Today hasn't sucked.

It's weird.

Today hasn't sucked.

It's weird.

You realize that's just asking for it.

Uh oh.

How long before she becomes a petulant teenager?

I'd say it happened somewhere between her first and second blog posts.

Guiding Light is not being renewed!

Oh no!

Pluto downgraded again

Posted April 1, 2009

In a surprise announcement, the International Astronomical Union said at a news conference Tuesday that Pluto -- the one-time planet that was defined as a dwarf planet in 2006 -- has been reclassified once again.

"Based on new observational evidence of more objects of significant size in the outer solar system, Pluto will no longer be described as a dwarf planet," said David Perel, chair of the IAU’s Committee on Designations. "We will be meeting to consider a permanent name for the category of objects that Pluto falls under. In the meantime, we are describing it with the working label of 'FLR' (Fairly Large Rock)."

On the heels of the announcement, NASA Headquarters issued a statement that the New Horizons mission, once destined for Pluto, will be redirected. "Considering the relative scientific merits and the value to the public, New Horizons will now be reprogrammed to orbit Mars,” said Nick Denton, acting deputy assistant associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Since the spacecraft is now past the orbit of Saturn, this will require a series of gravity assist flybys known as the UVEJES (Uranus-Venus-Earth-Jupiter-Earth-Saturn) maneuver to accomplish."

JPL will be performing navigation for the flybys to deliver New Horizons to the Red Planet, where it is scheduled to arrive in 2073.

Fairly Large Rock. Snerk. I'm hearing this in a MOnty Phython accent.

I went to a talk by Neil DeGrasse Tyson a couple of weeks ago. He showed some of the letters sent to him from irate 7-year-olds about Pluto. It was HILARIOUS.

This is damn weird.

Resurrected Child And Ria Ramkissoon: Plea Withdrawn If Son Rises From Dead

BALTIMORE — A former religious cult member who helped starve her son to death believes he will be resurrected, but legal experts say her extreme faith doesn't make her criminally insane. The mother made an extraordinary deal with prosecutors Monday that her guilty plea to child abuse resulting in death will be withdrawn if her 1-year-old son, Javon Thompson, comes back to life. Law experts and psychiatrists said there was no problem with the agreement because Ria Ramkissoon, 22, was mentally competent and freely entered into the deal, and extreme religious beliefs aren't deemed insane by law.

"To say that someone is crazy because they have beliefs is very difficult," said Dr. Jonas Rappeport, a retired forensic psychiatrist and the former chief medical officer for Baltimore Circuit Court. "If I believe that God wants me to starve my child, that gets close to the edge, but it's very questionable as to calling that an illness that would exonerate someone for a crime."

The boy died more than two years ago when cult members stopped feeding him because he refused to say "Amen" after a meal, according to a statement of facts. His body was hidden in a suitcase packed with mothballs and fabric softener sheets behind a home in Philadelphia for more than a year.

On Monday, Ramkissoon answered a series of questions from Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy J. Doory about whether she understood what she was doing when she pleaded guilty. A court psychiatrist wrote she was both competent to stand trial and criminally responsible for her son's death.

David Gray, a law professor at the University of Maryland, said he had never heard of prosecutors making a promise they knew they wouldn't have to keep. But he couldn't envision a legal challenge to the plea deal.

The new Cupid isn't bad. So far it's not the old Cupid, but it has its charm.