That reminds me of the line in the opening scenes in Ghostbusters (I don’t remember the exact quote)…
“Symmetrical bookstacking! This is amazing!”
“Right, Ray… no human being would stack books like that

Mp3 Dinle

mp3 dinle

It’s sad that that aliens nonsense is proliferating about Tunguska again. I had thought the public had finally, finally accepted the scientific consensus that it was an asteroid or comet. (I always thought the comet idea was silly, since a loose ball of dust and ice would just come apart–can someone tell me if I was off base there?)

But NOO! This Crusade of the Credulous can’t stick to religious extremism–it has to descend into increased acceptance of other superstitious nonsense. It’s been especially sad to see the virulent propagation of woo since the fall of Communism. I realize there had to be some down side to the Eastern Bloc disbanding (besides its being not as good a tourist destination), but did it have to be this?

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_6_28/ai_n6361817

No mention of a rock, but I wonder what ever became of the alien artifact he found?

J. D.

Given that there’s a lot more people and inhabited area on the Earth, shouldn’t we be worried about the defence against such things?

The dynamics believed to be involved is that as the mass enters the atmosphere, it begins to pancake. This increases its air resistance and causes it to pancake even more. Meanwhile, pressure on the leading side builds up, while the pressure on the trailing side is much lower, creating a pressure differential. Eventually, the forces reach a point where the whole thing suddenly comes to a stop. All of the kinetic energy in the system has to be released somehow. Hence, the big boom.

How big the explosion is and it’s altitude is dependent on several things: the initial mass, the structure and composition of the object, how fast it’s initial velocity is, and the structure and composition of the planetary atmosphere.

Tunguska is the most notable example, but they actually occur once or twice a week around the globe. Most are over the ocean or uninhabited regions and half of them are in daylight, and are usually much higher in the atmosphere, which explains why few are ever observed or reported. Defense satellites routinely detect the explosions in the atmosphere.

A scary incident occurred in June 2002. Pakistan and India were on the verge of nuclear warfare when one of these exploded over the Mediterranean region. If it had entered the atmosphere just a few seconds earlier it would have exploded over the disputed region between India and Pakistan. You have to assume they would’ve shot first and asked questions later.

That reminds me of the line in the opening scenes in Ghostbusters (I don’t remember the exact quote)…
“Symmetrical bookstacking! This is amazing!”
“Right, Ray… no human being would stack books like that.”

Janie Belle : “Think about it. They took a rock. A regular old worthless rock. If I walked into my neighbor’s yard and took a rock, I’m not even sure that’s a crime, is it?”

Afraid so, trespass and, technically, theft too I think although its unlikely it’d be considered a serious felony. Mind you it wasn’t an ordinary rock either, if it _was_ a meteorite – some of them can be worth quite a bit and a verified Tunguska one would be especially valuable – if that’s what it was which seems highly implausible.

Black Cat : Elk? Sorry to be pedantic but it was reindeer .. lots of em too! No elk in Siberia I think. As far as we know no-one was killed – a very sparsely populated area indeed & co-incidentally another meteorite fall the Shikote-Ailin happened a decade or so later in the same region.

The Tunguska blast took place on June 30th 1908 but it was many years afterwards that the first scientific expedition led by a bloke called Leonid Kulik (who has a rather targic personal story but that’s another matter) examined the scene. Theories and calculations suggest the meteorite involved may have been a rockyfragment of Encke’s comet.

When they are detonating nukes, detonating them on the ground does not cause as much damage as detonating them a ways above the ground (whether it is at the ideal altitude or not, assuming it isn’t too high).

That’s not quite true.

If the purpose of your nuclear explosion is to squish a city, then yes, detonating it as an air burst at an appropriate altitude (depends on the expected yield of the explosion) will tend to maximize the damage to surface buildings and exposed critters.

If the purpose of your nuclear explosion is to crack bunkers, then a surface or sub-surface burst near the nut to be cracked is the best bet.

if the purpose of your nuclear explosion is to make a mess and create fallout, it’s hard to beat a surface burst on a windy day. It’s hard to call this “less damage” than an air burst because although it will flatten less buildings, it will cause radioactive debris to be strewn over a much larger area, thereby causing long-term damage that an airburst simply won’t.

In it Bill DesMedt plays the what if game: What if Tunguska was caused by a microsingularity, and what it it was still orbiting under the crust of the Earth…

I quite enjoyed the story, a nice little detective/action book. You can check out the podiobook (as read by the author) at:
http://www.podiobooks.com/title/singularity

Or DeSmedt’s website at: http://www.singularitythebook.com/

Obviously this is not evidence of alien involvement since if they wanted to maximize damage they would have detonated somewhere where they would actually have caused damage (unless they have some grudge against elk).

Gary 7

Heck, I’ve got a bunch of “meteorites” in my yard. How much do people want to spend? I can authenticate them as well, and send you the CoA.

Can the thieves even be prosecuted for anything?

Think about it. They took a rock. A regular old worthless rock. If I walked into my neighbor’s yard and took a rock, I’m not even sure that’s a crime, is it?

Can you imagine the look on the judge’s face when the S.W.A.T. team drags me into the courtroom in manacles and says “Your Honor, she stole a rock.”?

Kisses

This is all ridiculous. What IS wrong with some people? well, hopefully the awesome rock will be found back and who knows, maybe it’ll be given to some scientists for some analysis to determine if it IS a meteorite, hmm? I wonder if he had an analysis done already. I’d like to know.