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UN Mounts Asteroid Defense Plan Following Chelyabinsk Meteor
Philip Ross writes "Astronomers have warned that our planet is long overdue for a defense plan against catastrophic asteroid collisions. When it comes to deflecting Earth-obliterating celestial bodies, short of a superhero capable of punching the approaching rock back into outer space, there is no single force dedicated to stopping cosmic bullies from striking our little blue planet straight in the eye. That's why the United Nations said it will establish an International Asteroid Warning Group to intercept and divert dangerous asteroids."
Because nothing is as effective at deflecting tons of rock coming towards Earth at extremely high speeds as... a committee.
The main issue we've got is the lack of warning we have. Even a year is too late if you want to divert large lumps of rock.
Once you're going to divert something then you have to work out where its going to end up - no point diverting it from the earth this year, to have it end up crashing into something else which ends up sending 100 rocks at us.
And here's the same tired old argument that we see when a third world country plans a satellite launch. Oh noes ... they don't have enough toilets ... and while they are sorting that, they should just sit around for the next couple of hundred years doing nothing else!
The UN does have specific hunger and poverty eradication goals and organizations that look into those issues. See these:
http://www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml
That doesn't mean the UN shouldn't have unrelated committees/arms investigating other issues and see if something can be done to address those.
I don't think a strongly worded protest/condemnation and/or sanctions will be noticed by an incoming asteroid. ;-)
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
UN should focus on basic / REAL people problems, not playing star wars.
1 - Being well fed doesn't stop meteorites.
2 - The UN's objective is to defend against basic/REAL threats against humanity (which essentially boils down to assuring world peace to avoid a third world war). Millions of people dying of hunger, sad as it may be, doesn't threaten the humanity unless those people also have an army with nuclear power.
3 - (the most important one) The UN is perfectly capable of doing several things at the same time.
It would be funny if this bullshit was not coming from the most powerful organisation on the planet, the US government. Recently the majority of republicans voted against ratifying this treaty. A treaty that takes poppa Bush's (bipartisan) disability act of the early 90's and promotes it as a global minimum standard with 150+ countries on board. The bat-shit crazy faction of the republicans wouldn't sign it, those miserable cunts knocked it back because of an ideological aversion to international cooperation and rationalised their actions as protecting US sovereignty - WTF the entire treaty is founded on spreading Poppa Bush's good idea to the rest of the world.
To an non-American all this is just too fucking bizzare to be real, it's just as bat-shit crazy and "mean spirited" as the nutty General in Burma who suddenly decided the entire economy should be based on the number '3', unsurprisingly the Burmese economy fell into an open sewer and drowned at that very same moment.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Thank you for your uninformed, knee-jerk anti-UN comment.
They did eradicate smallpox, you know.
we have preliminary numbers. Russia has been hit by potential city shattering meteorites twice in a hundred years. If the Tunguska event happened over a populated area it would no longer have been populated. If Chelyabinsk had entered at a slightly steeper angle, it would have been significantly worse. As it is, it entered at a shallow enough angle that it broke up high in the atmosphere and reducing the effect of the shock wave. We have a reasonable handle on the larger nation killing, and extinction causing, world ending variety. What we don't have is sufficient tracking data on the smaller city killers.
...an agency of the UNITED NATIONS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization
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Recently the majority of republicans voted against .... ratifying ... A treaty that takes poppa Bush's (bipartisan) disability act of the early 90's and promotes it as a global minimum standard .... To an non-American all this is just too fucking bizzare to be real
As a non-American (UK) it is the lengths gone to here in favour of the "disabled" that I find bizzare. For example, the fee for some toll bridges is waived for them (why??? they don't even to leave the car), they get reserved parking spaces even if their disability is nothing to do with their mobility (like a missing finger), and I have known small companies give up their business because they cannot afford the changes to their premises required just in case someone who cannot get up a step wants a job there. The railways here have had to spend millions on disability features - they add something like 10% to the cost of a railway carriage.
The treaty (according to Wikipedia) requires "Prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability with regard to all matters concerning all forms of employment". ALL forms? What about roofing? It's bullshit. One of those things that politicos sign because it is good PR (to some) without thinking through the implications.