Dismissive Journalistic Report of near-earth objects

So, the “tour bus sized” asteroid that zipped by earth on September 24, 2020 and missed us by 13,000 miles was dismissed in the paper as no big deal. Let’s look at that little old rock. The kinetic energy of a moving object is defined as ½ mass times velocity squared (1/2M times V squared). If the bus was 50 feet by 8 by 8, it had a volume of about 100 cubic meters (100M cubed). The mass of rock is about 3,000 kilograms per cubic meter (3,000Kg/cubic meter) that’s 300,000 kilograms for our “bus rock”. The velocity of sun orbiting asteroids varies but 15 kilometers per second (15,000 meters per second) is a good guess (15,000 KM/SEC). The exact velocity of this object is known so this calculation can be corrected if necessary. Multiplying ½ M times V squared we get about 3.4 X 10 to the 13th power (lottsa zeros) joules of energy. The bomb that the USA dropped on Hiroshima, Japan contained about 8 X 10 to the 13th joules. So, had this little rock hit Earth, it would be “only half of an atomic bomb”. Where it hits is kind of important. One smallish Abomb isn’t a big worry, but imagine if it had hit North Korea; what do you think wing nut extraordinaire, Kim Jung Un would have done?

Cutting Entitlements and defining the words you use

Two words need to be redefined in the minds of the American people; liberal and entitle (entitlement). From the dictionary: Liberal: 1) One who advocates greater FREEDOM of thought or action. One who has these principals. 2) Not narrow or bigoted; broad minded. 3) Free to give or bestow, generous. Entitle: To justly qualify a person or a claim; to give a right (as in; his labor ENTITLES him to his wages). So: Entitlement: That which is due to legitimate claimants of their just rewards. For the last 40 years republicans have argued that I should be able to keep my money and invest it in ways far better than the Social Security System (ala Ayn Rand). They, the republicans, have never delivered a policy based on this philosophy, even when they were in complete control of the White House, the Congress, the Senate and the Supreme Court as they are now. Now, they tell me that my Social Security “entitlement” isn’t mine. But the money that I have been forced to invest in the general fund of the USA (my taxes, the money THEY spend every penny of on their deficit causing short term pork-barrel pet projects), is theirs to give to billionaires in a cut to their taxes. I’m a “moocher” and don’t deserve my SS, or government services like good weather reporting by NOAA or important medical research. Those “entitlement expenditures” need to be trimmed. The best way to do that is to allow the richest man in the world decide how tax dollars are distributed. SO Sorry! He doesn’t have diabetes, He doesn't shop for food; his life is nothing like any other human being in America. I can’t do much about him stealing my tax dollars, but Social Secruity is my money. It’s even double money, matching funds from my employer (those private business guys that the republicans hold up just an inch below the statue of Ronald Reagan [the God]). It’s my money. I’m entitled to it, and if that’s a bad thing, then I’m a liberal and I’ll own that too.