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Meteor Over Midwest

Posted by michael on from the fahrvergnuegen dept.

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?"

6 of 509 comments (clear)

  1. Meteor strikes not that uncommon by Drunken+Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Meteor strikes like these are not as uncommon as one may think, it's just that the information is rarely released in such a public fashion. Who wants to release news that may create mass hysteria?

    The issue is that the scientific community has chosen to withhold any information regarding the potential threat of meteors for this very reason. With more public acknowledgement of the problem, we could develop something like the Patriot missile defense system for extraterrestrial bodies so things like this would not happen. The trillions of dollars spent on SDI and later the Patriot system would have been better spent on such protection.

    --
    Have you been stalked by Seth today?
  2. Great Reminder. by pete-classic · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "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.


    I need to see something like this, from time to time. It reminds me that, on an evolutionary time scale, we just stepped out of the caves a few moments ago.

    I'm not saying the human race is doomed. But we do still have one hell of a long road ahead of us. I'm going to read some Sci-Fi now.

    -Peter
    1. Re:Great Reminder. by crustBro · · Score: 4, Interesting

      me and a bunch of friends were out on a week long mountain biking trip in the wilderness Moab, Utah the third night out we were treated to the full lunar eclipse that occured while the Hale-Bopp Comet was visible we were toally awed by the celestial display one of my friends commented that "A few thousand years ago, this would have been taken as an omen. Perhaps an omen of the end of the earth!" we all chuckled and got a bit smug about how far we've come as a civilization five days later we returned from the wilderness, switched on the TV in the motel room and were treated to the news of the Heaven's Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe (about 20 minutes from where we all grew up). We had to re-evaluate our smug attitude about how far our civilization has progressed. Just stepped out of the cave. Indeed.

      --
      Entropy sucks.
  3. Re:Why Not by fishbowl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It would not surprise me in the least to hear of VWOA issuing cease and desist orders against the use of "Volkswagen" and "Bug".

    This isn't even a joke.

    I understand that corporations are obligated to defend their trademarks, but I disagree that they are forced into the brutally hostile position, like in VW's case, attacking the people who have made the whole aircooled vw hobby possible, making aftermarket parts, doing rallys, publishing magazines, that sort of thing.

    I've been a VW enthusiast for a very long time. My first car was a beetle, in 1979. I've owned 7 vw's of various types. But VW's trademark escapades were the main influence against me buying a Passat. I won't touch VW ever again, after what they've done to the hobbyists in the name of "trademark protection".

    I really do not believe there's any law that obligates you to be an asshole. That's just how it is interpreted by people who need an excuse to play bully.

    --
    -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
  4. Under-appreciated movie by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Back when Armageddon, Deep Impact, and other Americans-save-the-world propeganda was flying around, there was a great little Canadian film called "Last night"

    The situation is... a little while ago scientists figured out the world was going to end. They tried to do something about it, but realized it was utterly futile. People panicked a bit after that... but that didn't change anything. Yep, the world is going to end and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. It's great :-)

    http://users.aol.com/aleong1631/lastnight.html

    What makes it extra beautiful for the geeky crowd is that it doesn't even touch the sci-fi aspects. It just ignores that stuff... they don't even really get into why or how the world is going to end. It's just some un-discussed astronomical disaster.

    Oh, and the review is a little off... it's not that the world ends at the end of the millenium, it is that they adjust the clocks and calendars so that the world ends at that point. No trite, sucky 'fate' or religious apocolypse overtones...

  5. I saw it too, and have to admit I freaked by Mr.FreakyBig · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was driving home in the south west suburb of Naperville, and saw the sky light up. It was cloudy, so I could not see where the light came from, but it was intensly bright.

    I have to admit it made me think we'd been nuked. But then the light went away a few seconds later. I only heard a bit of a rumble over the roar of my 4 banger running at 3500 RPM at 80 mph. If I had not been going so fast, I would have stopped to take a look around, and soak up some good radiation if was a nuke.

    All I can say is I'm glad that some local news made it past all the Iraq coverage.