THE Australian Press Council has appealed for calm after news agency AFP released a story concerning the discovery of a bag of white powder at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.Journalists were initially worked into a scotch-tainted lather at the prospect of a story containing the previously unused phrase “intergalactic terrorism”, however a late update to the story has caused massive unrest amongst sub-editors.
The powder was found not to be anthrax, but rather 6.5 grams of cocaine. Police investigating the find later revised that figure to 4.2 grams.
Scores of sub-editors have been hospitalised after suffering minor strokes and heart attacks in the wake of the story.
Neurologists claim to have witnessed the phenomenon several times before, citing the inability of the sub-editor mind to cope with a multitude of possible headlines containing more than one pun.
“It was unnamed until recently,” said Dr Paul Woodward, consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. “However owing to the fact that the severity of the condition is in direct proportion to the number of puns within puns within puns, it is now known as Inception Syndrome.”
