From Wired News

Seven months after a conclave of scientists downgraded the distant heavenly body to a “dwarf planet,” a state representative in New Mexico aims to give the snubbed world back some of its respect. State lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a bill that proposes “as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico’s excellent night skies, it be declared a planet.”

The resolution, House Joint Memorial 54, was introduced by Rep. Joni Marie Gutierrez (D-Dona Ana County). It reiterates the importance of astronomy to the state of New Mexico and calls for March 13 to be “Pluto Planet Day.”

Read the rest here.

By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, Associated Press Writer:

Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate “bad spirits” after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday….
“That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture,” Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

Read the rest here.

Here’s a letter to the Physics Today from a guy who is way too into time:

As a collector of vintage and modern atomic clocks, I discovered it was possible, using gear found at home, to convert our family minivan into a mobile high-precision time laboratory…

He ends the letter like this:

It was the best extra 22 nanoseconds I’ve ever spent with the kids.

So, yes, not only do we live in a time when atomic clocks are altimeters, but when relativity is child’s play.

The letter is worth reading, and his LeapSecond.com website is worth visiting if you can get over the obsession thing.

(Thanks Meredith)