Mario is ridin spinnaz...
Created on: June 11th, 2006
Mario is ridin spinnaz...
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Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new
nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a
great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as
a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is alt
SHORTLY AFTER 7 AM IN JUNE 30, 1908, EARLY RISING FARMERS. HERDSMEN, AND TRAPPERS IN THE SPARESLY SETTLED VASTNESS OF CENTRAL SIBERIAN PLATEU WATCHED IN AWE AS A CYLINDRICAL OBJECT, GLOWING WITH AN INTENSE BLUISH-WHITE LIGHT AND TRAILING A FIERY TAIL, RACED ACROSS A CLEAR BLUE SKY TOWARD THE NORTHERN HORIZON. AT 7:17, OVER A DESOLATE REGION OF BOGS AND LOW, PINE COVERED HILLS TRAVERSED BY THE STONY TUNGUSKA RIVER , IT DISAPPEARED; INSTANTLY, "A PILLER OF FIRE" LEAPED SKYWARD , SO HIGH IT WAS SEEN HUNDREDS OF MILES AWAY; THE EARTH SHUDDERED UNDER THE IMPACT OF A TITANIC EXPLOSION; THE AIR WAS WAS WRACKED BY THUNDEROUS CLAPS; AND A SUPERHEATED WIND RUSHED OUTWARD, SETTING PARTS OF THE TAIGA ON FIRE. AT A TRADING POST FORTY MILES FROM THE BLAST, A MAN SITTING ON THE STEPS OF HIS HOUSE SAW THE BLINDING FLASH, COVERED HIS EYES AND EXCLAIMED "OH SNAP!"; HE FELT SCORCHED, AS IF THE SHIRT ON HIS BACK WERE BURNING, AND THE NEXT MOMENT HE WAS HURLED FROM THE STEPS BY A SHOCK WAVE AND KNOCKED UNCONSIOUS. FOUR H
HUNDRED MILES TO THE SOUTH THE GROUND HEAVED UNDER THE TRACKS OF THE RECENTLY COMPLETED TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, THREATENING TO DERIAL AN EXPRESS. AND ABOVE THE TUNGUSKA REGION A MASS OF BLACK CLOUDS, PILING UP TO A HEIGHT OF TWELVE MILES, DUMPED A SHOWER OF "BLACK RAIN"(EW) ON THE COUNTRYSIDE - DIRT AND DEBRIS SUCKED UP BY THE EXPLOSION - WHILE RUMBLING LIKE HEAVY ARTILLERY FIRE VIBRATED THROUGHOUT CENTRAL RUSSIA.
SINCE SEISMOGRAPHS AND BAROGRAPHS EVERYWHERE HAD RECORDED THE EVENT, THE ENTIRE WORLD KNEW THAT SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY OCCURED IN THE SIBERIAN WILDERNESS. BUT WHAT? SCIENTISTS CONJECTURED THAT A GIANT METEROITE MUST HAVE FALLEN, EXPLODING FROM THE INTENSE HEAT ITS IMPACT GENERATED. ON HITTING THE GROUND, SUCH A BODY WOULD, THEORETICALLY, HAVE BLOWN OUT A HUGE CRATER LIKE THE ONE IN ARIZONA, THREE FEET QUARTERS OF A MILE SQAURE, LEFT BY A METEORITE THAT FELL FIFTY THOUSAND YEARS AGO, BUT THE SIBERIAN "IMPACT SITE" TURNED OUT TO BE A DISMAL SWAMP:(, WITH NO TRACE OF A METEORITE TO BE SEEN. N
NEVERTHELESS, FOR WANT OF A BETTER EXPLENATION, SCIENTISTS CONTINUED TO ASCRIBE THE CATACLYSM TO A METEORITE, AND LEONARD KULIK, A MINEROLOGIST WHO HEADED GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED EXPEDITIONS TO THE TUNGSKA IN THE EARLY 1920'S AND AGAIN IN 1938-39 SEARCHED FOR EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT HIS VIEW.
ALTHOUGH THIS SEARCH PROVED FRUITLESS, KULIK UNCOVERED A WEALTH OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE BLAST. NEAR THE SWAMP INTO WICH THE METEORITE HAD SOPPOSEDLY PLUMMETED, SCORCHED TREES, STRIPPED OF THEIR BRANCHES, STILL STOOD, BUT AROUND THESE WIERD "TELEGRAPH-POLE" FORST, EXCEPT WHERE INTERVENING HILLS HAD SHEILDED THEM, EVERY TREE WITHIN FIFTY MILES HAD BEEN BLOWN FLAT, ITS TRUNK POINTING AWAY FROM THE SWAMP. FROM THIS - AND FROM FAILURE TO FIND EVEN A SMALL IMPACT CRATER - KULIK CONCLUDED THAT THE METEORITE HAD NEVER REACHED THE GROUND BUT HAD EXPLODED TWO OR THREE MILES UP IN THE AIR. THE OTHER CURIOUS DETAILS: THE BLAST 'S INTENSE HEAT MELTED THE PERMAFROST, CAUSING WATER TRAPPED UNDERGROUND FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS
TO GUSH FORTH IN FOUNTAINS, AND THOSE REINDEER HAD NOT BEEN KILLED HAD DEVELOPED MYSTERIOUS BLISTERS AND SCABS ON THEIR HIDES, STRANGER STILL, EXAMINATION OF THE TREES THAT HAD BEEN GERMANATING IN 1908 REVEALED THAT THEY HAD GROWN AT SEVERAL TIMES THE NORMAL RATE.
DURING WORLD WARii KULIK WAS CAPTURED BY THE GERMANS AND DIED A PRISONER THE RIDDLE HE HAD WORKED TO SOLVE WAS FORGOTTEN. ON AUGUST 1945, HOWEVER, CERTAIN RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS WERE ABRUPTLY REMINDED OF IT BY THE ATM - BOMBINGS OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI, EVENTS WICH SEEMED UNCANNILY FAMILIAR IN BOTH MANIFESTATIONS (THE FIREBALL, THE SEARING THERMAL CURRENT, THE TOWERING "MUSHROOM" CLOUD") AND THEIR EFFECTS (THE INSTANTANEOUS AND NEAR - TOTAL DESTRUCTION, THE RADIATION BURNS ON LIVING FLESH, THE ACCELERATED GROWTH OF NEW PLANT LIFE(THAT'S HOW MARICLE GROW WORKS), EVEN THE "TELEGRAPH - POLE[ND]" APPEARENCE OF SCORCHED AND BRANCHLESS TREES STANDING BELOW AT WHICH AN ATOM BOMB WAS DETONATED).
COULD THE SIBERIAN BLAST HAVE BEEN ATOMIC? IN 1958 A
RUSSIAN ENGINEER TURNED WRITER, ALEKSANDER(HOW DO I SPELL?) KAZANTSEV, PUBLISHED A STORY - ARTICLE PINNING THAT DISASTER ON MARTIANS KILLED ON THEIR WAY TO EARTH BY COSMIC RAYS OR METEORITE BOMBARDMENT, THEIR SHIP, WITH NO ONE AT THE CONTROLS, HURTLES INTO OUR ATMOSPHERE AT UNREDUCED SPEED AND BURNS UP FROM FRICTION, TRIGGERING A CHAIN REACTION IN ITS ATOMIC FUEL THAT SETS OFF AN EXPLOSION(WTF). FEW INFORMED READERS READERS BY THEN STILL EXCEPTED THE METEORITE THEORY, AND SOME, PARTICULARILY YOUNGER MEN AND WOMEN, FOUND KAZANTEV'S HYPOTHESIS PERSUASIVE, BUT OTHERS REJECTED IT IN FAVOR OF AN EARLIER ALTERNATE EXPLENATION, ACCORDING TO WICH THE HEAD OF A COMET HAD PENETRATED THE ATMOSPHERE AT SUCH HUGH VELOCITY AND THAT THE HEAT IT GENERATED HAD CAUSED THE COMET TO BLOW UP, (SKEPTICS POINTED OUT, HOWEVER, THAT A COMET COULD HARDLY HAVE APPROACHED EARTH WITHOUT BEING SEEN.)
TWO FURTHER EXPLENATIONS INVOLVING NATURAL CAUSES HAVE BEEN ADVANCED THE FIRST IS A TINY "BLACK HOLE" - A CHUNK OF MATTER COLLAPSED T
TO SUCH MINISCULE DIMENSIONS AND SO DENSE THAT ITS GRAVITY SUCKS UP EVEN LIGHT - HIT SIBERIA AND PASSED IN AN INSTANT THROUGH EARTH, EMERGING IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC. THE SECOND ASSERTS AN "ANTI ROCK" OF ANTIMATTER PLUNGED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE AND EXPLODED ON CONTACT WITH ATOMS OF ORDINARY MATTER, PRODUCING A FIREBALL OF GAMMA RAYS. WHILE THIS WOULD ACCOUNT FOR THE ABSENCE OF RESIDUAL MATERIAL AT THE SITE, IT IS NOT, MOST EXPERTS SAY, COMPATIBLE WITH OBSERVABLE PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF THE BLAST. IN THE END, WE DO DO NOT KNOW WHAT CAUSED THE CATACLYSM IN SIBERIA. WE MAY NEVER KNOW. BUT TODAY, FEWER SCIENTISTS THAN AT ANY TIME IN THE PAST WOULD BE ASTOUNDED TO RECEIVE A MESSAGE BEAMED FROM SOME CORNER OF THE UNIVERSE INQUIRING INTO THE FATE OF CERTAIN SPACE VOYAGERS WHO VANISHED ON OUR PLANET IN WHAT WE CALL THE YEAR 1908.
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