John Peters
LightNews LightNews
johnthejack.bsky.social
John Peters
@johnthejack.bsky.social
2.3K followers 2.2K following 4.2K posts
Unbeliever (political & religious), Wales rugby, #c4news, porridge, tea, #MEcfs

'Obvious but wrong'

Also JTJ on the other place
https://johnthejack.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letter from @masieghart.bsky.social in Times today
Text: Misogyny at work Sir, Libby Purves wishes Rachel Reeves had “shrugged rather than moaned” about misogyny (“Do us all a favour, Rachel: don’t bleat about misogyny”, Nov 26). How does she expect anything to change if we don’t draw attention to it? For aeons, women were expected to put up with being groped, propositioned and sexually assaulted at work. It was only after #MeToo that these male perpetrators were finally held to account. Speaking out about it worked. “Rachel from Accounts” is no ordinary political insult. Philip Hammond might have been derided as an “accountant”, but that is a professional job that engenders respect and often a seven-figure salary. “Rachel from Accounts” denotes a clerk in a humdrum office job with no authority. No male chancellor would be described this way. It is a blatant attempt to put a powerful woman “in her place”: the unstated assumption being that a woman has no place in the second most powerful job in the government. Reeves’s exposure of the double standards we still attach to women and men at work should be commended, not condemned. Mary Ann Sieghart London W14
November 27, 2025 at 11:43 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letters in Times today
Text: Farage’s ‘banter’ Sir, It is baffling that Nigel Farage should complain that the complaints being made against him are political in nature (“Farage’s accuser rejects banter claim”, Nov 26). Of course they are. The people now speaking out made a judgment that for as long as Farage remained a marginal figure, the abuse they suffered in the past was a personal matter. Now that he apparently is close to gaining significant political power, they have decided to put their experiences in the public, and political, domain. This seems to me entirely logical and gives us all information on which to make our own (political) decision. Sarah Mulholland Goldsithney, Cornwall Text: Sir, Sixty-five years ago I was a boarder at Clifton College, where I attended Polacks House, which was the only boarding house for Jewish students at any public school in Britain. I was obliged to study German, which I hated, not least because I was the only Jewish boy in the class. On the last lesson of term I deliberately arrived late, and as I walked into class a boy whose name and appearance I remember perfectly shouted “Ach, the Jew boy, why are you so late?” This incident has stayed with me for life, mainly for the shame I felt at not having the courage to confront this bully and his sniggering mates. We should not imagine for one moment that boyhood recollections are not reliable and painful. They are. Richard Cyzer London W1
November 27, 2025 at 11:41 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
There speaks a true patriot
November 27, 2025 at 11:38 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Rebuilt salt marshes gently usher migrant birds back to Essex
(£) www.thetimes.com/comment/regi...
Text: Salt marshes are not glamorous — muddy flats along coasts and estuaries, washed with seawater by the tides, where only specially adapted plants can survive. But salt marshes are unsung heroes, helping to protect coastlines from rising sea levels, storms and erosion by creating a buffer between dry land and the sea, trapping silt during floods and adding new soil from their decaying vegetation. Salt marshes also store vast amounts of carbon from the plants that grow there as they take in carbon dioxide through their leaves and store it in their roots — and when the plants die, the carbon becomes part of the soil. Salt marshes offer refuge for wildlife and they provide clean water by filtering runoff from the land. Because they naturally self-repair they do not need much maintenance. In many places, salt marshes have been destroyed by land reclamation, sea walls, pollution and erosion. Globally about 50 per cent of salt marshes have been degraded and many others remain under threat. Text: Schemes to restore salt marshes have proved successful, though, such as the Wallasea Island project in Essex, the largest scheme of its kind in Europe. In July 2015, segments of the seawall at the site were removed and the sea allowed to flow back for the first time in 400 years, turning the site back into wetland. Included in the reclamation project was an RSPB nature reserve at Jubilee Marsh, built using about 3 million tonnes of earth left over from the excavation of tunnels for London’s Elizabeth Line. The soil was used to raise much of the land above sea level and created a mosaic of new islands, salt marshes, lagoons and bays, a landscape that has disappeared from much of Essex. Where there was once only a handful of birds, the site now sees thousands, with a record 39,000 birds over-wintering on the site this year, including knots, grey plovers and bar-tailed godwits. “There’s just thousands and thousands of birds who now use the site as a refuge, shelter, and nursery to their chicks,” Rachel Fancy, the site manager, said. “It’s an almost unbelievable transformation.”
November 27, 2025 at 11:36 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
From obituary of
(£) www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

Wonder if that would have happened with some lads in Brixton or even on the local drag here in Swansea, Wind St.
Text: There were still occasional petty criminals for Kelly to deal with, however, and plenty of inebriated insurers and bankers causing trouble as well. Kelly was generally patient with the latter, and once even received a letter of thanks from one of them: “As you will see from your records, I was brought into your station yesterday to sober up,” wrote the offender, before thanking Kelly for “rescuing me and being so caring”.
November 26, 2025 at 12:09 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
From interesting obituary of actress June Freud, née Flewett, AKA Lady Freud, widow of paedophile Sir Clement, AKA mother-in-law of Richard Curtis and mother of various Freuds.

(£) www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
Text: As she boarded, carrying a haversack containing two school books and a single change of clothes, she was embarking on an adventure that would create a unique link between two classics of children’s literature written a century apart — Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The three Flewett girls were dispatched to different parts of the country and June was billeted with a retired Oxford tutor. When he died a few months later she was farmed out to the home of three ageing spinsters. “They had been Lewis Carroll’s ‘girls’. As children they had gone up and down the Cherwell in his punt while he told them stories,” she said in a 2005 interview. “In their drawing room, they had a lot of games and toys which he had made for them. We would be allowed to play with them on Sundays. They would be worth a fortune now.” Around the same time, she also got to know Janie Moore, known as Minto, who lived with CS Lewis at the Kilns, a red-brick house in Headington, east Oxford, with substantial grounds and a lake.
November 26, 2025 at 11:56 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letter in Times today
Text: Sir, As every student of typography knows, the word typeface is used to describe the style of lettering whereas font is used to describe the size and weight of a letter. Hence, Aptos and Times New Roman are typefaces rather than fonts. John Gray Cambridge
November 25, 2025 at 11:55 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letter in Times today
Text: Taking stock of AI Sir, I enjoyed Niall Ferguson’s article on the possibility and impact of a stockmarket crash caused by the leap in the valuations of technology stocks (“Does the world really want what Sam-AI-am is selling?”, weekend essay, Nov 22). I agree with him and with Terry Smith (“ ‘Stock sell-off may eclipse dotcom crash’ ”, business, Nov 22) but it is worth teasing out what the real problem with present technology valuations is. The predominant factor in these valuations is the value placed on AI. The promise of AI is to transform the production of goods and services. Taken to extremes, this transformation will drive the marginal cost of production of goods and services to very low levels. Those companies at the forefront of this achievement will then sweep the board, putting most other companies out of business. The prize is indeed huge, and on the face of it amply justifies today’s technology stock valuations. But AI is simply not enough. This transformation will rely on artificial general intelligence (AGI) or even artificial superintelligence. No existing technology or AI company has yet delivered AGI. In fact, they are still some way off and, most importantly, there is no clear conceptual pathway to AGI. This is why the present technology valuations are too high. Today’s AI, while impressive, is not yet the real deal. It will not, without further (as yet unidentified) conceptual breakthroughs, transform the production of goods and services. Rupert Robson Author of The Sentient Robot
November 25, 2025 at 11:53 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Swansea this afternoon
November 24, 2025 at 8:03 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Mystery of the globe skimmer dragonfly
(£) www.thetimes.com/comment/regi...
Text: The globe skimmer dragonfly lives up to its name by making the longest known flight of any insect. In autumn, millions of them migrate for more than 3,730 miles from India to east Africa across the Indian Ocean, flying up to 6,300m altitude, higher than any other dragonfly species; the following spring a new generation of the dragonfly head back to India. Accounting for its small size, this is one of the longest regular nonstop migratory flights of any flying creature in the world. And yet this unassuming dragonfly is only about 5cm long with wingspans up to 84mm and weighs about 0.32g. Other dragonflies do not make such dangerous journeys over an ocean. Although mariners long ago reported seeing the dragonfly at sea hundreds of kilometres from land, it was assumed the insects were doomed on their journey. And in modern times, the migration has been difficult to study because — unlike the migration of birds — the dragonfly is too small to be followed using miniature tracking devices. Instead, scientists have pieced together the dragonfly’s migration by analysing the weather systems over the Indian Ocean. Text: An important clue came from the Maldives, where people look for swarms of the dragonflies arriving in November and December, seen as the harbinger of the northeast monsoon on winds blowing from India. And calculations showed that with a tailwind of 10m per second, a dragonfly could cross from India to the Maldives in 24 hours. After staying for a few days, the dragonflies then head off to east Africa, only reappearing the following April to June on their return journey. This all points to the globe skimmer using the moving seasonal weather systems ahead of the monsoon rains to complete its epic migrations. But the dragonfly does not have the energy to fly by flapping its wings continuously; instead it is thought to ride on the winds over the ocean and glide for up to 286 hours, enough time to complete its autumn and spring migrations. But it still remains a mystery how the globe skimmer knows when to hitch a ride on the most favourable winds.
November 24, 2025 at 12:09 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letters in Times today on Covid inquiry
Text: Sir, Tom Whipple (“Did shutting schools save lives? Only way to know is experiment with kids”, Nov 22) states: “It is criminal that billions of us used masks without, even at the end, properly knowing their efficacy.” I disagree. Experimental investigations on masks at the Pirbright Institute in 1969 showed that surgical, paper and industrial masks provided little or no protection against the inhalation of airborne virus in large particles. It was concluded that a respirator would be required to protect wearers against the inhalation of virus in droplets and/or small particles. In June 2021, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reported that the quality of masks worn by health workers made a huge difference to their risk of coronavirus infection. Their data showed that wearing a high-grade FFP3 mask (also called a respirator) provided 100 per cent protection whereas there was a much greater probability of staff becoming infected if they wore a surgical mask. It is likely that guidance from health authorities to the public on the correct choice of mask (ie FFP3) and its proper wearing during the pandemic, especially on public transport, would have reduced the transmission of virus. Alex Donaldson Former head, Pirbright Laboratory; Guildford, Surrey Text: Sir, I agree with Tom Whipple’s praise of a treatment based on a rigorous clinical trial, as well as his reticence to accept numbers based on mathematical modelling and his scepticism regarding the efficacy of masks. The next pandemic could start at any time. But the public inquiry is moving far slower than the virus when it swept worldwide. During the first wave of the pandemic thousands of care home residents died in outbreaks initiated unwittingly by asymptomatic but infected and infectious staff who could have been identified by testing. But testing was introduced far slower than it should (and could) have been. For decades before the pandemic PCR testing was being used by many research labs. But co-opting them was far too slow. A reliable Covid PCR test was designed before the pandemic was a month old. It presents no technical problems. My lab used such a test in the Antarctic in 1994 to look for harmful bacteria in the throats of British Antarctic Survey staff. I hope Baroness Hallett’s module on testing will provide the political pressure to ensure that adequate testing facilities will be in place before the next pandemic strikes. Hugh Pennington Emeritus professor of bacteriology, University of Aberdeen Text: Sir, It was clear from very early on in 2020 that Covid-19 was an airborne respiratory virus, against which the value of masking and plenty of fresh air is well understood, whether in the Derbyshire Dales, on the open road to County Durham or on the closed golf courses around Southampton. Instead, the national response appeared to be tailored to the very different, contact-toxic Ebola virus, after the widely seen imagery of the Sierra Leone outbreak of a few years earlier. The consequences of that misperception were enormous in terms of wasted national resources and general misery, but it is not clear that the most valuable questions will ever be asked or addressed. David Rew FRCS Consultant general surgeon, Southampton Hospitals
November 24, 2025 at 11:56 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
And the OED entry
www.oed.com/dictionary/f...
November 23, 2025 at 11:27 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
From interview with @rbrooks45.bsky.social on #c4news
Text: 'The Post Office scandal epitomizes those deep, institutional scandals. It may even be on another level in that the persecution of subpostmasters for many years was part of the coverup of the original persecution of them. Because in order to defend themselves against accusations that the Horizon system wasn't working, that people had been unfairly prosecuted, the Post Office had to prosecute more people. It had to win show trials. They were saying that we've got to win this to stop other postmasters from claiming. Without this, the whole organization could collapse. This was an existential matter. It became almost like a sort of pyramid scheme in which appalling abuse had to generate more appalling abuse as well as coverup and secrecy.
November 22, 2025 at 7:27 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letter in Times today
Text: Loss of grasslands Sir, Your article on England’s grasslands highlights an urgent and deeply troubling decline (“Maps chart decline of grasslands since 1930”, Nov 20). As efforts to restore species-rich meadows gather momentum, it is vital that we also recognise the role of our native livestock and equine breeds in creating and conserving these landscapes. For centuries, traditional breeds of cattle, sheep and ponies shaped the grassland habitats now at risk. Their low-intensity grazing maintains the varied structure and biodiversity that define healthy meadows, supporting wildflowers, insects, birds and soil life. These breeds are uniquely adapted to local conditions and remain one of our most effective, nature-based tools for grassland restoration. Any strategy to reverse grassland loss must therefore actively include native-breed grazing. In doing so, we not only restore threatened habitats but also safeguard the genetic heritage of the livestock that helped to form them. Christopher Price CEO, Rare Breeds Survival Trust
November 22, 2025 at 12:21 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letter in Times today.

He's right, of course, can never have too much of your oats.
Text: Know your oats Sir, There is ample and robust evidence that consuming food products containing oats is highly beneficial (“Save Our Oats”, leading article, Nov 17). Oats reduce cholesterol, which is a major factor in the incidence of heart disease and stroke. Mycotoxins are largely caused by inadequate processing and storage and are eliminated in the supply chain by strict adherence to food safety standards. The UK must not cede to EU demands to reduce oats in porridge, oatcakes and similar foods. Paul Weightman Co-editor of Food Supply Chain Management; Darlington, Co Durham
November 21, 2025 at 11:55 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
So, what’s a Pembrokeshire Dangler and a Thames Tickler?
(£) www.thetimes.com/comment/regi...
Text: The Pembrokeshire Dangler made an appearance this week — a weather phenomenon that dropped some heavy snowfalls and led to schools being closed in parts of southwest Wales, as well as bringing snow to parts of Devon and Cornwall. The Dangler can appear in autumn and winter when cold northerly winds race down the Irish Sea, generating showers as the cold air sweeps over the relatively warm sea. And when the wind hits the Pembrokeshire coast, the airflow passing over land creates friction, sending the wind off in a slightly different direction. That lurch in the wind on land then collides with the northerly winds over the sea, forcing the air upwards and creating even bigger storm clouds billowing upwards, creating lines of showers or longer spells of rain, sleet and snow. These lines of showers also stream off towards Devon and Cornwall, bringing rain, sleet and snow there as well. The phenomenon earned its “dangler” name from the way the showers stream in a long line, sometimes so narrow that the weather can be surprisingly different in places just ten miles apart — clear blue sky in one location and snowing heavily in another. Text: and has been nicknamed the Thames Tickler. This is when the wind blows from a northeasterly direction and collides with winds hitting the land, the two airstreams converging and resulting in lines of showers. In a bitter freeze in January 1987, more than 50cm (20in) of snow fell in parts of Kent, Essex, London and Surrey, and the North Downs reported more than 75cm (30in). It was interesting that at the same time parts of west Cornwall also had heavy snowfalls thanks to the Pembrokeshire Dangler. The Thames Tickler came out again in February 2009, when southeast England was hit by big snowfalls, 30cm deep in parts of Surrey, its deepest snow for nearly 50 years. That resulted in widespread disruption to trains, buses and Tube trains, and Heathrow and Gatwick airports were put out of action.
November 21, 2025 at 11:52 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
From review of Yossi Yovel’s The Genius Bat.

Bats aren’t blind — and they can drink your blood without you noticing
(£) www.thetimes.com/culture/book...
Text: His book, The Genius Bat, is at its best in these moments, when it asks us to widen our perception and consider, bat-like, how we also sense through sound: how our own voices come differently to us because we hear their vibrations, in part, through our skulls; or how we excel in pinpointing the direction of a sound because of the large gap between our ears. To think like this is to make bats seem less alien (or us more so). There is an interesting section on reciprocal altruism in vampire bats. Vampires must drink 15ml of blood a night — half their body weight, about half a serving of whisky. They get it from living animals — cows, pigs, horses, birds and occasionally humans — and are so gentle that they can drink for half an hour without waking up their victim. Missing a couple of nights can be fatal, and so bats share with those who fail to get a meal. Relationships between friendly bats in the same roost can be more important than family ties when it comes to who they share with. They remember who has previously shared food with them, even over long periods of time, gradually building a mutual trust. It is one of the best documented examples of sharing in non-human animals.
November 20, 2025 at 12:02 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letter in Times today
Text: Mental health care Sir, The dangers of children using AI for mental health therapy support could lead to the next public health emergency if the government does not take urgent action (“Children using AI for mental health advice risk harmful self-diagnosis”, Nov 17). For too long children who require mental health support have been unable to access the services they need, and before they reach crisis point. One in five young people is living with a mental health condition, and with NHS waiting lists only rising it is no surprise that children are turning to tools such as ChatGPT for support. AI offers many benefits but it cannot replace the vital human element in mental health care; it should be integrated thoughtfully to support human therapist-led care. The government must treat this as a wake-up call and use the budget to invest in increasing the mental health workforce. This is essential to meet rising demand and ensure children who are struggling can access timely, in-person support before it is too late. Dr Roman Raczka President, British Psychological Society
November 20, 2025 at 11:50 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letter in Times today
November 20, 2025 at 11:47 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Interesting analysis again from @sjamesjourno.bsky.social

What Joe Root must do to score elusive Ashes century in Australia
(£) www.thetimes.com/sport/cricke...
Text: When playing forward, some players lead with their head, others with their foot. Root is in the latter camp, which is why, even when he is playing the most elegant of his cover drives, his head is always slightly behind his bent front knee, and why he finds it easier to drive square of the wicket because a bent back knee and a head position central to one’s feet are essential to playing the ball later, as is required for this stroke. What can happen to him in Australia, however, is that the consistently shorter length bowled to him forces his weight further and further back, meaning he places too much weight on the outside of his back leg, causing his knee to bend outside the line of his front leg. The natural reaction to that is to compensate by exposing one’s back hip, and then the hands cannot move back as desired and have to remain low, leading to jabbing motions that rob Root of his natural flow. He is always at his best when he remains side-on, because that allows his hands to move back (he stands with them aloft, drops them and then takes them back up again) and for him to play the ball late.
November 19, 2025 at 12:07 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Letter in Times today
Text: Sir, Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms risk undermining the NHS at a time of severe staff shortages. My father, Dr Rajendra Midha, answered the call of the then Labour government and was one of the early Indian doctors arriving in the UK in the early 1950s who helped to build the health service, which has always relied on overseas staff. Rising visa income thresholds and tighter rules on dependants now have the potential to block many registrars and resident doctors from coming or staying. Politicians should be careful what they wish for; limiting migration may score political points but it endangers the very service the public depend on. Dr Arun Midha Cardiff
November 19, 2025 at 11:39 AM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Oh my word. Note this was the 1980s, not the 1890s.

From obituary of Hallard Croft
(£) www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
Text: what seemed to him like a series of instructions on matters including choices for college positions such as wine steward. Croft in his role as senior bachelor fellow introduced a new rule mandating the wearing of dinner jackets during college dinners on a Sunday. In a scene worthy of a Tom Sharpe novel about college intrigue, Trevor-Roper arrived to dine, writes Sisman, in a “particularly scruffy” tweed jacket. Croft was left reflecting bitterly: “Why did we elect him if he isn’t going to do what we want?” Thoroughly alienated, Croft began to complain that his teaching of maths was being undermined by the college, and that he would resign as director of studies and refuse to accept other college roles. He described Trevor-Roper as “damned impertinent” and an “evil personality”. Trevor-Roper, who felt increasingly that his authority as master was being fundamentally challenged by Croft and his allies, refused to renew his fellowship. Croft’s friends suggested this action was motivated, in part at least, by hostility towards his homosexuality. The college was divided and after an angry stand-off over what the media called “the Croft affair” lasting some weeks an uneasy compromise was reached, whereby Croft was reappointed as a fellow, but only at a junior level. He was now required, humiliatingly, to serve coffee and port after dinner to other fellows. Huge resentment festered, occasionally erupting in embarrassing shouting matches in subsequent years.
November 18, 2025 at 12:38 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
From:
(£) www.thetimes.com/business/eco...
Text: The noise around tax policy should not distract the Treasury from its promise to help lower bills and ease cost of living pressures with deflationary tax changes such as cutting the rate of VAT applied to utility bills. A valuable contribution in the debate comes from Andrew Sissons, a former government economist, and John Springford, associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform, who shine a light on an under-examined part of government policy, which is how to create competitive markets for consumers. The UK has suffered from structurally higher inflation than most of its European peers, a fact that is largely down to higher prices in the services sector that dominates the economy and which has kept the Bank from major interest rate cuts. Reeves would do well to listen to Sissons and Springford’s call to finally abolish the defective retail price index measure of inflation which is used as the benchmark to raise phone and transport bills every year. They also recommend dynamic road pricing — with higher charges at peak times — and limiting auto-renewal of phone and internet contracts as ways to chip away at services inflation and give consumers a better deal.
November 18, 2025 at 12:23 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
How is frost created? The folklore and the cold hard facts
(£) www.thetimes.com/comment/regi...
Text: Calm has been restored — Storm Claudia has blown away, the rains banished, and the sun is shining in brilliant blue skies. This is something of an Indian summer, or what used to be called St Martin’s summer (Weather Eye, November 12), although the drawback with the dry, sunny weather is crisp, cold days that have come as quite a shock after what had been a remarkably mild first half of November. Widespread frosts have also appeared, perhaps best described by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice: “Cold indeed, and labor lost:/ Then farewell heat, and welcome frost!” What created frost was clouded in folklore long ago. In ancient times there was a rather romantic idea that frost fell from the moon and stars on cloudless nights. And in Norse mythology a character appeared who cast frost — his name was Jokul Frosti, literally Icicle Frost, or Frost Giant — while in Germany Frau Holle shook a winter blanket over the ground with a covering of frost. Text: Eventually our familiar Jack Frost appeared in England, although apparently his name had nothing to do with Jokul Frosti. Instead, Jack Frost was a mischievous, impish character who worked his frosty magic at night, and was first featured in 1734 in a book called Round About Our Coal Fire, or Christmas Entertainments. Jack Frost also became something of a versatile figure who went round in autumn with a paintbrush colouring leaves red, yellow, brown and orange. As for the nitty-gritty science of what created frost, there was an idea in the 1780s that both frost and dew came when the ground was a few degrees colder than the air above, although it was thought that the cold was caused by the dew and frost, not the other way round. Eventually in 1812, a breakthrough in understanding frost was made by William Wells, an American-born doctor working in London. He found that on calm, cold nights the ground rapidly cooled down, radiating its heat into space, and that rapidly cooled the air close to the ground, until the moisture in the air turned to frost when the surface reached below freezing.
November 18, 2025 at 12:17 PM
johnthejack.bsky.social
Look up at the stars tonight for a meteoric show
(£) www.thetimes.com/comment/regi...
Text: Shooting stars may be seen whizzing through the sky on Monday evening and into the early hours of Tuesday. This is now the peak of the Leonid meteor shower, and the views should be especially good in the UK with Arctic air giving some crystal-clear conditions and a thin crescent moon preventing too much light from interfering with the night sky. The only downside is the icy wind, cold enough for frost to form in some places. The Leonids are named after the constellation Leo, the Lion, and are usually one of the more prolific annual meteor showers, with fast, bright meteors zipping overhead at a rate of up to 15 an hour. Although the meteors peak tonight they will still be active until November 30. The Leonids appear when the Earth passes through a stream of tiny dust particles left hanging in space in the wake of Comet 55p/Tempel-Tuttle as it swings through the solar system during its regular orbit around the sun. Although each bit of the debris is only the size of a grain of sand, when a particle hits the Earth’s upper atmosphere at about 70km/sec (156,600mph) it is vapourised in a streak of light, which is what we see as a shooting star. Text: What makes the Leonids even more exciting is that about every 33 years a storm of meteors bursts across the night sky, on some occasions with hundreds or thousands of shooting stars as the Earth passes through a particularly dense stream of the comet’s debris. In 1833 one spectacular Leonid shower appeared at an estimated rate of 100,000 meteors an hour. And another outstanding display was a brief 15-minute burst of activity on November 17, 1966 — which some witnesses described as like the Earth wading through a stream of lights, giving a powerful impression of how the planet moves through space. The next spectacular Leonid display is expected in November 2033 or 2034, although on some occasions these meteor storms are a big let-down, more of whimper than a lion’s roar.
November 17, 2025 at 11:55 AM