Before the collision, space junk problems had already upped the Hubble mission's risk of a "catastrophic impact" beyond NASA's usual limits, Nature's Geoff Brumfiel reported today, and now the problem will be worse.

Um, the odds didn't change just because something finally did crash into something else....

I thought the debris cloud from the collision threw a lot more shrapnel into low orbit than had been there before? And more importantly, they haven't had time to fully map out new orbits of the larger pieces yet?

Read the Nature article, which does make that assertion plain (though the Wired one doesn't. Bad writing.) Odds have gone up.

You'd think they could create a giant magnetic sweeper or something to clear paths.

Of course, it may be part of our government's sooper-sekrit plan to defend us from alien invasion. A big mess of nail-equivalents sticking up on the global front porch to keep visitors from getting too close.

I think the ever-expanding wave front of 1960s radio from when "It's a Small World" was playing in heavy rotation should be all the defense we'll ever need.

OK, this is creepy -- I just got two emails in a row about the same job opening (forwarded from the headhunter by two different people). I guess I should actually look at it, huh?

Although I've told myself I would take a new job unless it were doing something substantially different from what I'm doing here, and this doesn't seem like it would be.

I've told myself I would take a new job unless it were doing something substantially different from what I'm doing here

Ranch hand?

Please. Rodeo queen!

In the equation E = mc², c² is a pretty big honking number.

For some reason I like this sentence. May I tag it please, Mr. Scola?

Also, a big Word on entitlement issues. Research has shown that people who try harder actually do better in school (overall - I think they're including college too) than people who are just "smart" but don't practice. But try telling them that!

May I tag it please, Mr. Scola?

Go ahead.