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Meteor Over Midwest
bigpat writes "According to this story in the Chicago Tribune or this article, a meteor estimated to be the size of a 'Volkswagen bug' exploded over the Midwest around midnight yesterday morning. The resulting small meteorites hit homes causing some damage. The largest meteorite collected was 7.5 pounds. So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?"
So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?
Perhaps you would prefer an Isetta.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Ohh me me me - pick me please please pleeeeease me me memememememe!!!
Why not a Ford Pinto?
They explode when they crash....
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
Volkswagen? That unit is meaningless to me. How many Volkswagen bugs are there in one Library of Congress?
It's not just meteors that get compared to volkswagon bugs, those little things are used in all kinds of analogies.
"You see, Bruce, I like to pick up girls on the rebound from a disappointing relationship. They're much more in need of solace and they're fairly open to suggestion. And, I use that to fuck them some place very uncomfortable."
"What, like the back of a Volkswagen?"
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
Or the Corvair: Unsafe plummeting through any atmosphere
Move over bacon...now there's something meteor.
Queens of the Stone Age - they rule
"I thought, 'Is it God? Is it an attack? Are we going to die?' The light freaked me out. It felt really funny, like it went through me," she said.
In a statement released later, God denied any involvement in the meteor attack on Chicago, saying he was busy blessing and damning souls at the time. No other supernaturals have commented on the charges, although the leader of the Vulcans stated that attributing the attack to them would, of course, be highly illogical.
Paranormal scientists currently are investigating the Roman and Greek Dieties for involvment, as they could not be found anywhere, perhaps in hiding.
"I only speak the truth"
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So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?
/. posts tend to end with witty or sarcastic questions?
So why is it
/* TAANSTAFL */
Today a Volkswagen Bug, approximately the size of a meteorite,
From the story:
Garza said he was in bed when heard his dog barking and what sounded like thunder. He got out of bed and was downstairs when the meteor hit.
This morning, he called his boss and told him he wasn't coming into work today. "I told him what happened, and he said, 'Okay, but don't use that excuse again.'"
Now, *that* is a true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool, head-up-the-ass boss!
I'm not really a web designer, I just play one on the Internet.
It would be far too many widths of a human hair for the average person to comprehend.
The railroad comapies must wake up and do something here. :-)
Apparently anything that makes noise tastes like chicken - eh - sounds like a train I mean.
Otherwise next time we see a chicken - sorry - I mean a train we won't know how it sounds - the chicken I mean - or was it the bug?
VW Bugs happen to be just the right size to compare to a meteor! That and it's probably excatly what a VW would do if it was dropped on earth like that....
Frank the Astronomer: Dude we just dropped th VW from space to see what it would do
Bob his accomplace: It looks exactly like a meteor!
To which his wife certainly sighed and replied, "Damn."
Do other scientists feel this way? Does a marine biologist hope to be devoured by sharks? Does a physicist hope an aberration in quantum mechanics obliterates his or her body? Does an anthropologist secretly yearn to be a headhunter's next prize?
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Cheese it! It's the FEDS!
So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?
Because, interestingly enough, the VW Beetle is the only current automobile which has a size which "The Size of Texas" is evenly divisible by. It just sounds better than saying 1/22349938th the size of Texas.
Why do I feel like there's a Captain Kirk Joke in there? Something to do with missles and alien bodies perhaps?
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
"So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs"
Have you ever seen an astronomer's paycheck? There's a reason they never compare anything to a Crown Victoria or an SUV, though you might see comparisons made to 'big as two Bugs' in such cases.
Mmmmmm... Bold, yet refreshing!
Worse yet, they may mistake my volkswagen beetle for a meteor. :P
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Shrek: Does anyone ELSE want to release news that may create mass hysteria?
Yes, we should spend money on a metor defense system since they do kill almost 0 people per year.
Assume that:
1. A meteor (of catastrophic size) will strike the Earth every 60 million years or so; and
2. Said meteor would wipe out most of the population if not diverted or destroyed;
3. Assuming a human perceives his life as being worth $5,000,000 in constant dollars (about what Kip Viscusi came up with in a study a number of years ago); and
4. Assuming a population of 10,000,000,000 earthlings, then:
1. The value of human life is approximately 50,000,000,000,000,000, or 50 quadrillion dollars.
2. The chance of being hit by a catastrophic meteor in a given year is 1/60,000,000
3. The average annual cost of a meteorite premium for "Earth insurance" should be about 50,000,000,000,000,000/60,000,000, or $833,333,333.33 in today's dollars.
Conclusion:
A small price to pay on a yearly basis.
Action plan:
Contact FEMA and ask if humanity can purchase a meteor rider for its flood insurance policy, which was issued by God (tm) to some Jews a few thousand years back.
GF.
Lots of petrified grits
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Bruce Willis wasn't immediately available for comment.
Ed Wedig
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That meteor missed me by >< that much....
Would you believe > < that much?
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Why do so many people jump to attribute unexplained natural events to a supernatural, invisible "being" that lives in the sky and controls everything in existence and know the number of hairs on the head of every living being??
Is this being larger or smaller than a VW Bug?
approved the design of the orignal VW bug and HITLER was an alien from outer space who arrived on a meteor!
Excuse me, I have to go take my meds now.
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