BEST OF THE WEB: Skyfall: Does the Russian meteor explosion portend more disasters?

In mid-February 2013, a meteor fireball streaked across the sky and slammed into the central Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The shock-wave resulting from the overhead explosion equaled the energy released from about 20 nuclear bombs. It damaged nearly every building in the city and injured thousands of people. RT went to central Russia to talk with witnesses and scientists, and to find out whether the Russia should get ready for more such phenomena.

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Comment: Etymology of 'disaster':

1590s, from M.Fr. (1560s), from It. "ill-starred," from dis-, here merely pejorative (see dis-) + astro "star, planet," from L. , from Gk. (see star). The sense is astrological, of a calamity blamed on an unfavorable position of a planet.

...and before astronomy was 'adjusted' to become the science of the study of planets, it was concerned with the study of comets and when they would return...