{"id":166,"date":"2009-07-21T15:25:59","date_gmt":"2009-07-21T15:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamjcobb.wordpress.com\/?p=166"},"modified":"2009-07-21T15:25:59","modified_gmt":"2009-07-21T15:25:59","slug":"one-step-closer-to-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/07\/21\/one-step-closer-to-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"One Step Closer to "The Road""},"content":{"rendered":"

So this morning the NY Times reports that an amateur astronomer discovered what appears to be an impact spot on Jupiter that’s the size of the Earth. Check it out here: thelede.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/07\/21\/amateur-astronomer-finds-new-earth-size-impact-mark-on-jupiter\/?hp
\nAt first I puzzled over what could be the cataclysm in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road<\/em>, brushing off the fuzzy-thinkers who said “It doesn’t matter.” I thought maybe a meteor\/comet, but the details are rather sketchy\u2014basically a series of bright flashes in the sky. A student of mine repeated my suspicion, and as we discussed it, I became convinced. (Nuclear war doesn’t fit; there’s no fallout described in the aftershock.) Later I heard McCarthy admitted that it was an impact.
\nBeing an inveterate Discovery Channel watcher and lover of loopy meteor\/comet theories, such as the one that posits an impact event 12,900 years ago wiped out the Clovis Culture in North America, I think it’s a great use of science with a soft touch. McCarthy didn’t have to get all Michael Crichton about it, just a few details and then launch the human and philosophical drama. Not to mention the cannibals, to boot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this morning the NY Times reports that an amateur astronomer discovered what appears to be an impact spot on Jupiter that’s the size of the Earth. Check it out here: thelede.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/07\/21\/amateur-astronomer-finds-new-earth-size-impact-mark-on-jupiter\/?hp At first I puzzled over what could be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}