[extropy-chat] SURVIVAL: When asteroids or comets strike

[Hal Finney]

Mike Lorrey writes:

> THere is some discussion and rumor in the libertarian world that some
> scientists are predicting a major asteroid impact for October of this
> year and are keeping it hushed up because we can't do anything about it
> this late... Anyone have any info?

Sounds like some of the rumors debunked at the Bad Astronomy site,
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/c2c_feb262004.html .

There was an asteroid discovered in January whose orbit was uncertain and
for a little while it looked like it could hit earth.  The story got quite
a bit of publicity and I'd imagine that this rumor is a distorted echo.
The web page also describes a nut case on the Coast to Coast radio show
(formerly hosted by Art Bell) who claims that an object bigger than the
moon is going to crash into Antarctica.

Hal