Discovered that Star Trek DS9 was actually pretty good. (I wound up with some time on my hands and a weird desire to review a bunch of old sci-fi.)
Also, that physical chemistry in love isn't something to be avoided. --I'd come to mistrust 'chemistry', considering it a type of trap designed to stick you with partners who were hell-bent on destroying you, and opted instead for people who I could be friends with. My humbling lesson of 2007 was that unless you have both chemistry and friendship, a relationship can't work very well, and that women who are out to destroy you are there because you seek them out. As always, internal work is the thing to focus on.
Also realized that it's not just okay to bear feelings of love for somebody society may not deem them appropriate for you to love, (affection for another man's wife/girlfriend, or somebody who isn't your parter etc.), but that it's a million times easier and less destructive than trying to deny those feelings. Instead you can say openly to all involved, "Hey, I love this woman!" and the world isn't going to end. Being in love doesn't mean you have to seek a relationship or even deepen the emotional ties, and just being open about it relieves all kinds of tensions. Everybody knows everything on some level anyway. I and several other people around me went through these tough lessons in 2007 to discover more about how it all works.
Also decided that brie is actually pretty great when you have it on bread.
I like Ron in that he's honest and earnest. You don't see very much of that in politics these days. However, I don't care for his conservative take on healthcare. That doesn't make sense to me.
The way I see it, one of three things can happen. . .
1. He'll be elected, and it'll be some form of, "Meet the new boss".
2. He'll be another also-ran, soon to be forgotten.
I am still dealing with the fallout from realizing I have been an emotional equivalent to a black hole up until now.
This is happening to a lot of people these days, men in particular. --My own version of it, (and I always thought I had a solid connection with my emotional side), happened during the Katrina disaster. I was utterly and unexpectedly overwhelmed with emotion for several days to the point of not being able to function socially at all; it was like I could feel the fear and pain of all those people all at once. --In the past, I would easily have been able to observe such a massive tragedy with detached interest. I was really stunned by the whole episode. Something was blasted open inside me, and it took most of six months to figure out how to live with the new awareness. I don't doubt that it was a good thing, but it was a very difficult process to go through!
Pot, kettle, black. Grandparent is correct, parent is a douche. The study did not claim it was double-blinded, and the grandparent simply pointed this out.
How charming. Now try reading the poster's original comments to see the context I was responding within. --But I'm guessing that you already did that, which means you are splitting hairs, which in turn most likely means that you are throwing emotion and bad logic at ideas which threaten your reality.
Some of them, and with regard to this issue, I'd say, Yes.
--Although, I don't think I'd actually wear a hat made from tin foil. That idea was made up to mock people who dared not go along with the popular trends. Or perhaps it was introduced because it was actually a workable idea. Who knows?
I make do by simply living in an environment free of people with EM transmitters as much as is possible. Works for me.
That's great for the 2006 study. This abstract has a date of 2007 and doesn't claim to be double-blind, unfortunately.
If you don't want to consider that your cell phone might not be harmless, then that's your business, but you're not going to convince anybody else in this manner. Double-blind is a standard procedural practice. Claiming in no uncertain terms that it was definitely NOT used in this experiment when you have no way of knowing, and simply because it wasn't mentioned, is rather silly.
Honestly, you should look up the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing raiation.
Just because it doesn't burn, doesn't mean it has no effect. Why does the Blood Brain Barrier become permeable when exposed to standard cell phone EM? Not because it's being over-heated, surely. Apparently there is another mechanic at play. Look up "cyclotronic resonance". Cells respond by nature to electricity in micro quantities. Nobody likes to acknowledge this, but that doesn't make it false. Robert O. Becker wrote a book about this.
I can see a number of flaws in it. The number of people is rather small (35) and the placebo was not double blind. The difference is small, although claimed to be statistically significant. In any case, the exposure duration and intensity is far beyond what would ever occur in a real world situation. I am rather dubious of the controls used here especially considering the methods used.
Based on the PDF, I have difficulty agreeing with your objections. First of all, the number of participants was double what you say, and I see nothing which indicates that a double blind technique was not employed.
The attitude of Coke vs Pepsi and Democrat vs Republican doesn't sit well with Open Source.
Not every darned scenario in the world must resolve to some sort of Darwinian competition. Sometimes people just like to create at the peek of their powers for the sheer joy of creating something amazing, and not because they feel the need to destroy the competition. Ask the best painters, musicians and writers if their best work came about because they felt threatened --or if they felt in love with their medium and with the world in general. --Or rather, if you are a coder, how was the best code you ever wrote generated? Were you wearing your Nikes or were you just obsessively having fun trying to solve a problem?
The ideas of Darwinism and Competition certainly hold validity, but they are also two of the most highly abused concepts ever invented. Sheesh, the whole 'final solution' thing was based on Darwin. Talk about an abuse of concept!
There is something to be said for the passion of youth. --You skyrocket through possibilities because to you, the thing/s you are interested in hold the same kind of fire and magic as young love, and you'll bust your butt trying to bring your vision into reality.
And then it's there. So what next?
That's the real trick. --Re-tooling your awareness so that you can continue. Some manage it very well, but there are lots (and lots) of burn-outs. Changing fields entirely is one way to re-kindle one's passion because it re-starts the process. But I think the real trick is to stay true to that which excites you without letting the accumulation of worldly experience prevent you from exploring new areas.
Eventually, though, the best way, (if you believe in such things), is to reach the natural end of your life and re-boot, so-to-speak. The veil of forgetting is pulled down tight at birth for a reason.
If you are a high ranking manager for the Dark Side then here are several realities which color every last one of your actions and decisions. . .
1. You are a psychopathic creature who looks human but who doesn't grasp the concept of compassion.
2. Destruction and misery are your bread and butter on a very fundamental level. It's an addiction.
3. The Earth is in for a big change. It may include sudden glacial rebounding, (if the Gulf Stream cuts out, most of Europe will be under ice), cometary impacts and war.
4. Underground tunnels and bases are your ace in the hole.
5. Hm. Except when you come up for air, who's going to polish your shoes and grow your crops? You need to keep some of those cattle-people alive.
6. Cattle-people are the enemy. If the masses find out that you're a psychological deviant, they're going to take away all your privileges and probably put you in prison for ever and ever. So they cannot be allowed to accumulate knowledge or power. You must keep them at each other's throats, keep them scrabbling in a fear-filled environment. --But you still need them to polish your shoes and grow your crops, so it's really all very annoying. You hate them but you need them. The big kill-off will require careful management.
7. You hate Jews and Blacks and Asians. You don't know why exactly, but you do. It's programmed in. --Anyway, if 97% of the population has to be culled, then it would be prudent to make sure you include all of the 'undesirables' among that percentage.
8. Republican or Democrat? Democratic elections? Voting machines? Oh please. The preparations for this phase of human history have been under way for thousands of years. The social management has been highly successful and the people of the world live in almost total ignorance. The changes will come whether we want them or not. The only two questions are, "How uncomfortable is it all going to be, and will the Light Side or the Dark Side rule the planet after the dust settles?"
The way to avoid disaster is not actually that hard. It involves living in the opposite way the system wants you to live in every respect. Fearlessly following your inner guidance system, (the one which isn't linked to basic animal instincts, and which isn't driven by fear of want.)
The grandpappy of AC and the Radio was left in history's dustbin because he was more interested in being a disciple of science than in being a disciple of greed. (Or as Dickens put it, being a "Money-getter".)
Was he unhappy with this arrangement? While it seems on the surface that he must have been, dying alone, forgotten and next to broke as he did, I suspect that the only thing which truly bothered him during life was that his explorations into science were hampered by lack of funding. --Though, with a guy like Tesla, all the money in the world probably wouldn't have been enough given the scope of his visions. --The guy wanted to create a system whereby the biosphere would be charged with energy which devices like lawnmowers and cars could freely tap into. I, for one, am actually quite happy he didn't achieve this end, though with the saturation of the low-power EM spectrum that we're seeing today, I'm not sure if we actually managed to avoid that particular nightmare vision.
Nonetheless. . , it would be nice if we lived in a world which valued and respected its creative minds without first asking, "So how much did he make?"
When I watch JJ Abrams material, I can feel my brain writhing in agony around the inside of my skull, swearing at the non-responsive control stick and wishing for an eject button.
Does Abrams really think people are two-dimensional bits of American Fakery, or does he live the Life Plastic as well? --God knows I've met enough people who seem to believe that they cannot function outside the template of American Fake. Every one of them I've met has this slight expression nagging at the edge of their faces and body language as though they are aware that there is more to life than acting out an unimaginative series of pre-programmed social routines downloaded from their television sets, but they're not quite sure how to access the non-artificial parts of themselves. You have to be careful around such people; they'll either attack you for threatening their world view or they'll go through hell as their entire universe collapses.
You actually figured out how to make the new Knight Rider interesting and believable, (if one can accept a talking car). I tried to do the same thing as a mental exercise and found myself just sat looking at the car thinking, "80's fast food cannot be updated. Galactica is one thing, because it has a whole universe and saga-like story to work within, but Knight Rider?? It's a talking car. That's simply too silly to get beyond."
Turns out, as always, it's really the people and what you do with them that makes a story interesting.
None. They all stand around complaining that the socket isn't compatible with the lightbulb they created from scratch, then demand that the makers of the socket tell them exactly how they built it or they'll sulk in the dark.
Really? Linux works flawlessly in all my light sockets. I guess the system whereby engineers ask for specs from the people who want to sell them light sockets gets the job done.
Ugh. I know the first series was silly, but this just looks stupid.
What's with those super-thin tires with the rims an inch and a half from the tarmac? --I strongly suspect those things were designed to fail above legal driving speeds. I saw one of those dumb O.J. type car chases caught on camera and the stolen vehicle had that same style of wheel. You know, 'fast and gangsta cool'. --At one point when the wily bandit rounded a corner at a slightly less than legal speed, the car leaned, the rubber compressed as rubber is wont to do, and the rim made contact with the road. 'Tap', and the whole wheel blew out, just like that. When you can lose a wheel simply by turning a corner, you are officially driving a toy. Now whenever I see that design I cringe. --At least I could suspend disbelief with the tacky-and-wonderful Trans-Am. But with this stupid design. . , how do they put it. . ? It's not so much about suspending disbelief as it is needing to hang, draw and quarter it.
The 80's came and went. It was tacky and delightful, but it is long gone. --Unless this Knight Rider is going to be brought up to date with the expectations of a mature viewership (like they did with Battle Star Galactica), and I honestly don't see how this is even remotely possible, then just save everybody the heart-ache and forget it.
I believe it's one Library of Congress times two football fields divided by one Statue of Liberty, carry the Eiffel Tower and subtract the square of the width of a human hair. -The margin of error being the thickness of a postage stamp sitting on the roof of the Empire State Building. Or something like that. --And if you put peanut butter in a horse's mouth, it looks like it's talking.
I did some more digging and ran across an article which suggests that apparently Ammonium was found in quantities in the area of the caldera. While Ammonium is a small component of volcanic gas, it is also observed in, significantly, meteoric matter.
As a point of interest, that article also suggests that the Black Plague was perhaps not limited to one disease, but that cometary atmospheric explosions were occurring in that period and may also have offered a significant contributing factor to the death toll.
--I remember when I had an old tank-tough HP Laserjet II. (It needed these huge postscript cartridges just to output in a font other than courier.) It was only 300 DPI, but the output was sharp and sweet. It used a gas laser because LED lasers hadn't yet been invented, but that beast totally rocked. --It would work forever, and its tone cartridge lasted for many thousands of copies. And the paper feed NEVER jammed. It was one of the finest bits of engineering I've ever come across, and HP was a company which made me think, "Ah! Humans are awesome creatures capable of doing wonderful things!"
But then something happened at HP. A number of years later, I remember one of the top dogs in management declaring that they were taking the company in a new direction; that their old methods were being updated to reflect better business models. --This spin-doctored response came as when they were asked why their printers had begun to suck shit.
I today own an HP Laserjet 5L. It is a piece of crud. --It's output looks sharp, but it's a flimsy piece of junk which stopped working properly about a year after I'd bought it. It jams constantly and the toner cartridge seems to run out far more frequently. I'd tell HP to go to hell, but I think they may already be there.
The points raised by the paper you linked to which I found compelling were. . .
1. That there have been far more events in recorded history similar to Tunguska which have been volcanic or geologic in nature than have been due to cometary impact, raising the question of probabilities. --Mt. Saint Helens blowing its top in 1980 is an example, as was Krakatoa in 1983. There was also the 1986 limnic eruption of 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 from Lake Nyos which suffocated 1,800 people in a 20 mile radius. Sometimes it's a methane outgassing which can blow up, (one event was described in the linked paper which damaged a commuter jet plane). The Earth 'burps' on a regular basis. Rocks causing similarly huge events are far less frequent, (as in, there haven't been any at all in the last century).
2. That there was swamp land in the center of the Tunguska caldera. This is a typical place for methane to build up.
3. The directions in which the trees had been knocked down indicated two discrete blast points some distance from one another.
4. There were odd glowing clouds seen over the area in the nights leading up to the explosion which could be explained by methane collecting in the sky.
5. No impact crater was found.
6. No meteorite was found. (--Though there was a concentration of microscopic glass spheres in siftings of the soil and chemical analysis showed that the spheres contained high proportions of nickel and iridium which are often found in meteorites, hinting that they might have been of extraterrestrial origin. But still. . . No rock.)
Every year there are geologic events which result in ash plumes and outgassings all over the world. While there is plenty of evidence of past cometary impacts which had a significant effect upon the Earth, they are all very old; the number of catastrophic events due to impact events over the last century has been pretty much zilch. If we're going to throw Occam at this, (and I am very hesitant in invoking that old and oft-misused saw), then it seems much more probable that Tunguska was the result of a methane outgassing and subsequent explosion. Anyway, the paper is an interesting analysis and it leaves me uncertain as to what to think, as there is still some good arguments for the event having been an impact. I'd be curious if anybody out there has any other info to contribute which might make the picture more clear.
...the encyclopedia anyone can edit? Doesn't say "anyone who agrees with what the groupthink considers right can edit".
Perhaps Wikipedia's motto should be something like, "By the people for the people." --After all, the various secret services of the world already own the rest of the media, so to heck with them. They don't play fair so they shouldn't be invited to join.
Anyway, psychopaths are not people. They are sharks who feed on people, they infest government, and they cannot be reformed. Only a fool would invite a shark to a pool party. --The charming psychopath is a master of manipulation, and typically seeds chaos under the guise of reason, and in the confusion, torments you while eating you alive.
Psychopaths make up an estimated 4% to 6% of the population, they are drawn to positions of power, and are far better equipped than normal humans to succeed in attaining those positions.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, that physical chemistry in love isn't something to be avoided. --I'd come to mistrust 'chemistry', considering it a type of trap designed to stick you with partners who were hell-bent on destroying you, and opted instead for people who I could be friends with. My humbling lesson of 2007 was that unless you have both chemistry and friendship, a relationship can't work very well, and that women who are out to destroy you are there because you seek them out. As always, internal work is the thing to focus on.
Also realized that it's not just okay to bear feelings of love for somebody society may not deem them appropriate for you to love, (affection for another man's wife/girlfriend, or somebody who isn't your parter etc.), but that it's a million times easier and less destructive than trying to deny those feelings. Instead you can say openly to all involved, "Hey, I love this woman!" and the world isn't going to end. Being in love doesn't mean you have to seek a relationship or even deepen the emotional ties, and just being open about it relieves all kinds of tensions. Everybody knows everything on some level anyway. I and several other people around me went through these tough lessons in 2007 to discover more about how it all works.
Also decided that brie is actually pretty great when you have it on bread.
-FL
The way I see it, one of three things can happen. . .
1. He'll be elected, and it'll be some form of, "Meet the new boss".
2. He'll be another also-ran, soon to be forgotten.
3. He'll board a small plane.
-FL
That's the thing about the growth of awareness. You either get with it, or you get left behind.
-FL
This is happening to a lot of people these days, men in particular. --My own version of it, (and I always thought I had a solid connection with my emotional side), happened during the Katrina disaster. I was utterly and unexpectedly overwhelmed with emotion for several days to the point of not being able to function socially at all; it was like I could feel the fear and pain of all those people all at once. --In the past, I would easily have been able to observe such a massive tragedy with detached interest. I was really stunned by the whole episode. Something was blasted open inside me, and it took most of six months to figure out how to live with the new awareness. I don't doubt that it was a good thing, but it was a very difficult process to go through!
-FL
How charming. Now try reading the poster's original comments to see the context I was responding within. --But I'm guessing that you already did that, which means you are splitting hairs, which in turn most likely means that you are throwing emotion and bad logic at ideas which threaten your reality.
-FL
Some of them, and with regard to this issue, I'd say, Yes.
--Although, I don't think I'd actually wear a hat made from tin foil. That idea was made up to mock people who dared not go along with the popular trends. Or perhaps it was introduced because it was actually a workable idea. Who knows?
I make do by simply living in an environment free of people with EM transmitters as much as is possible. Works for me.
-FL
If you don't want to consider that your cell phone might not be harmless, then that's your business, but you're not going to convince anybody else in this manner. Double-blind is a standard procedural practice. Claiming in no uncertain terms that it was definitely NOT used in this experiment when you have no way of knowing, and simply because it wasn't mentioned, is rather silly.
-FL
Just because it doesn't burn, doesn't mean it has no effect. Why does the Blood Brain Barrier become permeable when exposed to standard cell phone EM? Not because it's being over-heated, surely. Apparently there is another mechanic at play. Look up "cyclotronic resonance". Cells respond by nature to electricity in micro quantities. Nobody likes to acknowledge this, but that doesn't make it false. Robert O. Becker wrote a book about this.
-FL
That's childish, and indeed, it goes to the heart of the parent post!
-FL
Based on the PDF, I have difficulty agreeing with your objections. First of all, the number of participants was double what you say, and I see nothing which indicates that a double blind technique was not employed.
-FL
Not every darned scenario in the world must resolve to some sort of Darwinian competition. Sometimes people just like to create at the peek of their powers for the sheer joy of creating something amazing, and not because they feel the need to destroy the competition. Ask the best painters, musicians and writers if their best work came about because they felt threatened --or if they felt in love with their medium and with the world in general. --Or rather, if you are a coder, how was the best code you ever wrote generated? Were you wearing your Nikes or were you just obsessively having fun trying to solve a problem?
The ideas of Darwinism and Competition certainly hold validity, but they are also two of the most highly abused concepts ever invented. Sheesh, the whole 'final solution' thing was based on Darwin. Talk about an abuse of concept!
-FL
And then it's there. So what next?
That's the real trick. --Re-tooling your awareness so that you can continue. Some manage it very well, but there are lots (and lots) of burn-outs. Changing fields entirely is one way to re-kindle one's passion because it re-starts the process. But I think the real trick is to stay true to that which excites you without letting the accumulation of worldly experience prevent you from exploring new areas.
Eventually, though, the best way, (if you believe in such things), is to reach the natural end of your life and re-boot, so-to-speak. The veil of forgetting is pulled down tight at birth for a reason.
-FL
If you are a high ranking manager for the Dark Side then here are several realities which color every last one of your actions and decisions. . .
1. You are a psychopathic creature who looks human but who doesn't grasp the concept of compassion.
2. Destruction and misery are your bread and butter on a very fundamental level. It's an addiction.
3. The Earth is in for a big change. It may include sudden glacial rebounding, (if the Gulf Stream cuts out, most of Europe will be under ice), cometary impacts and war.
4. Underground tunnels and bases are your ace in the hole.
5. Hm. Except when you come up for air, who's going to polish your shoes and grow your crops? You need to keep some of those cattle-people alive.
6. Cattle-people are the enemy. If the masses find out that you're a psychological deviant, they're going to take away all your privileges and probably put you in prison for ever and ever. So they cannot be allowed to accumulate knowledge or power. You must keep them at each other's throats, keep them scrabbling in a fear-filled environment. --But you still need them to polish your shoes and grow your crops, so it's really all very annoying. You hate them but you need them. The big kill-off will require careful management.
7. You hate Jews and Blacks and Asians. You don't know why exactly, but you do. It's programmed in. --Anyway, if 97% of the population has to be culled, then it would be prudent to make sure you include all of the 'undesirables' among that percentage.
8. Republican or Democrat? Democratic elections? Voting machines? Oh please. The preparations for this phase of human history have been under way for thousands of years. The social management has been highly successful and the people of the world live in almost total ignorance. The changes will come whether we want them or not. The only two questions are, "How uncomfortable is it all going to be, and will the Light Side or the Dark Side rule the planet after the dust settles?"
The way to avoid disaster is not actually that hard. It involves living in the opposite way the system wants you to live in every respect. Fearlessly following your inner guidance system, (the one which isn't linked to basic animal instincts, and which isn't driven by fear of want.)
-FL
Was he unhappy with this arrangement? While it seems on the surface that he must have been, dying alone, forgotten and next to broke as he did, I suspect that the only thing which truly bothered him during life was that his explorations into science were hampered by lack of funding. --Though, with a guy like Tesla, all the money in the world probably wouldn't have been enough given the scope of his visions. --The guy wanted to create a system whereby the biosphere would be charged with energy which devices like lawnmowers and cars could freely tap into. I, for one, am actually quite happy he didn't achieve this end, though with the saturation of the low-power EM spectrum that we're seeing today, I'm not sure if we actually managed to avoid that particular nightmare vision.
Nonetheless. . , it would be nice if we lived in a world which valued and respected its creative minds without first asking, "So how much did he make?"
-FL
Does Abrams really think people are two-dimensional bits of American Fakery, or does he live the Life Plastic as well? --God knows I've met enough people who seem to believe that they cannot function outside the template of American Fake. Every one of them I've met has this slight expression nagging at the edge of their faces and body language as though they are aware that there is more to life than acting out an unimaginative series of pre-programmed social routines downloaded from their television sets, but they're not quite sure how to access the non-artificial parts of themselves. You have to be careful around such people; they'll either attack you for threatening their world view or they'll go through hell as their entire universe collapses.
-FL
-FL
You actually figured out how to make the new Knight Rider interesting and believable, (if one can accept a talking car). I tried to do the same thing as a mental exercise and found myself just sat looking at the car thinking, "80's fast food cannot be updated. Galactica is one thing, because it has a whole universe and saga-like story to work within, but Knight Rider?? It's a talking car. That's simply too silly to get beyond."
Turns out, as always, it's really the people and what you do with them that makes a story interesting.
Good post. Thanks.
-FL
Really? Linux works flawlessly in all my light sockets. I guess the system whereby engineers ask for specs from the people who want to sell them light sockets gets the job done.
-FL
What's with those super-thin tires with the rims an inch and a half from the tarmac? --I strongly suspect those things were designed to fail above legal driving speeds. I saw one of those dumb O.J. type car chases caught on camera and the stolen vehicle had that same style of wheel. You know, 'fast and gangsta cool'. --At one point when the wily bandit rounded a corner at a slightly less than legal speed, the car leaned, the rubber compressed as rubber is wont to do, and the rim made contact with the road. 'Tap', and the whole wheel blew out, just like that. When you can lose a wheel simply by turning a corner, you are officially driving a toy. Now whenever I see that design I cringe. --At least I could suspend disbelief with the tacky-and-wonderful Trans-Am. But with this stupid design. . , how do they put it. . ? It's not so much about suspending disbelief as it is needing to hang, draw and quarter it.
The 80's came and went. It was tacky and delightful, but it is long gone. --Unless this Knight Rider is going to be brought up to date with the expectations of a mature viewership (like they did with Battle Star Galactica), and I honestly don't see how this is even remotely possible, then just save everybody the heart-ache and forget it.
-FL
HP's not the problem, YOU are.
Oh come now. I didn't notice the plunge in quality until after I'd bought the new printer.
-FL
-FL
I did some more digging and ran across an article which suggests that apparently Ammonium was found in quantities in the area of the caldera. While Ammonium is a small component of volcanic gas, it is also observed in, significantly, meteoric matter.
As a point of interest, that article also suggests that the Black Plague was perhaps not limited to one disease, but that cometary atmospheric explosions were occurring in that period and may also have offered a significant contributing factor to the death toll.
-FL
But then something happened at HP. A number of years later, I remember one of the top dogs in management declaring that they were taking the company in a new direction; that their old methods were being updated to reflect better business models. --This spin-doctored response came as when they were asked why their printers had begun to suck shit.
I today own an HP Laserjet 5L. It is a piece of crud. --It's output looks sharp, but it's a flimsy piece of junk which stopped working properly about a year after I'd bought it. It jams constantly and the toner cartridge seems to run out far more frequently. I'd tell HP to go to hell, but I think they may already be there.
-FL
1. That there have been far more events in recorded history similar to Tunguska which have been volcanic or geologic in nature than have been due to cometary impact, raising the question of probabilities. --Mt. Saint Helens blowing its top in 1980 is an example, as was Krakatoa in 1983. There was also the 1986 limnic eruption of 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 from Lake Nyos which suffocated 1,800 people in a 20 mile radius. Sometimes it's a methane outgassing which can blow up, (one event was described in the linked paper which damaged a commuter jet plane). The Earth 'burps' on a regular basis. Rocks causing similarly huge events are far less frequent, (as in, there haven't been any at all in the last century).
2. That there was swamp land in the center of the Tunguska caldera. This is a typical place for methane to build up.
3. The directions in which the trees had been knocked down indicated two discrete blast points some distance from one another.
4. There were odd glowing clouds seen over the area in the nights leading up to the explosion which could be explained by methane collecting in the sky.
5. No impact crater was found.
6. No meteorite was found. (--Though there was a concentration of microscopic glass spheres in siftings of the soil and chemical analysis showed that the spheres contained high proportions of nickel and iridium which are often found in meteorites, hinting that they might have been of extraterrestrial origin. But still. . . No rock.)
Every year there are geologic events which result in ash plumes and outgassings all over the world. While there is plenty of evidence of past cometary impacts which had a significant effect upon the Earth, they are all very old; the number of catastrophic events due to impact events over the last century has been pretty much zilch. If we're going to throw Occam at this, (and I am very hesitant in invoking that old and oft-misused saw), then it seems much more probable that Tunguska was the result of a methane outgassing and subsequent explosion. Anyway, the paper is an interesting analysis and it leaves me uncertain as to what to think, as there is still some good arguments for the event having been an impact. I'd be curious if anybody out there has any other info to contribute which might make the picture more clear.
-FL
Perhaps Wikipedia's motto should be something like, "By the people for the people." --After all, the various secret services of the world already own the rest of the media, so to heck with them. They don't play fair so they shouldn't be invited to join.
Anyway, psychopaths are not people. They are sharks who feed on people, they infest government, and they cannot be reformed. Only a fool would invite a shark to a pool party. --The charming psychopath is a master of manipulation, and typically seeds chaos under the guise of reason, and in the confusion, torments you while eating you alive.
Psychopaths make up an estimated 4% to 6% of the population, they are drawn to positions of power, and are far better equipped than normal humans to succeed in attaining those positions.
-FL