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Old February 16th 17, 08:19 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Davoud[_1_]
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Posts: 1,989
Default June 30th is Asteroid Day!

Quadibloc:
Just heard on the news that the UN is proclaiming an annual Asteroid Day
to
heighten awareness of the possibility of an asteroid striking the Earth.


Davoud:
Are we "meant to lie down or put a paper bag over our head or
something?"


Chris L Peterson:
I learned in school that getting under your desk and putting your
hands behind your neck could be effective.


Yes, that's true. Fact is, there was a genuine target 19 linear miles
NNW (upwind) of my elementary school‹the Irvin Works, which was the
largest rolling mill (sheet steel) in the world in the 1950s, and which
is still a good-sized mill today
https://www.ussteel.com/uss/portal/h...s/company-faci
lites-irvinplant-west%20mifflinpa/. An air burst would have destroyed
a high percentage of the U.S. capacity to make sheet steel, disrupted
Monongahela River traffic, and destroyed important rail lines on both
sides of the river. I had done my homework and I told the principal
that we were pretty safe from the blast, but that radiation could be a
hazard in an upwind blast. I suggested that the school line the floor
with lead and that the students all go to the basement cafeteria. That
suggestion was not acted upon. The real problem was in telling the kids
that the Irvin Works was a target, as numerous kids' dads worked there
and they were frightened to tears. Others, including me, took comfort
in the fact that their dads were a couple of hundred feet underground
in a coal mine for 8 to 10 hours each day. Some hope.

(Seriously though, it is not entirely outside our power to take action
to prevent such a strike, so there may well be value in expanding
awareness of the possibility.)


You're right. But the only invisible things most people believe in are
UFOs, ghosts, and gods. An event that hasn't happened in human history
is unlikely to get people fired up to spend a $trillion or so for a
detection and defense system. Tunguska doesn't count; "nobody" knows
about it.

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

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