The Planets Align

There's much talk about planets lining up these days, because they're all in the same half of the sky and make a pretty sight. The arc of Venus to Jupiter to Mars is cool. You might also catch Mercury and Saturn, although they're faint and near the western horizon (beneath Venus). In addition, Uranus and Neptune are in the line-up, but you won't see them unless you have a fairly hefty telescope.

So that's neat and worth a look if you care. But I'm also seeing online predictions of doom, as the combined gravitational force of all those planets rips the Earth apart. Earthquakes, volcanoes, dogs and cats living together . . .

Don't be stupid.

Here's a page on the subject from a book I wrote but don't expect to ever be published. It was a book-length science comic; we hadn't quite settled on a title, but in my mind its working title was Don't Be Stupid. 

I still think the book has good information and an important message, so why do I consider it dead? I was just finishing it in 2017 when the firestorm that destroyed my neighborhood also destroyed all the original art, reference material, and permissions to reprint copyrighted material that I'd compiled for it. In the years since, some of its content has become obsolete.

I also emerged from the fire with a different attitude toward my work. I wasn't the guy who wrote that science comic anymore. I did A Fire Story instead. And truth be told, I had no public reputation as an expert whose opinion was worth listening to. A science comic by famous physicist Brian Cox would get a lot of attention, one by cartoonist Brian Fies would not. I also suspect it wouldn't have sold well, mostly because the people who'd need a book whose theme is "Don't Be Stupid" would be too stupid to know they needed it.

I expect I'll still do something with it someday. Maybe in occasional dribbles like this.