johnkemeny.com

The UK’s Astronomy Blog reports that the final draft proposal for the definition of planet not only doesn’t create the twin planets Pluto and Charon, but actually demotes Pluto to a dwarf planet (= not a planet) because it hasn’t cleared the neighborhood around it’s orbit.  Pluto actually shares part of its orbit with Neptune.  By symmetry doesn’t that disqualify Neptune as a planet? 

{Above} Lia and Alan get the news.  Alan expresses pffffft!  Lia is just stunninged.  They jump in the car heading back to Prague to vote down the draft proposal.  You can watch the vote online starting at 9:00 AM EDT.

As first reported by Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, the IAU will (a week from today) vote on a new definition of planet which will denominate 12 planets in our Solar System instead of 9, with many more – perhaps millions – waiting to be discovered!

Lia and Alan discuss the proposals before the IAU on the swings.  Checking the mail, they happily report that it looks like Pluto and Charon will be designated as the first twin planets! 

Why Pluto-Charon when our own Moon is larger than both Pluto and Charon?  Because the barycenter of the Pluto-Charon system is outside Pluto, while, for the Earth-Moon system it is 1700 km below the surface of the Earth.  Phil points out that, with the Moon receding from Earth at 4 cm per year, in about 40 million years [correction: make that about 3 billion years] the Earth-Moon barycenter will be outside the Earth and the Moon will then be designated a planet (that is, if the IAU doesn’t redefine planet before then). 

    

Below are the 3 new planets, and some planet candidates.

    

Later Lia and Alan prepare for travel to Prague for the conclusion of this planet-shattering IAU meeting.

Gens reports that only 25 of the 50 states have any Kemenys in them.  Iowa has the fewest with 1.  But Kemenys appear to be missing entirely from Maine to Vermont, from Washington to Hawaii.  We couldn’t locate any in D.C. either.

Just deciphered the UPC code in the 42 Puzzle.  PANIC!

 

If you translate orgona from Hungarian to English you might expect organ, but it translates to lilac. Similarly, himnusz isn’t hymn but National Anthem.  Such words are called false friends. 

There are only a few words in English that derive from Hungarian.  They include paprika, which has the highest concentration per weight of vitamin C of any food (in fact, vitamin C was first isolated in paprika and named “ascorbic acid” meaning “the acid that prevents scurvy” by Albert Szent-Györgyi – for which he won a Nobel prize); and coach – derived from kocsi, “car” in Hungarian - literally “from the town of Kocs” where in Medieval times coaches were made.

But there are a number of Hungarian-English false friends.  For example, the English headline:

Act Reclaims Farmer’s Smoking Combine

might be an analog to the Hungarian headline:

Akt Reklam: Farmer, Szmoking, Kombine

which, since each word is a false friend, unexpectedly translates to:

Ad for a Nude: Blue Jeans, Tuxedo, Lingerie

The most famous Hungarian-English false friends aren’t found in Peter Lazar’s list.  They are some of George Carlin‘s seven dirty words – verbatum transcript prepared by the FCC.

Here’s some good eats with plenty of Hungarian paprika from János Mohácsi.

I don’t seem to fit with any crew very highly.  Guess I need my own craft & crew.

         

Actually, blahging original material, even if it is only collections of links (you do follow the links?), is hard – and I need to recharge.  So I am giving it up for Lent.  See you after Easter.

Best known for his books popularizing science, including the fun “Mr. Tompkins” series and the terrific One, Two, Three…Infinity (I have them all – I am a Gamow book collector!), George Gamow, in 1928 explained radioactive decay, in the 30s, after defecting from the Soviet Union (successfully after 2 failed attempts by kayak!), created what became known as the  “Gamow factor” which explains how fusion is possible, in 1948 published the famous science joke (its history can be found here) quantifying the processes that formed the Big Bang, and later predicting the Cosmological Background Radiation 17 years before it was discovered, and, for grins, in 1954 formed the RNA Tie Club and proposed how to crack the genetic code by using triplets of nucleotides.  Obviously an overachiever.

His son, Igor, an iconoclastic inventor, was fired from a University position  under strange circumstances, and has a movie about it on his website.