Light Reading for a Sunday Afternoon, Vol. II

Here are some recent news pieces worth reading:

• “2007 WD5 Mars Collision Effectively Ruled Out - Impact odds now 1 in 10,000,” by Steve Chesley, NASA Near Earth Object Program, Jan., 9, 2008. The chances of an asteroid striking Mars have diminished.

• “Norman Mailer Archive Opens in Texas,” by Jim Vertuno, The Associated Press, Jan. 3, 2008. The archive includes “The Martian Invasion,” a short story Mailer wrote when he was a kid.

• “Constant Reader: Superman is Dead,” by Paul Constant, The Stranger, Jan. 2, 2008. A Seattle columnist lauds The Million Year Picnic, a Cambridge, MA, comic-book shop named after a short story in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950).