Just when you thought we survived this whole Mayan end-of-the-world close call, news that come Friday we might not be able to make a call.
It's true. Because an asteroid's going to come that close.
Not close enough to actually hit the Earth, but at 17,200 miles, this 150-foot piece of rock called 2012 DA14 -- don't ask -- will be close enough to hit any one of more than 100 telecommunication and weather satellites circling the Earth.
It's anyone's guess how many will see services disrupted, but my guess is most would prefer that to seeing their lives disrupted -- i.e., ended.
Like this thing actually hitting the Earth. Like when a similar-sized meteor did just that over a remote region of Siberia in 1908 -- that one flattened an area over 830 square miles. Had the same meteor hit London, we'd have had no London!
We were lucky then. We should be lucky now. Sure, some calls might go dead. But it sure beats us going dead.
If memory serves me right, Dinosaurs weren't so lucky. Forget losing data. The dinosaurs lost, well, dinosaurs. And here's the killer: They didn't even get a warning. Which is probably just as well. Who needs a text to confirm you're toast?
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