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11/23/2008

Canada gets all the good stuff, dangit!

Posted by Gwen |

Much like a drunken co-ed, a ginormous meteor went streaking across the western Canadian sky on Thursday night. One 10 year-old girl witnessed the event and her mother reports, "She said there was a flash of light, the house shook twice and it sounded like dinosaurs were walking." Kick ass. Lucky kid.

I love this stuff.   I will set my alarm to get up at all hours of the night in order to see eclipses and comets and such.  We Earthlings have only a minuscule understanding of the breadth and scope of the universe which means that anything is possible, including other life forms and hospitable environs.  I don't want to miss it when we see or learn something new.


This footage of the meteor was shot from the dash of a police car - a "mountie" camera, if you will.  This video is everywhere so I tried to find the most dramatic one for you.


Without getting too controversial on a Sunday morning, I have to say that natural occurrences like this scared the loincloths off ancient people and they told stories of divine intervention to make sense of what they otherwise couldn't explain.  For example, the light generated by this meteor has been described as the equivalent of a billion-watt lightbulb.  Isn't God generally described as a blinding white light?  I'm just sayin'.  Please don't stone me.

In other science news, astronauts on the Space Station are trying to work out the kinks in a urine machine.

15 comments:

hello haha narf said...

if i would have seen that spectacular event i would have pissed my fucking pants. gorgeous. and serious.

Anonymous said...

Great video. And, um, yeah, I thought you set your alarm to get up in the middle of the night to do your peeping Tom or should I say, Gwen, routine?

paperback reader said...

In many ways, religion was science for people who didn't know anything at all and were scared each night when the sun would go away.

I would set my alarm to get up for these things, but that would be unfaithful to my god: sleeping as much as possible.

Scope said...

Poob!!

What the HELL were you doing Thursday night!

Don't lie to me! This is your "hood" and it has your fingerprints ALL over it.

words...words...words... said...

Wow. This is possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen. And to think I froze my ass off looking for Halley's Comet back in 1986 and didn't see shit.

Dr Zibbs said...

That's way cool.

Anonymous said...

So I guess that's the final sign of the apocalypse huh? December 21, 2012 is the end, woohoo! That means my student loans can suck it!

Anonymous said...

PS: That particular video is no longer available, but check this one out...

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y4dLNgMm6E

hee hee

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Not many people get to see such an event. Wish I'd been there!

Fancy Schmancy said...

Very cool, but from far away. Not cool if it hits my house.

Amanda said...

Are you saying that God crashed and burned? ;-)

Renaissance Woman said...

I would have loved to see that myself. The video is amazing!

Moe Wanchuk said...

Meteors are like my sex life....I come out of nowhere and it's Over before you blink an eye.

H said...

I see these all the time coming home from a bar or concert. What's the big deal?

MJenks said...

I think God's also supposed to be bigger than a chunk of iron and iridium.

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