Free Republic

CLINTON, N.C. -- Inside the corrugated tin shed that serves as the top-secret test site for Vortex Dehydration Technology's strange new invention, Frank Polifka cranks open a valve and unleashes the force of a tornado. Compressed air rushes into an eight-foot-tall steel cone and whirls counterclockwise at tremendous speeds, producing winds capable of turning rock into dust. It also emits a knee-buckling shriek that prompts Polifka to clap his hands over his ears and sends others staggering away.

A whoosh and a bang as meteor gives Oz a miss September 06 2002 at 06:43AM Sydney - A large meteor possibly the size of a boulder came close to striking the earth in South Australia state on Thursday night, local media reported on Friday. Residents of Goolwa and Victor Harbour, south of the state capital Adelaide, inundated police with reports of a flash of blue light, smoke trails and two sonic booms. Bryan Boyle, of the Anglo-Australian space-watching telescope in the eastern state of New South Wales, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the sightings suggested the object was...