in russia, and the euro s chances of survival. finally, what are we bringing back from iraq? you ll be amazed. but first, here s my take. time magazine announced its person of the year this week the protester. from the arab spring to athens, from new delhi to new york, people power is stronger than it s ever been. and now it s reached moscow with the protests there last week. the great drama of russian history has been between its state and society. put simply, russia has always had too much state and not enough society. historians have pointed out that the russian nation was literally the property of the czar, that serfs were more like slaves than simply peasant workers as they were in europe, and that the country lacked any institutions that contested the authority of the government. the communist takeover in 1917 only enhanced these features by building a soviet superstate that dominated every aspects of people s lives. when it collapsed in 1991, it turned out th
i m glad you re safe and sound today. heather: yes. that s actually my very first question. let s jump right to it. what are the chances i m going to be walking down the street and be hit in the head by space junk? almost zero. the atmosphere is a good protective blanket for us. it screens out not only space junk, but most of the asteroid parts and space dust that comes into the atmosphere. hundreds of tons per year from natural sources and just last year, 400 pieces of space debris came in. the atmosphere makes most of it burn up. don t worry about it. heather: that has to surprise people when you hear something like that. this is really constantly happening. we are moving through a shooting gallery all the time. earth is sweeping up, just like bugs on a wind screen, sweeping up this debris and usually it s burned up on reentry. the bigger hazard is to other satellites. if you have a spent rocket stage or a dead satellite like this one, it can run into something else and that