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August 27, 2007

Jim: From A Pale Ship

The pilot of Jack’s mining scout ship was a dark-eyed, narrow faced man appropriately nicknamed Weasel. “Know anything about vector calculus?” Weasel asked during their first shift.

“Not really,” Jack replied. “Why?”

“Watch this.” Weasel carefully pushed a twenty-meter asteroid with the nose of the ship. The rock’s trajectory shifted slightly.

“So?”

“About a hundred years from now, astronomers will notice three hundred or so of these rocks are on a collision course with Earth. There’ll be too many to stop them all.”

Jack gasped.

“Think of it as weaning ourselves from Earth’s malevolent teat. Mankind’s future is out here.”

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