Death From The Skies. Also, Death

Well, I've Set Myself A Challenge, Haven't I?
Conrad not entirely sure if one can make shuffling off this mortal coil amusing, per se; perhaps "informing" is the closest you can approach.
     "Oh I say, he's being rather grim tonight, isn't he?  Being sober obviously brings out the darkness in his soul," I hear you comment.  Hmmm.  I'm not Dostoevsky, you know, even if off the alcohol.
     Okay, let us now return to the subject of treason, more specifically HIGH treason, and the executions for same.  This was going to come after today's earlier article on Jim Varney, except that was too long and I worried I might lose readers with a 1,400 word screed.

Not really what I meant, Art

     So!  If you were wicked enough to plot treason against the King (for we are speaking of traitors to the British monarch here), and be caught and found guilty, you were in for a really bad time.  No, really, a REALLY bad time.  The state, you see, wanted to make an example of these horrid anarchists or republicans, by killing them in the most gruesome and protracted manner possible.  First, you would be drawn around on a wooden hurdle, which is unpleasant enough yet is a mere walk in the park compared to what comes after.  Art?

The only way to travel - if arranged by First Bus

     After this introduction to the punishment you would then be hung by the neck.  Not by the long-drop method - too quick an end! - just enough to cause asphyxiation to the point of unconsciousness.  Guy Fawkes beat the chopper by managing to jump far enough to break his neck, thus depriving the executioner of the next step, which was - 
     - disembowelment, at which point the victim was usually still alive, and then - those of a squeamish disposition may wish to skip ahead - you would be emasculated, after which you got beheaded, after which - we've not stopped yet - you would be chopped into quarters, each bit of which would be sent elsewhere in the kingdom to provide a public example of what happened to those with harm to HM in mind.

Yes it's a chicken but the principle is the same

     At least, that was the procedure if you were a man.  If you were a lady then, in the interests of public decency, there would be no exposure of skin.  Oh no.  A lady would simply be burned to death, straightforward enough.  Ashes to ashes with no flashes, you might say.

A lady
(Annette Peacock with her razor-sharp cheekbones if you need to know)

     There you go, enlightenment of the rather barbarous behaviour of our ancestors.

Banana Bread
Yes it rhymes with "Dead" and that's as close to the Grim Reaper as I care to get with this post.  You can have too much of a bad thing.
     Wonder Wifey pointed out, without any subtlety, for your humble scribe is a man and thus does not get "hints" or "suggestions" or anything pretty much less than a metaphorical mallet to the head, that there were several old bananas that needed putting out of their misery.  Thus -

     This is gluten-free Banana Bread with Dates and Walnuts.  I put a little extra baking powder in to help with the rise, as that is one of the problems with GF flour.  I'm quite pleased with how it came out, although as ever the proof is in the devouring.  Perhaps WW would care to inform after inhaling?

Now, Finally, We Get To DEATH FROM ABOVE!!!
In the shape of Near Earth Objects.  Now for a bit of astronomy, what you might call Terror in the Skies.  

Gasp in horror at how many there are

     Actually that would be okay, as long as the terror stayed in the skies.  What causes trouble is the terror paying a visit to Planet Earth, what might be called Terror Firma.
     NEOs are lumps of rock that whiz about close to the orbit of Earth, occasionally intersecting.  Don't worry, they usually disintegrate in the upper atmosphere, or at least the smaller ones do.  The larger ones are more problematic and consequently a mapping program has tracked 90% of those greater than 1 km in diameter.  If 1 km doesn't sound that large, imagine One Billion Tons of rock falling on your head.  Painful.

Spectacularly inaccurate - nothing like this big is due to hit soon

     Pretty obviously if Ol' Terra take a hit from a 1 km space rock then life on the big blue ball will be seriously affected in a bad way, globally.  Spaceguard is now carrying out a mapping program to pick up all NEOs of 140 m and upwards.  These would only (Only!) devastate an entire country, so - still worth tracking, even if they only mass 2.7 million tons.

Trieste welcomes careful meteors
("Rendezvous with Rama" joke)

     As Captain W. E. Johns once said, in a universe full of unguided missiles, it's spectacularly unwise for Hom. Sap. to create and stockpile a whole lot of guided ones - although there is a proviso to that.

Tomorrow -
Don't be annoyed
By rock from void
Learn how to avoid 
DEATH BY ASTEROID!

Frankly, hard to work up a sense of worry