Astronomers have revealed that during a "nine-hour crisis" the night before Mr Bush's speech they believed there was a one in four chance an asteroid would hit the planet in 36 hours. Had it not been for a break in the clouds that allowed an amateur astronomer to give the all-clear, the scientists say they were on the verge of calling the White House.
This sounds series.
Nothing that the astronomers did averted the asteroid. They were ready to go into full panic mode (A) over something which they had no control and (B) over something that they admittedly had incomplete information regarding.
“We need funding! What an amateur discovered it? We need even more funding!”