Hasta La Gadget!

It’s strange enough that so many people were able to capture video of the meteorite that streaked over Russia on Friday exploding over populated areas causing injury and large amounts of damage. We knew as of Friday that the meteorite had exploded with enough force to knock glass windows out of many buildings in the cold Siberian portion of Russia.

Today we have more reports of damage caused by the meteor explosion and they are as bizarre as some of the damage reports from tornadoes we’ve heard over the years. For instance, in the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia some high-rise buildings had the glass blown out of every window on the top floor while other buildings had only the glass from the bottom floor destroyed. Even that’s not the most bizarre report of damage caused by meteor.

Some citizens living within the city are reporting that the external windows of their apartments remain intact while glass jars in dishes inside the home were destroyed by the meteor explosion. Some citizens also reported that their electronic devices were destroyed by the explosion. One citizen reported that a glass bottle he was holding shattered in his hand.

Scientists say that glass was destroyed by pressure waves created as the meteor fragment decelerated. These low-frequency waves are called infrasound. Scientists say that these waves can bounce off buildings causing them to be stronger in some places than others and can resonate with glass explaining wine bottles and dishes might have shattered inside of homes otherwise unaffected by the meteor.

While some apartment dwellers had their windows blown out, apartments next door with the same Windows remained intact. Scientists are estimating that the meteor is the largest to have entered the Earth’s atmosphere since 1908. Current reports pegged the number of people injured at 1200, mostly from falling glass. NASA estimates that a meteor of this size hits the Earth about once every 100 years. The city of Chelyabinsk, Russia has about 1 million citizens.

[via NYT]

Strange damage reports surface after Friday’s Russian meteor explosion is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Today, we dealt with an asteroid and a meteor. The 2012 DA14 asteroid zipped passed Earth today and a meteor exploded over Russia. What the heck is the difference between an asteroid and a meteor? And a meteorite? And a meteoroid? Not too much, apparently! More »

For the past week, news stations around the world have been mentioning an asteroid called DA14  is expected to pass extremely close to Earth some time on February 15. What we didn’t expect was for another completely unrelated 10-ton meteorite to crash to Earth earlier this morning in Chelyabinsk, Russia, which is located 950 miles away from Moscow.

When the meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere at around 9:20 a.m. local time, it flew across the sky at 33,000 mph and broke into pieces 18 to 32 miles above ground, according to a statement released by the Russian Academy of Sciences. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Game of Thrones Season 3 Preview Describes The Nature Of Chaos, DeLorean Hovercraft Caught In The Wild In San Francisco,

The dust has settled after Ireland’s recent spectrum auction, and wouldn’t you know it, Vodafone, O2, Meteor and Three have picked up a combined 140MHz of paired spectrum across the 800, 900 and 1800MHz bands. According to the country’s regulator, ComReg, the auction will effectively double the spectrum available in these bands and will allow for LTE deployment across Éire. For its part, O2 has committed to begin its 4G rollout in the first half of 2013. To ensure quick deployment, all license holders are required to make their new spectrum available to 70 percent of Ireland’s population within three years. In all, the companies will pay €855 million ($1.09 billion) for spectrum rights until 2030, of which, €482 million is payable up front. Curiously enough, the country’s 800MHz spectrum was freed up just last month after its analog shutoff. To find a complete breakdown of the situation, feel free to hit up the announcement from ComReg at the source link below.

[Thanks, Neil]

[Photo credit: Seattleye / Flickr]

Filed under: Wireless, Mobile

Ireland completes spectrum auction after analog shutoff, LTE rollout pegged for mid-2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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