Comments on: Tell him about the Twinkie…

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:36:48 +0000

Or, going back to the original Greek root of the name Uranus, it is pronounced “Oo-rahn-os”, which is safe to say in polite company.

Phil, your request of Mrs BA is easy to fulfil. Based on the IAU’s present definition of “planet”, there are no extrasolar planets, because for something to qualify as a planet it must orbit the Sun. Hmmm … maybe there’s something wrong with the definition…?

In other news, the Jodrell bank radio observatory has a scale model of the solar system (well, the bodies are not to scale, otherwise all you’d be able to find would be the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn, but the distances between them are to scale) that includes Ceres, Pluto and Eris, but not MakeMake or Haumea. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are all within spitting distance of the Sun, and it takes about 20 minutes to walk to Eris. Oh, and someone stole Pluto.

By: Chris A.

Chris A. — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:01:20 +0000

From what I’ve been able to determine, a more correct pronunciation of Uranus (given its Latin roots) would be “you-RAN-us” (with the final syllable pronounced somewhere in between “us” and “oos.”) I tell people to remember this with the mnemonic “You ran us around in circles.”

By: Tyler Durden

Tyler Durden — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:23:26 +0000

You’re a UVA man?

I had no idea.

That’s awesome. I miss Cville.

I really feel like going down to The Corner and laughing at all the yuppie college kids drinking way more than they can handle and feeling sophisticated because they’re paying three times more than it is worth.

Ah, the glory of college.

By: bob the skeptical christian

bob the skeptical christian — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:18:13 +0000

and i promise this is the last “ad”….but i have also done a few spongebobs:

http://www.cakesbybob.com/spongebob.htm
http://www.cakesbybob.com/spongebobpatrick.htm

the second one i kinda like because it also had patrick…:)

bob

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:00:48 +0000

…oops, make that “Haumea”. Sorry!

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:00:10 +0000

@Alan Stern who said: “She left out Pluto, and Eris, and MakeMake, and Ceres….”

…and now there is Humea to add to that list too!

By: Winston

Winston — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:47:19 +0000

I didn’t realize you were a Wahoo!! It makes me proud to have you as a fellow Alum!
Cheers,
Winston (SEAS 92)