Island Passage

The book, " When Worlds Collide " was one of my favorites as a kid. It wasn't until much later in life that I saw the George Pal movie adapted from the book. The idea of a rogue planet seemed frightening as a child, but as I grew older is seemed more and more implausible. What mechanism would cause a planet to break free of it's stellar system? Sure, in the vastness of our universe there must be some rogue planets, but surely there couldn't be many? Well it turns out that not only have astronomers sighted a rogue planet , but that many models of our universe predict that there are twice as many rogue planets than there are main-sequence stars.  Urk. Astronomers have discovered a potential "rogue" alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth, suggesting that such starless worlds may be extremely common across the galaxy. The free-floating object, called CFBDSIR2149, is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive ...

So I know that the election is over. I have followed the advice of several conservative bloggers and taken deep, cleansing breaths.  I have walked the dogs outside in sunny fall weather and hugged my wife. But here's my problem: I woke up this morning and nothing is settled. Source: MorgueFile Everything that was a pressing problem the day before the election is still a pressing problem. The economy sucks, unemployment remains persistently high, the fiscal cliff is coming in January, and this Administration has no plan to address any of these problems other than "Rinse and repeat." Sure enough, all the bad news that was withheld before the election is coming out in a rush: Boeing Telegraphs Layoffs in Defense, Space & Security Unit Why US Economy May Be Headed for Another Recession Loved ones tell me in relief that in electing Barack Obama they have "saved Social Security for their kids and grand-kids." No, they h...