Russia Calls For Space Defense System
It'll be useful against Klingons, too
AS RUSSIAN authorities search for remnants of the space object that startled residents of the Chelyabinsk region, scientists said its shockwave was a loud warning they hoped would inspire action to prevent potential catastrophes.
''When a small piece of rock would fall on the Earth 100 years ago, it could have caused minimal damage and would have stayed largely undetected, but Friday's accident fully demonstrated how vulnerable the technological civilisation of today has become,'' said Vladimir Lipunov, head of the Space Monitoring Laboratory with Moscow State University.
''It is high time Russia should start investing heavily in building an advanced space danger monitoring and warning system and a system capable of destroying such super bombs falling on us,'' he said.
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Hey Putin, watch out for the Klingons near Ur-anus!
How does a 500 kTon event that caused no reported fatalities "demonstrate how vulnerable the technological civilisation of today has become?" If anything, technology mitigated the damage by providing better treatment to the injured.
There were less people?
Beyond that, this could have taken out a city. The only reason it didn't hit was because of the trajectory. Had it come in at a slightly steeper angle, "Boom!"
I'm not saying that meteorites don't pose a risk. I'm not even saying that meteorites don't pose a sufficient risk to justify a defense system. I'm saying that this particular event does not demonstrate anything about vulnerability, as was claimed.
Capitalism must really be working for Russia. By the time communism failed in the Soviet Union people were standing in lines for moldy bread and it's military couldn't even afford the fuel to run it's equipment. But, now, they have plenty of capital to invest "heavily in building an advanced space danger monitoring and warning system and a system capable of destroying such super bombs falling on [them]."
Sure makes one wonder why we're allowing our moronic socialist misanthropes to drag us down into the same hellish hole the Soviets and others just dragged themselves out of.