Latest Reality Show: Meteorite on the Volga

A meteorite plunged to earth in Russia's Ural Mountains today, exploding into flames in a powerful blast that smashed windows and injured around 1,000 people. The eery atmosphere has the feel of a super-reality show, one where nature also plays an important role and not only some bored housewives {of Beverly Hills, New Jersey, Dallas, etc.), a show where people actually do get hurt albeit lively.  Amateur REAL-TIME videos broadcast on Russian state television showed an object streaking across the sky trailing smoke before bursting into a fireball. Residents in the city of Chelyabinsk, the largest in the affected region, described a shock wave that blew in doors, smashed glass and set off car alarms."The light was so intense that it completely illuminated the courtyard of our apartment block," said one witness. "The sound, the shock wave came around six minutes later” (light is of course faster than sound). The meteorite was several meters in diameter and weighed around 10 metric tons. The object entered the atmosphere at a speed of 15-20 kilometers per second, disintegrated at a height of 30-50 kilometersScientists said the incident was a rare event, both in terms of the size of the rock and the number of injuries it caused. Nevertheless since it was recorded live and broadcast all over, the world will have the impression that it is a common event that could happen again tomorrow or the day after. By the way, Is there a connection between the meteor event in Russia and the swimming-pool-size 130,000 asteroid that is expected to "harmlessly" pass 17,200 miles form earth next Friday? Will that be recorded live too? rewetted? facebooked? googled?Part of me could not help thinking: If that meteorite fell in the US, lawyers would have found somebody to sue for sure: the fallen buildings architects and contractors, the glass company, the National Weather service, the UFO Early Warning System, and even Isaac Newton (his estate) for inventing gravity! What the hec, name them all! A thousand injured, that is definitely a class action. Thank You God for sending that thing to Russia instead. Who knows that other huge one may come here next week. It is almost the size of that stranded cruise ship. Lawyers are sharpening their pencils. Some of them may already be on the flight to Chelyabinsk!"That kind of light doesn't happen in life, only at the end of the world," said Vlada Palagina, a Chelyabinsk schoolteacher.