Quite chillingly effective! And an accurate portrayal of the news media. The familiar expired bovine at the end there is a nice touch -- though do they really have so little time, or did a part of its message get cut off, as sometimes happened before?

The object created a gravitational wave when it "appeared" between Neptune and Uranus? Could that not be the effect of an Escherspace drive, which, as we all know, is only safely usable at a sufficiently great distance from the local star? And of course, an Escherspace drive can shift the orbit of planets when used carelessly... Westward had to get out to 50 AU to avoid it, and both Uranus and Neptune are closer than that!

I am wondering how the personality of this Francis Carter compares to that of the Carter we know. Are there parallels -- an inquisitive mind, perhaps, an openness to ideas, a willingness to stare the chilling terror of the universe in the face? Could this perhaps be a part of the bond between him and Phobos in the original Westward universe?

Government pawns at major universities...

I'm reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" right now and somehow that line fits in with the book's grim depiction of Government and Science perfectly.

Why do all these scenarios end up with the "object" colliding with the Earth. Unless the thing were aimed at us, the odds of it actually hitting our planet are...uh..OH!

Meh.Aloe: No, we've really fast-forwarded to two days from the end of the countdown.

The link between Carter and Phobos is definitely something that will be explored in the future—in the not-too-distant future, actually.

Ironic, then (note: not actual irony) that in the real world, it's the "government pawns at major universities" that are trying to warn us of disaster, while everyone else (including both governments themselves and crazy fringe bloggers) are the ones trying their best to ignore the warnings. :P

On an unrelated note, I've started reading A Canticle for Leibowitz, and now I find it amusing that it also seems to be set in a desert in what used to be Utah. :P

Also, I hope that next week we finally get to see the giant space bees!

I have one of those skull clocks, too, except it's counting down to my factory's safety and environmental audit next week...2 days, 11 hours, 21 minutes, 40 seconds...

On an unrelated note, I've started reading A Canticle for Leibowitz..

Wow! I read that decades ago. I didn't even remember it until you mentioned the book. Blast from the past.

it's the "government pawns at major universities" that are trying to warn us of disaster..

Funny how it all comes down to politics vs. science..two strange bedfellows. Still seems more like something out of Atlas Shrugged which does pit technological and industrial innovation against Government and social ideologies.

But I digress.

I've never read Atlas Shrugged. I suppose I really should sometime, if only because of how popular it is and how much impact it's seemed to have, but everything I've heard about Rand's philosophy suggests that it will be an excruciatingly painful read for me.

Probably. Libertarians love the book. Minimal government. Minimal (if any) entitlements. Maximum self-reliance. If our nation were modeled after the ideals in this book, PBS would be a thing of the past (unless it could turn a profit).

I'm reading it as part of the book club with a few other people in my community. We're a mix of different philosophies so we come at the book from really different directions.

I've also read "Moby Dick", Franz Kafka's "The Trial" and Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha" (among others), not because I thought they'd be "fun", but to challenge myself with more "classic" books.

On 07/11/11 Neptune "turned one," that is, it completed its first orbit of the sun since it was first discovered. Now you may think that's apropos of nothing, (or you may still be giggle over the Uranus joke in the last panel of the strip), but consider this: the original name given to the planet was Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., was discovered from an observatory in Roswell, New Mexico. True story.

Well, I've reserved a copy of Canticle for Leibowitz at my local library. As for Atlas Shrugs, I seem to find myself in way too many "role of the state" debates to read it without getting really stressed out. ;p

HumalaDuck: It would seem I have no choice but to make Henry John Deutshendorf, Jr. a recurring villain on Westward.

Woot! Who says lying will get you nowhere in life?

I consider Rands ideas to be malicious. I'd say the original Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror" to be a Randian world as a logical outcome of greed is good and stab-in-the-back morals.
It in fact is one that a psychopath would love. And she loved psychopaths. No morality or empathy just a drive to control.

What we have today is the govt and universities as pawns of big business. A natural Randian flow.