From 538 Significant Digits:<\/p>\n
Yesterday, God help us, was World Emoji Day. In honor of this \u201coccasion,\u201d Apple unveiled 70 new emojis, including a kangaroo, parrot, peacock, mango, lettuce and cupcake. Hip techie-foodie zookeepers are presumably thrilled. [BBC<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n More emojis, just what we need. I’m already having problems interpreting and even seeing<\/em> teeny little emojis friends have been using, some of them instead of actually replying to my emails. (You know who you are, so I’m not going to name names. Yet.)<\/p>\n On the encouraging side, the Girl Scouts are announcing their imminent take-over of our crucial government agencies currently being destroyed or eliminated by Trump. <\/a><\/p>\n Yesterday, the Girl Scouts introduced 30 new badges, meant to help girls tackle \u201csome of society\u2019s most pressing needs,\u201d according to the organization. The new badges include<\/a> Cybersecurity, Space Science, Mechanical Engineering and Environmental Stewardship. [Gizmodo<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n And…<\/p>\n Scientists have just discovered 12 new moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing the planet\u2019s total number of known moons to 79. Vigorous writing is concise, Strunk & White told us, so here goes: Too many moons. [NPR<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n “On the seventh day of January in this present years 1610, at the first hour of night, when I was viewing the heavenly bodies with a telescope, Jupiter presented itself to me…and…I perceived….that beside the planet there were three starlets, small indeed, but very bright.”<\/p>\n Wrote Galileo Galilei, in his pamphlet, The Starry Messenger,<\/em> when he first saw three of Jupiter’s moons — he called them “stars.” He saw the fourth a few nights later, and observed that although he initially thought they were fixed objects, he saw that they orbited the planet.<\/p>\n I believe Galileo would be getting a kick out of Jupiter’s “too many moons.” He was that kind of guy and had a great sense of humor.<\/p>\n He’d most particularly enjoy that in this news, at least, there are more moons of Jupiter than there are new Apple emojis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From 538 Significant Digits: 70 new emojis Yesterday, God help us, was World Emoji Day. In honor of this \u201coccasion,\u201d Apple unveiled 70 new emojis, including a kangaroo, parrot, peacock, mango, lettuce and cupcake. Hip techie-foodie zookeepers are presumably thrilled. … Continue reading 30 new badges<\/em><\/h2>\n
79 moons<\/em><\/h2>\n