Round and round she goes

...and where she stops, nobody knows. This phrase may have originally referred to a proverbial "wheel of fortune" (no one seems to know for sure), but in my post today it refers to our home planet, Mother Earth, good old terra firma. Our terra is actually not all that firma. Not only is over 70% of our planet's surface covered with water (aqua non firmam), but also deep inside its inner core it is hotter than Hades, 5,430°C (9,800°F) in fact.

So round and round indeed she goes, spinning once a day on her axis at a tilt from vertical of 23.5° (a different kind of degree from the kind used for temperature). She also makes another kind of rotation once each year, orbiting around the nearest star, which at 93,000,000 miles is exactly one astronomical unit (AU) away. We have just completed another of these rotations.

But you knew that.

Many people are concerned that the human race has caused, is causing, and must take measures to stop causing climate changes that threaten Earth's very existence. But I remember what God promised Noah in Genesis 8:22 -- "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." God even set a rainbow in the cloud as a sign that he would never again destroy the human race by water.

But as the American author James Baldwin reminded us in his book title The Fire Next Time, I also remember that there is another idea mentioned in the Bible too. No less a personage than good old St. Peter himself wrote, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt wirh fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (2 Peter 3:10) and repeated it a couple of verses later, "...the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (v. 12). Whether that refers to worldwide climate change/forest fires, nuclear war, or a comet or huge asteroid crashing into us has yet to be determined. It gives one pause. But then St. Peter added, "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."(v. 13), so a third idea is also mentioned in the Bible.

You may agree or disagree, but the point is that while we wait to find out we have a choice. We can either worry about it or we can concentrate on video games. Actually, those two things are not mutually exclusive. We can do both.

Accordingly, here are two articles for your perusal:

"How Humanity Came To Contemplate Its Possible Extinction: A Timeline"

"The Top 100 Video Games of All Time:

A little perspective is in order. By "of All Time" is meant, basically, in the last 55 years. Although a patent was issued in the U.S. for "a Cathode-ray tube amusement device" as early as 1947, the first real video game was table tennis in 1966. By way of contrast, the first date in the other article is "c. 75,000BP". I'm not sure what is meant by BP but I'm fairly certain it doesn't stand for either British Petroleum or blood pressure.

Here is a list from one online dictionary of possible meanings for BP:

BP Beyond Petroleum (formerly British Petroleum)
BP Blood Pressure (medical)
BP Boiling Point
BP Barometric Pressure
BP Basis Point (finance; 0.01%)
BP Blocking Probability (telephony)
BP British Petroleum (oil company)
BP Backpack (gaming)
BP Back Pack
BP Brown Pride
BP Binding Protein
BP Border Patrol (US)
BP Bishop
BP Budapest (Hungary)
BP Biophysics (various organizations)
BP Base Pair (nucleic acids)
BP Business Plan
BP Business Partner
BP Brad Pitt (actor)
BP Block Party
BP Battery Pack
BP Our Party (Turkish Cypriot Area)
BP Bypass
BP Bits and Pieces
BP Bipolar Disorder
BP Blueprint
BP British Pound
BP Business Park
BP Best Practice
BP Baptized
BP Bullet Proof
BP Bench Press (fitness)
BP Solomon Islands
BP Buying Power (finance) BP Black Power
BP Ball Python (herpetoculture)
BP Beautiful People
BP Baden-Powell (founder of the boy scout movement)
BP Business Professional
BP Board Policy
BP Beer Pong
BP Banque Populaire (French bank)
BP Base Plate
BP Belief Propagation (decoding)
BP Bullpen (baseball)
BP Balance of Payments
BP Birthplace
BP Back Propagation
BP Batting Practice
BP Bandpass
BP Bachelor Party
BP Boat People (people escaping Vietnam by boat after 1975)
BP Back Pocket (Australian football position)
BP Boston Pizza (Canada)
BP Banco de Portugal (Portuguese Central Bank)
BP Black Powder
BP Benzo(a)pyrene (hydrocarbon)
BP Back Pressure
BP Business Practice
BP Bagpipe
BP Bryant Park (New York)
BP Baseball Prospectus
BP Business and Professional
BP Black Panthers
BP Brad Paisley (country music artist)
BP Breakpoint
BP Black Pearl
BP Borderline Personality
BP Boilerplate
BP Batch Processing
BP Bad Publicity
BP Blue Peter (UK TV show)
BP Baptist Press
BP Bharat Petroleum
BP Boîte Postale (French: Postal Box)
BP Browse Product
BP Back Projection
BP Barber Pole
BP Base Point
BP Big Planet (national ISP)
BP Blackplanet.com
BP Band Practice
BP Bacterial Production
BP Base Power (gaming)
BP Breastplate (armor)
BP Before Present
BP Bullpup (weapon)
BP Bande Passante (French: Bandwidth)
BP Bell's Palsy (aka Acute Idiopathic Facial Palsy)
BP Basso Profundo (music)
BP Bolivar Peninsula (near Galveston Island, TX, USA)
BP British Pharmacopoeia (medicinal standards collection; UK)
BP Blister Pack
BP Borland Pascal (successor to Borland Turbo Pascal)
BP Building Partnerships
BP Budget Project
BP Backup Path
BP Beyond Pesticides
BP Bullous Pemphigoid (skin disease)
BP Ballet Philippines
BP Bundespolizei (German: federal police)
BP Base Page
BP Banque Paribas
BP Basement Party
BP Base Pointer
BP Battle Planning
BP Baseline Plan
BP Big Pun (rapper)
BP Bayernpartei (German Party)
BP Binging/Purging
BP Brass Plum (company/division of Nordstrom)
BP Build Plan
BP Blowpipe (old anti-aircraft weapon)
BP Binding Post
BP Bearing Point
BP Bundespost (German postal service)
BP Booster Pump
BP Budget Program
BP British Patent
BP Backward Process
BP Best Papers
BP Black Plate (steel)
BP Brake Power
BP Bill of Particulars
BP Benny Parsons (former Nascar Driver)
BP Burst Pressure
BP Building Paper (construction)
BP Bollard Pull
BP Badge Points (gaming)
BP Bill Period
BP Battle Position
BP Behavioral Psychologist
BP Bubble Project
BP Batas Pambansa (National Law, Philippines)
BP Bowel Program (medical)
BP Billposter
BP Banjo Pilot (game)
BP Brilliant Pebbles
BP Boundary Point
BP Bad Payer
BP British Primary (school)
BP Blocking Position
BP Bills Payable
BP Biological Processing
BP Brutal Planet (music album)
BP Billpoint (payment method)
BP Bandwidth Protection
BP Brioche Pasquier (French baked goods company)
BP Bootstrap Probability
BP Bloque Popular (Spanish: Popular Bloc, Honduras)
BP Boost Pump
BP Booklet Pane (philately)
BP Blade Pro
BP BuddyProfile (AIM chat)
BP Boogiepop Phantom (anime)
BP Beginning Period
BP Buried Penis
BP Boundary Post (UK maps)
BP Bronze Point (bullet type)
BP British Pathé
BP Bermuda Plan (accommodation)
BP Blood Point (RPG Vampire the Masquerade, produced by White-Wolf)
BP Air Botswana Corporation (IATA airline code)
BP Bow Pulpit (nautical measure)
BP Zwart Buskruit (propellant)
BP Block Parity
BP Break-Up Point
BP Bonum Publicum (Latin: the Public Good)
BP Beef Palace (National Western Stock Show, Denver, CO)
BP Billing Percentage
BP Battlefield Position
BP Breaching Point
BP Bonding Protocol (ISDN)
BP Brown-Proschan (repair model)
BP Borrowed Personnel
BP Base/Basic Pay
BP Batch Prep (program utility)
BP Binary Phoenix (website)
BP Bucket Processing (image processing)
BP Bekleder-Parachutepakker
BP Buginesia Program
BP Baloola Palooza (entertainment news website)

After perusing that list of possibilities, the only one that could possibly apply to "c.75,000BP"is Before Present.

In lieu of becoming bogged down in the gory details of the top 100 video games of all time, here is a list (in reverse order) of just the titles:

100. Borderlands 2
99. Divinity: Original Sin 2
98. Final Fantasy VII
97. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
96. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
95. Burnout 3: Takedown
94. Fallout 2
93. League of Legends
92. Mega Man 3
91. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
90. Thief II: The Metal Age
89. SimCity 2000
88. Inside
87. Titanfall 2
86. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
85. Monster Hunter: World
84. Resident Evil 2 (Remake)
83. System Shock 2
82. Mortal Kombat 11
81. Persona 5 Royal
80. Dark Souls
79. Fortnite
78. Fable 2
77. GoldenEye 007
76. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
75. Spelunky 2
74. Return of the Obra Dinn
73. Dota 2
72. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
71. Donkey Kong
70. The Sims 3
69. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
68. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
67. Silent Hill 2
66. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
65. XCOM 2
64. Control
63. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
62. Rise of the Tomb Raider
61. Batman: Arkham City
60. Dishonored 2
59. The Witness
58. Journey
57. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
56. Overwatch
55. Apex Legends
54. Hollow Knight
53. Ms. Pac-Man
52. Counter-Strike 1.6
51. Left 4 Dead 2
50. EarthBound
49. Diablo II
48. StarCraft
47. World of Warcraft
46. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
45. Fallout: New Vegas
44. Final Fantasy VI
43. Pokémon Yellow
42. Metroid Prime
41. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
40. Resident Evil 4
39. Shadow of the Colossus
38. The Last of Us Part 2
37. Red Dead Redemption
36. Metal Gear Solid
35. Sid Meier's Civilization IV
34. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
33. Minecraft
32. Halo: Combat Evolved
31. Half-Life
30. Final Fantasy XIV
29. Doom
28. Tetris
27. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
26. Half-Life: Alyx
25. God of War
24. Chrono Trigger
23. Portal
22. Street Fighter II
21. Super Mario Bros.
20. Undertale
19. Bloodborne
18. BioShock
17. The Last of Us
16. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
15. Halo 2
14. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
13. Hades
12. Grand Theft Auto V
11. Super Mario Bros. 3
10. Disco Elysium
9. Half-Life 2
8. Red Dead Redemption 2
7. Super Mario 64
6. Mass Effect 2
5. Super Metroid
4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
3. Portal 2
2. Super Mario World

and the Number One Video Game of "All Time" -- tah-dah -- is:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I do not play video games, which probably explains why I have never heard of about 95 of the titles in that list.

Whether you read both articles, or just one of them, or neither of them, it is still true that round and round she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows.