In the News - Bring Pluto Back!!!!

The IAU (International Astronomical Union) has officially demoted Pluto to a new class: the Dwarf Planet. This means that under the classical definition of planet ratified at the meeting there are only 8 classical planets.

I am at odds about this. I say we start a petition to bring Pluto back. Anyone with me, comment on this blog and we will get this overruled. Come on people Pluto was not just any planet for most of you. It was your inner rouge.

This is not the usual planet, like Mars or Jupiter, that could go in any old elliptical orbit like all the others, but this was an eccentric planet. Willing to take risks. To think outside the box. To become the 8th planet at times and not always the 9th. What other planet can boast that. NONE I tell you, none. What planet could live in the realm of gaseous planets and still not be considered one of them, none other than our beloved Pluto. And now they go and try to take that away from us.

From this moment on, I am on strike of the planetary system set up by the world. Strike I tell you. STRIKE!!!!

Article Here

And note: The definition of a dwarf planet states that the dwarf planet "has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite."

In the News - Intelligent Design is Dead

In a recent article on Yahoo! It states that many Clergy are now on the side of scientists in the view of evolution:

"As a legal strategy intelligent design is dead. It will be very difficult for any school district in the future to successfully survive a legal challenge," Scott said. "That doesn't mean intelligent design is dead as a very popular social movement. This is an idea that has got legs."

But pastors are speaking out against it. Warren Eschbach, a retired Church of the Brethren pastor and professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania helped sponsor a letter signed by more than 10,000 other clergy.

"We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests," they wrote.
Catholic experts have also joined the movement.

"The intelligent design movement belittles God. It makes God a designer, an engineer," said
Vatican' Observatory Director George Coyne, an astrophysicist who is also ordained. "The God of religious faith is a god of love. He did not design me."

Geological Movie Review - King Kong

First off AWESOME movie. Now for the paleontologist side of me. -

Now with the added 65 million years of evolution all the dinos on Skull Island are slightly demented from their typical selves and the raptors have really bad teeth.

Also I can see why dinos went extinct and mammals thrive. We have King King on our side. Yea, 3 T. rexs versus 1 King Kong, and who comes out on top, that's right, the monkey. Go Evolution!!

Geological Movie Review - The Core

Thank you Dr. Conrad Foster, Dr. Richard Terrille and Dr. Jonathan Mound for being the Scientific researchers for such a wonderful classic movie like The Core. Had there not been bad science in this movie there would have been no science at all.

Scientific Discussion - New Orleans

Scientific Discussion

Since everyone else needs to make their thoughts known I figured I would join into the game. First off I want everyone to know I am a Democrat. I voted for Kerry and I have no love for Bush. I don't think he has done a good job in his presidency and I think he has made a lot of bad decisions. Ok that being said my comments:

1. I don't know why people are blaming Bush on everything that happened in New Orleans. First I feel that it is not his job to wait for every little thing to happen then respond to it.

2. Second (and the big thing): the day after the hurricane New Orleans was not that badly hit. Several other towns in Mississippi and Louisiana were MUCH worse off, so federal help went to them first. It is the day after that help was down there. The problem first appeared to be bigger than originally thought when the levees broke. That's when New Orleans became the vast disaster area it was. But that was 2 days after the hurricane and all the help was already elsewhere. They could not just drop everything they were doing to rush back.

3. Third: studying geology for the last 6 years I have heard about New Orleans for a very long time. The way they built up the city is similar to Venice. If anyone knows about Venice it is currently sinking so they have to continually build up the streets and buildings. New Orleans blocked off the Mississippi River so that no new sediment was being deposited on the delta where the city was built. A delta is essentially a big bag of sand and silt in water on the edge of the gulf. Now place a city on top of it. This forces the land to settle in the water. Back to current conditions - the city has been sinking causing it to be lower than sea level. The only thing holding out the ocean was the levees. Picture this, a bathtub surrounded by water and then the wall breaks on the tub and it fills with water. It has been known for some time that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen and no one has tried to fix it.

4. Fourth: Several of the families could not leave the city before it happened but most chose to stay for some stupid reason of "I didn't think it would be so bad". Well it was, and they told you to leave but you didn't and several of them still choose to stay. Even the nursing home was offered busses to leave but the families said they would be fine.

5. Fifth and final: The media is a major problem with this whole thing. They are making problems out to be worse than they are and things that are really bad they are not paying much attention to. They keep blaming Bush without trying to find any help for anyone and don't get me into the whole racist thing. I agree there are gangs and problems and such like that but just because someone is black does not mean they are in a gang and just because they are white does not mean they are innocent. I think the majority of people there are in desperate need for help but it is the few that need to yell at the cameras that get the majority of the attention. And the mayor of New Orleans isn't helping anyone by cursing at the camera saying that Bush should do something. They even had a priest doing the same thing but at FEMA this time.

I personally believe that the setting for this was in place and that it was gonna happen. Was everything done afterwards to help the people, probably not. But we can't focus on that, we need to help the people now and get this city up and running, however long it takes. And this time we need to learn how to do it right. (Now for the bleak geologic future): The reason they need to figure this out is because there are several cities on the coast that are the largest cities on the planet. Because of global warming (not taking place as fast as people are warning but still really fast geologically) the coastal cities will be drowned out. So if they learn how to do it right they might actually be able to save the world in the future.