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?"

Comments

Why Not

[Oculus Habent]

So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?

Perhaps you would prefer an Isetta.

Re:Why Not

[SpaceLifeForm]

The VW bugs are used as a comparison because they have been around as long as meteors and last nearly as long too.

Re:Why Not

[neuroticia]

Actually, it's because the VW Bug is a common object in American culture, and probably elsewhere in the world as well. When you say "VW Bug", it doesn't take a whole lot of scrabbling around in ones memory to come up with an appropriate mental picture of how large the asteroid is. If someone said 'The size of a Toyota Camry', it would be a bit more difficult--and "The size of a small car" is a tad too open to interpretation. Because the design of the bug (size-wise) has remained consistent for a LONG time, the mental image people get will be consistent with the image astronomers/the media want people to get.

Most people can relate better to an image of "A meteor the size of a volkswagon bug impacted with the moon" rather than "A x ton meteor impacted with the moon". The relationship to a physical object that most people have encountered in their lifetime rather than an abstract measurement of weight, elicits the desired emotional response from people. Awe. If you say "A x-ton meteor", it won't be quite as impressive as saying "A meteor the size of the empire state building", no matter how many tons "x" is.

For abstract numbers, people need a sense of scale. "The new budget for executive toenail clippers is equivalent to the salaries of 1200 secretaries." It's more likely to bring about anger at the stupidity of the budget than a number is.

-Sara

Re:Why Not

[plalonde2]

Certainly I prefer the ones compared to VWs to the ones compared with the Rock of Gibraltar!

Re:Why Not

[Mysticalfruit]

Duh... After the scientists made contact with aliens, they decided to standardize all measurements on the VolksWagen Bug, shorted as VWB.

Hence, when an alien vessel parks in earth orbit, it's size is referred to in cublic VWB's.

Hence, smaller objects are referred to in terms of they're size as a percentage of 1 VWB. Since a VWB was about 900 pounds (I think) then I'm 1/4.5ths of a VWB in terms of mass...

Re:Why Not

[DeadSeaTrolls]

So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?

Because most people on the planet know what a VW Bug/Bettle looks like. A Land Rover might be another good example of an internationally recognized vehicle. Note I didn't say "Universal".

Probably few in Europe known WTF a Ford Pinto is, and equally those in the US probably don't know what a Ford Prefect looks like (beyond the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy angle).

Re:Why Not

[fishbowl]

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.

Re:Why Not

[Scaba]

Hmmm, and I thought they compared them to VW Bugs because that's all scientists can afford to drive.

Re:Why Not

[fitten]

I agree.

Should we have a new metric measurement? The Bug? :) We could have milliBug, centiBug, Bug, kiloBug, etc!

Re:Why Not

[JahToasted]

So how long before Bush decides invades Germany for building VWMDs?

Re:Why Not

[TheOldFart]

Well... how many people would know what they are talking about if they said it was the size of an AS/400? It's just something the populace can grasp without resorting to less PC analogies such as the size of Oprah (not to mention that the latter tends to vary quite dramatically from time to time)...

Re:Why Not

[Zenjive]

No, you see, it's because a VW bug seems kinda harmless. Like, if they said it was the size of a Lincoln Navigator people would freak out. Or if they used the example of a car of relative size to a VW bug, like, say a Pinto, people would have visions of gas tanks exploding. :end sarcasm:

Re:Why Not

[UniverseIsADoughnut]

Because the little green men in outerspace are seeing Hitler opening the olympics as their first images of us. So the throw Meteors the size of hilters car back at us.

Also it's a universal thing. Everyone knows how big a WV bug is. If you said it's the size of a Honda Accord few would know how big that is. Also VW bugs are nice and round, much like what the Meteor will look like. Saying it's the size of a common object is much more useful to people then saying it was 32 m^3 meteor or 4500 gallon rock or something crazy.

Now what would be fun is to launch a VW bug into space and watch it fall back. Wonder how they would describe it's size.

Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Drunken Coward]

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.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Anonymous Coward]

Who wants to release news that may create mass hysteria?

Ohh me me me - pick me please please pleeeeease me me memememememe!!!

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[binaryDigit]

The trillions of dollars spent on SDI and later the Patriot system would have been better spent on such protection.

And given the "success" of those projects, would you feel any safer?

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[binaryDigit]

Why dont you ask the Kuwaities and The US military about the current success of the next gen Patriot?

Yes, it's nice to have a decade to fix your problems. If we were talking a large metor striking the Earth, we wouldn't have the opportunity to fix our first screw up.

Plus, considering the rather, uh, "optimistic" results that are reported during conflicts (e.g. reports of the last Partriot success during the conflict), I'd be rather suspect of _any_ such information until after everything is said and done (hey, it may turn out that it was better than first thought, either way, until the post mortem, I'm not taking anything as gospel).

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[nomadicGeek]

Ok, I'm calling bullshit on this one.

Trillions of dollars? You realize that the US economy is about $10 trillion a year. Do you really think that we spent that much on the patriot system and SDI research?

Secondly: Maybe I am really uninformed. I can't remember anyone that I know every being hurt my a meteor. I can't even remember any friend of a friend type stories. Is it really that serious? Worth spending a significant portion of the GDP (trillions) on?

Maybe I am just nieve and my grandma was really hit by a meteor and didn't have a stroke. Maybe the stroke was caused by a meteor?

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[br0ck]

Like how the Patriot is targeting friendly aircraft?

On Sunday, a Patriot Missile battery on the Kuwait border accidentally shot down a British Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR-4 aircraft that was returning from a mission over Iraq . Two British pilots were killed in the incident. Then on Monday a U.S. F-16 fighter jet fired at and destroyed a Patriot battery's radar dish after the pilot said the Patriot had "locked on" to the plane. Published reports have linked the mishaps to software problems with the Patriot.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[juhaz]

Even if that 10km large rock would be broken down to fine sand, it's total mass and velocity will still be that of the original 10km large rock. That's a same amount (a lot) of kinetic energy, no matter whether it's in one piece or 100000000.

It's not going to just magically disperse and do nothing, that would violate the laws of thermodynamics, that energy has to go somewhere, namely into the atmosphere as heat, and none of us would probably want to be on a receiving end of a weather effect that would result from dumping dumping all that matter and heat into atmosphere very quickly.

For small rocks breaking them up into so small parts that they will burn totally should work reasonably well, but I wouldn't try that with anything huge.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Sgt York]

Well, it's rare, but it does happen....

Injuries were light.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Anonymous Coward]

the scientific community does not withhold information about potential meteor threats.

http://impact.arc.nasa.gov

the article on the NEO Impact Symposium and secrecy issues is interesting, and addresses your issues of media hush-hush.

also, if there WERE a meteor threat headed our way, how would we deal with it? that is still up for debate. the money has not come NASA's way that will allow for full research on the topic.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[MacGod]

the Patriot missile defense system for extraterrestrial bodies

Why do I feel like there's a Captain Kirk Joke in there? Something to do with missles and alien bodies perhaps?

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[DeputySpade]

Worse yet, they may mistake my volkswagen beetle for a meteor. :P

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Anonymous Coward]

Ohh me me me - pick me please please pleeeeease me me memememememe!!!

Shrek: Does anyone ELSE want to release news that may create mass hysteria?

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[LMCBoy]

Sorry, DC, I'm afraid I don't quite agree with your detective work there...

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?

Meteor falls are quite rare, actually. There are typically about 50 recorded per year for the entire planet.

Do you really think that stories on meteor falls are being suppressed by the media? Really? I just can't believe that anyone would think that the media would not pounce on such a story. And to give as justification that they are worried about causing mass hysteria is just laughable. (A) the news media lives and breathes by ratings, and disaster stories create high ratings; (B) where is the "mass hysteria" that this event (which the Chicago Tribune so foolishly refused to suppress) caused? There isn't any, because people understand that these are rare events. So when they occur, they are regarded as an interesting novelty, not as a portend of coming doom.

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.

God, what a phenomenal waste of effort and money that would be. Who gives a damn about this class of meteor fall? Are you truly suggesting the government invest trillions so that some dude's bedroom mirror doesn't get broken by a falling rock? Get some perspective, man, there are far more dangerous things to worry about than falling VW-sized rocks.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[guacamolefoo]

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.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Dark Bard]

Historically there have been a few killed by meteors. More have been killed by ball lightning and it's extremely rare. The bigger issue are the large ones. The smaller ones tend to break up and burn up. The larger ones ......Well can anyone remember the last time you saw a live dinosaur.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Servo]

Isn't that region also known to rain frogs, rocks, and other oddities?

Joking aside... the chance of being in the right place at the right time to get hit by an object falling from a random trajectory is nearly impossibly unlikely, but the bigger that object the more damage it can do. I'm sure few slashdot readers are well read enough to have heard about the downfall of the dinosaurs. :) You don't have to be in the physical path of a meteor to feel its affects.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Maeryk]

I remember back in the '80's when Ronnie first proposed SDI, I seem to recall that the price tag was a couple trillion dollars. I'm guessing that the prevailing thought at the time was that all the GDP savings in the world don't amount to a hill of beans if we all get vaporised to our component atoms by those damn commies.

Speaking of SDI. niven was on Screen Savers the other night, and mentioned that he was one of the people involved in proposing SDI (if I heard right) to Reagans government. That initiative was enough (according to him, and I kind of agree after thinkign about it) to end the cold war, because Russia just couldnt keep up. They bankrupted themselves trying, especially for something we werent really "doing" we were just planning on doing and debating over.

Probably one of the best and most memorable modern military feints I can think of.

Maeryk

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[TarPitt]

......Well can anyone remember the last time you saw a live dinosaur.

So you missed the recent Slashdot discussion on IBM Mainframes?

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[SillySlashdotName]

Ever shot a shotgun? Using shot, starting from the same starting point and being pointed in one direction, they do not all wind up at the target in the same tight wad that they were in the shot shell. In addition, the recoil of the shot may be quite uncomfortable, but at 50-60-70 yards a single pellet may not have enough energy left to even break the skin.

A slug, on the other hand, hits much harder and at much greater range.

So you hit the rock as far out as you can, breaking it into the smallest pieces you can. There will be dispersal of some of the debris to the point where it will not even strike the atmosphere, some will strike but at an angle that - depending on how close to a tangent it is - may not be in atmosphere for any length of time and remains largely intact, probably causing little or no harm.

In addition, the amount of "space dust" currently hitting the earth has been estimated to be between 14 MILLION tons (by Hans Pettersson of the Swedish Oceanographic Institute in 1957, based on studies of dust collected on Hawaiian mountains - he stated in his write-up that that number was probably quite high) to 10,000 tons based on satellite collection. This is per year, so the per day rate would be that amount /365, or almost 55,000 pounds per day (based on the 10,000 ton rate) that we are CURRENTLY receiving.

I don't know how big a rock would be that would weigh 27.5 tons (about as big as a VW? /*VBG*/) but we do seem to be dealing with the heat created by the kinetic energy just fine.

I see the problem as one of calculation - i.e., deciding with enough advanced warning that an object will in fact strike the earth and must have something done about it, as opposed to MIGHT strike the earth, but might not, so if we break it up and create a bunch of smaller pieces (but each large enough to be dangerous on their own) the possibility of one of them hitting is greater than the possibility of the larger mass hitting. In addition, the energy added in whatever means of breaking the larger mass into smaller pieces would disrupt the path of the object, so a period of observation would be required to start predicting its new path - time that might be needed for additional efforts to break up pieces that had been redirected directly at earth.

Re:Meteor strikes not that uncommon

[Dark Bard]

Not entirely true. The date for birds keeps getting pushed back. Feathered reptiles have been found that date back nearly to the point where Dinosaurs and mammals split. The evidence seems to really indicate that birds, dinosaurs and mammals all split at roughly the same time. Birds and dinosaurs may have split last but it was within tens of millions of years not hundreds of millions of years of the mammal split. The dominant theory is still tree to air not ground to air. The one major flaw in the dinosaur to bird theory always has been that there has never been found a single tree climbing dinosaur. Birds and dinosaurs are closely related but dinosaurs didn't change into birds. No one has ever explained how a T-Rex, arguably the most advanced Dinosaur turned into a parakeet.

Ford Pintos

[Lxy]

Why not a Ford Pinto?

They explode when they crash....

Volkswagen bugs? Use real units!

[CrystalFalcon]

Volkswagen? That unit is meaningless to me. How many Volkswagen bugs are there in one Library of Congress?

VWs are popular

[Rinikusu]

Because there are probably more VW's on the road in just about any country you can imagine. Tell someone something was the size of a VW Bug and an image instantly comes to mind (not to mention that being an highly "odd" shape, it helps me conjure an irregular surfaced object). For example "It was the size of a VW bug" as opposed to "It was an irregular object approximately 2 meters by 5 meters by 2 meters", which is more helpful to the average person, even someone in the science fields?

Relax...

[jpsst34]

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?"

Corvair (was Re:Ford Pintos)

[pergamon]

Or the Corvair: Unsafe plummeting through any atmosphere

New Midwest slogan for farms that got hit...

[Gorphrim]

Move over bacon...now there's something meteor.

Explanation

[Joe the Lesser]

"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.

Re:Explanation

[jgbustos]

Old German and French deities couldn't be reached for contact either, as they were very busy eating cheese and surrendering.
</obligatory Simpsons pun>

/. question

[Arpie]

So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?

So why is it /. posts tend to end with witty or sarcastic questions?

Certainly does seem that way, doesn't it...

[duckHole]

"So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?"

I was skeptical, but:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010528/mete or.html
http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/1999/f eb/m14-013.shtml
http://www.theblob.info/xtras/kecksburg.pdf

Just once...

[pergamon]

...I'd like to hear a report of an actual Volkswagen Bug entering the atmosphere from space and crashing. I imagine the report would go something like this:

A Volkswagen Bug estimated to be the size of a 'meteor' exploded over the Midwest around midnight yesterday morning. The resulting small pieces of engine and other parts hit homes causing some damage. The largest piece found was the steering wheel.

Today a Volkswagen Bug, approximately the size of a meteorite,

Pointy Haired Boss

[sfled]

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!

Why compare to a VW? Easy...

[Eponymous Coward]

It would be far too many widths of a human hair for the average person to comprehend.

Great Reminder.

[pete-classic]

"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

Re:Great Reminder.

[crustBro]

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.

Railroads just a bigger chickens?

[northwind]

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? :-)

Kinda Scary

[panda]

This is actually kind of scary if you think about it. This stuff is hitting our atmosphere all the time, and more of it gets through than you'd like to think. When I was a kid, a friend of the family and I used to go looking for meteorites in the hills and valleys of Lincoln Co., WV. We even found some on occasion.

What's scay is when you think of what meteors are. They are chunks thrown off of much larger comets as they pass through the solar system. There are often meteor showers before and after a comet's passing, and the meteors can hang around for a long time after, such as the Perseids. (I mean long in an astronomical sense, not a human sense.)

So every time there's an unexpected meteor shower or a strike like this, I have to wonder, is this just a precursor of something bigger that's on its way, or is this just the left over detritus of something that came and went a while ago?

Pictures of it

[alien88]

Nbc 5 has some nice pictures of the meteor. The slideshow is really cool. Spaceweather.com also has some more information concerning it.

I was one of the people that felt and heard the sonic boom it created, my sister witnessed it in the sky.

1728

[cybercuzco]

How many Volkswagen bugs are there in one Library of Congress?

1728

DUH VW Bugs!

[Warthog9]

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!

Deep Impact Thoughts by Jack Handy

[teamhasnoi]

Commander Mike McNamara of the Park Forest Police Department said about 60 pieces of space rock ranging from gravel-sized to softball-sized were brought in to the police station.

Why are these people bringing in their rocks? Are they turning them in? They've got to be worth some money, though less than before this 'windfall'. Will NASA be suing these rocks?

He said three homes in Park Forest were damaged, along with the fire department and possibly one car. Two homes in the nearby town of Matteson also were struck by meteorite pieces.

Since there are all these new damaged objects, I think that the Ford Pinto? that was smashed will likely no longer be worth as much - scarcity breeds value. IIRC, the value placed on that car was somewhere in the 6 digits.

Sipiera said it's very rare for meteorites to fall on populated areas.

I know that with the rampant humping that's going on, this will only become more common. Hopefully, we can have natural selection return with meteors. If we could fit the meteors with stupidity finders, the world would be a better...OW! Ding dang moon rock jist hit me! I'll whup it's ass!!

Nasa Cave Dude

[invid]

I think it's time we follow the advice of this guy: NasaCaveDude

Re:Nasa Cave Dude

[evilviper]

You know what's great fun??? Going through an archive of Art Bell shows.

Yes, all the 'psychics' with '98% accuracy' look like incredibly fucking morons when dozens of things they were 'absolutely sure' were going to happen... didn't.

It works for just about everybody... Anyone that says they were abducted almost inevitably says they know the date when aliens are going to come to take over the planet, or something else equivalent.

Yes, if anyone has some recorded predictions (that aren't incredibly vague) that have held up, I'd like to know... I'll be damn skeptical, but I'd still like to know.

Thread

[Hatechall]

This thread isn't a discussion, it's a (bad) punchline contest. I likey.

Scientists can be Wierd

[arloguthrie]

From the Boston.com article:

''For me, it's a dream come true,'' [astronomy professor Paul Sipiera] said. ''I always tell my wife that when I die, I hope I get hit in the head by a meteorite flying through the roof and it came pretty close,'' he said.

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?

Re:Scientists can be Wierd

[circletimessquare]

does a computer scientist want to be rooted by a worm?

Bug = 1 ton

[goodmanj]

So why do astronomers always compare the size of meteors to Volkswagen bugs?

Because a Bug is an easily-identifiable object which weighs very close to one ton.

These days, since the New Beetle weighs over 1.5 tons, one might use a Mini for comparison. But the Old Bug has become traditional.

Keeping my rocks

[DeadBugs]

from article on CNN....

"Park Forest Police Department said about 60 pieces of space rock ranging from gravel-sized to softball-sized were brought in to the police station."

Have you seen what these are going for on EBAY. Sell, Sell, Sell

VW Bug Size Ratio

[Nutcase]

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.

As for Bug comparisons...

[pjt48108]

"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.

Under-appreciated movie

[Dr. Evil]

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...

Re:Under-appreciated movie

[Enigma2175]

What makes it extra beautiful for the geeky crowd is that it doesn't even touch the sci-fi aspects.

Doesn't that make it a less desirable movie for the geeky crowd? I like science. I enjoy movies that have science in them. I think many geeks feel the same way. Why would a touchy-feely movie be "extra beautiful" for the geeky crowd?

Re:Under-appreciated movie

[Dr. Evil]

Beautiful in the irony that the complete absense of any sci-fi will make it better sci-fi for the geek crowd. Think about it, one of two things will happen if they explained the disaster to a geek audience:

1. They'll devise an implausible disaster scenario which will just ruin the movie
2. Some geek will find a solution for their problem.. also ruining the movie

Better just to write around it. Besides, part of the movie is that hope is long gone. Just deal with the fact that it's hopeless.

Why??

[pair-a-noyd]

"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.

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??

Might as well attribute meteor showers to the Easter Bunny, or hey, maybe it's a "sign" from the Heaven's Gate folks!

Re:Why??

[valkraider]

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?

Somone set us up the Bug!

[Limburgher]

What you say??!?!

All your Park Forest are belong to us.

Launch every redunant comment, for great justice!

In other news...

[docbrown42]

Bruce Willis wasn't immediately available for comment.

I saw it too, and have to admit I freaked

[Mr.FreakyBig]

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.

Geologic Term

[Hallowed]

We were told by our prof. in Geo 101 my first year of college that "VW bug-sized" is a common and appropriate geo. term......

Missed!

[ak_hepcat]

That meteor missed me by >< that much....

Would you believe > < that much?

Saw the flash

[weeboo0104]

Didn't bother to "duck and cover".

I thought it was lightning and didn't really give it much thought. The only thing I thought was weird at the time was the fact that it was so bright and I didn't hear any thunder. Did any /.ers in the Chicago area besides me see the flash? If so, did you hear any sonic boom? How long after the flash did you hear the boom?

Because HITLER

[TerryAtWork]

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.

More stories + pictures

[MikeAR303]

I was in the area - the sky was bright, almost
blinding... my dog was barking like mad when the
'boom' was heard.
Here are a couple links to other articles w/pictures:
Article + rock pictures
Article + sky pictures + rock picture slideshow

I saw it

[pdrome4robert]

I saw one of the meteorites coming down at 11:50 PM CST while driving north from St. Louis to Alton, IL on hwy 64. It fell just before I crossed the Mississippi River at the Clark Bridge into Alton. It looked like a green firework that started to glow overhead. The City of Alton shoots fireworks over the Mississippi here so I was not concerned at first. It seemed to float a little, then began to rapidly shoot down in a stream of green light toward the left of the bridge. By the time the meteor looked to be even with the top of the bridge pylons it broke up and the streak turned from green to bright yellow/white. When it hit, it looked like it hit behind Alton and exploded in a flash of light like a bomb. I have never seen anything like it, not even during a meteor shower. Mentally, I went through a list of the possibilities: airplane crash, missle, lightning, meteorite, or space junk. No news outlets had any information at that time. There was just a creepy calm when I got home. I only wish I had a picture of it.

pdrome4robert