First, good news: I figured out how to get the just!burn software installed! It works perfectly, and I have the Compaq tech help to thank for that. My PC is almost back to normal, with the improved speed of the new RAM upgrade, thank goodness!

I went on my bike ride early, didn't sleep as late today. I wanted to ride before the predicted rain arrives, later this afternoon.

Some of the recent news about Enron excerpts to follow:

White House Dismisses Report It Favored Enron
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday denied a senior Democrat's allegations its energy plan was crafted to benefit Enron Corp., President Bush's biggest political patron, and dismissed a congressional report on the matter as a ``waste of taxpayers' money.''

The White House also rebuffed calls for the release of information about contacts between Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force and energy companies, including Enron. The General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, is threatening to sue the White House over its refusal to name industry executives the administration met with last year while drafting its energy plan.

The White House is eager to distance itself from the widening scandal surrounding Enron, the energy-trading giant which collapsed in the autumn and filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 2 after trying to solicit aid from the Bush administration. The White House says it did nothing to help the company and did nothing wrong.

A report by California Rep. Henry Waxman, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee, found that at least 17 policies in the White House energy plan were advocated by Enron or benefited Enron.

The policies cited in Waxman's report include deregulation initiatives long promoted by Enron, support for trading in energy derivatives and proposals to facilitate natural gas projects.

Duh! Did we expect the adminstration to ADMIT any wrongdoing? Nah, don't think so.

And this:

Probe Raises Stakes on Energy Task Force Records

Members of Congress and watchdog groups are seeking to learn whether Enron, a major contributor to Bush's presidential campaign, influenced the administration in five areas: Enron's solicitations of government help in the weeks before its bankruptcy; the administration's energy policy, which includes expansion of energy production and transmission; last fall's economic stimulus package, which included a tax break sought by Enron; Enron's influence on the selection of administration personnel; and benefits Enron received from the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Hang in there, I'm sure that something significant will be uncovered eventually. It seems in today's world: politician = lying/greed.

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How about some more cosmic disaster scenarios? Here's some great food for thought:

Meteor clue to end of Middle East civilisations

Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide circular depression which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with the violence equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs.

Today's crater lies on what would have been shallow sea 4,000 years ago, and any impact would have caused devastating fires and flooding.

The catastrophic effect of these could explain the mystery of why so many early cultures went into sudden decline around 2300 BC.

They include the demise of the Akkad culture of central Iraq, with its mysterious semi-mythological emperor Sargon; the end of the fifth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, following the building of the Great Pyramids and the sudden disappearance of hundreds of early settlements in the Holy Land.

Until now, archaeologists have put forward a host of separate explanations for these events, from local wars to environmental changes. Recently, some astronomers have suggested that meteor impacts could explain such historical mysteries.

Dr Benny Peiser, who lectures on the effects of meteor impacts at John Moores University, Liverpool, said it was one of the most significant discoveries in recent years and would corroborate research he and others have done.

He said that craters recently found in Argentina date from around the same period - suggesting that the Earth may have been hit by a shower of large meteors at about the same time.

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Clues to Bronze Age comet strike

Evidence is growing that a huge comet smashed into the Earth about 4,000 years ago.
Scientists are pointing to studies of tree-rings in Ireland which have revealed that about 2,354-2,345 BC there was an abrupt change to a colder climate.

They have also highlighted discoveries by archaeologists in northern Syria of a catastrophic environmental event at about the same time. This is also about the time that Bronze Age civilisations collapsed.

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Sci/Tech Article

Clues to Bronze Age comet strike

Evidence is growing that a huge comet smashed into the Earth about 4,000 years ago.

Scientists are pointing to studies of tree-rings in Ireland which have revealed that about 2,354-2,345 BC there was an abrupt change to a colder climate.

They have also highlighted discoveries by archaeologists in northern Syria of a catastrophic environmental event at about the same time. This is also about the time that Bronze Age civilisations collapsed.

Firework displays of meteors

Dr Bill Napier, an astronomer at Armagh Observatory, and Dr Victor Clube, from Oxford and Armagh universities, say the evidence points to a comet hitting the Earth, and have called for more research.

Writing in Frontiers, the magazine of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, Dr Napier suggests that the Comet Encke, first observed in 1786, might be a remnant of the object along with its associated stream of meteors, called the Taurids.

This giant mother-comet is thought to have been disintegrating as recently as 5,000 years ago.

At this time, and for some millennia afterwards, the night sky would have been lit up by a bright light caused by dust particles, cometary fragments, and firework displays of meteor storms.

The scientists highlight ancient civilisations' preoccupation with the sky.

Cosmic icons were widespread

Dr Napier wrote: "People have assumed that this was driven by the need for a calendar for both agricultural and ritual purposes.

"However, this explanation does not account for the doom-laden nature of much cosmic iconography and early sky-centred cosmic religions associated with these societies."

The new evidence also ties in with ancient prophecies, including the Book of Revelations in the Bible, which appears to describe cataclysmic events involving objects falling from the sky.

Every 100,000 years or so one of these rare, giant objects enters an orbit that crosses the path of the Earth.
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And now, let's look to the future statistics of what might happen by cosmic disasters to Earth:

Impact Events Shaped Rise Of Civilization

Both the emergence and the collapse of human cultures, the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and the Neolithic Revolution, the onset and collapse of the Bronze Age civilisations, and even the collapse of the Roman Empire may be associated with episodes of increased cosmic activity and multiple impacts that may well have included incidents of cosmic dust loading."

While most of these impacts occurred over unpopulated areas of the globe, there are historical accounts about devastating cosmic catastrophes. According to a number of Chinese records, about 10,000 people were killed in the city of Chi'ing-yang in 1490 AD due to the break-up of a small asteroid.

Dr Peiser also presented new impact simulations that estimate expected fatalities of cosmic impacts for the next 10,000 years. Without the establishment of effective strategies of planetary defense in the future, more than 13 million people are expected to die as a direct result of impact catastrophes in the next ten millennia.

Based on computer simulations that take into account the current flux of near-Earth objects, a typical 10,000 years period with a constant human population of 5 billion can expect to experience: *110 fatal impacts resulting in a total of 13 million fatalities (an average of 120,000 fatalities per event).


300 "Tunguska" style airbursts over land, with 80 of these producing fatalities (roughly 1 fatal event per century).

12 ocean impacts that produce tsunami, with an average of 500,000 fatalities per event.

4 land impacts, with an average of 500,000 fatalities per event.

"These estimates are based on the assumption that the current asteroidal and cometary flux will be constant in time and quantity over the next 10,000 years. However, there is growing evidence to suggest that there have been peak levels of meteoritic activity in the past that differed significantly from the cosmic calm of the last 300 years", Dr. Peiser pointed out.

WHEN might these disasters happen? Well, in one article it stated that one could happen tomorrow or within the next 50 years or the next 100 years...or this afternoon. There's no way to predict with any accuracy...but this much is SURE: cosmic disaster WILL happen to Earth sooner or later.

Like I've said, tomorrow is promised to NO ONE!