The last I heard, there were more people manning a McDonalds than looking for civilization destroying asteroids. I DO NOT have the same confidence you have. But it has nothing to do with that pile of garbage called the Da Vinci code.
Correct on both points.
NEAT is comprised of two autonomous observing systems at Maui Space Surveillance Site, NEAT/MSSS, and at Palomar Observatory, NEAT/Palomar. At both sites the NEAT cameras use 1.2-m (48") telescopes to find Near-Earth objects (NEOs), both Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and comets.
http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/