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03 Jan 2012 15:10

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U.S.: NASA scientist denounces 2012 apocalypse theories

  • Nibiru is ridiculous because it doesn’t exist — it never existed as anything but a figment of the imagination by pseudo-scientists who don’t seem bothered by a complete lack of evidence.
  • Dan Yeomans, director of NASA’s Near-Earth Object program • Dismissing some of the 2012 apocalyptic theorizing that’s become something of a cultural meme leading up to this year. The fear that Earth will be struck by a planetary body known as Nibiru (also sometimes called “Planet X”) represents one such theory, distinct from  similarly stoked fears about whether the Mayan calendar can somehow forecast the end of the world. source

12 May 2009 23:05

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Tech, World: The woman who named Pluto lived to see one last vindication

  • It has now been satisfactorily proven that the dog was named after the planet, rather than the other way around. So, one is vindicated.
  • Englishwoman Venetia Phair • Who, as an 11-year-old girl, named the planet Pluto in 1930. She named the planet for the Roman god of the underworld and suggested it to her grandfather, who talked to some people, and then they talked to more people, and eventually, the name stuck. Phair died April 30 at 90. • source