Free Republic

NASA chief Jared Isaacman wants to restore Pluto to its former glory. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) stripped Pluto of its planethood, reclassifying the icy world as a "dwarf planet." The decision was controversial, and not just because it forced schoolchildren around the world to learn a new mnemonic for our solar system's major denizens. Little Pluto was beloved and remains so, especially in the United States. After all, it's the only planet discovered by an American, Clyde Tombaugh, who made the historic find in 1930 using imagery captured by Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Twenty years on, many...

It has been a busy year. We sold our place in Georgia, have been banging away at some short-fused client work, moved to Tennessee, and are in the middle of scouting the location for our new facilities. Been too busy to write much, but wanted to take some time for a long-overdue introduction to Miles Mathis, an interesting guy who came to my attention about three years ago.For those of you who haven’t heard of Miles, here’s a warning: take everything you read about him on the web with a grain of salt. Instead, if thinking-out-of-the-box science and culture are...

This episode features my interview with Tom Baugh, author of "Starving the Monkeys", the one-book source for the Shrugging Out concept. Tom answers these important questions: - Who are "the monkeys", and what have they done to deserve starvation? - What unexpected source of danger from terrorism is in process in America today? - Why are conventional disaster preparations, such as storing food, not enough? - What is the true nature of the gun control efforts likely to come as the crisis builds? - Is secession a viable option for states to escape the federal leviathan? Listen to the surprising...

The International Astronomical Union may have demoted Pluto from its full-fledged status as a planet last year, designating it a "dwarf planet," but the state House of Representatives this week passed a joint memorial restoring Pluto to its full planetary glory whenever it passes over New Mexico, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported. Clyde Tombaugh, who helped create New Mexico State University's astronomy department and spent much of his life in Las Cruces, discovered photographic evidence of Pluto on Feb. 18, 1930, at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. Tombaugh's 94-year-old widow, Patsy Tombaugh, and his daughter, Annette Tombaugh-Sitze, who both...

News leaks about the planet definition began to spout late this week, as the authors prepared to present a draft resolution to the IAU's executive committee Sunday in Prague. The IAU is the official arbiter of all issues related to astronomical nomenclature. In a story that aired Thursday, unnamed sources told National Public Radio the proposed definition would include Pluto in a new class of small planets. A source also told the Rocky Mountain News on Thursday that a member of the seven-person definition panel said Pluto will remain a planet. IAU Vice President Bob Williams described the reports as...