Skunks and asteroids - April 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks – just ask the poor striped skunk that ended up as roadkill not too far from our home building. …Mind you, the skunk in question was a wild animal, not an escaped pet, so the rest of us are not much better off – we may be alive, but we now get to smell the smell of both decomposing carrion and the smell of the remnants of a skunk’s trademark stench, you know? This is one bouquet of aromas that we all can live without – but because the dead skunk is lying in the middle of the city’s roads, aka public property, no one is doing anything about it, just because… Where were we?

Well, better off than the actual road devil that had ran over the skunk in question – they’d received the most of the skunk’s final blast and now have to clean it off their car one way or another, and that just isn’t fun; not to mention it might not be legal. See, the government of the GTA may not want its’ citizens to become too friendly and familiar with the urban wildlife – raccoons, coyotes, red foxes, etc. – but it doesn’t mean that they want to run them over with cars either. Especially the proverbial skunk, whose means of self-defence are well known, especially in North America.

…Incidentally, did you know that there are species of skunk in South America as well? Genetics aside, they look largely like the northern striped skunk, and probably smell just as bad. In Africa, there are local weasels that look like variant skunks, and they self-defend like variant skunks, but the honey badger is in a league of its’ own and doesn’t like to make a literal smell.

All mustelids, up to the wolverine, the biggest member of this group on land can make a bad smell, but the skunks are mustelid cousins instead, a closely related, but separate group; their only relatives are the so-called stink-badgers of the Asian tropics, but this is neither here nor there – let’s go into space instead.

Why go there? Because of PJ Masks, as a matter of fact. In their upcoming season premiere, the titular characters, and their arch-enemies, are going into space, each group with their respective allies, because of an asteroid that can turn heroes into villains, (and maybe vice versa? Who knows? Who cares)? Fair enough, but I would rather talk about celestial bodies instead.

What is an asteroid? It is a space rock, or, if you want to get professional, a minor planet. That said, they vary in size from a 1-m rock to a dwarf planet almost 1000 m in diameter, so space rocks they are.

Within the Solar System, most of asteroids are found within the so-called asteroid belt, which is located between Mars and Jupiter; there are various origin theories about it and the asteroids, but they’re not important here – the point is that most of asteroids stay within it and don’t crash into Earth.

Then what does crash into Earth? This is where terminology gets tricky, especially if we do not get all scientific. First, we get the shooting/falling stars that do not fall onto Earth, but get burned-up in the atmosphere – they are called meteors. If they do not get burned-up and do crash into Earth, they are called meteorites instead. Both are space rocks, (also called meteoroids), again, just as the asteroids are, but asteroids do not smash into Earth. Conversely, though, we also have comets, that are more like giant ice balls that contain pieces of other substances/materials within their icy bulks, and when they fly close to the Sun, (or any other stars, actually), the ice begins to melt and the other substances burst out, forming the comet’s tail. Meteorites, meteors and most other meteoroids don’t do that… consequently, what is the point?

I honestly have no idea, I confess. The ‘PJ Masks’ are a mess – they started as successful fables, tried to mutate into a variant superhero cartoon and now they seem to be trying to have it all at once – there are villains in the show, true, but apparently most of the episodes will have the heroes solve their own problems rather battling their foes. From what I have heard about the promos for the episodes this is not going to happen, this is standard heroes vs. villains’ scenario instead. Well, more power to them. Maybe the ‘PJ Masks’ will succeed. I am not holding my breath though. Oh, wait; there is still the dead skunk. I guess that I am. We are still better off than it is, though.

For the moment though, this is it. See you all soon!