Boom!

 Not that long ago, everyone was all worked up about some Venezuelan Killer Mud Wasps or something that were making a beeline for the United States. The threat was in all the papers, it was all over the interwebs, and the hosts of the Today show blanched and gasped about the possibility of millions of us being stung to death in stories inevitability titled "Swarm Of Doom: American Nightmare."

In those days, we believed in, and turned to, science, so entomologists cooperated with local and national disaster control staffs, and the problem was negated. Crisis averted, and the Today show went back to speculating about whether Taylor and Travis will be marching down the aisle.

But now that the emphasis is being taken off of science and credence is being lent to purveyors of semi-science and whipped-up fear, we're just not going fret about Asteroid 2024 YR4, a near-Earth asteroid in an orbit that will have it come near Earth’s region of the Solar System. This big ole rock is the size of a mansion and there's a chance it will hit Earth on December 22, 2032.

Not much of a chance, you understand, but the chance is greater than 1%, so we had to report the big space rock to all agencies involved in planetary defense, plus the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs. We follow the protocols of the International Asteroid Warning Network, although hardly anyone's cable system carries their shows, which include "Watch Out!", "I Think It's Gonna Land On The House!" and "Did You See That?"

I wouldn't worry too much! You'll be seven years older by then.