The search for a planet beyond Pluto.

While I am not an astronomer, nor do I play one on television, I rebel against the whole "dwarf planet" phenomenon. Pluto may be small, and part of a cluster with other small worlds, but it is  a sphere not some planetary fragment like Ceres.

The short version: I think it's a planet and will be officially designated as such one day.

Anyway, the search for the "next planet" has been ongoing since Clyde Tombaugh found Pluto.

Here's the latest update about the search from The Guardian:

These days, [astronomer Scott] Sheppard can regularly be found using Japan’s Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, patiently scouring the sky for more evidence of Planet 9, maybe even hoping that he sees the planet itself. The scale of the task is enormous. It really is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The planet – if it is even there – is very faint and the sky is very large. But help is on its way in the form of the Rubin observatory.

Rubin is a monster that will devour the sky. Whereas most telescopes would take months or years to survey the whole sky, Rubin will do it in just three nights. Then do it again and again and again to see what’s changed and so catch the moving objects.

Construction is nearing completion, and the telescope is set to open its giant eye for the first time in 2020. Commissioning and tweaking will then take another couple of years.

“That survey is going to change solar system science as we know it,” says Sheppard. And if Planet 9 is out there, Rubin should see it.

“We can detect an Earth-mass planet at around 1000 AU,” says Meg Schwamb, of Queen’s University Belfast, who co-chairs the Rubin observatory’s solar system science collaboration. That puts Sheppard’s world easily within its sights. “If others haven’t seen Planet 9 before our survey starts then, I think, all eyes are on the Rubin observatory,” says Schwamb.

Even if the telescope fails to see the planet directly, it will detect many more distant mini-worlds that can all be use to triangulate the planet’s position more precisely, thus helping to narrow the search area. And if Planet 9 really is out there, then the consequences will be huge.

Astronomers think that the solar system formed in a disc of matter surrounding the sun. That matter condensed into smaller bodies, which then collided to form larger ones. At the end of this process, the planets were born. But the matter in this disc thins out further from the sun, meaning there is not enough raw material to form a large planet in the distant solar system.

 

"That's 'p' as in 'phonetic'..."

Picking up a prescription at a chain pharmacy on Friday:

Chain pharmacy employee:"Is that picking up or dropping off?"

Me: "Picking up."

CPE: "Last name?"

Me: "Price."

CPE: "[Pause] How do you spell that?"

Yes, I know. Brice, Rice. Grrr.

Just a neat story.

Click here to see a grown lion react to the woman who rescued him from death's door as a cub.

Thanks, Shelly.

Still alive, still scarce.

Life is full of fascinating non-blog responsibilities and diversions.

Take the Giants and the points: the Pats have never blown out anyone in the Super Bowl.

And this is a keeper, courtesy of the demure Kathy, as always, busy with her quilting and canning:

See you on the flip side.

Fun with datamining!

I was just doing some Christmas shopping on Amazon.com for Rachel. I bought an Amy Morris doll (from the very worthwhile and anti-Bratzish Holly Hobbie update).

After it went into the cart, I scrolled down to the "Customers who bought the items in your shopping cart also bought:" section.

And found this.

I hope they don't mix up the packages, or it's going to be a very awkward Christmas morning in that house.

[UPDATE: James has another funny example of bizarre Amazon mining practices here.]

We interrupt this interruption for a public service announcement.




The reunion information for the Alma High School Class of 1987 can be found at this link. Bust out your Growl Towels.

That is all.

Your Memorial Day Message from Christianist Central Command, Michigan Network.

Brother Theocrats of the Wolverine Cabal:

"Sleep dulls even the fangs of the cobra." Decode using the New King James Version, Pocket Edition, Book of Habakkuk, Chapter 2.

Stay on message this weekend, Brothers: emphasize opposition to the burka in discussions with the Secular Herd, but do NOT--NOTNOT--gaffe it up and admit that "it's only because we are jealous that the followers of Mahomet came up with it first." Got that, Brother Agent 841?

Speaking of the womenfolk:

Brother Agent 349: your helpmeet was observed shod in the kitchen whilst gravid. Correct this immediately.

Brother Agent 703: we have reports that your wife was seen reading alone during her "down time." I cannot emphasize enough that unsupervised reading invariably leads to voter registration. Address this immediately.

Other matters:

Brother Agent 182: Smoking cigars from Castro's godless hellhole is not the equivalent of "burning their crops." Cease and desist. Besides, the Dominican stuff is better.

Brother Agent 1025: Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth is acceptable viewing. Not "all Eye-talians are commie homos." Our latest research indicates that such individuals constitute a bare plurality.

Brother Agent 594: We still need clarification on how the whole "websurfing for pictures of Jessica Biel" project advances our goal of a Godly Theonomic State. We expect a report by the 30th.

Brothers, that is all for now. But I leave you with this good news: members of the Empire State Cabal have again successfully hidden Andrew Sullivan's car keys, ensuring yet another incoherent, self-contradictory rant which can only succeed in winning sympathy to our cause--oo-rah!

Christening a boat.

Franklin Jennings has a fun request:

I don't suppose you'd be disposed to inviting your readers to suggest names for boats? I'm in the earliest stages of designing a small motorcruiser and I thought since you have the funniest bunch of guys on the planet, I'd like to get some suggestions for boat names. I'd prefer some sort of funny or witty name that suits a small yacht built by a trad. An in-joke for Catholics or something in Latin. That sort of thing.

Since this is the home of the funniest guys on this orb, let's pony up, shall we?

My thoughts:

English: The Barque.
Carpathia (just looking for a good vibe).

Latin: Beatus Vir.
Res Ipsa Loquitur.
Beatus Navis Bellarium.

Let's not let the man down, lads and lasses.

Floating in a compote of schadenfreude.

Aw. That's a real shame.

Holy ____.

3,500 pounds of bat guano found in attic.

And I thought scooping the cat box was bad.

Well, that's cast a gloom over the evening.

Michigan couple has body parts delivered to house.

"My husband started to unwrap one and said, 'This is strange, it looks like a liver,'" Ludivine Larmande said. "He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear.
Something wasn't right."

Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
O, Dr. Zaius!

[Obligatory subcaptioning for the pop culture-impaired: click here.]

A trend we need to keep a close eye on: Chimpanzees are making weapons now. You know, before we're driven underground and start worshipping ICBMs.

Keep your hands where I can see them, you damn dirty ape.

Feel free to add your own Hestonisms in the box below.

The cat drinks unleaded from now on!

Yeah, that's pretty well human nature at work. Note that James offers helpful conservation tips, too.

For our part, we've switched to the spiral light bulbs all through the house (five or so regular bulbs remaining). You can get a six-pack of 60-watters from Home Depot for under 10 bucks. I purchased a 100 watt outdoor spotlight for $8. The bulbs have made a huge difference on electrical consumption and you get the same illumination. Full disclosure: they do have limitations. First, they take a little longer to get to "full power." Second, I haven't found any that work on dimmer switch set-ups. Finally, they do not come in smaller sizes (e.g., candelabra style bulbs). But I suspect the technology will solve these items in short order. Even now, they are well-worth it.

Oh, and if we're really going to be serious about conservation/carbon emissions, we might want to look at these sorts of things. I'm not saying bans, but the elites might want to put their money where their mouths are.

Mano a mano!

Our Famous Author goes head to head with Mark Steyn on demographics, citing the CIA World Factbook. Here's the exchange in full:

THE CRADLE WILL FALL
Albania - total fertility rate 2.03 (2006, CIA world factbook).
Turkey - total fertility rate 1.92 (2006, CIA world factbook).
The replacement level is 2.1, so of course the number of Albanians and Turks will soon begin to fall, as the effects of demographic inertia play themselves out. How long that will take depends on how much further the birth-rates fall - there's no reason to believe they won't continue to decline - but it will inevitably happen.
Iran's rate is 1.8, Algeria's is 1.86, and Tunisia's is 1.75. These are also continuing to fall. Mr. Steyn, you have a tendency to ignore data which contradict your thesis. Why is this?
S M Stirling

MARK REPLIES: For a start, I don’t know where the CIA get their figures from, but Turkey’s fertility rate is more like 2.4 and Albania’s about 2.2. But you’re missing the point. My thesis fully takes on falling birth rates in the Third World. It’s not difficult. It’s on page 3 of America Alone:

"True, birth rates are falling all over the world, and it may be that eventually every couple on the planet decides to opt for the western yuppie model of one designer baby at the age of 39. But demographics is a game of last man standing. The groups that succumb to demographic apathy last will have a huge advantage - and those societies with expensive social programs dependent on mass immigration will be in the worst predicament. It’s no consolation for the European Union with its deathbed birth statistics if the Third World’s demographics are also falling: they’re your nursery, they’re the babies you couldn’t be bothered having; if their fertility rate goes the same way yours has, that will be a problem for you long before it’s a problem for them."

Look, the best way to understand global demography at a glance is to go here
Print out the graphic and stick it on the wall, and look at how far Niger has to go to be (demographically) in the same predicament as Latvia. By the time Niger gets to where Latvia, it will be no consolation to Latvia. And, if you think it will be, you’re the one who’s ignoring data that contradicts your thesis. As for the inevitability of falling fertility rates, you’re also ignoring the point noted above that Muslim immigrants in France, Belgium and elsewhere currently have a fertility rate higher than that pertaining back in their home countries. In other words, Tunisians in Tunisia may be on the gentle slope of demographic decline but Tunisians in Europe aren’t.

I love Steyn, but I'm going to give Steve this one on points. If the birthrates are already below replacement in those countries, then that makes a hash of the demographic thesis of AA (there's still a potent cultural argument worth considering, though). The only thing that keeps it from being a knockout is the argument about higher birthrates among the immigrant populations within Europe itself. I simply don't have the figures to verify that one.

Yes, what what.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: His Highness Dale the Pertinacious of Lower Wombleshire Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

You stout yeomen and other assorted peons are also free to address me as:

Reverend Earl Dale the Unusual of Bumswick by the Hole

-and-

Grand Duke Dale the Waspish of Lower Bumhampton

Hat tip to Mark Sullivan for the find.

Bovines in Love.

An oddly touching story about a lonely steer and his new girlfriend.

[Title changed after a pertinent biological error was noted in the comment box. I could say "with God all things are possible," but....]

Technicolor Yawns, Alligator Alley, etc.

All three of the kids, in varying degrees and symptoms, came down with a bad case of either "growling in the grass" or the trots.

Dee-lightful! Rachel had the mildest (thank God) symptoms of all of us--just a couple of hideously full--or overfull--diapers. I should edit that--"Mildest symptoms next to her apparently-Ebola-immune mother" would be more accurate. Heather's imperviousness to the diseases of the world continues to be a source of irritating wonder. Better her than me, though.

After all, even the littluns' dad got ill--and with remarkable projection and velocity--last Monday night. Apparently, it is Basic Epidemiology™ that being barfed on three times by a sick person greatly increases your chances of contracting their malady.

Fascinating!

Of course, I became ill just before a morning flight to South Florida for business.

I had almost nothing to eat for three days, which, given my size, is probably a good thing. Fasting, penance and all that. That, and I don't enjoy hurling.

I flew in to Miami, and drove Alligator Alley over to Ft. Myers (flying directly into Fort Myers from Detroit is expensive enough to force the immediate default of your average Third World kleptocracy) for the necessary transactions and inquiries. Anyone who ever complains about Metro Detroit traffic has never left Michigan. Miami traffic at 2:30pm is something to be strenuously avoided, as I discovered. But once I cleared that, I found the section of I-75 that cuts through the northern Everglades/Cypress region to be hauntingly beautiful. And a little chilling, too. All that fencing is there for a reason--there are gators, indeed, in them there 'Glades. Just waiting for that extra-special, not-particularly-agile, clueless tourist from Up North...

Business was transacted, and I drove back Wednesday. Then, The Fun Began.

You see, I had to change my hotel reservation, and was advised that it was "the Days Inn close to Miami International Airport." [BTW, a salute to Miami IA--the loudspeakers played honest-to-God Christmas carols--Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Little Town of Bethlehem were two of the memorable ones.] I was given an address and phone number for the new hotel, and I drove quickly to Miami, watching an overcast sunset over the same Everglades. Then I discovered what "close to the airport" meant, as I headed increasingly into the downtown area.

A-ha! A Days Inn logo!

Ooookay--where the hell is the exit? Well, surely any exit will do. Right?

At least there were no gators. Several blocks of twisting around lights, finding seemingly parallel streets, and navigating further around a city I'd never been to in my life brought me to the front desk. Ah, yes--here's my reservation confirmation number.

"Sorry, sir, we don't even have a number close to that. That's odd."

Yes, it sure is...Um, isn't this the Days Inn closest to the airport? Off 11th Street?

"Oh, no--This is 12th Street. The other Days Inn, that's back off the expressway. Just go back on the 826 and head west. You can see it right from the expressway."

Oh, yay!

Five hours on the road and I'm gonna make it home tonight.

Well, after wending my way around some badly advertised construction, even-more-badly-planned on-ramps and exits, I worked my way back to the 826 and started looking. No luck.

You see, while the expression "You can see it right from the expressway" was fully accurate and utterly true, the same also applies to Ursa Major. It doesn't mean that it's easy to see, much less that I have any ability to get there.

I took an exit, and tried the phone number.

Disconnected.

Have you ever seen a steering wheel turned into a balloon animal? It's pretty cool, if hard to explain to the rental car company.

I tried a local, who advised me in an earnest and friendly, if not fully-reassuring way, to "take road to end, then right."

Well, why not? It was better than "seeing it from the expressway." Better yet: it worked. I pulled in, checked in, and crashed.

So I'm a little slow in getting re-started around here. Your patience, please.

Liturgirama!

I haven't had any liturgy-related stuff in a while. Here's the reparation:

1. The Pontificator (a blog by an Anglican priest) offers up 10 ways to improve the Western Rite Liturgy. Thumbs up to all 10. (Hat tip: Aristotle at Recovering Choir Director.)

Not so BTW, scroll around the site and you'll see that the always-worthwhile Pontificator (to be blogrolled) offers advice straight from The Amityville Horror to faithful Anglicans still in the ECUSA:

"Get out!"

[BTW, the stories about the house in Amityville have been conclusively debunked as a hoax.]


2. The "renovation" of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit gets a review in Sacred Architecture. It is not favorable, in the main, and nails the problems perfectly.

Though a veteran modernist architect, Gunnar Birkerts claims a distaste for anything dogmatic. By giving "each building its own theoretical base" he seeks to free himself from "the imposition of a set structure on any design" and believes that "the theory can be deduced" from the resulting forms he creates. Readers of Sacred Architecture will be familiar with the contradiction in terms which is constantly utilized by modernist architects; i.e., the dogmatic belief that an architect should never follow anything dogmatic. The idea of creating rules without organic reference to the known Good, True and Beautiful is a bit like a Cartesian mind game attempting to create its own past, present and future.

* * *

"You know, one of the first things that he [Birkerts] wanted to do was to change the nature of a gothic cathedral, which by its very nature is very dark down below with large stained glass windows above. Now, that reflected the Church of the Middle Ages where people were insignificant and were always looking up to the godly. We're in a more unified Church where people have a much stronger role today than in the past. They're involved in every single part of church life and so we wanted some light to come in to that cathedral ... "

Here we have the medieval Church pitted against the modern Church in order to justify the new lighting scheme. And despite Tocco's claims, Birkerts did not change the nature of the Gothic cathedral even with the added lighting and other novel insertions. In fact, it is remarkable how the Gothic church that exists still overpowers the intruding elements simply by beauty of form, scale, and proportion. The new elements look more like a Star Trek set inserted into the crossing of a venerable Gothic church.

* * *

But beyond the actual building, the language surrounding this project serves as a self-condemnation for modern-ist interventions in general. Fr. Pelc, in an article in Faith and Form in 1987, stated that "Catholic Christians, in the main, now know that they can never be comfortable celebrating one type of ecclesiology in a building that silently screams another."

In other words, traditional architecture cannot be reconciled to the new liturgy. Is traditional architecture obsolete then? Msgr. Tocco believes that we still have room for it:"I would have said yes ten years ago, but I'm not sure that in the climate of the church today that's necessarily true. We have a lot of areas where we're not only looking forward, we're looking backward as well ... it is much easier to do liturgy in a church that is designed with the new directives for art and architecture, where people can gather around the altar, where sight lines are better, where there are not so many barriers, where you don't have a thousand things pulling them away from the altar, where the sound system is good, where the word and music are integral to the building itself."

And the last paragraph is probably the most heartening news about the renovation--the sign that the modernist assault is losing steam and confidence in itself, with this half a loaf approach signalling a retreat from the high-water mark of the Rog Mahal in L.A (all hail the Yellow Armadillo!).

It still rankles. Though Blessed Sacrament had its flaws, it was not the "pathetic," dark, dingy hellhole the archdiocesan pointmen claim it was. I gaped like a tourist during the Rite of Enrollment there in 1999. It would have "cleaned up" just fine without adding marble versions of the Enterprise's command chair and transporter platform.

But... I'll take it. The admission of Fr. Tocco is remarkable: ten years ago, they could have done so much more. Now--they can't. And there's nothing in that statement to indicate the pendulum is going to swing back any time soon.

It could have been much, much worse. And given that the changes (unlike the gothic structure itself) will age about as well as olive shag carpet, in 25 years it can be truly renovated with comparatively little effort.


3. On a related note, Michael Rose (of Ugly as Sin fame) has a new website on church architecture called Dellachiesa. Go there often--a veritable clearing house of things architectural and liturgical. (Hat tip to Mark Sullivan.)