Famous Disasters of the Gilded Age

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

John,

I can't believe you haven't heard! This asteroid is headed our way and is probably due to hit on 1st February 2019 but no-one knows where yet. We've got 17 years to do something about it but I've since heard that they don't want to spend the estimated 4 billion ($ or £, I don't know) on defending the planet and that the estimated 1/10 of the world's population that would be wiped out is an "acceptable risk".

I'm sure Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck can get their red space suits on and do something about it though.

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Dave Moran]

I wanna know where all these asteroids are suddenly coming from ? I mean, for thousands of years we've lived on this planet - from the time of Homer up until about twenty years ago - and we never even noticed the ruddy things, let alone have one hit us ( apart, perhaps, from Tunguska ).

Now, suddenly, there's dozens of the flipping things ?

What's going on here ? Are we being bombarded by horrible space aliens with tiny wee bodies and huge bulgy brain shaped heads ? What are our leaders keeping from us ?

Dearie me, I'm very concerned...

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

I think they ARE the leaders, Dave. Mulder told me.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Actually, the Earth has been bombarded continuously throughout it's history by asteroids. They've always been there, but it's only recently that we've developed the technology to actually find them. Finding evidence of these impacts is not that easy though as billions of years of wind and wave to say nothing of constant geological activity have worn the impact craters down.

As this is far from a Titanic related subject, may I suggest that anyone so interested talk to a geologist about it or do some research on the net.

 

[Tracy Smith]

I read in an article that the odds are rather low that it will actually hit Earth. It's just a slight possibility.

No need to get our knickers in a twist just yet.

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Thats it- im saving every penny to pay the $35,000 to dive on the Titanic- Seems I have enough time to save up...

 

[John Meeks]

I think you're safe, Tarn...

...and if not - you won't care...!

Hope you have a great dive!

John M

 

[Geoff Whitfield]

"Asteroids" So that's why the doctor looked puzzled when I told him I thought I had them!

Geoff

 

[Pat Cook]

No, Geoff, you're thinking of Hemispheres.

 

[Dave Gittins]

The latest calculations show that we won't be hit in 2019. Not so sure about 2060. That lets me off the hook, but young James and Adam had better buy themselves hard hats.

 

[Bob Cruise]

I am a geologist/paleontologist.

Actually, asteroids hit our Earth everyday.

But the really "beeeeg" ones come along only every 10-20 million years or so.

When that happens - KABOOM - life was a cabaret ol' chum.

But Michael wants us to remain website appropriate.

Okay, Mikey.

On that note, COMETS also hit the earth every now and then - just like the comet Shoemaker-Levy, when it fragmented and smashed into Jupiter back in 1994.

Tunguska was, many believe, a comet, as was another occurrence in the Amazon jungle during the 1930s (big boom but a very little in way of a crater, since comets are frozen gas and liquid while asteroids are solid rock).

But I digress.

Halley's comet passed us by in 1910, so close that it still outshone the bright lights of Broadway in NYC.

The earth at one point passed through the comet's tail, which contained a good deal of cyanide. Hysteria prevailed, inciting the public to ingest "comet pills".

In the end, all was well.

Maybe "comet pills" need to make a come-back in 2019.

Any investors?????

 

[Michael H. Standart]

So long as I'm the one doing the selling rather then the buying.

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

Going back to the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago, 30th December 1903 which killed 602 people, many of them children. Two of the dead were the sons of Titanic first class passenger Ida Hippach and brothers to Jean Hippach. What effect do you think their boys' deaths had on them during and after the Titanic disaster?

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Kris Muhvic]

Hello-

Just getting back from Alaska, I heard of the Katmai Volcano at Novarupta that erupted June 6, 1912. It was the largest eruption of the 20th century; steam escaping from the ash covered ground until 1930.

No people were harmed, though. Animals and vegetation were the victims here. Just something interesting I thought to share-

Kris

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

Another disaster already mentioned in this thread was the Halifax ship explosion which killed over 2000 people in 1917. Apparently they made a Titanic-style movie about it:

Cheers

Boz