Russian Meteor Unrelated To Asteroid Flyby

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No, the Russians did not shoot down a UFO, despite some claims.  Unfortunately for residents of Chelyabinsk, Russia, it was nothing more than a huge rock from space;  a meteor/bolide which it happened to fall to earth only hours before asteroid 2012 DA14 made it's 17,200 mile pass (closer than many satellites)!

At the time of this posting, approximately 1200 people have been injured, in and around Chelyabinsk, mostly by flying glass.  Many people may have been injured after having been knocked off their feet by the blast from the fireball.

According to the trajectory of the Chelyabinsk bolide, it had nothing to do with asteroid 1012 DA14... and it wasn't a UFO. -SW

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Press Release: NASA Experts Discuss Russia Meteor in Media Teleconference Today

 

WASHINGTON -- NASA experts will hold a teleconference for news media at 4 p.m. EST today to discuss a meteor that streaked through the skies over Russia's Urals region this morning.

Scientists have determined the Russia meteor is not related to asteroid 2012 DA14 that will safely pass Earth today at a distance of more than 17,000 miles. Early assessments of the Russia meteor indicate it was about one-third the size of 2012 DA14 and traveling in a different direction.

Panelists for the teleconference are:
-- Bill Cooke, lead for the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
-- Paul Chodas, research scientist in the Near Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

News media interested in participating should dial 888-843-7186 and use the passcode METEOR.

The teleconference will be carried live online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For detailed information concerning the Earth flyby of 2012 DA14, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html

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About 1,100 injured as meteorite hits Russia with force of atomic bomb


A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb Friday, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows and injuring about 1,100 people.

The spectacle deeply frightened many Russians, with some elderly women declaring that the world was coming to an end. Many of the injured were cut by flying glass as they flocked to windows, curious about what had produced such a blinding flash of light.

The meteor -- estimated to be about 10 tons and 49 feet wide -- entered the Earth's atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 33,000 mph and shattered into pieces about 18-32 miles above the ground, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. But even small asteroids pack a tremendous punch, explained Andrew Cheng of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

"It doesn’t take a very large object. A 10-meter size object already packs the same energy as a nuclear bomb," Cheng, who led a 2000-2001 mission for NASA to orbit and land on an asteroid, told FoxNews.com.

Amateur video showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time, just after sunrise, leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

"There was panic. People had no idea what was happening," said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, a city of 1 million about 930 miles east of Moscow.

"We saw a big burst of light, then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud, thundering sound," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

The meteor hit less than a day before Asteroid 2012 DA14 is to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid to the Earth for a rock of its size -- about 17,150 miles. But the European Space Agency said its experts had determined there was no connection -- just cosmic coincidence.

The meteor released several kilotons of energy above the region, the Russian science academy said. According to NASA, it was about 15 meters or 49 feet wide before it hit the atmosphere, about one-third the size of the passing asteroid.

Some meteorite fragments fell in a reservoir outside the town of Chebarkul. The crash left a 26-foot-wide crater in the ice.

The shock wave blew in more than 1 million square feet of glass, according to city officials, who said 3,000 buildings in the city were damaged. At one zinc factory, part of the roof collapsed.

The Interior Ministry said about 1,100 people sought medical care after the shock wave and 48 of them were hospitalized. Most of the injuries were caused by flying glass, officials said.

There was no immediate word on any deaths or anyone struck by space fragments.

Continue reading here.


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Video Link

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Youtube video courtesy Alexandr Ivanov

* Russian meteorite crash: LIVE UPDATES

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Russia Meteor Not Linked to Asteroid Flyby
Source: NASA

NASA statement on Russia meteor:
"According to NASA scientists, the trajectory of the Russia meteor was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russia meteor and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14's trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north."

Update: February 15, 2013 7pm PST

New information provided by a worldwide network of sensors has allowed scientists to refine their estimates for the size of the object that entered that atmosphere and disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia, at 7:20:26 p.m. PST, or 10:20:26 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (3:20:26 UTC on Feb. 15).

The estimated size of the object, prior to entering Earth's atmosphere, has been revised upward from 49 feet (15 meters) to 55 feet (17 meters), and its estimated mass has increased from 7,000 to 10,000 tons. Also, the estimate for energy released during the event has increased by 30 kilotons to nearly 500 kilotons of energy released. These new estimates were generated using new data that had been collected by five additional infrasound stations located around the world – the first recording of the event being in Alaska, over 6,500 kilometers away from Chelyabinsk. The infrasound data indicates that the event, from atmospheric entry to the meteor's airborne disintegration took 32.5 seconds. The calculations using the infrasound data were performed by Peter Brown at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

"We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average," said Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones."

The trajectory of the Russia meteor was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, which hours later made its flyby of Earth, making it a completely unrelated object. The Russia meteor is the largest reported since 1908, when a meteor hit Tunguska, Siberia.
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Preliminary information indicates that a meteor in Chelyabinsk, Russia, is not related to asteroid 2012 DA14, which is flying by Earth safely today.

The Russia meteor is the largest reported since 1908, when a meteor hit Tunguska, Siberia. The meteor entered the atmosphere at about 40,000 mph (18 kilometers per second). The impact time was 7:20:26 p.m. PST, or 10:20:26 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (3:20:26 UTC on Feb. 15), and the energy released by the impact was in the hundreds of kilotons.

Based on the duration of the event, it was a very shallow entry. It was larger than the meteor over Indonesia on Oct. 8, 2009. Measurements are still coming in, and a more precise measure of the energy may be available later. The size of the object before hitting the atmosphere was about 49 feet (15 meters) and had a mass of about 7,000 tons.

The meteor, which was about one-third the diameter of asteroid 2012 DA14, was brighter than the sun. Its trail was visible for about 30 seconds, so it was a grazing impact through the atmosphere.

It is important to note that this estimate is preliminary, and may be revised as more data is obtained.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
2013-061

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Doomsday Looms, Scientists Concerns and LITS Prediction for 12/21/2012

Video Link
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NASA Scientist David Morrison discusses the rumors of a doomsday in December 2012 and shows how these claims are not supported by science. This updates Morrison's earlier videos "The Truth About 2012" and "The Truth about Nibiru". Another good discussion is in the JPL video "12-21-2012 Just Another Day".

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I'm going to go out on a limb here, making my own prediction concerning December 21, 2012.

I have to agree with David Morrison of NASA,  that there is no planet about to collide with Earth.  Albeit, there are such things are rogue planets but if one was barreling down on us from space, we would have seen it coming months ago.  And no, it isn't hiding at the South Pole!

Planet alignment is an astronomical novelty but it does not herald the end of the world, nor does the Earth's alignment with the center of our galaxy.   In the 4 billion or so years that Earth has been spinning around the sun, it's tilted, wobbled, the magnetic field has changed, the sun has belched solar flares and gee, the Earth is still here.

Disasters happen.  The earth is an active, live planet,  subject to all manners of internal as well as external forces, such as lunar and solar activity.  Most people no longer live in caves and have this new device called a laptop, iPad or smart phone, so word does get around a lot faster than it used to (i.e., Pony Express).

An alien invasion isn't imminent;  the only lifeforms we really need to fear are ourselves and our own selfish needs. I can almost here the aliens "out there", discussing the chaos on Earth. "Can you believe this crap?  They have a good thing and all they want to do is screw it up!"

Even the Mayans themselves reject any notion of the world's end on 12/21/2012.  At a ceremony in Cuba, Mayan sage Pedro Celestino Yac Noj burned seeds and fruits to mark the end of the old calender. He is quoted as saying, "The 21st is for giving thanks and gratitude and the 22nd welcomes the new cycle, a new dawn."

My prediction is that you will wake up to a new day on December 22nd, realizing that you only have 2 days left to buy Christmas presents and taxes will still be due on April 15, 2013.   You've spent your life savings on a 3 bedroom luxury bunker and a 50,000 gallon water tank, buried somewhere in Nevada.   Good luck finding it in 5 feet of snow!

You will also realize that you now have to deal with a 10 year supply of toilet paper; several cases of batteries, MREs (meals ready to eat),  beans, rice, powdered milk and enough ammo to start and finish a small war.  Don't worry, there is always another doomsday prediction waiting on the horizon.  You are in luck!  Some of that freeze dried food has a shelf life of 25 years!

- Sunny Williams, LITS


It's the end of the world as we know it: panic spreads ahead of Mayan prophecy


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NEVER FORGET 9/11/01

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Never forget those who died on September 11, 2001.

I won't.

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Once more around the block: Firefighter's Guide Preps for UFO Attack

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Though this information has been out for quite some time, I thought it needed another once over, for those who may not have seen it the first time.

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Video Link

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Exert from Chapter 13 - Disaster Control and UFOs, Part 1, ENEMY ATTACK AND UFO POTENTIAL, page 439:


"WARNING

Near approaches of UFOs can be harmful to human beings. Do not stand under a UFO that is hovering at low altitude. Do not touch or attempt to touch a UFO that has landed. In either case the safe thing to do is to get away from there very quickly and let the military take over. There is a possibility of radiation danger and there are known cases where persons have been burned by rays emanating from
UFOs. Don't take chances with UFOs!"

Published in 1992, this 600 plus page guide does not admit UFOs exist, the authors only eludes to the "potential" of their existence and the dangers facing any emergency workers.

Note: FIRE OFFICER'S GUIDE TO DISASTER CONTROL, by William M. Kramer and Charles W. Bahme. Published by Fire Engineering Books and Videos, Park 80 West, Plaza Two, 7th Floor, Saddle Brook, NJ 07662. Second Edition.

More info here


And here

Editor's note: I wouldn't run up and put my hands on a failed 'Nuke', either! -SW

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The Days After- A Survival Guide

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I have received emails from folks asking what to do if a disaster strikes; most were concerned with "end of the world" scenarios.  Well, if it's the end of the world, will anyone survive?  If you do, you'll need a few skills, or at least a survivalist mindset.  So I have decided to address this topic and make a few suggestions.

If you are like me and can't afford a defunct missile silo, or a remolded bunker as your posh holocaust getaway, then you might want to consider alternatives, such as the nearest root cellar and/or living by your wits.

I'm not saying that the world as we know it is going to end but disasters do happen.  I am not going to hold my breath and wait for some 'alien craft' to snatch me up, then whisk me and my family to safety.  No, surviving is going to be up to me.

So what do you do in case of a major calamity?  Well first off, you need to be prepared and it helps if you know how to live off the land.  If that isn't an option, then aside from a plethora of weaponry and a stockpile of ammunition, you are going to need fresh drinking water... and plenty of it.  Figure at least 1 gallon of water, per person, per day. That's for drinking, not bathing.  Yeah, your gonna get ripe after the first month, so let's hope this disaster doesn't last very long.

You can strain and boil water for drinking, or disinfect water.  If you have water purifying tablets*, that is fine, if you can't light a fire. You will also need containers for your water.  Clean one gallon milk jugs will do fine, just so long as you don't throw away the caps!  Screw on tops are even better.  If you thought ahead, maybe you have already purchased one gallon jugs of water, in bulk.

OK, so you have your drinking water, what's next?  Food.  MREs (meals ready to eat) are darned expensive but there are frugal alternatives.  Canned goods right off the store shelves do have a shelf life but they can last from 2 to 5 years, so stock up.  Hey, you can rotate them out and consume as needed now but replace with a fresh stock.  Figure on at least 2-3 cans per person, per day. And please, don't forget the can opener.  You know, one of those that requires no electricity. 

Food stuffs that come in cans and sealed jars:
Milk
Meat
Vegetables (assorted, such as beans, corn, peas, asparagus, etc.)
Fruits (assorted, such as peaches, pears, cherries, etc.)
Peanut butter
Jellies
The list goes on...

Flour, cornmeal, rice and sugar stores well (kept dry) and so do some dried beans, pasta and potato flakes, though after a while, pinto beans get a bit hard.  I suggest you have plenty of glass containers that seal tight.  You don't want weevils, etc., unless you need the added protein.

Speaking of protein, dried meats such as jerky will be a big plus.  So are peanuts, cashews and other assorted nuts. Make sure everything is stored in stout, sealed containers.  You can also buy powdered eggs in a can.  Check the expiration dates!

Okay now, your tummy is full, so don't forget the toilet paper!

Now where were we... Oh yes.  Survival isn't just eating and enough water to sustain you, or TP to... well, you know.

To survive properly, you need clothing that is going to be of some protection.  We aren't Bigfoots, so we need proper attire.  Post apocalyptic wear calls for comfortable yet sturdy boots, tough pants such as jeans (not cut-offs) and long sleeved shirts. Oh, and don't forget a hat. You also might want to have some sturdy work gloves too.  When chopping wood for a fire, you don't want blisters on your hands.

Why do you need a weapon after a major disaster?  Aside from protection from pedators (including the two-legged kind), you might want to go hunting for fresh meat.

If it is winter, you are going to need blankets, parkas, and anything else that can keep you warm and protect you from hypothermia.

OK, so now we are properly attired, we also tools.  Here's a list of necessities:

First aid kit (stocked well: see link below)
Spoon & fork
can opener
flashlight
lantern
matches/lighters
Cooking pans
Canteen
Camp stove (or learn to build a campfire: See link below)
Hatchet (axe)
Machete (also a weapon against zombies)
Guns and ammo (lots and lots)
Knives (assorted)
Screw driver, wrench, sockets, etc. (in case you need to repair your transportation, or the generator you bought in case the electricity goes out.)

Other essentials:
Rope
String
Hammer & nails
Saw
tarp
Shovel (for the latrine, etc.)

Um, if you have to be mobile, you will probably need a way to haul all this stuff, so you will need an vehicle, or at least a small wagon. 

Unless you own stock in Exxon, I suggest you store up as much petrol (gasoline) as possible but not in your house!  You also need batteries for the flashlight and lantern (unless it is a kerosene lamp, then you need... kerosene!)

If your house is destroyed and you can't get your neighbor to allow you to bunk with him in his cozy cave, then I suggest you pack a tent, or learn to make a teepee out of branches (the axe comes in handy here), vines and moss.  If you are in the dessert, cactus may make a good fence but it's lousy building material.

Two, three or more heads are better than one and that equates to a lot more hands also, so if you have obliging neighbors, or find other survivors you can get along with, then there is more safety in numbers; more guns too!

If there is radiation, well, sorry.  Unless you have one and can wear a radiation suit, 24/7, then just do the best you can, as long as you can.

If you have medical issues and take medications, see if you can stock up, at least a 3 month supply. 

Remember, you need food, water, shelter and protection!
OK, so we can't all be Bert Gummer but we can make do with what we have, even if it is just a sharp knife and a will to live.

Here are some handy links for those who want to know more, plus complete lists of survival needs and "how to" links:

Be prepared:
http://www.ready.gov/
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/disaster-preparedness/
http://www.theskanner.com/article/Disaster-on-a-Budget-Preparing-an-Affordable-Survival-Kit-2011-03-17
http://busymommymedia.com/2012/03/preparing-for-a-disaster-on-a-budget/

How to:
http://www.redcross.org/images/pdfs/code/First_Aid_Kit_Contents.pdf
http://www.essortment.com/build-campfire-6-steps-31318.html
http://www.wilderness-survival-skills.com/how-to-make-a-fire.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5121679_make-teepee-sticks.html
http://www.survivalblog.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_skills

Other how to links (survival is dirty business.  If you don't stockpile processed food, you have to do things the hard way.  The following links are not intended for children!):
http://www.thejump.net/dress/fielddressing.htm
http://deerbutchering.blogsavy.com/how-to-butcher-a-deer/

For some of you, my list is incomplete but you can build on what I offer and what you find through the links I have provided.  There are many more sites and much more information on the internet.

I hope and pray such disasters never occur in our life time, or our children's, or your children's children but if it happens, be prepared.  Survive.  Rebuild.

-Sunny Williams

* Denotes a site where you can purchase said item but since I do not promote advertisements, you will have to Google it.

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