It is a heck of a day to be a science writer, even one as lazy and unfunded as I am. I will, of course, be getting to the really big news about space objects and Russia eventually, but I am afraid I will have to do some other stories first.

After all, this is the Friday Science Whatever, not the Friday Holy Shit That Was Awesome Did You See That Thank God For The Internet Whatever.

So in addition to the cosmic event, we will talk about the new era in skyscrapers and introduce you to a rather cool little science toy for when you feel the need to understand your place in the scheme of things.

Spoiler alert : it’s not big.

First off, let’s talk about the rise of the super tall, or supertall, skyscraper.

Basically, supertall skyscrapers start where the previous era of skyscrapers left off. The official definition of supertall is any building taller than 300 meters, or around 1000 feet.

That means that a lot of the really big buildings of the past qualify, like the Empire State Building (381 meters or 1250 feet) and the CN Tower (553 meters, or 1815 feet).

But that is just the jumping off point for supertall architecture. Already, the world has the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is 2717 feet tall, or 830 meters. Yowza.

Clearly the limitations of the previous era have been superseded, and the sky, perhaps literally, is now the limit. We are clearly on track for a kilometer high building, and after that, who knows?

Maybe a full mile, or around 1600 meters, will be possible in our lifetimes.

And as in the previous era of skyscrapers, all that is necessary for us to see that day is the engineering and architectural knowledge to design it and a ready supply of narcissistic rich people who want to spend their money on something that will carry their name into the future.

Like this Khalifa guy. I assume.

But if you really want to see all of these great human monuments of glass and steel put into perspective, nothing beats this fun and humbling gizmo call The Scale Of The Universe.

It is a lot like an interactive version of the classic 1977 scientific mindfuck Powers of Ten (if you haven’t seen it, DO SO NOW, you will not regret it), and what it lacks in production values, it more than makes up for in both depth and richness.

It covers an enormous spectrum of sizes and objects, and does it all through a simple “zoom in/out” interface that even a child could use.

Want to know more about something? Just click it! And up comes more information about it, written in an engagingly informal (but still informative) style.

It is truly fun to play around with, and really gives you a sense of the scale of the universe and how small we little naked beach apes are in the grand scheme of things, and indeed, how small this little world of ours truly is compared to the Cosmos.

OK, now that we have covered the Carl Sagan territory, let’s talk about the big awesome scary cool terrifying awe-inspiring thing that all the Internet and most of the lamestream media are covering with breathless anticipation : that poop cruise off the shore of Alabama.

Just kidding, folks. Those people are safe at home with a rather unique set of slides to force the neighbors to watch now.

No, the big news is about some kind of meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere and exploding into tiny pieces over the Chelyabinsk area of Russia.

It has injured at least 1200 people, mostly because of the intense shock wave it created when it exploded, which shattered windows throughout the area.

And my heart goes out to those 1200 people and I hope none of them were seriously hurt.

Because this story is just so freaking awesome that I am about to completely lose my shit over it, and I would feel a little guilty if I was going nuts over something that was someone’s horrible tragedy.

But you know what the best part of this is? Because of this glorious era of both ubiquitous video recording capacity in everyone’s pockets AND the strange but necessary habit of Russians putting dashboard cameras in their cars, there are TONS of video of this mind blowing event on the Internet.

I mean, check this shit out, my hombres :

Holy CRAP that is amazing. It’s so cinematic that part of you wants to think it is fake. But there are thousands of injured people who will attest that it is very real.

Not to mention all those broken windows. Great time to be a glazier in Chelyabinsk, huh?

The big time sky show forced mass evacuations and has caused millions of dollars of property damage.

One weird thing : this happened at the same time as a rather large asteroid passed frighteningly close to Earth, but all the world’s space agencies insist that the two events are unrelated.

What are the odds of that? Sometimes coincidence is far stranger than anything we could make up. If a writer like me wrote a story in which both those things happened and yet were unrelated, people would rightly mock it as implausible.

But that’s the difference between reality and fiction. Reality doesn’t have to be plausible.

Here’s a sampler of fireball and effect clips :

But for the full effect, you have to have the sound.

Hold onto your hats, kids, because this is some AWESOME LOUDNESS.

But if you really want to feel it in your guts just like you were actually there, this is the best video clip I have come across.

So yes. LOUDNESS WARNING.

Unsurprisingly, this event has raised interest in just what, exactly, we could do if an asteroid much bigger than this piddling little thing (too small for us to detect before it went boom, I mean) was heading for us with a nasty gleam in its eye.

And so far the answer is…. very little. YET.

If that is not a good argument for space research, I don’t know what is.

Seeya next week folks!