t high-fives juliana

I can't believe I am currently too poor for a latte until Friday. I think I may die. DIE OF NOT HAVING A LATTE.

This was the week holiday purchases all caught up with me, and I opted to pay everything all at once thinking, "I'll just have to buckle down for a week and live without spending money. It's only a week."

This week's Allyson thinks last week's Allyson is such an incredible asshole.

Yay Ghostbusters x-posty!

"Ray, when someone asks you if you're a *God*, you say 'YES'!"

Allyson, I have been there and it sucks. I'd totally buy you a latte if I were there.

I think I first heard about Tunguska when I read The People's Almanac back in the late '70s. Or maybe another book that listed a lot of funky anecdotal paranormal-type stories (not Charles Fort, though--I read him about the same time and didn't like it for some reason).

I remember reading Chariots of the Gods about the same time, but that book annoys the hell out of me now. Denying the inventiveness of pre-modern people in favor of believing in extraterrestrial aliens? Feh.

One or two people claimed there was radiation, but no one else could confirm it.

Well, if an alien spacecraft crashed or exploded, could it look like Tunguska?

If a spaceship exploded in midair because of, for example, a breach in the warp core, it could possibly create the same effect, but no one's found unusual metals or dilithium crystals at the site. You'd think that you'd find some residue.

Denying the inventiveness of pre-modern people in favor of believing in extraterrestrial aliens? Feh.

How else do you explain the existence of primitive, stylized stone carvings that look vaguely (if you use your immagination) sorta' like some guy in a weird space suit-like helmet thingie?

I fucking HATE the holiday hangover week. We're having one.

The only cure for it is the tax refund check. But that requires doing our taxes. Sometimes the cure really is worse than the disease.

Denying the inventiveness of pre-modern people in favor of believing in extraterrestrial aliens? Feh.

Occam's Razor was the aliens' gift to humanity.

I've never heard of Tunguska either.

::high fives fellow ignoramous::

The most prominent theory about Tunguksa (according to wikipedia) is that a meteor (about 30 feet across) exploded before it struck the earth. The blast pattern in the trees is butterfly shaped, which is consistent with a high powered blast that occurs above ground with initial forces going straight down, then spreading out horizontally after hitting the earth.

My favorite theory is that Tesla set it off:

It has also been suggested, by Oliver Nichelson, that the Tunguska explosion was the result of an experiment by Nikola Tesla at his Wardenclyffe Tower, performed during one of Robert Peary's North Pole expeditions. It is claimed that Tesla sent a communication to Peary advising him to be on the alert for 'unusual auroral phenomena' encountered as he attempted to reach the North Pole. However, by the time of the Tunguska event most work at Wardenclyffe had already ended and the site was mostly abandoned. In addition, it is by no means apparent how the small energy input at Wardenclyffe could be responsible for such a large energy output elsewhere. Also this event happened on June 30, 1908 and Peary didn't leave New York for the North Pole until July 6, 1908.

The Nichelson theory is that Peary would encounter a destruction field when he did reach the North Pole so having the Tunguska event take place before Peary departed does not contradict the theory. Though Tesla had lost major research funding by 1908, his Wardenclyffe facility was still operational in 1908. It was not until 1917 that it was torn down. The theory is that the lack of funding may have caused Tesla to use his transmitter in this dramatic fashion in order to continue his power transmission investigations.

The large amount of energy required to cause such an event could easily be achieved by the process of electrical resonance in which power could be built up over a period of days. Electrical resonance was a process well known at that time. This power build up over a period of time corresponds to the "bright nights" reported over Europe days prior to the explosion.

There are other theories such as a naturally occuring hydrogen bomb from a deuterium rich meteor.

I wonder if my agency is supposed to give me a 1090.

Hm.

Tax refund. Yum.