Blighter's Rock

Oh Gawd. Times are tough.

I know that my public are out there, hungry for the latest instalment from sb4444 but I just can't think of anything to write about.

My cat won't let me photograph her anymore since some unauthorised pictures appeared in the tabloid press; The Anglo-Saxons have all gone to Butlins for two weeks. (I look forward to reading the account of it - ' ... and in this year did Aelfric and Aelred take part in the Knobbly Knees contest ...')


But here in the newsroom at SB4444 we're all sitting around twiddling our thumbs (we've got a lot of thumbs), waiting for the next big story to come in.

So to pass the weary moments, may I write about Pluto, the first ex-planet in the history of the Solar System?

Yes, Pluto got demoted from being a planet this week by the International Astronomical Union. Personally I'm not surprised. I've been unhappy with its performance for some time. I'm convinced that Pluto rising in Aries last year caused me to injure my knee and lose a favourite pencil.

Not that I'm into astrology. I'm a Leo with Mars and Saturn squared in my birth chart, so that means I don't believe in all that nonsense.


Pluto was discovered in 1930 but has always been dogged by controversy and eccentric behaviour. This came to a head in 2003 when another body called 2003 UB313 was discovered that was bigger than Pluto but didn't even have a proper name (even the number 313 should be in subscript).

That did it for the IAU who voted to show Pluto the red card.

The name Pluto, from the Roman god of the Underworld, was first suggested by an 11-year old girl living in Oxford, UK. She was Venetia Burney, from a family of Oxford academics. She is still alive today, aged 87 and living in Epsom. She has no strong opinions about the demotion, but would prefer it to remain a planet.

She also has an asteroid named after her, asteroid 6235 burney and (it says on Wikipedia) "The Student Dust Counter, an instrument on board the New Horizons spacecraft is also named after her".

I'm intrigued by the idea of a Student Dust Counter.

That's all, folks!