[OT] 17 years left. What to do?

[Death's Toe]

What would be worse, ocean or land impact?

I think a land impact. Sure with an ocean impact you get 3000 foot waves traveling at 1200mph in every direction. Oh, yeah and it rains ocean-floor mud for months over the entire globe. Localized weather is screwed as a result of the hugh-normous coloumn of steam from the impact crater.

On the other hand, a land impact blows up whatever it hits, and throws up the aforementioned cloud of debris that turns Earth's thermostat way down.

So, if I had to choose, I'd move to the nearest mountain range, buy an umbrella, and hope for an ocean impact.

 

[Umbran]

What would be worse, ocean or land impact?

Actually, IIRC, ocean impacts are worse.

In a land impact, you get lots of dust, some local shock damage.

In an ocean impact, you get - massive tidal waves that destroy any communities on the shores, staggering amounts of water instantly turned to steam, the same amount of dust (the water is not sufficient to stop the rock), and then even more steam as water rushing into the crater hits moten rock....

Huge amounts of dust in the atmosphere is not good. Water is worse. Water clouds have a higher albedo than dust clouds. Dust blocks light, but water clouds reflect it more - meaning you get a greater gobal cooling effect from an oceanic impact.

 

[bolen]

"The chance is actually either 0% or 100%. This is classical mechanics. Either it will hit, or it won't. The "probability" the media reports is only an indicator of our level of knowledge about the beastie."

Great the end of the world is upon us and you want to argue about baysian vs frequentist interpretation

 

[Mistwell]

you should always put in up to your company match % - as someone said, it's free money. what you do over and above that is contingent on your stage of life and future plans. some people sock aways as much as 15% of their pay in 401k's.

Actually, it isn't always free money. In fact, I put in the max into my 401K, with 100% matching from my company. I am now in the negative. No, not in the negative on just the company contribution, I mean I am in the negative overall. As is virtually every other person in my (now former) company of over 2000 employees. And I didn't direct the money into high risk investments either.

In case you hadn't noticed, we have had one of the worst years in the history of the US for stocks. Stock investments of any kind, even if diversified under a 401K, and even if backed by matching contributions by an employer, are not always a good thing. Sometimes 401K's really do lose money, even over the long term when compared to a standard interest-bearing savings account or municipal bond. It IS a risk to invest in a 401K.

Now back to the end of the world...

 

[Miho]

*Sigh* and it seems like just last month an asteroid "nearly hit"...

Oops my mistake - it was!

 

[Zappo]

"The chance is actually either 0% or 100%. This is classical mechanics. Either it will hit, or it won't. The "probability" the media reports is only an indicator of our level of knowledge about the beastie."

Great the end of the world is upon us and you want to argue about baysian vs frequentist interpretation

I still want to know what's the chance that the chance will be 100%.

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

And remember asteriods don't destroy planets; Planets destroy Planets

 

[Katerek]

this asteroid is 2km across. That is good sized.

It is travelling at 28km/s. That is fast.

Let's face it, if it hits, it is going to be sever suckville down here on dirtball #3. The likely hood of it hitting is slim, as I am sure evidence will show in the coming weeks.

It circles the sun every 836 days. Everytime it does, some of it's overall mass and size will decrease, probably not enough so that it will effect much but that is a factor.

How much destruction will ensue also depends on the trajectory of the object when it gts close, and how close to the moon it passes on it's way in.

Close enough to the moon, and it could be pulled in there. Which would be neat to watch.

If it came in at a highly obtuse angle, a large portion qould quite literally bounce right off into space.

A more direct impact would be horrid. Assuming it has a dense iron core or some other hard metal like nickel, this should keep it hrom a high altitude burst. The speed that it is travelling would pretty much ensure widespread destruction.

For instance, say it comes in through a hole in the ozone and lands on the rain forests of Brazil. The fireball created would wipe out mexico city about seven seconds later. The earthquakes would level damn near every building in the western hemisphere and the tidal waves would take care of the coastal ones.

Then about 10 minutes later things would really get bad.

We have seventeen years to do something if this thing turns out to be real.

Kind of makes war seem ultimately pointless doesn't it?

I am curious to see if humankind can step up to the plate and evolve. If this is all real, the only way we will make it out alive is if we get on the ball and come in for the big win.

 

[Moulin Rogue]

The big, huge meteor headed toward the Earth. Could nothing stop it? Maybe Bob could. He was suddenly on top of the meteor---through some kind of space warp or something. "Go, Bob, go!" yelled one of the generals. "Give me that!" said the big-guy general as he took the microphone away. "Listen, Bob," he said. "You've got to steer that meteor away from Earth." "Yes, but how?" thought Bob. Then he got an idea. Right next to him there was a steering wheel sticking out of the meteor.
- Jack Handey

 

[Broken Fang]

I'm selling bottled water and MRE's for any of you who want to get ahead of them game.

12 oz bottle of water - $1000.00 (US)
1 MRE (your choice) - $1500.00 (US) these are the good new ones

I accept cash and gold only.

Thank you.