Things that might or might not happen.

It’s all very quiet in our neck of the woods. I ran in the drizzle this morning. Actually it was not so much drizzle as the cloud having come down to our level. The horizon was very limited. 

Later we walked out in the hope of catching a glimmer of sunshine. It was there for a while but didn’t stay long. So it goes. 

Then I came across this piece of news:

“On Sunday (Dec. 12), five planets, two large asteroids, and the Moon will align in the night sky. Visible around the world.

Venus 

Saturn 

Jupiter 

Neptune

Uranus 

The dwarf planet Ceres, asteroid Pallas and the Moon will settle nearby. 

Look for the celestial objects right after sunset. Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and the Moon will be visible to the naked eye. 

A pair of binoculars or a small telescope will help you to see the dimmer Neptune, Uranus, Ceres, and Pallas.”

So all sorts of celestial bodies will be seen in the sky tonight. Not here they won’t be! Not unless the cloud cover shifts. It happens all the time: red moon, giant moon, lunar eclipse, meteor showers - the clouds always move in so that we can’t see them from our house! I feel discriminated against.

Here’s something else that’s not going to happen. The British Council will be stripped of its role in running the Turing student exchange scheme after it was undercut by outsourcing firm Capita. The Turing student exchange is supposed to replace the Erasmus scheme, enabling our students to go and study abroad. The British Council has been around forever, organising school exchanges and opportunities for students to travel. But now it’s being run by Capita, no doubt with the idea of making a profit! We shall see how that goes. 

Over in the United States, abortion is being banned in a worrying number of states. This will drive desperate women to take desperate measures. There has been an interesting legal development. In Texas the law now allows private citizens to prosecute anyone who helps a woman to have an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The Governor of California has responded by proposing a gun control law which would allow private citizens to prosecute those who sell and distribute weapons. 

“I am outraged by yesterday’s US Supreme Court decision upholding Texas’ ban on most abortion services,” Newsom wrote in a statement on Saturday. “But if states can now shield their laws from review by federal courts that compare assault weapons to the Swiss army knife, California will use that right to protect the lives of people where Texas used it.” 

“If the most efficient way to keep these destructive weapons off our streets is to add to the threat of private lawsuits, then that is all we should do,” he wrote.

So maybe something good could come out of something harmful.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.