Meteorite hits Russia

This is quite a video clip, isn't it? Keep in mind that he couldn't have been very close to the explosion, given how long it took for the sound to get there.

Luckily, this wasn't a dinosaur-killer, or even big enough to cause a nuclear winter. But those will happen someday, if we don't develop the technology - and the will - to identify and stop them.

Of course, the idiots are out in force. I've already seen comments about UFOs, and there's at least one Russian politician blaming America:

One Russian politician said the event was not a meteor shower but a US weapons test, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, was quoted as saying: "Meteors are falling. Those are not meteors, it is Americans testing their new weapon."

TPM has other videos of this meteor strike in central Russia here. According to the BBC, nearly a thousand people were injured, two seriously.

President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.

Hmm,... believers seem to have remarkably low expectations for their supposedly omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent being, wouldn't you say? The best he can do is keep "big fragments" from population centers? Gee, that's really impressive, huh?

I think this demonstrates that we human beings need to protect ourselves. This was a very small meteorite. If an asteroid hit us, that could mean extinction for human beings (and countless other species, as well).

PS. Apparently, it's a "meteor" as it's burning through our atmosphere, but a "meteorite" when it actually hits the ground (most aren't big enough for that and simply burn up as "shooting stars").