"Neither of those nations have the sophisticated sensors we do that can determine the difference between a natural NEO impact and a nuclear detonation."
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=8834
space REF
Speech by Gen. Simon Worden: "Military Perspectives on the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Threat"
Source: United States Space Command
Posted Monday, July 15, 2002
SIMON P. WORDEN, BRIGADIER GENERAL, USAF
Deputy Director for Operations
United States Space Command
Peterson AFB, CO
July 10, 2002
Introduction
A few weeks ago the world almost saw a nuclear war. Pakistan and India were at full alert and poised for a large-scale war - which both sides appeared ready to escalate into nuclear war. The situation was defused - for now! Most of the world knew about this situation and watched and worried. But few know of an event over the Mediterranean in early June of this year that could have had a serious bearing on that outcome. U.S. early warning satellites detected a flash that indicated an energy release comparable to the Hiroshima burst. We see about 30 such bursts per year, but this one was one of the largest we've ever seen. The event was caused by the impact of a small asteroid - probably about 5-10 meters in diameter on the earth's atmosphere. Had you been situated on a vessel directly underneath the intensely bright flash would have been followed by a shock wave that would have rattled the entire ship and possibly caused minor damage.
The event of this June caused little or no notice as far as we can tell. But had it occurred at the same latitude, but a few hours earlier, the result on human affairs might have been much worse. Imagine that the bright flash accompanied by a damaging shock wave had occurred over Delhi, India or Islamabad, Pakistan? Neither of those nations have the sophisticated sensors we do that can determine the difference between a natural NEO impact and a nuclear detonation. The resulting panic in the nuclear-armed and hair-trigger militaries there could have been the spark that would have ignited the nuclear horror we'd avoided for over a half-century. This situation alone should be sufficient to get the world to take notice of the threat of asteroid impact.
The Threat
I've just relayed the aspect of the near-earth objects (NEO) that should worry us all. As more and more nations acquire nuclear weapons - nations without the sophisticated controls and capabilities build up by the United States over the 40 years of Cold War - we must first and foremost ensure that the 30-odd impacts on the upper atmosphere are well understood by all to be just what they are.
A few years ago those of us charged with protecting this nations vital space system, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) became aware of another aspect of the NEO problem. This was the Leonid meteor storm. This particular storm occurs every 33 years. It is caused by the debris from a different type of NEO - a comet. When the earth passes through the path of a comet, it can encounter the dust thrown off by that comet through its progressive passes by the Sun. This dust is visible on the Earth as a spectacular meteor storm. But our satellites in space can experience the storm as a series of intensely damaging micrometeorite strikes. We know about many of these storms and we've figured out their parent comet sources. But there are some storms arising from comets that are too dim or spent for us to have seen that can produce "surprise" events. One of these meteor storms has the potential of knocking out some or even most of our earth-orbiting systems. If just one random satellite failure in a pager communications satellite a few years ago seriously disrupted our lives, imagine what losing dozens of satellites could do!
Most people know of the Tunguska NEO strike in Siberia in 1908. An object probably less than 100 meters in diameter struck over Siberia releasing the equivalent energy of up to 10 megatons. It leveled a forest 50 miles across. But most people don't know that we have evidence of two other strikes during last Century. One occurred over the Amazon in the 1930s and another over central Asia in the 1940s. Had any of these struck over a populated area, thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands might have perished. Experts now tell us that an even worse catastrophe that a land impact of a Tunguska-size event would be an ocean impact near a heavily populated shore. The resulting tidal wave could inundate shorelines for hundreds of miles and potentially kill millions.
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010cosp...38..672C
The Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System
An explosion of the comet nucleus fragment on June, 6 2002 above Mediterranean Sea
Churyumov, Klim; Kruchynenko, Vitaly; Churyumova, Tatyana
38th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 18-15 July 2010, in Bremen, Germany, p.4
The analysis of data about the thermal explosions of large bolide in the atmosphere of the Earth on June 6, 2002 above the Mediterranean Sea is made. The cumulative function of influx of space bodies is corrected taking into account the real height of explosion, which determined as height of maximal braking of the bolide in the atmosphere of the Earth. It resulted in the consent of the integral function of influx, determined by investigators of this bolide. It is found out that the phenomenon of the bright bolide on June 6, 2002 is a result of explosion of a comet nucleus fragment. It is shown that it is impossible to explain the Tungusska phenomenon within the framework of a model of a monolithic body.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fabricated
Dictionary
fabricated
to devise or invent
to fake; forge
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2002/jun02/06-06project2002launchpr.mspx
Microsoft News Center
News Press Release
Microsoft Project 2002 Product Family Now Publicly Available
WASHINGTON, June 6, 2002 — At launch events here and across the country, Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of Microsoft® Project 2002
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258463/releaseinfo
IMDb
The Internet Movie Database
Release dates for
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Country Date
USA 6 June 2002 (premiere)
UK 6 September 2002
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258463/quotes
IMDb
The Internet Movie Database
Memorable quotes for
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Jason Bourne: Who am I?
Conklin: You're U.S. Government property. You're a malfunctioning $30 million weapon. You're a total goddamn catastrophe, and by God, if it kills me, you're going to tell me how this happened.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060522/releaseinfo
IMDb
The Internet Movie Database
Release dates for
How to Steal a Million (1966)
Country Date
USA 13 July 1966 (Los Angeles, California)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060522
IMDb
The Internet Movie Database
How to Steal a Million (1966)
Romantic comedy about a woman who must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries, and the man who helps her.
Audrey Hepburn ... Nicole
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/01.htm
Broken Bow
WILLIAMS: And just who gets to decide what's pertinent information?
ARCHER: Admiral.
FORREST: Jon. I think you know everyone.
ARCHER: Not everyone.
LEONARD: It's a Klingot.
TOS: A Klingon.
ARCHER: Where'd he come from? (they're viewing through window)
WILLIAMS: Oklahoma.
