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Meteorite Destroys Warehouse In Auckland, NZ
vik writes "According to local media, multiple eye witnesses are reporting that a meteorite crashed into a warehouse in Auckland, New Zealand last night, setting it on fire. The warehouse roof was destroyed but no nearby buildings were damaged and there was only one minor casualty — a man who happened to be inside the building at the time. The fire service have not yet made an official announcement."
...the recent jet crash in San Diego. That was really tragic.
-- http://ninthagenda.com/
Minor injury... sure.
But minor casualty????
Was he a janitor or something?
Do insurance companies cover stuff like this?
How in the hell do you have a MINOR casualty? What, was he only a little bit dead?
Planet Zebeth - Metroid with a twist
Any connection to Palin's church?:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/13/palin.church/index.html
Table-ized A.I.
This is why I don't buy lottery tickets or insurance. Any moment now my car or building or whatever could be hit my a meteorite and I could likely sell it for a LOT of money, especially if it was a certain type. If I suddenly saw one smash my car I'd be like, "YEEEESSS!"
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
[citation needed]
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Some people were convinced the fire was caused by what may have been a meteorite, which was seen from various parts of the upper North Island streaking across the sky just after 10 o';clock.
Several callers claim the light in the sky was very bright, and it was described by some as a blinding flash. Others said it was trailing smoke.
One man, Mike, says he saw the object crash with an exploding noise in the Ponsonby area, and reckons it could have started the fire.
To summarize, a meteorite was seen, and may have even crashed in this area. That is all.
It's a "failed" lander from Mars. They are seeking revenge.
Table-ized A.I.
Casualty is a term limited to not just describing dead people but also wounded people. reference.com definitions of casualty.
Anyway, I was among the tens of thousands of people who witnessed the 'streak of light' shortly after 10pm, from the Auckland Domain where the annual Christmas in the Park concert had just finished. The streak lasted less than what felt like 10 seconds, made no discernible noise, and looked about as bright than a nearby firework (of which there were heaps 5 minutes prior at the end of the concert).
In fact, at the time I only half thought it was a 'shooting star' as it could've been part of the fireworks. The show had finished, and people were packing up, so I wondered if it was something for the kids (Ooh, hey kids, look, Santa has flown away). But after reading this article, it must have been the same meteorite. Very cool!
Workers compensation officer: How exactly did you get hurt?
Man: God smote me down
Boss: Don't mind Bob he's still a little shellshocked. He was struck by a meteorite. Or is that meteor. Was it a meteorite once it hit the roof or was it only a meteorite once it hit Bob?
Workers compensation officer: Well then if he can't even tell what hit him, we can't pay him can we?
Man: God smote me down, I tell you!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Will the town be renamed Smallville, NZ?
He'll be lucky if he finds what's left of it... I hear meteorite hunters will pay quite a bit for them...
I had a sucky sig.
So this is it. The alien invasion has begun. :(
Nice knowing you all. ...
Perhaps there is hope.
All we have to do is mutter the words Klaatu. .. Verada. .. Necktie...Nectar...Nickel?...It's an "N" word, it's definitely an "N" word...
Hellfire and brimstone? Check time and trajectory.
Are you in good hands?
The way timothy worded it makes it sound like someone died but it was a person of minor importance.
..When found, the lone warehouse worker has some slimy looking stuff eating away at his right arm...
My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my Father! Prepare to die!
It'll take a Leonids shower to take that junk retail chain down
Honestly, I'd wait for the New Zealand Fire Service report before taking this seriously. All that the article says is that a warehouse caught fire in Auckland (not too unusual), and that people in Auckland saw a meteor and reckoned it "landed" somewhere near there. One person thinks he heard it crash with an exploding noise.
In short, some spectators are claiming a meteorite was involved in the fire, and the media's jumped on it because it makes the story more interesting. The NZ Herald seems to be the only news agency in New Zealand which I can find that's spinning the meteorite idea (actually the NZ Herald and Slashdot now that I've checked Google News). My guess is that it's just a coincidence that the fire started at roughly the same time.
People frequently see meteors in the sky and assume they can tell where the landed, even though most don't even land. People are nearly always wrong, and get confused by the perspective and brightness and distance which makes it look as if bright meteors are much closer than they are, and are heading much more steeply into the ground than they are.
Until the Fire Service comes out and states outright that it was a meteorite, and perhaps finds fragments, I'm not going to give the claim much credit. For a warehous fire in Auckland, it's more likely arson or an electrical fault.
Not 100% pure now. Are you? You bastards!
I reserve the write to mangle english.
Minor casualty? I guess he won't be missed? (Yes, I RTFA.)
It was an appropriate use of the word. Here's a definition from dictionary.com
"One who is injured or killed in an accident."
I was on top of Mt Eden watching the fireworks display. Shortly after it ended was chatting with my friend when the meteor shot overhead - it was larger than anything I've ever seen in my life, the sky flashed as if a band of magnesium had been lit and the trail that it left behind remained illuminated for several minutes. We were goofing off when my friend spotted the blaze to the north, the same direction that the meteor had been going in. It was seriously the biggest fire in a city that I've ever witnessed and it was crazy seeing all of the fire engines racing out to it. We jumped in the car and headed over there. Just had to follow the huge plume of smoke, even in the dark. It was pretty much burnt out by the time we got there, although they were still dousing it with water and smoke/steam continued to pour out. While it seems unlikely it was the meteor, it was INSANE to see that big a fire, just minutes after that incredible meteor. Now I'm just waiting for the next volcano to spawn here. It's gonna happen sooner or later... (This city is SO much better than Toronto). ;)
I'm in Auckland, saw the meteor (which was awesome, BTW), and there's no way it hit anything or caused the fire. It was going totally in the wrong direction and it burned up well before the ground. In fact, it was probably so high that its trajectory would have taken it well out to sea.
This is just a classic case of people finding spurious links between unrelated events.
I haven't seen anyone commenting on whether it might have been the bag that chick astronaut lost...could the guy sue NASA for comp then?
I'd make an allusion to ponsonby and sodom but no one would get it. (The Ponsonby bit, not the biblical reference)
...they're often frozen on the surface when found right after the fall! It's a common myth that meteorites blazing hot. In reality, the molten surface of a meteorite has plenty of time to cool during the fall through cold atmosphere, and the interior of the meteorite remains very cold.
THAT's why building 7 collapsed!
Isn't strange that the word "casualty" is so close to "casual?"
But yes, non-fatal injuries count as casualties, despite the fact that "casualties" is often used interchangeably with "fatalities."
On behalf of all New Zealanders living outside of Auckland, why couldn't the meteorite have been a little bigger?
I am from new zealand and about 1 year ago approx we heard a loud bang through out all of christchurch city. It turned out to be a meteorite breaking up on entry to the atmosphere.
Are they absolutely SURE it was a meteorite, and not another piece of Skylab? .....I smell a NASA CONSPIRACY!!!1!
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Was is meteorite or meteor?
And is Tricia Tanaka dead?
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
A meteor hits a warehouse...setting it on fire. This is the classic hypothetical example used when teaching the law of bailment in first year property class to law students.
What kind of warehouse I wonder? Did they hold on to their own goods only - or those belonging to others?
Every law student learns in first year property that a bailee of goods for hire is absolutely liable for them, even if the proverbial meteor falls from the sky and destroys them. That's the common law - and the over the top example literally used in the texts to make the point, too. And this happened in New Zealand - a common law country.
Problem is, the warehouse, if it is holding goods belonging to others, probably isn't insured for this. The insurer will claim Act of God. (And if "Act of God" is to mean anything in an insurance contract, it probably means a meteor). The warehouse owner will say "these goods not destroyed by a meteor - they were destroyed by fire, and we're insured for that".
The insurer will say "hell no; we're not paying." And off to court this will go.
Were the goods destroyed by a fire - or by a meteor? Because either way, the bailee is on the hook.
The resulting litigation answering that question will go down in the history books - and be subsequently learned by every law student in the common law world in their second month of law school - for the next several centuries.
.Robert
How is this news on Slashdot? The mere scraping of something astronomical and it appears as a news feed. Next up... Paris Hilton's new dog..
The Tao that can be named is not the Tao
Not only is it true, but meteorites often land with ice on them! Yes it could break a gas line or knock over something flammable, but it's not very likely is it?
That's a cool meteor.
If a large meteor landed in an urban area, it will be captured on multiple videos (surveillance cameras, plus the odd person filming something at the time, and even people quick enough to whip out their cell phones). Pretty much every recent meteor fall has had such documentary evidence; each video found narrows down the trajectory and frequently allows more to be found, by going to the right area and asking.
The absence of such multiply interlocking independent streams of evidence is one reason why I find recent UFO reports unconvincing.
It depends whether the locals suspect the fire in Palin's church was suspiciously suspicious. Then maybe both events could be linked.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Sorry, until there's actual evidence instead of crackpot eyewitless testimony, I don't believe you.
The discovery of an alien in the desert, who clearly says in English, "I'm sorry, but there is bad news,"
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
... at all ?
conspiracy mode on
He could have very well been in the meteorite when it crashed down, emerging, slightly damaging his *alien* hand, and acting that he was there all along.
I think we have to write off NZ - it will be zombified soon - the puppet master has arrived ! Be aware of pods!
conspiracy mode off
Seriously, what the fuck to the Slashdot editors do, exactly? They clearly don't proofread submissions. It's time to jettison them and make this a truly community-run site. Fuck you, Timothy, you heartless son of a bitch faggot. Your death would be a very minor casualty.
Meteorites cool off way before hitting the ground. They cool off during what is known as "Dark Flight". No meteorite lands hot. Period. Now maybe it struck something which then exploded but I highly doubt this story.
Because last night in NJ my wife spotted 3 and I spotted 1 meteorites streaking in front of us on the garden state parkway at around 12:15 am ish. They where big for meteorites, since usually with the little stuff I am COMPLETELY blind and miss them, but these lasted a good 2-3 seconds and where big enough to see over the lights of Newark/NYC/Hoboken.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
I loaned it to a chick on the ISS, haven't seen it since.
Warning: May be warm to the touch after reentry!
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
Is that a church or a warehouse? Woe is that ugly. Is that aluminium siding? I think it needed a wrecking ball rather than a fire. They must have made a mistake. The article says Wasilla Bible Church, but it must be the Wasilla Bible Repository.
Get your dogma outta my yard!
Having served in the military I can 100% assure you that this is the definition of Casualty. From an "Accomplish the Mission" stand-point, there is absolutely no difference between a dead soldier and a soldier injured to the point of being out of action - except that a horribly injured 9i.e. crippled for life) soldier is worse for morale.
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
Warning: To those looking to read the comments on this story below, don't bother. 75% of the comments below this line are about their use of the word "casualty" and whether it refers to "deaths" or "deaths and wounded". After a huge discussion on it, we finally get a couple comments, but then a new thread picks right on up and people start talking about it again!
:(
There are very few interesting comments on this story.
http://uregina.ca/~astro/mb_5.html
Haven't a clue as to what an insurance company would make of something like that...
No connection. Palin is such a media whore that she set the fire herself to try to keep her name in the news.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
... and won millions of dollars, with which he bought the warehouse where he used to work. He got these numbers from a friend he met in a "local institution".
He's going to fly to Los Angeles tomorrow. ;-)
I don't know why this got modded, but I'm serious. If you find yourself exasperated by the end of reading the comments, come back and mod me up (or down, if the opposite is true).
Oddly, your warning is the last post on my page.
Do you have ESP?
Although it was here in California, it was rather large, made a nice bright streak across the sky. I wonder if it happened to be part of some freak storm and the meteorite that hit that warehouse might've been part of it.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
"Casualty" should only be used for minor injuries. There's nothing casual about being killed.
This space available.
casualty |Ëka zh (É(TM))wÉ(TM)ltÄ"; Ëka zh É(TM)l-|
noun ( pl. -ties)
a person killed or injured in a war or accident.
â figurative a person or thing badly affected by an event or situation : the building industry has been one of the casualties of the recession.
â (chiefly in insurance) an accident, mishap, or disaster.
ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [chance, a chance occurrence] ): from medieval Latin casualitas, from casualis (see casual ), on the pattern of words such as penalty.
In a science book I had as a kid, back in those all so distant mid-nineties, tried to reassure the reader that there was no need to wear helmets 24/7 because no human had ever been recorded to have been hit by a meteorite.
Keep in mind, this was after a doom, gloom and near "look at all the ways the world could end from an impact alone!" chapter, and even then I hoped the helmet part was bad attempt at a joke.
Of course, if this alleged meteorite fire is real this guy did technically die from the fire, not being hit by a meteorite.
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
What? This guy didn't die AT ALL.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
I've heard variations of that as well. Under certain conditions and depending on the composition of the object, I'm sure it is true. A lump of ice isn't going to be very hot. A lump of Iron probably will be. --When the space shuttle comes down, it has to cool on the tarmac for a good long while. I suspect that there is no one black & white rule to measure these events by.
Also, keeping in mind that a rock falling from space could carry enough potential energy in terms of basic kinetics to create heat on impact. Again, with so many different possibilities and variations, all manner of results are likely to be observed.
-FL
I'm sorry, but I'd expect an article of this calibre out of an 9th-grade journalism class, not a newspaper that calls itself The Herald. For entertainment purposes, let's take a closer look at this story, shall we?
Fair enough. Big fires are kinda neat.
Wait, what? Appliances? Were they throwing dishwashers and blenders at it?
It's unclear from this sentence just when the firefighters were dampening down hotspots. Before the fire? After? A week later?
Here's where the real questions start. What what he doing in the building? Was he supposed to be there? How did he get the cut? Did he see/hear how the fire broke out? Isn't the whole point of journalism to answer questions? I would love to see an article that talks about why the author was unable to obtain the most basic facts about the story. Was the writer prevented from talking to the firefighters and police? Okay, that's a good reason but since it's not in the article I have to assume that the writer was just being lazy.
And by the way, what happened to the good old days when every article came with a by-line so you know who wrote it? You never see those any more unless the writer is gunning for a Pulitzer in some long, drawn-out investigative piece.
"...suspects the blaze was suspicious"? Oh now he/she isn't even trying.
And now we veer headlong into the bizarre. As others have pointed out, meteors are not nearly hot enough to start a fire by the time they reach the ground so unless the place was storing flammable materials, a meteor did not start this fire regardless of whatever random passers-by thought they witnessed. (It should be noted that their stories are contradictory, so it's impossible to tell which, if any of them, actually saw or heard the meteor. People routinely make up stories and observations to make their own lives seem more interesting or important, especially in relation to some semi-major happening nearby.)
Dood, when there's been a recession for 7 years plus (examine latest census data for America particular and demographics globally) it's called a depression.
On a more serious note, I bet it is just one of those sphere like in that Keanu Reeves' movie, The Day The Earth Stood Still.....
The blaze broke out in a warehouse on the intersection of Ponsonby Road and McKelvie Street and eight appliances and two aerial appliances were used to quell it.
Were these blenders or electric can-openers? Or were they referring to larger appliances, like a refrigerator or a dishwasher? If so, what would an aerial appliance be? And how do these appliances manage to put out a fire?
New Zealand has the coolest appliances.
Please don't humanize the morons around me. It makes me very uncomfortable.
The Blob
The guy behind the "affordable" cruise missle is also in NZ. Anyone know if he's working on mass drivers yet?
What were the odds of being hit by a meteorite?
What if you're driving the car?
Anything you do can get you slashdotted, including nothing.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Well, I for one welcome our new meteorite-dwelling overlords.
According to the Bad Astronomy blog, the fire could not have been caused by a meteorite. Basically, if meteor was so big that it didn't burn up in the sky, it would've been giant enough to flatten the warehouse -- and everything else in the area.
Step 1: Collect underpants
Step 2: Drop a meteor on NZ
Step 3: Profit!
On a related note the older farmer couple down the street from the warehouse wishes to welcome the arrival of their new baby boy.
This was not destroyed by a meteorite, it was destroyed by a meteor. A meteor becomes a meteorite only once it hits Earth.
I can't believe no one has been pedantic enough to point that out yet.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011