something similar to what jeff describes (green and all) camping on the beach with some friends along the south pacific coast of Mexico, about 18 years ago. We were drinking by the fire. We all stood up and cheer as it disintegrated. It was great.