Pluto

I didn't have much to say when Pluto was demoted, except that I thought there was way too much debate about it and what's the point of making a post to say that people are talking too much about a planet? Kind of defeats the purpose. But, I do like this blurb, courtesy of nationalgeographic.com:

Not everyone is taking Pluto's demotion so well.

Jason Kottke operates the Weblog kottke.org and hosted a contest to replace the old mnemonic devices for remembering the planetary lineup.

He offered one of the best-known ones as a starting point: "My (Mercury) very (Venus) elegant (Earth) mother (Mars) just (Jupiter) served (Saturn) us (Uranus) nine (Neptune) pizzas (Pluto)."

The tone of the winning entries is mostly indignant.

"Most vexing experience, mother just served us nothing!" was a runner-up, submitted by contributor Bart Baxter.

One entry, by "Delia," is written from the viewpoint of U.S. astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. "My vision, erased. Mercy! Just some underachiever now."

First place went to Josh Mishell for "My! Very educated morons just screwed up numerous planetariums."

(no subject)

All right, I know there's at least one meterology person in the audience, so perhaps you can explain this to me. I've always wondered why hurricanes seem to crawl across land and move so quickly over sea. I mean, Ernesto was down in Florida yesterday, is supposedly moving at around 10mph and is somehow now about to hit SC/NC? I don't get it. I mean, I'm hardly a meterologist, I'm just your more informed than average citizen who looks up the stats on hurricanes that might affect me a couple of times a day. Anyone up for explaining the disconnect?