Get Willis On The Phone. It's For Real This Time.

Just so nobody tries to link our government's response to one natural disaster with its potential response to another, be sure you click on today's no. 26 top news story, which details NASA's plan for destroying an Earth-bound asteroid. As many people know, the asteroid 99942 Apophis, which has an orbit that will twice swing it precariously close to our planet over the next 40 or so years, is the second such threat our people have faced since 1998 — for details check out the Jerry Bruckheimer documentary "Armageddon", in which a squad of roughnecks-with-hearts-of-gold, led by Bruce Willis, flew on a daring suicide misison to an asteroid hurtling towards earth, drilled a nuclear bomb deep into its core, and destroyed the thing. 99942 Apophis is not nearly as big as the asteroid from "Armageddon," so NASA's plan for destroying it isn't nearly as cool (it would involve striking it with a gigantic copper slug to break it apart) but that's not enough for some bloggers: "I'd just like to know how one deflects a giant rock?" RandomLinkage replies: "Do not panic, Bruce Willis is on standby." Good. He's got experience with this sort of thing.

Posted by Philip Ewing at November 2, 2005 10:20 AM

Category: The vast electric lunchroom