A meteorite struck Norway a couple days ago, releasing many kilotons of energy–equivalent to the Hiroshima bomb in explosive power.

Fortunately it was out in the boonies. If it had hit a major city it would have killed many thousands of people, and if it had struck in the ocean it could have generated a nasty tsunami. And we continue to do very little to defend ourselves from them.

We were lucky this time, but we shouldn’t continue to count on luck. The sooner we become a truly spacefaring country and planet (and NASA’s current plans do little to advance us in that direction), the sooner we’ll be able to manage these things.