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NASA Predicts A Good Year For Perseids
xCepheus writes "According to this article on NASA's website, the year 2004 will be a good one for the annual meteor shower known as the Perseids. Quoth the article, 'This is a good year for Perseids, for two reasons, explains Bill Cooke of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. First, the Moon is new in mid-August; moonlight won't spoil the show. Second, in addition to the usual shower on August 12th, there might be an extra surge of meteors on August 11th caused by a filament of dust newly drifting across Earth's orbit.'"
I remember once, when I was young (last year) a girl I've had a few classes with called me up and asked if I'd like to watch the Perseids with her. I, of course, replied that I would be greatly pleased to do so (I tend to talk funny when girls call me, it's the novelty of the situation).
So, the day she quoted me showed up and we went to one of the local parks with decent protection from the lights of the city. She laid out a blanket, and we lay down looking up at the stars. I stared upwards for the longest time, and saw nothing. Eventually, I realized that our conversation had turned from physics to weird, unfamiliar things, like child rearing and clothes (by the way, the correct response is "No, my mommy does not purchase my clothing, I'm merely trying to fool people into believing I'm a nice young man.)
After this continued onwards for a while, I came to the conclusion that I was being hit on. As I mentioned above, this was a relatively unfamiliar situation. Eventually, I tried to put the moves on (by the way, the correct procedure is not to grab, then ask.)
After being abandoned in the middle of a wheat field, I began my long walk home. I was probably within a half dozen miles of my dorm room when a metallic object passed by my arm and clanged off a rock, embedding itself in the pressurized ink pen in my left shirt pocket (made by the fine folks of the Fisher Space Pen Co.) spraying ink and polyester tatters all over my body. As I dropped to the ground, clutching my burning nipple, I screamed something about the "space aliens finding me and are taking their revenge for my bab5 fanfic."
A few minutes later I woke up to an irate (slingshot bearing) farmer, accusing me of "stealing his beans" and "taking liberties" with his daughter. And I didn't even get to see any meteors.
The show had better be better this year, or I'm just going to stay at home.