Signs Case Study : Halleys Comet

Designation	Year BC/AD	Date of Last Perihelion	Visible Duration	Distance at Perihelion	Description
1P/−239 K1, −239	240 BC	15 May	25 May – 15 May		First confirmed sighting.
1P/−163 U1, −163	163 BC	20 May	12 November, 164 BC – 28 September 163 BC		Seen by Babylonians.
1P/−86 Q1, −86	87 BC	15 August	6 August – 19 August		Seen by the Babylonians and Chinese.
1P/−11 Q1, −11	12 BC	8 October	August – 10 October	0.16 AU	Watched by Chinese for two months.
1P/66 B1, 66	66	26 January	25 January – 26 January		‘A comet of the kind called Xiphias, because their tails appear to represent the blade of a sword’
1P/141 F1, 141	141	25 March	22 March – 25 March		Described by the Chinese as bluish-white in colour
1P/218 H1, 218	218	6 April	6 April – 17 May		Described by the Roman historian Dion Cassius as ‘a very fearful star’.
1P/295 J1, 295	295	7 April	7 April – 20 April		Seen in China, but not spectacular.
1P/374 E1, 374	374	13 February	13 February – 16 February	0.09 AU	Comet passed 13.5 million kilometres from Earth.
1P/451 L1, 451	451	3 July	28 June – 3 July		Appeared before the defeat of Attila the Hunat the Battle of Chalons.
1P/530 Q1, 530	530	15 November	27 September – 15 November		Noted in China and Europe, but not spectacular.
1P/607 H1, 607	607	26 March	15 March – 26 March	0.09 AU	Comet passed 13.5 million kilometres from Earth.
1P/684 R1, 684	684	26 November	2 October – 26 November		First known Japanese records of the comet. Seen in Europe and depicted 800 years later in the Nuremberg Chronicle.
1P/760 K1, 760	760	10 June	20 May – 10 June		Seen in China, at the same time as another comet.
1P/837 F1, 837	837	25 February	25 February – 28 February	0.03 AU	Closest-ever approach to the Earth (5 million km). Tail stretched halfway across the sky. Appeared as bright as Venus.
1P/912 J1, 912	912	27 July	18 July – 27 July		Seen briefly in China and Japan.
1P/989 N1, 989	989	2 September	2 September – 5 September		Seen in China, Japan, and (possibly) Korea.
1P/1066 G1, 1066	1066	25 March	January – 25 March	0.10 AU	Seen for over two months in China. Recorded in England and depicted on the later Bayeux tapestrywhich portrayed the events of that year.
1P/1145 G1, 1145	1145	19 April	15 April – 19 April		Depicted on the Eadwine Psalter, with the remark that such ‘hairy stars’ appeared rarely, ‘and then as a portent’.
1P/1222 R1, 1222	1222	10 September	10 September – 28 September		Described by Japanese astronomers as being ‘as large as the half Moon . . . Its colour was white but its rays were red’.
1P/1301 R1, 1301	1301	22 October	22 October – 31 October		Seen by Giotto di Bondone and included in his painting The Adoration of the Magi. Chinese astronomers compared its brilliance to that of the first-magnitude star Procyon.
1P/1378 S1, 1378	1378	9 November	9 November – 14 November		Passed within 10 degrees of the north celestial pole, more northerly than at any time during the past 2000 years. This is the last appearance of the comet for which Oriental records are better than Western ones.
1P/1456 K1, 1456	1456	8 January	8 January – 9 June		Observed in Italy by Paolo Toscanelli, who said its head was ‘as large as the eye of an ox’, with a tail ‘fan-shaped like that of a peacock’. Arabs said the tail resembled a Turkish scimitar. Turkish forces attacked Belgrade.
1P/1531 P1, 1531	1531	26 August	26 August		Seen by Peter Apian, who noted that its tail always pointed away from the Sun. This sighting was included in Halley’s table.
1P/1607 S1, 1607	1607	27 October	27 October		Seen by Johannes Kepler. This sighting was included in Halley’s table.
1P/1682 Q1, 1682	1682	15 September	15 September		Seen by Edmond Halley at Islington.
1P/1758 Y1, 1759 I	1758	13 March	13 March – 25 December		Return predicted by Halley. First seen by Johann Palitzsch on 1758 December 25.
1P/1835 P1, 1835 III	1835	16 November	August – 16 November		First seen at the Vatican Observatoryin August. Studied by John Herschelat the Cape of Good Hope.
1P/1909 R1, 1910 II, 1909c	1910	20 April	20 April – 20 May		Photographed for the first time. Earth passed through the comet’s tail on May 20.
1P/1982 U1, 1986 III, 1982i	1986	9 February	9 February	0.586 AU	Reached perihelion on February 9, closest to Earth (63 million km) on April 11. Nucleus photographed by the European space probe Giotto and the Russian probes Vega 1and 2.
	2061	28 July	28 July 2061		Next return of Halley’s comet.

Staging

All The World’s A Stage,

And all The Men and Women merely Players;

They have Their Exits and Their Entrances,

And one Man in His Time plays many parts,

His acts being Seven Ages. 

At first, The Infant,

Mewling and puking in The Nurse’s arms.

Then The Whining Schoolboy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. 

And then The Lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. 

Then A Soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. 

And then The Justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. 

The Sixth Age shifts

Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. 

Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Living In Accord With Nature

What do you think Our Souls owe 

to Ancient Myths?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, The Ancient Myths were designed 

to put the minds, 

the mental system, 

into accord with this body system, 

with this inheritance of The Body.

BILL MOYERS: A harmony?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: To harmonize. The mind can ramble off in strange ways, and want things that the body does not want. And the myths and rites were means to put the mind in accord with the body, and the way of life in accord with the way that nature dictates.

BILL MOYERS: So in a way these old stories live in us.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: They do indeed, and the stages of a human development are the same today as they were in the ancient times. And the problem of a child brought up in a world of discipline, of obedience, and of his dependency on others, has to be transcended when one comes to maturity so that you are living now not in dependency but with self-responsible authority. And the problem of the transition from childhood to maturity, and then from maturity and full capacity to losing those powers and acquiescing in the natural course of, you might say, the autumn-time of life and the passage away, myths are there to help us go with it, accept nature’s way and not hold to something else.

BILL MOYERS: The stories are sort of to me like messages in a bottle from shores someone else has visited first.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes, and you’re visiting those shores now.

BILL MOYERS: 

And these myths tell me how others have made the passage, and how I can make the passage.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

And also what The Beauties are of The Way. 

I feel this now, moving into my own last years, you know, the myths help me to go with it.

BILL MOYERS: 

What kind of myth? Give me one that has actually helped you.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, the tradition in India, for instance, 

of actually changing your whole way of dress, 

even changing your name, 

as you pass from one stage to another. 

When I retired from Teaching, 

I knew that I had to create a new life, a new way of life, and I changed my manner of thinking about my life just in terms of that notion, moving out of the sphere of achievement into the sphere of enjoyment and appreciation and relaxing into the wonder of it all.

BILL MOYERS: 

And then there is that final passage through the dark gate?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, that’s no problem at all. 

The Problem in Middle Life, 

when The Body has reached its climax of power and begins to lose it, is to identify yourself, not with The Body, which is falling away, but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle. 

And when you can do that, and this is something learned from my myths, What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light, or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle? And this body is a vehicle of consciousness, and if you can identify with the consciousness, you can watch this thing go, like an old car there goes the fender, there goes this. But it’s expectable, you know, and then gradually the whole thing drops off and consciousness rejoins consciousness. I mean, that’s it’s no longer in this particular environment.

BILL MOYERS: 

And the myths, the stories have brought this consciousness to ours.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, I live with these myths and they tell me to do this all the time. And this is the problem which can be then metaphorically understood as identifying with the Christ in you, and the Christ in you doesn’t die. The Christ in you survives death and resurrects. Or it can be with Shiva. Shiva hung, I am Shiva. And this is the great meditation of the yogis in the Himalayas. And one doesn’t have even to have a metaphorical image like that, if one has a mind that’s willing to just relax and identify itself with that which moves it.

This is The Truth That Kills You

Yeah, he doesn't want to be found.

Stop. It's no use.

I'm asking you to let him go.

There's nothing you can do.

— William 

You can’t Protect Me.

You can’t “Keep Me Safe.”

You Have to Trust Me, 

You Have No Choice —

Trust Me, and I can Save You.

I can Save Us All

Trust Me to Save The World.

Lecter :

……I won't waste your time or Catherine's time

bargaining for petty privileges.

Clarice Starling

and that awful Jack Crawford

have wasted far too much time already.

I only pray they haven't 

doomed the poor girl.

Let Me Help You Now,

and I Will Trust You 

when it is all over.

1992 : In a Motel room in The Great State of Washington it is somewhere around 3 a.m. — FBI Special Agent Dr. Dana Scully is laying on the bed and her brand new partner, Fox ‘Spooky’ Mulder sits in front of it on the floor.

MULDER: 

I was twelve when it happened.  

My sister was 8. 

She just disappeared out of her bed one night. 

Just gone, vanished. 

No note, 

no phone calls, 

no evidence of anything.

SCULLY: 

You never found her.

MULDER: 

It tore The Family apart. 

No one would talk about it. 

There were no facts to confront, 

nothing to offer any hope.

SCULLY: 

What did you do?

MULDER: 

Eventually, I went off to school in England, 

I came back, got recruited by The Bureau. 

Seems I had a natural aptitude 

for applying behavioural models 

to criminal cases.

My Success allowed me a certain freedom to pursue my own interests. 

And that's when  [ Reggie/Diana Fowley, and] I came across The X-Files.

(He turns to face her.)

SCULLY: 

By accident?

[ A. No. ]

MULDER: 

At first, it looked like a garbage dump for UFO sightings, 

alien abduction reports, 

the kind of stuff that most people laugh at as being ridiculous. 

But I was fascinated. 

I read all the cases I could get my hands on, hundreds of them. 

I read everything I could about paranormal phenomenon, 

about the occult and...

(He sighs and drifts off into thought.)

SCULLY: 

What?

MULDER: 

There's Classified Government Information I've being trying to access, 

but someone has been blocking my attempts to get at it.

SCULLY: 

Who? I don't understand.

(She sits up a little.)

MULDER: 

Someone at A Higher Level of Power. 

The only reason I've been allowed to continue with My Work is because I've made connections in Congress.

SCULLY: 

And they're afraid of what? 

That, that you'll leak this information?

MULDER: 

You're a part of that agenda, you know that.

SCULLY: 

I'm not a part of any agenda. 

You've got to Trust Me —

I'm here, just like you, to solve this.

(He moves closer, kneeling.)

MULDER: 

I'm telling you this, Scully, 

because you need to know, 

because of what you've seen. 

In My Research, I've worked very closely with a man named Dr. Heitz Werber and he's taken me through deep regression hypnosis. 

I've been able to go into my own repressed memories to the night My Sister disappeared. 

I can recall a bright light outside and a presence in The Room. 

I was paralysed, unable to respond to My Sister's calls for Help.

(He moves even closer, talking louder.)

Listen to Me, Scully, 

This Thing EXISTS.

SCULLY: 

But how do you know...

MULDER: 

The Government knows about it, 

and I gotta know 

what They're protecting. 

Nothing else matters to me, 

and this is as close as I've ever gotten to it.

My Dear Will. 

You must be healed by now.

On The Outside, at least.

I hope you're not too ugly.

What a collection of scars you have!

Never forget who gave you The Best of Them.

And be grateful.

Our Scars have The Power to remind us that The Past was Real.

We live in a primitive

time, don't we, Will?

Neither Savage nor Wise.

Half-measures are The Curse of it.

Any rational Society would either kill me or put me to some use.

So you Dream much, Will?

I think of you often.

Your Old Friend, 

Hannibal Lecter.

Hannibal? There's someone here to see you.

Wants to ask a few questions.

I said you'd probably refuse.

A young woman. Says she's from the FBI.

Though she's far too pretty, if you ask me.

I'll tell her you said no.

What is her name?

Scarred

 

My Dear Will. 

You must be healed by now.

On The Outside, at least.

I hope you're not too ugly.

What a collection of scars you have!

Never forget who gave you The Best of Them.

And be grateful.

Our Scars have The Power to remind us that The Past was Real.

We live in a primitive

time, don't we, Will?

Neither Savagenor Wise.

Half-measures are The Curse of it.

Any rationalSociety would either kill me or put me to someuse.

So you Dream much, Will?

I think of you often.

Your Old Friend, 

Hannibal Lecter.

"Actually, that was 

The Last Time He Ever 

Took a Swing at Me."

Jimmy Carr:

It's just so stupid, isn't it? 

Beating Your Wife... 

I mean, it's Your Wife - 

it's like keying Your Own Car!

David Mitchell:

Society just got a tiny bit worse...

Jimmy Carr:

I like to think I can help.

As the fat renders, the tallows float to the surface. 

Like in Boy Scouts. 

It's hard to imagine you as A Boy Scout. 

Keep stirring. 

Once the tallow hardens, you skim off a layer of glycerine. 

If you would add nitric acid, you got nitroglycerin. 

If you then add sodium nitrate and a dash of sawdust, you got dynamite. 

Yeah, with enough soap, 

one could blow up just about anything. 

Tyler was full of useful information. 

Ancient Peoples found their clothes got cleaner when washed in a certain point of The River. 

You know why?

No. 

'Cause Human Sacrifices were once made on The Hills above This River. Bodies burned, water seeped through the wooden ashes to create lye. 

This is lye. The crucial ingredient. 

Once it mixed with the melted fat of the bodies, 

thick white soapy discharge crept into The River —

May I see your hand, please? 

What is this? 

This is A Chemical Burn. 

It'll Hurt more than you've ever been burned — 

and You'll Have A Scar. 

If meditation worked for cancer, it could work for this. - Stay with the pain. Don't shut this out. - Oh, God! Look at your hand. The first soap was made from the ashes of heroes, like the first monkey shot into space. Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing. I tried not to think of the words "searing" or "flesh". Stop it! This is your pain, this is your burning hand. It's right here. I'm going to my cave to find my power animal. No! Don't deal with this the way those dead people do! Come on! - I get the point! Okay, please! - No! You're feeling premature enlightenment. It's the greatest moment of your life, man, and you're off somewhere missing it! I am not... Shut up! Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God? Listen to me. You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. We don't need him! - We don't! I agree! - Fuck damnation, fuck redemption. We are God's unwanted children? So be it! - I'm getting water! - Listen! You can use water and make it worse or... Look at me! - Or use vinegar to neutralize the burn. - Please let me have it, please! First, you have to give up. First, you have to know, not fear, know that someday, you're gonna die. You don't know how this feels! It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything. Okay. Congratulations. You're one step closer to hitting bottom. 

"Every time after that -- every time He came back to CHECK on me, it became a lot less about Me and a LOT more about HIM.

This ULTRAMAN started to just sit there.

Sometimes Not Talking.

But, Most of The Time?

Talking, so much Talking.

Dad, it was SO MUCH Talking.

By Our Very Nature, We are Rulers.

We have The Power.

It's OUR Obligation to Rule Over Idiots...

He would just sit there and Talk and Talk.

ALMOST like He had No Actual Real Friends.

Oh! And He was one of thee guys that would repeat A Story he told you only two days ago, because he forgot he told it to you, but when he repeated it he would CHANGE something so you KNOW 

He's always Kind of Lying.

You can't even Trust 

The Stupid Story.

He would tell me long stories about HIS Group of Super-People and HIS Lex Luthor and How Hard it Was to Be Him and How Bad His Life Was and How Everyone Was Always Challenging Him and How No-one Listens to Him or Really Respects Him Unless He is Killing Them.

And after a while, sometimes, he'd.... cry.

Sob. Blubber. It was soooo awkward.

And after He would cry, 

He would ALWAYS Get Angry 

and Always BLAME ME for it and Fly Off.

But if He cried, I knew I wasn't going to see Him again for a while.

At least there was that.

So, if I was EVER going to 

Make a Break for it.... 

It was gonna have to be after 

A Good Ultraman Cry.

It took me a while.

Maybe longer than I am Proud of.

Then again, I'm STILL not completely sure how long I was in there."