MARCH 20th - We Have Come a Little Ways



On this day in 1345, the Black Death or bubonic plague, was created because Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars were in “a triple conjunction,” meaning they had the same right ascension or the same ecliptic longitude. Should have paid more attention in astronomy class. In any case, the “triple conjunction” caused a pandemic that killed about 25 million people. I’m not picking on 14th century astronomers and scientists here, but I have feeling that part of the reason the Black Death killed that many people might have something to do with the fact that they thought the disease was caused by some uncommon astronomical occurrence, rather than the fleas of rats that were the actual culprits--maybe. I’m not saying they would have been able to find a cure if they had been looking for a cause in a slightly more earthbound area, but it certainly couldn’t have hurt. I know there has yet to come a cure for cancer, but I feel that doctors and scientists are least looking in the right place. You never hear, “There was a supermoon last weekend, so sorry. You’re screwed.” I realize that this post is a little on the depressing side, but the second choice was 1997 when the Liggett Group admitted that smoking was, you know, not good for you. Rumor has it that they tried to say smoking was only hazardous while done under a sky of shooting stars, but as people in 1997 knew a tad more about chemicals, science, and medicine no one believed them. We have come so far. Except, I think rats can still carry the bubonic plague. And there are some theories that the Black Death was not actually bubonic plague, because it spread too quickly to be caused by rodents. So maybe we haven’t come too far. We have come a little ways though. Enough to know you shouldn’t smoke, and petting rats is probably a bad idea regardless of whether they caused The Plague. And I think we can rule out the “triple conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars.” That’s progress people.

This day has been Marked.

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