According to the telegraph
"Scientists are now studying magnetic fields around the property to try and explain the frequency of the strikes"
I think they'll find those aren't really scientists....
A Bosnian man whose house has been hit six times by meteorites has come to the conclusion he's done something to hack off ET, the Telegraph reports. Radivoje Lajic, 50, from the village of Gornji Lajici, near Prijedor in northern Bosnia, has suffered half a dozen strikes since November 2007. Spookily, the impacts always happen …
... you are in the way of their landing zone!
any way, this is not my field,
but should they be checking the landing zone? shouldn't they be trying to determine the source and check the source for abnormality? (which is in space.... errrrr... ok I'll check the landing zone as well).
this is the same as trying to check where the shell have landed, instead of checking the trajectory of the canon.
How many homes are there on the planet? And what are the odds that some home, somewhere, will have been hit 6 times by meteorites? Sounds similar to the birthday "paradox" to me - if you have thirty random people in a room, the odds are about 70% that at least two will have the same birthday. For any six meteorites out of billions of meteorites hitting the same any one out of billions of homes, I'm guessing the odds are pretty high. If it has to happen somewhere, there has to be a victim. He's just unlucky to be that one in however many billions of people it is these days - the aliens don't care who they hit.
I've been trying to discover why my meteorites are not landing in my back yard as requested, simply to find they have the wrong Longitude! That is very irritating to me and I am sorry for the error! They should really pay attention when I ask in such uncertain terms, but hey that's the Universe for ya! Never know how they're gonna respond! Still, Oklahoma is pretty centrally located...I just can't understand their error! And it could have been very lucritive for ya also, since I asked for the higher grade content for mine! Not often you get precious metals in a meteorite, but Titantium, Silver, Platinum and copper in one would make a person somewhat wealthy....But anyway, they'll get it fixed straight away, so don't you worry. Just have to wait for rain again this weekend! Sure hate these hot summers on Earth! You people need to do something about this here global warming...Thanks for the memo! I am sure they have the correct coordinates now...Oh and so sorry! Probably won't happen again! The new guy always seems to get it messed up, you know! Well, Cherrio!
Sorry AC, you have got it wrong because the frequency of meteoroid impacts is generally very low.
Suppose that, over 100 years, about 1 in a thousand homes worldwide get hit once. That seems a very high level to me but I'm making it more common to prove the point. Then, over the same period, one house in 10**18 would get hit six times. As the total population of earth is a rather less than 10**10, giving us maybe 3*10**9 houses, this isn't likely to happen.
If the rate of being hit once is a more reasonable one in 100,000, the the chance of six hits is now 1 in 10**30 - so this is *really* not going to happen.
For myself, rather than blaming ET for throwing rocks at the house, I would take a hard look at the local kids...
It might be there's something in the geology or atmosphere that's skewing meteorites. Of course if they're non-magnetic materials in the meteorites that's a bust. It'd also probably have to catch them fairly early in their trajectory which seems implausible but stranger things have happened.
The earth has a great big magnetic shield. Many solar system bodies are largely ferrous. What is to say that there wasn't an asteroid/comet/what-have-you that at some point spend enough time in a given magnetic field (Jupiter's?) as to have the various grains of ferrous material aligned? This would then make that object a natural magnet.
If it subsequently broke up, (say due to a collision or gravitational disturbance from something large passing by,) it might well have cleared the orbit of whatever body magnetised it. If it's remains are on an inner-solar system orbit, one that interacts with Earth's on a periodic basis, what is to say that the Earth's magnetic lines of force couldn't funnel these bits of magnetic rock directly at this guy's house?
None of that is impossible, and I am not even sure it’s all that unlikely. If we had sensitive enough equipment, I’m sure we’d find the solar system littered with small-ish magnetic rocks. I am also pretty sure that the Earth’s magnetic field would cause magnetic object to preferentially fall in a given area. Narrow the conditions more, (maybe his house is built on a huge iron plate of lodestone deposit,) and it should be explainable.
The impossible or exceedingly unlikely is only so until you understand the details. It would be really interesting in this case to learn all the details.
Does not the Earth's magnetic field rotate with it? If it does, and the lines of force meet in the same places, then theoretically anything that got pulled into the Earth's magnetic field would be "funnelled" to roughly the same places each time.
If this theory was true, there should be more than one place on Earth where multiple meteorite strikes occurred in a relatively confined area. I agree it’s not hugely likely…but the basic science behind my theory seems sound. “Enemy action” I doubt.
Con job I’ll buy.
Trouble is the gravitational/aerodynamic forces on a meteorite must swamp any effects of any such magnetic 'well' . In any case a wide area around this house should be peppered with these meteorites if any such effect occurred. I don't believe this suggested mech. of 'targeting' could be so precise.
I wasn't really serious about enemy action - it was just to contrast with the probability of a con
Cheers,
Until we have firmly established that the Meteorite Protocol only transmits in 6-bit, we should expect at least 2 more meteorites to strike, with a possible parity-bit to follow. For sake of the man's sanity we should all ask for a stop-bit.
Until then, we should hash and rot' the target's hostname. Some anagrams for Radivoje Lajic are:
Jovial Jedi Arc(tangent)
I Jive a (dirt)clod jar
Draco Jail Jive
Beer Icon because you will all cheer!
Hit once - believeable.
Hit twice - possible, has to happen to someone.
Three times is pushing it, but perhaps telling the story to the neighbors over a beer or three in the pub (he's not buying) is worth the effort in making another hole in the roof.
Fourth time is still worth it for the insurance.
FIfth time - discovered how to milk this thing and now he's on nationwide TV. Also getting good at making the holes appear authentic, a little scorching around the edges does wonders.
Sixth time - In the international press at last. These people will believe anything, and now he can sell 'scientists' rocks as 'meteors' at high prices. WOnder if he's sold more than 6...
Can we get a money icon please??