Astroblurbs

Man, it's hard keeping up with the news. Well, to be more specific, it's hard to keep up with the news and still have some semblance of a life. So here are some shorts about whassup. 1) The second brightest plutoid/KBO/TNO/blahblahblahwhatever just got a name: Makemake (pronounced mahkee mahkee). Has any told Phil Torrone? 2) Remember the teacher in Florida who was fired for practicing wizardry? I got some flack from posting about that, but it looks like I was right. Paul Hutchinson has more. 3) George Hrab, who is sculpted out of awesome, has written and sung 118 short (like < 1 minute) songs about the elements. What can he possibly say about molybdenum? Find out on his site! 4) A bunch of English scientists got awards for doing cool spacey stuff. I'm all for that. Thanks to SidR for sending that along. 5) Speaking of awards, Jessica Hammock won a $10,000 grant from ideablob to teach astronomy to inner-city kids. Her idea (one of many she has) is to get a solar 'scope (light pollution makes seeing galaxies difficult) and get the kids to take a look at our nearest star. I've done this at Halloween, and it's a fantastic way to excite kids about astronomy. Her website, Project Epiphany, has details (but it needs to be updated!).