14-Year-Old Boy Smote By Meteorite 435
eldavojohn writes "Winning the lottery requires incredible luck and one in a million odds. So does getting hit by a falling space rock. A 14-year-old German boy was granted a three-inch scar by the gods. A pea-sized meteorite smote young Gerrit Blank's hand before leaving a foot-sized crater on the road. The boy's account: 'At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand. Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder. The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards. When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road.' Curiously, the rock was magnetic, and tests were done to verify it is extraterrestrial. The Telegraph notes the only other recorded event of a meteorite striking a person was 'in November 1954 when a grapefruit-sized fragment crashed through the roof of a house, bounced off furniture and landed on a sleeping woman.' Space.com lists a few more anomalies and we discussed the probability of these things downing aircraft recently."
Points for creativity (Score:5, Funny)
Great story to tell your parents after you've burned yourself with the crack pipe.
Today... (Score:5, Funny)
FML.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Getting smacked around by space rocks? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:quote (Score:5, Funny)
Him: Do you know how much stuff would have to be just right for that to happen? It'd be like hitting the lottery.
Me: People hit the lottery every week.
Checkmate.
yikes (Score:5, Funny)
What is more... (Score:5, Funny)
What is more amazing is that it struck a 14-year-old German. I didn't think these things existed anymore; I thought all Germans were over 40 by now.
Re:yikes (Score:5, Funny)
The gods couldn't take him out, so what chance do we have?
Re:yikes (Score:5, Funny)
the gods or whatever clearly hate this kid, maybe we should take the hint and finish him off
He survived geting hit ny a meteor.
He's too powerful for us.
Re:God is.... (Score:3, Funny)
...and that meteorite is the best he can do?
I would've expected a press conference [theonion.com], at least...
Bar conversations (Score:5, Funny)
This guy now automatically wins all bar scar-comparing competitions (when he's allowed to go in a bar, that is).
See this? My cat attacked me, gashed my wrist all the way to the bone.
That's nothing. Look here, rabid racoon, I had to be quarantined for days.
Child's play. Look at this, shot myself with a nail gun, stumbled back and stepped on a rake.
Oh yeah? Well God shot me with a meteorite.
Re:Points for creativity (Score:5, Funny)
Pain signals travel through nerves at less than 10 feet per second
Can you imagine the early, renaissance-era experimental measurements of this quantity?
"I'm going to need two men. One very tall, the other very short. Without shoes. And I'll need two hammers."
Lightning shaped scar (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Red flags (Score:4, Funny)
Another example, shoot a bullet straight up*...
Are you just trying to see how many of the dumber /.ers you can kill? Cause I hear you can get a higher % return at digg.
(ack the low blow for comedy's sake)
uh-oh (Score:2, Funny)
Or maybe something cool like a sex hungry space alien ala Species?
Back in my days (Score:4, Funny)
...the dog ate my homework was good enough!
Re:What is more... (Score:3, Funny)
What?
Re:What is more... (Score:3, Funny)
Not you, I was talking to number 12392
Re:God is.... (Score:1, Funny)
if you look closely at the picture (Score:5, Funny)
it seems the meteorite has made him grow to 4-5 times the size of cars next to him
i saw this in a 1950s science documentary involving a woman who grew 50 feet tall and deranged from this sort of tragic accident
Re:What kind of superpowers does he have now? (Score:4, Funny)
Clearly he is some sort of Cylon or Terminator as the magnetic rock was attracted to him...
Curiously it his his hand, which means either Luke Skywalker or a certain state alchemist...
So I am a bit torn as to if we should mob him or not. Better burn him just to be sure. Probably a witch anyway.
Also if he was like Magneto, he would probably make the meteor not hit him I would guess. Which would make him sort sort of Anti-Magneto, his arch nemesis. Which ironically are quite common and Magneto doesn't really like them either. Unless you are in a alternative universe, in which case the opposite would be true.
Its Friday and I am ready to go home now... :)
Re:What kind of superpowers does he have now? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:quote (Score:5, Funny)
"If we can hit that bulls-eye then all the dominoes will fall like a house of cards, checkmate!" --Zapp Brannigan
Re:What is more... (Score:3, Funny)
Him? He died in a freak meteor accident.
Re:Queue the jokes (Score:3, Funny)
or maybe I'm just the only ID10T
Re:God is.... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:quote (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, yeah, sorry.
** Grabs his trusty "geek mentality and social stigmatization program" CD and installs **
Ah, that's better.
What is this "SCORE!" thing anyway?...
You mean, with like a real live girl?!?!? That would rule!
Re:What is more... (Score:4, Funny)
How was I to know? All you clones look the same to me.
Re:Points for creativity (Score:2, Funny)
You've done it now...MeteorBoy will be paying you a visit soon. He's out shopping for tights this very minute.
Too many people? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:F=M*A learn it, understand it. (Score:2, Funny)
Pour gin over space rocks, shake at terminal velocity, voilÃ, one more drink to compete with the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.
Re:"Smitten", not "smote" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Pic of hand, pea-meteorite and impact (Score:3, Funny)
I like how they also include an actual photograph of the meteoroid traveling through space.
Re:Points for creativity (Score:3, Funny)
The faster the initial velocity, the greater the friction and therefore the greater the temperature in the upper atmosphere and therefore the greater the burn-off.
I'm not an astrophysicist, but I think at hypersonic velocities in the atmosphere the asteroid would be heated more by ram pressure than by friction. Another variable to take into account would be how closely the body is to an ideal black body - the closer it is the more of the radiant energy incident on its surface that will be re-radiated away. This is why the leading edges of the Space Shuttle are black: there's no way those surfaces could withstand the temperatures produced by re-entry without a majority of incident thermal energy being re-radiated away.