[geeks] Disasters, was Mr Bill?

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 01:06:14AM -0400, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>Besides, even a small asteroid can send us on a serious and  
>demoralizing detour without doing that much damage to the planet itself.

There have been some big impacts in recorded history, nothing that wiped
out life on earth, but some spectacular results have been noted.

There was a big metor strike around 65 million years ago, which is
beleived to have created the Gulf of Mexico. It's also blamed for the 
disapearance of the dinsosaurs, but there are some good theories each way.

What started the whole dinosaur thing going was the Permian Extinction,
which was much worse and we only have a few clues, but no real facts
about why it occured or how it worked.

In modern times, Krakatoa was much more devastating.

My teenage son and I were discussing computer games over dinner last night,
and he mentioned Fallout and the scenario behind it. When I was his age,
I was reading books on building a fallout shelter, and trying to figure
out how to make one in a small room under the stairs in the house we were
renting. It was just a covered area with a door and exhaust fan, a sink 
and toilet, but science won over fear, I made it into a darkroom.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM