Russia To Blow Up Earth-Bound Asteroid

Okay so maybe the asteroid isn't actually earth bound, but it could be. You see, nobody can agree on how serious a threat the rock poses. I say laser the shit out of it. Then laser all the little pieces. Then blast me in the eyes. If I can't see the end of the world I don't wanna see anything!
Russia's space agency chief said Wednesday a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of earth impact, even though U.S. scientists say such a scenario is unlikely.
When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37.Further studies have ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) from Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.
NASA had put the chances that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 as 1-in-45,000. In October, after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path, the agency changed its estimate to 1-in-250,000.
What is this, football? Why do the odds keep changing? Because this shit's all fun and games until the day the asteroid's supposed to hit and the odds drop to 1-in-0.5. Then what? We all bone till we burn up, that's what. *high-five* Going out like the dinosaurs!
Russia may send spacecraft to knock away asteroid [yahoonews]
-
How many times do I have to emphasize that I am not kidding about a robot apocalypse? Did the Terminator series teach us nothing besides Arnold Schwarzenegger should run for governor? Now, in a recent report by the US Navy, it has been suggested that robots participating in b... / Continue →
-
NOTE: If you're reading this after 7:30AM Eastern you may be dead. As you may recall from the Pulitzer-winning article I wrote back in June (and an even ooolder article from April '06) , NASA plans to blow up the moon by crashing the $79 million Lunar Crater Observation and it... / Continue →
-
Robot-ethicists are demanding a retuning of Asimov's laws of robotics, which they believe are too simple and do not take into account just how badly robots want to kill us all. "If you build artificial intelligence but don't think about its moral sense or create a conscious se... / Continue →

