[meteorite-list] Keller's latest

[E.P. Grondine]

Good morning, everyone - 

Ever heard of the Shiva Crater?

http://www.economist.com/node/14698363

Denial takes many forms.

A neighbor here in town has a novel attitude toward impact events, or perhaps he just truthfully expressed an attitude that many may have, but are afraid to express. 

There are too many people, he declared, and if an impact were to kill most of them, he would take his chances of dying in that impact, providing he also had the chance to survive it without the others being around.

I pointed out to him that it was more likely that no one would be around afterwards, but he couldn't believe that.

On the other hand, some other people have shared with me their thinking that if it's God's will, then we should not interfere. By this logic I am working to frustrate God's will, though none of them have said that to me directly. I certainly don't feel like Satan's agent or the anti-Christ.
I would certainly think that either position would have far more perks and a far higher income, and that the Prince of Darkness would make the work much easier.

Then of course we have the scientific sceptics, liker Keller, who are well funded, who raise multiple small points, while the gross data goes unexamined for lack of funding.

And then you have the biases, like NASA should only be concerned with flying a few men to Mars, or with solving the grand mysteries of physics, or with finding other intelligent life forms.

On the other side, you have the cranks running around yelling that we're all going to die, making people afraid, and then selling them their fears.

E.P.