With only 8 major planets, Pioneer 10 now becomes a problem

One of my UK friends, Barty, has an interesting and amusing take on the recent decision of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to strip Pluto of its status as a fully fledged planet. According to the IAU, the solar system should be described as having eight major planetary bodies, with Pluto, Charon, Ceres and UB313 merely classed as 'dwarf planets'.

"The IAU have made a brave move by demoting Pluto. I'm sure they've realized that educators will be annoyed by the cost of updating all the textbooks and mnemonics, and I expect they're fully prepared for complaints from the Jedi community about a great disturbance in the Force, as though a million voices cried out, and were suddenly silenced. What I think they've failed to take into account is the mild niggling unease that will be felt by any of us pedants who know about the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft and the plaques they carry."

The plaques include a map of our solar system of nine planets. D'oh!

"Where was I? Oh yes, according to the plaque, the two Pioneers are each only about one and a half times the height of a naked human, and according to NASA they're not heading near anywhere inhabited. The craft, therefore, are unlikely to encounter anything except interstellar vacuum for billions and billions of years. NASA reckon that Pioneer 10 will still be in fairly good condition when the Earth and the Moon are destroyed by the Sun. It should even outlast the Sun itself. Even when you lot, me, the IAU, and everyone else is gone, Pioneer 10 will still be shiny and new. Assuming we don't escape extinction by leaving our star system, Pioneer 10 will be the last human-made thing to survive. In all likelihood, even when everything we were has gone, and even when everything we have ever built has been cooked to dust in the heat of a dead star for millions of years, Pioneer 10 will still be drifting silently. I find an odd comfort in the notion that the last thing that will remain of Humanity will be a slightly worn spacecraft, still carrying a plaque commemorating long-dead Pluto as a fully fledged planet."

Down with decaf

Ever thought decaf coffee was about as worthwhile as a solar powered torch? Well for you the news is good - medical research shows decaf coffee is bad for you.

Researchers at the US National Institute of Health have found that drinking decaffeinated coffee instead of the real stuff increases the levels of "bad" cholesterol in the blood, which can lead to grotty arteries and heart disease.

So if you drink coffee, make sure it contains caffeine - for the sake of your health :)

Did an Indian seismologist predict the latest Indonesian earthquake?

Nias island in Indonesia faced a series of large aftershocks today following the devastating 8.7 magnitude earthquake that hit the region on Monday. One of the aftershocks reached 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Last week I blogged on the findings of an Indian seismologist, Dr Vineet Gahlart who predicted on March 17 there could be another large quake in the region, as the January 26 earthquake had increased stress on the fault system separating India and Indonesia. Sadly, it appears Gahlart's prediction came true, and far sooner than most people expected.

The latest earthquakes are feared to have cost 2,000 lives, with the UN predicting this number will rise. The most disturbing thing about such predictions is that we heard similar things in the days following the boxing day disaster, as the number of dead rose from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands.

If you are looking for India - it has moved

It is now nearly 3 months since the tragic wave stuck Asia, a Tsunami caused by a massive earthquake in the Indian ocean.

An Indian seismologist, Dr Vineet Gahlart says India is now up to 5 metres closer to Indonesia than it was before the December 26 earthquake. The earthquake moved the entire country to the east, apart from a few smaller islands that sit on top of a different Tectonic plate. In terms of land area, India is the seventh largest country in the world, excluding Antarctica and the EU as a block. Of course this should be no a great surprise given the theory of plate tectonics, but it does not hurt to keep a sense of wonder.

Following a one month geological survey, Dr Gahlart said the geographic distance between India and Indonesia has been reduced by between 15mm and 5 metres, depending on the closeness of different areas to the epicentre of the quake.

More worryingly, Dr Gahlart also said the earthquake increased the chances of another big quake in the region, as the Jan 26 earthquake had increased stress on the fault system separating India and Indonesia. While I do not wish another earthquake on Asia by any stretch of the imagination, I hope that the pressure between the plates can be released by a series of small insignificant earthquakes, instead of another huge quake in a few years. Another big quake in the region, so soon after the last, would only pile catastrophe on top of disaster.

PS: Tectonic is a word I usually confuse with Teutonic - I need to keep reminding myself that Teutonic plate was worn by eastern European knights long ago, and a tectonic plate is something quite different! :)

Treatise on value - what-a-yer

Commenting on the phenomenon that is blogsphere, Span is concerned that there appear to be more committed bloggers on the right than on the left. This is based on SageNZ analysis of the blog stats, separated by political alignment. Its interesting, but certainly not the final word on value.

Personally I am not too worried. Those on the right often emphasise quantifiable increases in production, often at the expense of quality. I suspect only a right winger would attempt to judge the value of blogs purely based on numerical posting frequency, site hits or comments received.

Sadly the State Sector Act 1988 judges our public service in a similar fashion, artificially in terms of 'outputs'.

I often suspect this emphasis of the right is driven by a simple form of logical positivism, which holds that if something cannot be measured it cannot exist or is not worth worrying about. It’s like reducing 'intelligence' to a score on an IQ test. It’s not a very effective philosophy of science, just as choosing a school on a basis of a league table is not very effective either.

Although I would like to post more frequently, I am not about to work in a blogging sweatshop where the arguments will fall to pieces like a cheap pair of shoes :)