Tony Blair has tried every media trick in the book to keep the public diverted from the Kelly case and from the Iraq "post-war" debacle in general. Last week, there was the London blackout right as Blair was testifying and being forced to admit that he was indeed closely involved with outing Kelly. Now, this week, in the wake of the heart-breaking testimony of Kelly's widow, we now are threatened by THE GREAT ASTEROID!!!

Here's the story on PAGE ONE in the Independent, online edition. The public may be interested to know that dozens of "dangerous asteroids" have been identified and listed, with new ones found every week. It isn't that this is a NEW THREAT, it is just that researchers have the telescopic coverage to be able to detect and pinpoint these objects. The asteroid belt has been around about as long as planet Earth, with asteroids and pieces of asteroids swinging past Earth and occasionally striking it (once every 50-100 million years or so a huge one smacks us).

Here's a list of the current asteroids listed as "dangerous." You will notice that the list is not short.

 http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Dangerous.html

Why do scientists list them as dangerous? Because hinting that asteroids just MIGHT hit Earth (the odds are about those of winning a lottery) keeps the astronomical funding coming. Hey - whatever it takes. I'd rather see funding going to astronomers than defense contractors, any day! So if to compete with the defense contractors the astronomers have to claim we may all be annhiliated by asteroids, why not? That approach sure garners billions for the Pentagon.

(for more on asteroids and other "space weather" phenomena, see
 http://spaceweather.com/)