Tunguska Explosion: You've Probably Never Heard of It

100 years ago there was a mysterious explosion near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, which flattened some 500,000 acres of Siberian forest... today, we still don't know what caused it. Some scientists predict that the explosion could have been as strong as 20 megatons, or 1,000 times more powerful than the atom bombed dropped on Hiroshima. The most accepted theory is that is was cosmic impact. But recently, in the last decade some researchers have suggested the Tunguska explosion actually came from below. "It would have come from the molten earth, some 3,000 kilometers deep... The natural gas would be stored as a fluid that deep, and when it reaches the surface it would become a gas and expand by a factor of thousand in volume, for a huge explosion."

Wilder theories have been bandied about over the years regarding what caused the Tunguska explosion, including:

• A UFO crash. Struck by the similarity of Tunguska and Hiroshima decades later, a science fiction writer named Alexander Kazantsev wrote a story in which the Tunguska blast was the exploding nuclear power plant of a spaceship from Mars. A few Russian scientists took up the cause and claimed to find various bits of evidence — never substantiated — for a civilized alien explanation.
• The annihilation of a chunk of antimatter from space. This does not account for mineral debris the explosion left behind.
• A black hole zipping through Earth. This also does not account for mineral debris the explosion left behind, and there was no subsequent explosion as such a black hole, having tunneled through the Earth, would have shot back out through the surface of the Atlantic.
• A Nikola Tesla "death ray." The man who pioneered radio and modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems was often seen as a mad scientist. One story alleges he test-fired a death ray on the evening of June 30, 1908, and once he found out about the Tunguska event, he dismantled the weapon, deeming it too dangerous to remain in existence.

In International News

How about trading 1 living terrorist for 2 dead soldiers? Doesn't sound like a good deal to me, but Israel decided to take it. The Germans mediated the deal that some see a political victory for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and closed a chapter from Israel's inraconclusive war against the Lebanese militant group two years ago. I think this is quite a bum deal that will just give Hezbollah a greater incentive to kill captive soldiers. Olmert said, "Since we were children, we have been taught that we don't leave wounded in the field and we don't leave soldiers in captivity without doing all we can to free them." I guess this now includes releasing a man who killed three people... a 28-year old man, his 4-year-old daughter, and a police officer.

Mugabe can only be unseated by God, or so he thinks. I have a feeling that the CIA could do it just as well... but we don't do that kinda thing anymore. Now that he successfully won his one-man presidential runoff, he is the rightfully elected President of Zimbabwe. All he had to do was run a campaign of torture and violence, have the opposition arrested, and totally destroy the economy of the country! Heidi Holland, recently published the book Dinner with Mugabe and says Mugabe is an "emotionally weak man who's never come to terms with some of life's earlier disappointments." To this day Mugabe models himself on a British gentleman - dark suits, silk ties and handkerchiefs, a fondness for tea and cricket. "When you hear Mugabe vilifying Britain, expressing hatred of Britain, underlying that is a love of Britain," said Holland. But not to worry, Mugabe doesn't mind the growing criticism, which was belatedly joined this week by African leaders condemning him for pursuing his violent re-election.

The United States' bribe to North Korea has arrived... A freighter carrying 37,000 tons of wheat arrived after North Korea agreed to open up to greatly expanded international aid. This is only the first installment of the half a million tons promised by Washington that is NOT directly related to the ongoing nuclear talks... or so we like to tell ourselves. After North Korea delivered its atomic declaration and blew up a cooling tower as a sign of good faith, the U.S. lifted some economic sanctions and said it would remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. The U.S. State Department made a statement... "We do not link food assistance, whether that's to North Korea or Zimbabwe or any other country, to political considerations. We do that based on humanitarian concerns." Perhaps we should change that policy?

Your Government At Work

Its a good time to defraud taxpayers! With more than 900 cases backlogged because the U.S. Department of Justice cannot keep up with the number of whistle-blowers, billions of dollars are being wasted. According to the non-profit group, Taxpayers Aganst Fraud, "Even if no new cases are filed, it might take 10 years for the Department of Justice to clear its desk. Cases in the backlog represent a lot of money being left on the table." While disputes can stay buried for years more while the government investigates the allegations, recently verdicts and settlements have led to a return of nearly $13 billion to the U.S. government. Critics charge that the delays are due to foot-dragging by the Justice Department and the federal agencies who rather the information not come up and lead to embarrassment or reveal corruption. It's not like there are any important cases pending... right?