Meteorite Crashes Through Cottage In Oslo

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Meteorite Crashes Through Cottage In Oslo

Posted by samzenpus on Monday March 12, 2012 @02:20AM from the knock-knock dept.

First time submitter Mastiff in Norway writes "Famous (in Norway) Norwegian astrophycisist Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard is ecstatic after a meteorite was found in an urban cottage in Oslo this weekend. This is the 14th meteorite that's been found in Norway, and only the second that crashed through a roof. It is not certain when the crash happened, since the cottage hasn't been used all winter, but on the 1st of March a big ball of fire was observed over the southern parts of Norway, and it is thought that this may be one of the pieces from that entry into the atmosphere. Maybe it's time to replace those tin foil hats with helmets?"

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He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · 2012-03-12 02:22 · Score: 5, Funny

if it was his cottage that the meteorite had crashed through.
Also, names in l33t sp34k are sooo 90s...

--
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
1. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by dinfinity · 2012-03-12 02:24 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Well, the damage wasn't too bad actually. Pics: http://www.vg.no/bildespesial/spesial.php?id=8728
2. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by vlm · 2012-03-12 02:34 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  My insurance policy says I'm covered for "acts of God".
  Not to completely hijack the thread, but I've always wondered how that kind of clause works out with atheists or more generally speaking people of non-evangelical christian religions.
  
  --
  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
3. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by trongey · 2012-03-12 02:40 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  ... I didn't think a roof from what appears to be a mostly wooden house would stop a piece of rock hurled at it at enormous speeds.
  It's good Norwegian wood. I think some guy made a few dollars singing about it.
  
  --
  You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
4. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by jones_supa · 2012-03-12 02:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Also, names in l33t sp34k are sooo 90s...
  In this case there is a reason for it. You see, if your profession is astronomy in Norway, it is customary to replace all the O's in your name with Ø so they look like planets with orbits.
5. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by mbone · 2012-03-12 02:43 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The same. In law, at least, it's not a religious concept; in some jurisdictions it is called "force majeure."
  IANAL, but these terms basically all seem to mean the same thing, events beyond your control. A war or even a strike can also qualify.
6. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-12 02:45 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  That's awesomely bizarre. Maybe they'll just repair the damage themselves, but I'd love to hear the call to the insurance company for that one. "You're asking about your coverage for WHAT?"
  The broken surface of the meteorite nicely shows the fusion crust and what looks like an interesting brecciated interior.
7. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by mcgrew · 2012-03-12 02:49 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Not to completely hijack the thread, but I've always wondered how that kind of clause works out with atheists or more generally speaking people of non-evangelical christian religions.
  Athiest: "My house got blown away by a tornado, but I'm not collecting the insurance money because there are no gods!" Um, I doubt that will happen.
  My question is, what of people who worship money? Would being swindled be an act of god?
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
8. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-12 02:51 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  He's a real fun guy. He is very enthisiastic about astronomy, and do a lot of public happenings when there are major astronomical events. Also ver supportive about anything that promotes astronomy and science.
  Trust me, my name also contains Ø. It's pronounced uh like in duh.
9. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Tr3vin · 2012-03-12 02:53 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Wøøøøøsh
  FTFY
10. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Dan+East · 2012-03-12 02:53 · Score: 2
  
  In this case there is a reason for it. You see, if your profession is astronomy in Norway, it is customary to replace all the O's in your name with Ø so they look like planets with orbits.
  Norwegian Nuclear Physicists do the same thing, although the astronomers claim they came up with the idea first. Considering that astronomy is the older profession of the two, they may indeed have prior art.
  
  --
  Better known as 318230.
11. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by dotancohen · 2012-03-12 02:58 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  In this case there is a reason for it. You see, if your profession is astronomy in Norway, it is customary to replace all the O's in your name with Ø so they look like planets with orbits.
  I think that this guy bit my sister once.
  
  --
  It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
12. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Quiet_Desperation · 2012-03-12 03:18 · Score: 2
  
  Are we sure it didn't?
  
  Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard
  *Something* cracked all the o letters in his name!
13. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by tnk1 · 2012-03-12 03:41 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Well at least your refrigerator would survive, so there is that.
14. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-12 03:51 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Farmers' insurance company in the US has an ad campaign running currently where they specifically brag that they cover damage due to random objects falling from space. Probably more common that you'd think, due to the rarity of these events ever actually occurring.
15. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by ColdWetDog · 2012-03-12 03:54 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  African or European rock?
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
16. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by FatdogHaiku · 2012-03-12 03:57 · Score: 2
  
  It's good Norwegian wood. I think some guy made a few dollars singing about it.
  Jeez, all these years I thought that guy was singing about an encounter with a Norwegian transvestite...
  
  I once had a girl
  Or should I say she once had me
  She showed me her room
  Isn't it good Norwegian wood?
  She asked me to stay
  And she told me to sit anywhere
  So I looked around
  And I noticed there wasn't a chair
  
  --
  You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
17. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by vlm · 2012-03-12 04:03 · Score: 2
  
  Although it doesn't really matter -- I would have bigger things to worry about than housing insurance in that case.
  Strong disagree... I live 1000s of miles downwind of LA. No direct biological effect on me or mine if "they" pop the port of LA with something inside a shipping container, but its basically a dirty bomb attack on me for resale value, or maybe govt certified verified licensed decon, etc.
  There's a uniquely American fixation that any nuclear attack means the fireball must be directly over their head because the world revolves around them. More likely it'll happen 2000 miles away.
  
  --
  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
18. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by mbone · 2012-03-12 04:04 · Score: 2
  
  My housing insurance ... said that, "A nuclear detonation of any kind will be considered a war-like act, even if conducted during peace time."
  Oddly, the US Government has pretty much the same opinion, at least if it is on US territory.
19. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by heypete · 2012-03-12 04:15 · Score: 2
  
  My renters insurance from when I lived in the US (provided by USAA) coverd damage to insured property due to falling aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and/or objects falling from space on the condition that the object pass through the ceiling, wall, or window prior to it striking and damaging the insured property (i.e. I can't file a claim for a meteor damaging my computer if there's not a hole in the ceiling from the meteor passing through it.).
  Fortunately, I never had to use it. /it always seemed odd that anything involving radiation (e.g. ranging from radioactive contamination all the way up to a full-out nuclear explosion) was completely exempted from the policy. I presume that a nuclear explosion would be catastrophic to insurers (not to mention residents) covering that region which is why the exclude it (same thing with floods), but still...
20. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by cyberchondriac · 2012-03-12 05:04 · Score: 2
  
  You forgot "unladen" .. or maybe that meteorite was carrying a coconut..
  
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  Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
21. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Namlak · 2012-03-12 05:24 · Score: 2
  
  The same. In law, at least, it's not a religious concept; in some jurisdictions it is called "force majeure."
  IANAL, but these terms basically all seem to mean the same thing, events beyond your control.
  So this "act of God" concept actually works to the benefit of the atheists. The religious can have their claim denied because they failed to pray that they would be spared the incident or failed to achieve a sufficient degree of piety to influence their deity. The atheists would have no such control, and thus, liability.
  Tricky, those insurance lawyers!
22. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by mbone · 2012-03-12 12:39 · Score: 2
  
  Fortunately, I never had to use it. /it always seemed odd that anything involving radiation (e.g. ranging from radioactive contamination all the way up to a full-out nuclear explosion) was completely exempted from the policy. I presume that a nuclear explosion would be catastrophic to insurers (not to mention residents) covering that region which is why the exclude it (same thing with floods), but still...
  They don't have to - you are covered by the 1957 Price-Anderson Act :
  Claims resulting from nuclear accidents are covered under Price-Anderson; for that reason, all property and liability insurance policies issued in the U.S. exclude nuclear accidents.”
23. Re:He wouldn't be so ecstatic by Ol+Biscuitbarrel · 2012-03-12 13:37 · Score: 2
  
  Yes, we all know what meteors sound like as they pass through the air.
God Hates Norwegian Cottages by rossjudson · 2012-03-12 02:40 · Score: 4, Funny

It's the only rational explanation.
1. Re:God Hates Norwegian Cottages by rossjudson · 2012-03-12 03:12 · Score: 2
  
  It gets even funnier if you misread "It is not certain why the crash happened, since the cottage hasn't been used all winter".
Hodges Meteorite by Jonathunder · 2012-03-12 02:56 · Score: 4, Informative

The 1954 Hodges Meteorite, which crashed into a house in Alabama, is the only one in recorded history to have actually hit a person. She survived, suffering only a bad bruising.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_(meteorite)
So, what you're saying is... by englishknnigits · 2012-03-12 03:19 · Score: 2

we need a government agency to protect us from these dangerous meteorites! I'll write my congresswoman right away!
Re:Norwegians, look to your yards ! by NatasRevol · 2012-03-12 03:30 · Score: 2

And have cracks in them.
See?
Ø

--
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Re:Meteorite? by canajin56 · 2012-03-12 03:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

It is a meteorite now, and anything it did in the past is something it did, regardless of its technical state at the time. It's allowable to use something's/someone's current state/title/etc when referring to it's past. So when talking about a serving Senator's past actions in the private sector, it's not inaccurate to say "Ten years ago, the Senator blah blah blah" even though you are describing something that happened when they were NOT a Senator yet. And, a police officer giving testimony in court can say "Witnesses report that the deceased was seen driving away from his home at 7:35PM" without implying that a corpse was driving!

--
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Re:fascinating by BattleApple · 2012-03-12 03:56 · Score: 3, Informative

The average velocity of meteoroids entering our atmosphere is 10-70 km/second. The smaller ones that survive the trip to the Earth's surface are quickly slowed by atmospheric friction to speeds of a few hundred kilometers per hour, and so hit the Earth with no more speed than if they had been dropped from a tall building. For meteorites larger than a few hundred tons (which fortunately are quite rare), atmospheric friction has little effect on the velocity and they hit the Earth with the enormous speeds characteristic of their entry into our atmosphere.

source: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/meteors/impacts.html
Free association result: by jtownatpunk.net · 2012-03-12 04:00 · Score: 2

I guess Thor caught his flight to Oslo.
Re:Norwegians, look to your yards ! by mbone · 2012-03-12 04:01 · Score: 2

How would you be able to tell the meteorite from other rocks? Assuming they didnt leave an impact crater.
Look for something that seems out of place.
If you see a rock on your lawn or in your flower bed, hopefully you would know if it was there last week, or not. Likewise, rocks don't tend to get on roofs by other means.
Also, this fall did have a nice fusion crust and most (but not all) meteorites are magnetic.
Looking in your yard for a meteorite would normally be a waste of time, except that it is a good assumption that there are other pieces of this out there that no one has recognized.
A meteørite ønce bit my sister... by theoriginalturtle · 2012-03-12 04:07 · Score: 2

Nø, really!

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Rotate the pod, please, HAL....
ONLY the second? by beh · 2012-03-12 04:23 · Score: 3, Informative

"This is the 14th meteorite that's been found in Norway, and only the second that crashed through a roof. "
Who wrote this?
Have you got any idea how "densely" populated Norway is?
Sure, people won't be monitoring all of the countryside for meteorite impacts; but even then, I'm sure they get to see easily more than 7* the roof space area in non-roofed area during their day-to-day activities.
So, among 14 meteorites, 1/7th has hit a house...?
How many meteorites does the country get???
Owning a summer place is a hassle by Latent+Heat · 2012-03-12 04:37 · Score: 3, Funny

I always thought that owning a second place that you kept closed up for winter was a pain -- squatters, nosy neighbors, raccoon and squirrel damage, local meth addicts looking to take your stuff, trees falling down, water pipes freezing and bursting. And now this, meteorites! There is no end to the trouble!