Posthuman Blues

Asteroid Warnings Toned Down

"Like the Department of Homeland Security's terror alert system, the Torino scale uses five different colors that correspond to the severity of a potential impact. The colors haven't changed from the old system, but the explanation of what each color means has. Asteroids in the green section used to be deemed 'events meriting careful monitoring,' but now are considered "normal." And a level 6 object was described as capable of causing 'global catastrophe.' Now these, too, only merit the concern of astronomers."

Give me a break. Must everything in our gutless consumer society be "toned down"? Must everything -- even the prospect of planetary destruction -- be couched in lamely reassuring language lest the glassy-eyed masses experience a shade of genuine fear?