Prime Minister John Key has likened the chances of the Government’s assets sales being delayed to that of a meteorite hitting earth …
He compared the chance that the sale of 49% of Mighty River Power could be delayed by court action to “a chance a meteorite will hit the Earth this afternoon”.
“But I don’t think that’s likely.”
Which prompted @ShakingStick to ask the internet the question How many meteors hit the Earth per day?
The answer, according to Answers.com:
Several thousands. Most of them are the size of a grain of rice or smaller. A few each day may be the size of a baseball or occasionally the size of a basketball.
Once a week or so, the Earth is hit by a rock the size of a car, and once every few months, we get hit by something the size of a house. A couple of months ago, a meteor the size of a house exploded over central Indonesia; it scared a lot of folks, but apparently did no damage.
Falstaff Jul 17 2012, 10:09pm
Answers.com is presumably referring to meteors hitting the atmospher per day as most are burned up before they hit the ground, certainly 'several thousands' per day do not reach the ground.
However several thousand do over the course of a year, hence John Key also erred - by definition every meteorite hits the Earth and it is highly likely one did somewhere did this afternoon.
nzjss Jul 17 2012, 9:32pm
Leon Dale Jul 17 2012, 7:03pm
49% of a dumb idea is still a dumb idea.
He's only 1% away from being a half wit !