Too Close for Comfort.

I just watched the USA Mexico Gold Cup soccer final. Is that Giovani Dos Santos still breaking down the US defense? Somebody stop that man! 4-2  to Mexico. Maybe next time boys.

Now on to some more serious business. If you feel a bump about one o'clock Monday afternoon, it might just be something breaking off and hitting us from that "tour bus" sized asteroid that will be coming a little too close to mother earth for the kid.

"UPDATE for 5:35 p.m. ET: NASA has recalculated the time of closest approach for this event to be about 3 1/2 hours later than initially reported. The change is reflected below.

Here's something to dwell on as you head to work next week: A small asteroid the size of a tour bus will make an extremely close pass by the Earth on Monday, but it poses no threat to the planet.

The asteroid will make its closest approach at 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT) on June 27 and will pass just over 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, NASA officials say. At that particular moment, the asteroid — which scientists have named 2011 MD — will be sailing high off the coast of Antarctica, almost 2,000 miles (3,218 km) south-southwest of South Africa.

Asteroid 2011 MD was discovered Wednesday (June 22) by LINEAR, a pair of robotic telescopes in New Mexico that scan the skies for near-Earth asteroids. The best estimates suggest that this asteroid is between 29 to 98 feet (9 to 30 meters) wide.

According to NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., an object of this size can be expected to come this close to Earth about every 6 years or so, on average.

There is no chance that 2011 MD will hit Earth but scientists will use the close pass as opportunity to study it w/ radar observations," astronomers with NASA's Asteroid Watch program at JPL wrote in a Twitter post Thursday (June 23).
Even if the asteroid were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it likely wouldn't reach the surface, they added.

"Asteroid 2011 MD measures about 10 meters. Stony asteroids less than 25 m would break up in Earth's atmosphere & not cause ground damage," Asteroid Watch scientists said.

The asteroid's upcoming Earth flyby will be a close shave, but not a record for nearby passing asteroids. The record is currently held by the asteroid 2011 CQ1, which came within 3,400 miles (5,471 kilometers) of Earth on Feb. 4 of this year."

Okay NASA, now that you have my attention, how concerned should I really be?

Finally, it's nice to see Van Jones trying to stand up to FOX. His lawyers have sent them a "cease and desist" letter (good luck with that), but I am pretty sure that it will be business as usual over at wingnut propaganda central. If Mr. Jones is planning a defamation suit it will be an uphill battle; but hey, at least he can give it the old college try. Besides, maybe the folks at FOX will think twice before they make false and inflammatory statements about him in the future.