Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
For the past month or so, a debate has been raging througout scientific circles as to whether the world called Pluto in the outer reaches of our solar system is a planet. Why this debate has been necessary is not exactly clear but it appears that Pluto has been kicked out of the planets club - the P9 has become the P8.
Why am I writing about this? Because I can't get away from the damned story. It follows me wherever I go.
Apparently, because scientists now have more powerful telescopes and
computers to analyze data, they're now discovering things about the far
reaches of outer space and the objects that inhabit that space that
they didn't know before.
As a consequence, my children are now asking me questions that I can't
answer. Such as: why is Pluto now called a Planet Trans Neptunian
Objects Dwarf instead of just a plain old planet? What about these new
worlds Ceres, Charon and Xena (not the warrior princess) - what do they
have to do with anything? Why is Ceres called just a plain old Planet
Dwarf, unlike the other three second class planets.
To make matters worse, my wife walked in on me while I was writing an
article the other day and calmly asked me if I had heard that Pluto was
no longer a planet.
The scientific publishing industry must be clapping their hands with
glee. All of the books and internet sites on Astronomy are now out of
date. They need to be rewritten, re-edited and re-published.
Never mind Astronomy, what about Astrology? How does the relegation of
Pluto's status affect the zodiac? After all, Pluto is supposed to rule
the sign of Scorpio. Does Scorpio no longer have a ruler? Or is it
acceptable for a sign of the zodiac to be ruled by a Planet Trans
Neptunian Objects Dwarf? What part do the other Planet Dwarves play in
predicting our futures? More books to be written and sold.
These are questions I am just not equipped to deal with. As for Dark Matter, well that's another matter (ouch).
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business
Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more
Try an easy-to-use set of web-enabled
tools for business-class productivity services. Office 365 provides
anywhere-access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendars
on almost any device.
