Niburu

One of my neighbours was born a sheep- and turnip-farmer but re-invented himself as a stone-mason. He was talking to an acquaintance about megaliths and the Earth Mother and mentioned Old Bob, the Guardian of the Ringstone. The thought being the deed, said acquaintance appeared in our yard last year talking a streak about the interface between chromosomes, cthulhu, catastrophism, cuneiform, comets and catholics. It was quite intense, but not without interest. I knew he'd be just the chap for Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock. But I couldn't locate my copy of the book to unload on this new reader. Graham Hancock is university educated journalist and book-author and writes engagingly. The probby is that his publications are not peer-reviewed and he extrapolates to the skies from rather sparse data. I've cited him prev for the distinction of having his TED talk cancelled / suppressed.  

Hancock tl;dr: a large extraterrestrial body slammed into an ice-sheet in Canada causing a) a megamaxima-tsunami of ice-melt which altered the N. American landscape forever b) had similar geoglobal effects as the Chicxulub meteor that terminated the dinosaurs 65 mya c) ended a sophisticated civilisation which had considerable engineering skills. Capital S for Science has absorbed Chicxulub into the canon but baulks at Hancock's arguments; labelling them pseudohistory, pseudoarchaeology etc.

Needless to say, I found the book the day after the questing acquaintance QA left our yard and sent him a free-post card saying how much I'd enjoyed our chat and giving the citation for the book. From a vague description of where he lived I was able to abstract an Eircode and a townland even if he'd never shared his last name.

Last Monday arvo QA rocked up again and we picked up our conversation where we left off . . . and I gave him the book. He is currently rootling around in a section of the outréverse described by / invented by Zecharia Sitchin. When I was growing up Immanuel Velikovsky [ Worlds in Collision] and Erich von Däniken [ Chariots of the Gods?] were selling like hot cakes and Sitchin was running in the same race, albeit beyond my orbit. The 12th Planet "Niburu" is revealed by close reading of Sumerian clay tablets. It is "12th" because ☿ ♀ ♁ ♂ ♃ ♄ ⛢ ♆ ♇ ☾ ☉ = 11! Although why the Sumerians would have recognised ♇  Pluto rather than the much more easily observable large asteroids like Ceres and Vesta is yet another mystery. 

According to Sitchin, current humanity is the result of a genetic engineering experiment carried out by the Anunnaki alien inhabitants of Niburu to make them more tractable domestic and industrial slaves. As I suggested above, in my book people can write whatever they want, so long as they don't require me to believe them. I declined the loan of two of Zecharia Sitchin's many books - I'm currently busy with Doughnut Economics and a history of British cheese; which are both much tastier.