Last month, a giant meteor exploded over Russia. Ground zero was the Ural city of Chelyabinsk, where 1500 people were injured and thousands of buildings were destroyed. About half the city’s million people saw the meteor, but most of them didn’t know it was a meteor at all.
A recent opinion poll from Moscow’s Public Opinion Foundation found that most thought it was just regular ol’ Russia stuff. 40 per cent thought it was a falling plane. Eight per cent, a borked rocket launch. And six per cent thought, oh this is just an explosion. Five guessed rocket attack, and another five thought war was breaking out.
How many guessed meteor? Just under 10 per cent. Oh, and 4 per cent had their rubles on a UFO. But you can’t really blame them. No one wakes up in the morning thinking today is definitely the day we’ll be rocked by the biggest meteor to hit the earth ever. [RIA — h/t @mpoppel]