Whether shot from a cannon or in hot pursuit on foot, cartoon characters are so absolute in their momentum that only a telephone pole or an outsize boulder retards their forward motion absolutely. Sir Isaac Newton called this sudden termination of motion the stooge's surcease. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Stability is achieved when you spend all your time doing nothing but reporting on the nothing you are doing.
History repeats itself.
That's one of the things wrong with history. If on an actuarial basis there is a 50-50 chance that something will go wrong, it will actually go wrong nine times out of ten. He that lives upon Hope dies farting. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled, and no one dares to criticize it. Corollary - An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the Grand Fallacy.