Fellow South Carolinian, Stephen Colbert Fights the Star Wars Kid

Once again SC looses

This Weeks Vintage Sesame Street

is dedicated to my friend Jason Lalak because this just reminds me of you.

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Poor Pluto

and now this depressing news from the NY times


By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: August 22, 2006
Pluto was looking more and more like a goner today as astronomers meeting in Prague continued to debate the definition of a planet.


Associated Press/NASA
Pluto, left, with its moons, from left to right, Hydra, Nix and Charon.
Related
Essay: Planets Askew in the Heavens, and Here on Earth, a Mess (August 22, 2006)

For Now, Pluto Holds Its Place in Solar System (August 16, 2006)

“I think that today can go down as the ‘day we lost Pluto,’ ” Jay Pasachoff of Williams College said in an e-mail message from Prague.

Under fire from other astronomers and the public, a committee appointed by the International Astronomical Union revised and then revised again a definition proposed last week that would have expanded the number of official planets to 12, locking in Pluto as well as the newly discovered Xena in the outer solar system, as well as the asteroid Ceres and Pluto’s moon Charon.

The new definition offered today would set up a three-tiered classification scheme with eight “planets”; a group of “dwarf-planets” that would include Pluto, Ceres, Xena and many other icy balls in the outer solar system; and thousands of “smaller solar system bodies,” like comets and asteroids.

The bottom line, said Owen Gingerich, the Harvard astronomer who is chairman of the I.A.U.’s planet definition committee, is that in the new definition, “Pluto is not a planet.”

“There’s not happiness all around, believe me,” he added.

The new proposal was hashed out in a couple of open meetings, the first of which was described by participants as tumultuous, and the second more congenial. Astronomers are supposed to vote on this or some other definition on Thursday, but whether a consensus is emerging depends on whom you talk to. Some astronomers expressed anger that the original definition of planet had been developed in isolation and then dropped on them only a week before the big vote. Others continued to question whether it was so important to decide the question now at all.

Among its defects, some astronomers say, the newer definition abandons any pretense of being applicable to other planetary systems beyond our own solar system.

To many astronomers, Pluto’s tiny size and unusually tilted orbit make it a better match to the icy balls floating in the outskirts of the solar system in what is known as the Kuiper Belt than to the conventional planets like Jupiter and Mars. The issue has been forced on astronomers by the discovery of such a ball even larger than Pluto, nicknamed Xena by its discoverer, Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology.

If Pluto is a planet, so should be Xena, Dr. Brown has argued.

The committee’s original prime criterion was roundness, meaning that a planet had to be big enough so that gravity would overcome internal forces and squash it into a roughly spherical shape. But a large contingent of astronomers, led by Julio Fernandez of the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay, has argued that a planet must also be massive enough to clear other objects out of its orbital zone. Dr. Gingerich admitted, “They are in control of things.”

So the newest resolution includes the requirement for orbital dominance as a condition for full-fledged planethood, Dr. Gingerich said. That knocks out Pluto, which crosses the orbit of Neptune, and Xena, which orbits among the icy wrecks of the Kuiper Belt, and Ceres, which is in the asteroid belt.

“Vociferous objectors have said they could accept this,” Dr. Gingerich said.

Reached in his office at Caltech, Dr. Brown, who as the discoverer of Xena has the most to lose by its and Pluto’s demotion, said he thought he could live with the new proposal. “It essentially demotes Pluto to something other than a real planet, which is reasonable,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Dr. Gingerich cautioned that there were many things still to be sorted out. For example, the International Astronomical Union might consider creating a special name for Pluto and other dwarf-planets, like Xena and others yet to be discovered, that dwell out beyond Neptune. If it did, he said that “plutonians” seemed like a likelier choice than the previous suggestion, “plutons.” That term was protested by geologists, who pointed out that it was already used in earth science for nuggets of molten rock that have solidified and reached the surface.

But with two more days before the scheduled vote, there was no guarantee Pluto would not make a comeback and the definition of planethood be rewritten again.

“Some people think that the astronomers will look stupid if we can’t agree on a definition or if we don’t even know what a planet is,’’ Dr. Pasachoff said. “But someone pointed out that this definition will hold for all time and that it is more important to get it right.”

Today in the news

Tom & Jerry in trouble in for smoking scenes

Tue Aug 22, 8:22 AM ET

They chase each other at high speed, wielding axes and hammers. But the famous cartoon duo of Tom and Jerry are in trouble in Britain for smoking on screen.

Media regulator Ofcom received a complaint from a viewer who took offence at two episodes involving smoking.

In one, "Texas Tom," the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the other, "Tennis Chumps," Tom's opponent in a match smokes a large cigar.

In a bulletin posted online, Ofcom noted "concerns that smoking on television may normalize smoking," and said that the Turner company, licensee for Boomerang which aired the cartoons, had agreed to edit some smoking scenes out of Tom and Jerry.

"The licensee has ... proposed editing any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorized or where it might encourage imitation," Ofcom said, adding that "Texas Tom" was one such example.


But it would not cut all smoking scenes, it added.

Ofcom said it recognized smoking was more generally accepted when cartoons were produced in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, but noted that the threshold for including such scenes when the audience is predominately young should be high

Loserman

I must weigh in on the Lieberman issue!

Here are my thoughts.
1. The dude is a fucking republican, the dems are better to be rid of him frankly
2. I have not trusted him, since his behavior during the Clinton Impeachment Hearings. I mean you are a member of the political party, you dont turn on your leader like that. But that was almost 10 years ago if you can believe that.
3. Supporting this war, especially when your constituants are against it is retarded. That is why his constituants voted him out.
4. For once, I totally agree with what Michael Moore said on his blog.(Okay I have agreed with him before), It is a about who you sleep with. George Bush is fucking evil and Democrats should be fighting that evil, not felating it.
5. And to you Joe, I have this to say. You are not making any friends by leaving a party and running as an independant. All you are doing is dividing the electorate and handing the republicans Connecticut on a silver platter. Don't you remember that that was one of the reasons why you did not become VP? Perhaps that is what you had in mind all along. Sorry Joe, there is no pitty for you here.

Perhaps the GOP can take a page out of the Children's Television Workshop playbook

Will this be the new gimmick to up Dubya's sad ass approval ratings?

If so, It almost works on me. Almost...

Things that I am digging right now on the internet

Though I would get those five folks who read my blog an update on what I do on the web, this week. That is of course when I have not been working.

My favorite San Francisco Crazy person is actually on my new favorite website, Municide His video is priceless

Also, check out Margaret Chos' Puss

In Entertainment, Mel Gibson aparently has bot a drinking and a jew hating problem. I am in the midst of constructing a open letter to Mel. Also, Lindsay Lohan learned the same lesson that one of my temps did this week. That people in the work place don't appreciate, when you are too hungover to show up at work.

Then there is the massively depressing news. I just can't deal with. I mean we are in the middle of the summer. The main news stories should be dealing with shark attacks, little lost blonde girls, and Britney Spears. Instead, its all doom and gloom. We are on the verge of WWIII its fucking hot, in most of the country, San Francisco was shaking the other day. ( I have to say I adore the USGS website and that it send s me an email to alert me when the ground is shaking. Actually it was one of the first ones that I have felt and now I feel the need to stock up on water and canned goods, being the good paranoid east coaster that I am. OOOH OOOH OOH and lets not forget Castro, I have to say that both my brothers and a couple of my friends as well, have offered to take over my small communist country, if I had Intestinal Difficulties. Thanks Guys. Dude, I am glad I have so many friends, because I live in the Mission and sometimes those burritos can do me wrong.

Bird and Cash: an unstoppable duo!!!!

My You Tube addiction continues. This might be my favorite song of the moment!!