But saying Pluto isn't a planet? I don't care what you say, Science - Pluto will always be a planet in my mind. I know you've got some things to work out, and trying to get everyone to agree on what is and isn't a planet must be tough. But c'mon - this is Pluto we're talking about. He's been a planet since he was discovered in 1930, spinning along the outer reaches of our imaginations for as long as most people have been alive. Pluto is OUR planet (so to speak).So it crosses orbits with Neptune; so what? What has Neptune done for us lately? At least Uranus gives us a cheap laugh.
So you tell Pluto, out there on his long, lonely circuit through space, looking back at us with puppy-dog eyes, you tell him he's not a planet anymore. Because I'm not gonna do it.
Back on the homefront, we've got bigger problems. Problems about the size of a VW bug.
Giant nests perplex experts By Garry Mitchell Associated Press MOBILE -- To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama. Specialists say it could be the result of a mild winter and drought conditions, or multiple queens forcing worker yellow jackets to enlarge their quarters so the queens will be in separate areas. But experts haven't determined exactly what's behind the surprisingly large nests.
I'll tell you what it is - Step 1. Step 2 involves work camps and humans building giant hives. You don't even want to know about Step 3.
Auburn University entomologists, who say they've never seen the nests so large, have been fielding calls about the huge nests from property owners from Dothan up to Sylacauga and over into west-central Alabama's Black Belt. At one site in Barbour County, the nest was as large as a Volkswagen Beetle, said Andy McLean, an Orkin pesticide service manager in Dothan who helped remove it from an abandoned barn about a month ago.
...
Entomologist Dr. Charles Ray at the Alabama Cooperative Extension System in Auburn said he's aware of about 16 of what he described as "super-sized" nests in south Alabama. Ray said he's seen 10 of them and cautioned people about going near them because of the yellow jacket's painful sting.
Ladies and gentlemen - your "no-shit" quote of the week.
1 comment:
Ah hell, astronomy was my chosen science requirement in the UT system--the Texas legislated requirement was 9 hours or 3 courses in one field. Even back in the stone age when I was in college all of my astronomy professors always made a point of referring to Pluto as a "planetOID," so I was prepared for the shift in paradigm. Everybody is so upset, but Pluto has ALWAYS been a frozen chunk of suck as far as planets go.
Now those giant yellow jacket nests ARE disturbing. That's just insane. I think you are right about what's afoot here and I don't like it one bit I tells ya. However, I do think we need to make a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi/horror flick (a la fantastic and beautiful Slither) in which that is the central plot.
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