This Brave Astronaut has all of his Fingernails, Thank You

Of course, you all know that I am drawn to space stories. Here's three for you to look through.

The first is sort of evidence as to why I don't think this Brave Astronaut will be heading into orbit anytime soon. According to Time Magazine, who got it from National Geographic, it evidently can make your fingernails fall off, among other bad things. A tendency to motion sickness also? Well, duh.

If you would like to brush up on your "Fundamentals of Space Travel," head over to ThinkQuest and read up.

Secondly, of course, growing up, the mnemonic that we all learned to remember the order of the planets was:

• My (Mercury)
• Very (Venus)
• Educated (Earth)
• Mother (Mars)
• Just (Jupiter)
  
• Served (Saturn)
• Us (Uranus)
• Nine (Neptune)
• Pies (Pluto)

Of course when Neptune switched places with Pluto, making the furthest planet, it became "Pizza Nicely" but that's neither here nor there. For now, it seems that Pluto has been kicked out of the planetary club. Membership Card revoked. Secret Handshake changed.

American youth is not taking this sitting down. It gives me hope for the future when I see that children have taken pen (and pencil and crayon) in hand to lash out at the powers that be to demand that Pluto be given its planetary status back.

• First link from kottke, who includes a letter from "Will," who offers a picture of what Pluto looks likes so the scientists can make a model and put it back.
  

• PBS listed more "hate mail" in its Pluto files. Emerson asked why the scientists were making the other planets cry.
  

Finally, I had intended to make this list a bigger post, with links to the music, but you folks all know how to do that. Go read the list from (kottke)and then listen to some of your favorite tunes that were used to wake the astronauts on space flights. Evidently, according to NASA, the first recording used were the lyrics to "Hello, Dolly" sent to the crew of Gemini 6 in 1965. Enjoy.