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Meteorite Causes Illness in Peru
eldavojohn writes "A meteorite struck in Peru on Saturday leaving cinders, rock & water boiling out of the ground. Villagers nearby reported headaches & vomiting and attributed it to the event. From the article, 'Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said. Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.' It's not yet clear whether this is from the meteorite, gas trapped underground that was released or a chemical reaction between the two."
Now tell me: who here doesn't want to see the darn crater? Of all things in TFA, what I really missed is a picture of the crater that the alleged meteorite created. Just seeing it would give us some idea of whether it was a meteorite at all, and if so, how big.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I thought I'd read those were built to withstand re-entry without vaporizing or breaking open. I seem to recall Danger-Will-Robinson arm-waving paranoia about these thermal generators the last time NASA sent one up, but the NASA boys being basically on top of it and packaging them in a way that wasn't a threat.
It's gotta be a Leviathan, the strange substance is Phazon. Someone tag this with phazon or metroidprime.
Even if it is "true", it is more likely than anything else mass hysteria.
PU-238 would be an unlikely source of problems of this sort. Most of the radiation is Alpha Particles which are easily rejected by human skin. (Alpha particle dangers are almost entirely due to internal consumption.) Even if we take possible Gamma and X-Ray emissions from long decay into account, the people who were near the meteor shouldn't feel sick until an hour or two after the exposure.
According to the article (coral cache), the problem was a "strange odor" that caused the headaches and vomiting. Such an odor suggests a strong chemical of some sort that has been aerosolized near the point of impact. The officials will probably send out a Hazmat team, take air samples, collect the debris from the crash and investigate the exact composition. (Assuming that the authorities have the necessary resources. Otherwise they'll probably get someone to dispose of it and let the air clear.)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
On the contrary, it will be cold as ice (or colder) given its composition and time for heating.
And how do you know its composition? How do you know it's 30 inches wide? All the article tells us is the size of the impact crater. That's not nearly enough for the calculator.
Ah, project Wildfire.
Or is this more of a Threshold situation.
Unless this is more like War of the Worlds.
Maybe I just watch too much Sci-Fi.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Out of curiosity, how much would it take to generate an appreciable amount of heat? The idea of little nuclear pebbles slowly warming a robot on an alien world is kind of horrifying to me in sort of a primal way.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Considering how thin the Martian atmosphere is, and how much radiation from the Sun and cosmic waves get through it, I don't think anything over there has to worry about plutonium inside a rover.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
If radiation exposure is high enough to make you vomit, you don't recover. ever.
No one has mentioned what I think is the likeliest explanation: hysteria unrelated to any physical cause.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Who gave these fucktards mod points? Not only is the parent modded "informative", so was this post, which I quote: "If I got hit with a metorite, I'd have a headache too"
Methinks some SCO stockholders somehow got mod points.
WOW! I found pictures of the people who modded this!!! And here's another of today's mods!
Oops, I think I know this mod (they call her a "bus down")
-mcgrew
PS- ok, I was right the first time... it is SCO stockholders!
Anthrax? It's a good thing it didn't hit the US, otherwise we'd blame Al Qaeda for the attack and launch an invasion of space.
No, space is where it actually came from, and that's the last place the current administration would look.
The obvious next step would be to nuke Iran.
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
I like it. And underappreciated in this community of (mostly) yanks who've never seen Torchwood :)
Send lawyers, guns, and money!