It's smaller than the Moon, and your mom

Apparently, I talk more about Pluto than I do about anything else in astronomy in the blog. To me, that betrays two things: I don't have a deep enough interest in astronomy to study it for a living, and I am passionate about how people are under-informed about this world's proper, albeit poorly named, status.

I'm breaking this rant down based on all the foolish reasons my home state's Senate has used to justify their resolution for Pluto being a planet as it passes "overhead through Illinois' night skies."

WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh is so far the only Illinoisan and only American to ever discover a planet;

This operates on the conceit that Pluto may be defined as a planet. If that is the case, then Eris must be defined as a planet as well. The discovers of Eris are all American, and one (Chad Trujillo) grew up in Oak Park, Illinois.

WHEREAS, For more than 75 years, Pluto was considered the ninth planet of the Solar System;

Yeah, and when Pluto was initially discovered, people thought it was the gas giant they were calling "Planet X" (not ten, ecks). It wasn't until Charon was discovered thirty years ago that we were sure Pluto was so small. Also, Ceres, along with three other asteroids, were considered planets for over forty years, losing the title when it was determined in the 1840s they weren't the only objects in that orbit. Pluto isn't the only object in a 2:3 resonant orbit with Neptune. Hence the creation of the "plutino" designation.

WHEREAS, A spacecraft called New Horizons was launched in January 2006 to explore Pluto in the year 2015;

So the eff what? People want to know about this iceball. The spacecraft Dawn is going to a couple of asteroids (including Ceres) in 2011. We have sent probes to comets and asteroids (and have more planned) in the past. Why does this POS statement qualify as "whereas"? Why has my rhetoric escalated?

WHEREAS, Pluto has three moons: Charon, Nix, and Hydra;

Oh yeah, for reasons as inane as this. Mercury and Venus have no moons; does the Illinois Senate want to demote them? Eris is orbited by Dysnomia; that's why we know it is bigger than Pluto. Some of the asteroids have natural satellites around them as well. Whoop-dee-doo.

WHEREAS, Pluto's average orbit is more than three billion miles from the sun (sic);

OK, my opinion of the last three clauses show I probably don't know enough about legislation. I'm guessing these are either here as padding, or to properly define Pluto in the legislation. I like how the last statement ignores that Pluto's orbit is unlike any of the eight planets, signifying to me that it isn't one of the major non-stellar objects in the Solar System. Its orbit is very elliptical, and its orbital plane is far off of those of the planets. That tells me that when the cloud of stuff that formed the Sun condensed into a disk, the ice and rock that formed Pluto was not very involved in that particular coalescence.

WHEREAS, Pluto was unfairly downgraded to a "dwarf" planet (sic) in a vote in which only 4 percent of the International Astronomical Union's 10,000 scientists participated;

The first clause is seethingly subjective, especially for a Democratic-run body whose party claimed to want to get politics out of science during the Bush Administration. As for the second clause, have they never heard of union representatives? Do they expect a quorum of IAU members to descend on Prague? The UN General Assembly does not consist of the entire governments from each country, or even a representative from each branch of government. Some universities only had one professor attend this vote, because that's all their budget would allow. Would you prefer an online vote?

WHEREAS, Many respected astronomers believe Pluto's full planetary status should be restored;

Seriously? You pulled the "many" card? The same majority party whose constituents may hate it when the "many" card is thrown out by evolution opponents, or by those who don't think that climate change is a real concern?

This is journalistic laziness, and if it is considered germane for legislation, then I want no part of it.

A weird admission

A couple days ago, I realized that I voted for each major presidential candidate before this year.

In 2000 I was heading to the Republican caucuses*, but I realized the folly of voting for GWB. The most sensible alternative was McCain before becoming an independent at the end of the night.

In 2004, I sent an absentee ballot from Japan to Illinois and made the obvious selection for the vacant Senate seat.

*I grew up in Naperville, give me a break.

My God! My God!

It looks like Jim Leach, the former representative of Iowa City's congressional district, has bucked party lines again to support Barack Obama and to try to persuade Chuck Hagel to join his side.

Considering Joe Lieberman's continued support of John McCain as well, I was really getting a WCW vs. nWo vibe from all of this. It seemed like Hagel was just sitting in the catwalk with Crow-ripoff makeup, observing the carnage and betrayal below. I would go further with this, but since I have a hard time remembering which stable I liked more 10 years ago, as well as which side was properly face (see: Wolfpac vs. Hollywood), I will leave this for Salieri if he is interested.

Two-for-one today

First, the backstory:
Due to a lovely snafu last year, I had some issues receiving federal tax information. To fix it, I had to fill out a change of address form, and all of my mail has gone to Illinois ever since. The moral of the story? The post office sucks, or never fill out a change of address from your parents' house.

Now, the actual story:
So, I went to my parents' home this weekend to go to a Chicago Fire match. I pick up my mail, and contained within the bunch is an invitation to join the Sierra Club. I'm very conflicted about this. Have I become this crazy of a liberal? Has my environmentalism become such a red* flag? Heh.

*Red in the Cold War sense, not the Electoral College** sense.

**Have I stated my opinions on this issue before? I believe I should. That will be fun.

Snap judgments give me whiplash

I'm sure most of you see enough news (or news filtration) to know more about the potential implications of the Hillary-Obama-Thing (H.O.T.*) than me. Here's an amusing summary.

This is just my uninformed opinion, but I really don't think the superdelegates would ever try to trump the cumulative results of the primaries, caucuses, conventions, town hall meetings, hand counts, text message votes, and American Idol call-in votes. Granted, the Republicans have their own in-fighting as they talk themselves into supporting McCain, but everyone is aware that the GOP will get a leg up on the Democrats if the H.O.T. is unresolved. Having the superdelegates trump the cumulative primary/caucus/state convention/American Idol call-in votes would only exacerbate this problem.

*I think this is what we should call this issue from now on.

A morbid speculation, a conspiracy theory, an honest question (and answer)

##POLITICS WARNING: PLEASE FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS##

I know the country is better now, but I still think if Sen. Obama gets elected, there's bound to be an assassination attempt. Heck, there might be, even if Sen. Clinton gets the nomination. This pessimism was bolstered by Obama being called a "black Kennedy" in Doonesbury. Sigh.

So, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, et al. have been questioning Sen. McCain's conservatism lately. As opposed to the Mitt Romney's vacillating opinions from the last fifteen years. What if they are doing it to make him more palatable in the general election? They certainly know how uncommitted voters respond to their brand of vitriol. Has reverse psychology been used at other times in politcal history?

Will these United States ever elect another fat President? (No.)