[W.F. Lantry]

Originally Posted by David Rosenthal

I bet the third or fourth thread ever started here was on the "decline of the Sphere."

I have a feeling it's a character trait. One can always find people who say "The world is going to hell in a wheelbarrow." Or, "Things suck now, but we used to live in a golden age." I always think of Ovid: Iron, before that, Bronze, before that, Silver, and it all started with Gold. But before him, there was Hesiod: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroic, Iron.

Jerome actually put dates on the four ages, a pretty amusing endeavor, given the historical resources he had at hand out there in the desert. Sure, there was the end of the Middle Kingdom in 1674 BCE, and yes, the Minoan eruption happened around 1628 BCE. That's a decent transition from Gold to Silver to Bronze. But what the heck happened in 1472 BCE, to usher in the next age? A lunar eclipse?

People have been getting ink out of this stuff for a while. Two years from now, someone will start a thread that says "It was nice a couple years ago, but things really suck now."

Of course, by then, the photon cloud will hit, and we'll all be toast...

Best,

Bill