Last Fall (excerpt) -- NicknamedBob
In joy at last I chanced the breeze,
And danced among the stark black trees.
On stiffened fingertips, I race,
Across the snow without a trace.
Posted on 07/12/2016 8:03:24 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Pluto isn't quite as lonely as scientists had thought.
Astronomers have discovered another dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune. But this newfound world, dubbed 2015 RR245, is much more distant than Pluto, orbiting the sun once every 700 Earth years, scientists said. (Pluto completes one lap around the sun every 248 Earth years.)
"The icy worlds beyond Neptune trace how the giant planets formed and then moved out from the sun," discovery team member Michele Bannister, of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said in a statement. "They let us piece together the history of our solar system."
...
The exact size of 2015 RR245 is not yet known, but the researchers think it's about 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. Pluto is the largest resident of the Kuiper Belt, with a diameter of 1,474 miles (2,371 km).
The research team first spotted 2015 RR245 in February of this year, while poring over images that the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii took in September 2015 as part of the ongoing Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS).
"There it was on the screen — this dot of light moving so slowly that it had to be at least twice as far as Neptune from the sun," Bannister said.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I gotta say that I empathize and sympathize with Venus. Where exactly is this galactic core? Are directions available on my Garmin? Mercury is very welcome to join us. In terms of collateral damage, are we going to create some sort of vacuum that will knock everyone out of whack? (Inquiring minds....)
El pingo.
If only Sionnsar were here to give his input...
Pipes RULE! In fact, I have some Pipers in my family and I am very proud of them!
Changing another entity to conform to my preconceived norms is a concept foreign to my value system. You know, “I’m O.K., you’re O.K.”? We’re all O.K.!
Oh they are tasty alright.
Just the main ingredient of Black pudding is the Problem. :)
Haggis is great too.
*Um* Just what IS the main ingredient of Black Pudding? Just in case I find my cute little self in GB...
Have to go soon. :)
If you’re feeling squeamish,don’t look down.
The stuff that powers a Pig.
The red stuff.
4 cups fresh pig’s blood.
2 1/2 teaspoons salt.
1 1/2 cups steel-cut (pinhead) oatmeal.
2 cups finely diced pork fat (or beef suet), finely chopped.
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped.
1 cup milk.
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper.
1 teaspoon ground allspice.
Wellnow.
I have Irish Oatmeal, which I just love, and like my mother, I like pork fat. (She loved it fried!)
I will have to think about this...
Not my problem, but let's see if I can sympathize.
One of my favorite science fiction authors, Robert Heinlein, wrote an adventure story where much of the action occurred on Venus -- on the surface of Venus!
He described it as a jungle planet, with indigenous lifeforms, and lots of plants in a steamy, overcast, perpetually twilit world.
Venus.
Well ... we know now, based on radar mapping and other means, that Venus is the example of what can go wrong with too much atmosphere; we call it "global warming".
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, hotter even than Mercury, which is even closer to the Sun.
But Venus has a very thick atmosphere, ninety times the density of Earth's atmosphere. And it's almost all carbon dioxide.
Earth got water, lots of water. Whether your belief system postulates that the water arrived later or earlier, you still have to admit that Earth has a lot of water.
Venus has always been compared to Earth; Earth's sister planet, they have said. Its diameter and gravity are very similar to Earth.
So, back to Robert Heinlein and "Podkayne of Mars". Yeah, I know, but the story is about her traveling from Mars to Venus.
He could have guessed differently. He could have waited for the science to catch up with his postulates. But where's the fun in that?
Evening, folks. The Eagle Scout project, which involves digging a trench to lay irrigation pipe, was called off after less than an hour of digging because of a big storm, which is still going on. I’ll take Sally and the boys back tomorrow morning. The young man is also building a potting shed.
He's well on his way to 20 pounds, now.
AND we've discovered he isn't black. We had him out in the sunlight and found that his fur is a VERY dark chocolate with discernible tabby markings.
Perhaps she should have named him Excellence instead.
Well, we’re out here in the Orion Spur of the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way and it is a bit rural. We’re not out in the sticks, mind you; this ain’t the Outer Arm, after all. But it ain’t in no way metropolitan, neither. So, it’s no wonder a hottie like Venus would be looking at places on the fashionable end of Long Bar.
Sadly, you can’t trust Garmin to get you there, so pay attention. There’s no AAA service out there, and filling stations are few and far between. You get stuck, you may as well put down roots and call it “Home”; you’ll be there for a very long time. So what you do is gas up, and hit the dusty trail up along the Outer Spur at about a 50-degree heading. Easy 15 light years out and you come to a junction where the other spur of the Sagittarius Arm comes in on your right. Go another 5 light years past that, and take a right; straight in toward the lights of the Core. You can’t miss ‘em. Go five light years and you’ll come to the crossing with the Far 3kpc Arm. Keep going straight, and you’ll find yourself right there on Main Street in Long Bar.
BOY what a place!
Our Jake is a brown tabby, but he can pass for black if it’s very dark.
Cream, stirred, not shaken.
Nice word image.
SQUEE!
I have to go for a blood test this morning, even though I was up half the night. I will leave in about an hour, but I can’t eat until it’s done. I really don’t want to go. But I have a doctor’s appointment on the 28th, and she wants the bloodwork to see how I’m doing.
And I’m worn out. *sigh* Maybe I’ll go have a breathing treatment to kill time.
The A/C has been running quite a lot, and I woke up (for the 10th time) to find that it’s 90 degrees outside. At least the humidity isn’t up.
Odd you should mention that - the eyes are almost cream color.
We had a substantial downpour last night, with much lightning and thunder. The site of Hamilton’s Eagle project is going to be a sea of mud, but that should make digging easier, at least. I was surprised to find nothing is sore this morning; it’s been a long time since I used a shovel!
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