Dean Potter - one of America's best known extreme
athletes - has been killed during a stunt in California.The 43-year-old died (May 16) while attempting a wingsuit flight
from the 7,500 ft (2,286m) Taft Point promontory in Yosemite National Park, a
park spokesman said. Graham Hunt also died when their attempt to fly at high
speed through a narrow gap in the skyline went wrong. Rescuers found the bodies
soon after contact had been lost with the men. No parachutes had been deployed,
reports say.Potter was regarded as a hugely innovative rock climber. He was the
first to climb Yosemite's three most famous big walls in a single day. He was
also renowned for his high-line walks and high-risk parachute jumps, some of
which he carried out with his dog. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32776686
The recent
Mars-Saturn opposition (May 15) continues to bring us news of accidents and
disasters. A chart for the Waning Crescent Moon (May14) drawn for Yosemite
National Park has the Sun-Mars-Saturn opposition squaring the horizon axis. Here Saturn
is conjunct the stars Cujam, omega Hercules and Yed Prior, delta Ophiuchus also
referred to as the “Man of Death”.
A Latin
epithet for Hercules was saltator,
“leaper” and was associated with dancers, acrobats and sports champions [1].
Diana Rosenberg points out that some “lacking moderation, may go for broke
risking health and reputation in their headlong passion to win”.
About the
constellation Hercules, Manilius writes:
"Hercules,
the figure on bended knee and called by the Greek name of Engonasin, about
whose origin no certainty prevails. Of this constellation is begotten the desertion,
craftiness, and deceit characteristic of its children, and from it comes the
thug who terrorizes the heart of the city. If perchance his mind is moved to
consider a profession, Engonasin [a Greek title for constellation Hercules
meaning Kneeler] will inspire him with enthusiasm for risky callings, with
danger the price, for which he will sell his talents: daring narrow steps on a
path without thickness, he will plant firm feet on a horizontal tightrope;
then, as he attempts an upward route to heaven, (on a sloping tightrope) he
will all but lose his footing and, suspended in mid-air, he will keep a
multitude in suspense upon himself" [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century,
AD, p.353.]
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