Could someone write a post (or I suppose we could create a thread here) about the Chelyabinsk meteorite?
It's very relevant for a variety of reasons:
connection to existential risk
the unlikely media report that the meteorite is 'independent' of the asteroid that passed by this day
any observations people have (I haven't any) on global communication and global rational decision making at this time, before it was determined that the damage and integrated risk was limited
I don't know if this has been brought up around here before, but the B612 foundation is planning to launch an infrared space telescope into a venus-like orbit around 2017. It will be able to detect nearly every earth-crossing rock larger than 150 meters wide, and a significant fraction down to a few at 30ish meters. The infrared optics looking outwards makes it much easier to see the warm rocks against the black of space without interference from the sun and would quickly increase the number of known near earth objects by two orders of magnitude.
This is ...
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.