Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Losing Pluto
Wednesday
August 16, 2006
The advent of Technorati tags actually stands to improve the internet. In theory, it provides incentive for better classification by writers, which in turn should make information more easily available to readers. And in my case, it actually has lead me to be a bit more focused in my writing. Unfortunately, this comes with some side effects.
On Monday I wrote 4/5 of a column about the debate on if Pluto should still be a planet. Why? I opened up Google News when I got home from work, I read about the debate, and I decided to write about it. Unfortunately, it made for a pretty boring write-up, one that I decided was not worthy of being on here. More than that, it was tough to find the motivation to finish it, which is usually never a problem for me. An excerpt:
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Scientists are split about 50/50 if Pluto should remain. The reason: Pluto is a member of the Kuiper Belt. No, not like the Intercontinental Title belt: the Kuiper Belt is a "mysterious disc-shaped zone beyond Neptune containing thousands of comets and planetary objects." Last summer an astronomer discovered what could be the 10th planet, Xena, also located in the Kuiper Belt.
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Even an Intercontinental Title reference wasn't enough to save it. Oh well, live and learn.
It's amazing to me how the blogging phenomenon has caught on. There are some great writers out there who blog, and some of those blogs I've added to my Google list (which is easier than constantly going to sites checking to see if they've updated.)
My attempts to have this site show up on Technorati have been unsuccessful so far. The main problem: the front page of this site (as of this writing) doesn't list my entries, but instead simply links to them. I like this style better, as it means quicker load times, particularly for people who might be looking for something non-column related on here. But I might end up making the switch to a traditional "blog" style with the most recent columns on the front. If I do so, it will be a move made begrudgingly. Stay tuned.
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