[randog]

Think of the panic it would have caused if they had announced it. I have seen what happens when a small part of the coast is evacuated for a hurricane, gridlock. Imagine if they announced that it was going to hit in a populated area. What a nightmare. If I can't get out of the way in time, don't even tell me about it.

Thanks to Hollywood and pop science, we can now look forward to mass hysteria and possibly un-needed deaths everytime something comes "close" to earth.

[John H K]

There's a range of estimates of your chances of dying in an asteroid impact, but interestingly the high end of the range is roughly equivalent to your chances of dying in an airplane crash.