Rockets over the antipodies

[Grant White]

While I'm feeling garrulous,

Shades of V2 here in the south when yesterday the country was holding it's
collective breath waiting for the possible impact of a plutonium carrying
rocket that got anxious about gravity.

John Howard (our Prime minister) was interrupted during his cornflakes by
Bill Clinton who broke the news (the rocket was part of a Russian satellite
programme lifting off from Kazahkstan but I guess Bill knows about these
things) The PM held a press conference warning the populace of possible
impact and associated radioactive fallout and everyone began to panic. A
weird kind of spot the ground zero ensued on the TV and experts got
increasingly cocky - firstly predicting an impact zone generally in north
eastern Australia, then getting more specific, almost down to a street
address.(a swamp in north western NSW actually)  With baited breath we
waited only to have the bloody thing splashdown "harmlessly" thousands of
miles away in the Pacific off Chile.  I say harmlessly, if a couple three
tons of rocket loaded to the gunnels with plutonium crashing back to earth
can ever land harmlessly. 

Pretty scary stuff all in all and about as close as I ever want to be to the
Zone.

Cheers
GW



Grant White
Multimedia & Special Collections Librarian/WWW Editor					
University of Newcastle
Central Coast Campus Information Resource Centre
ulgw at dewey.newcastle.edu.au
http://www.ccc.newcastle.edu.au
Ph: 043-484022
Fax: 043-484215

"......and the man climbed back
Out of the marvellous as he had known it."
Lightenings VIII
Seamus Heaney