Update: March 23, 2001 America's been spared! Read more in this Taco Bell press release or from this CNN report.
From March 21, 2001:
It makes good sense. Mir's going to fall. People are going to eat tacos. Why not put the two together? As we all know quite well by now, Taco Bell has placed a 40' by 40' target in the South Pacific and promises that "If the core of Mir hits the designated Taco Bell target upon its reentry, every person in the U.S. will have an opportunity to obtain a coupon for a free taco, valid at participating Taco Bell restaurants." Why not? Like I say, the fall is inevitable and tacos are a tasty treat. It makes me wonder though, how much tacoage are we talking about here? I got my numbers together from the U.S. Census Bureau's Resident Population statistics and from Taco Bell's Nutrition Guide. I've come up with the following. If Mir hits the target and everyone in the U.S. (I've excluded Puerto Rico because I thought they would) goes to claim their taco (I've provided data for hard and Soft Taco - Beef variety tacos) the numbers could look like the following:
| Weight | Calories | Calories from Fat | Fat | Saturated Fat | Cholesterol | Sodium | Carbohydrates | Dietary Fiber | Sugars | Protein | |
| Taco | 24,185 | 47,841,724,020 | 25,327,971,540 | 3,102 | 1,241 | 9.3 | 102 | 3,723 | 931 | <.0005 | 2,791 |
| Soft Taco - Beef | 30,781 | 59,098,600,260 | 25,327,971,540 | 3,102 | 1,241 | 9.3 | 176 | 6,204 | 931 | 310 | 3,412 |
That's right, if Mir hits the T-Spot, America will get more than nine tons of cholesterol for free. Almost twenty five and a third billion calories, to boot! I'm not a physicist, chemist, scientist, Buddhist or anything like that, but I imagine that's enough heat to power Topeka for a month.
Just thought you should know.
Oh, and go to fark.com. It's a trip.