Via USAToday: Maryland school withholds diploma over bolo tie.

School officials are withholding a 17-year-old boy's diploma for wearing a bolo tie under his graduation gown.

Thomas Benya said he prefers the string bolo ties over traditional knotted ties to reflect his American Indian heritage.

But officials from Maurice J. McDonough High School in suburban Washington said they warned him beforehand that a bolo violated the dress code for the event, held Wednesday for about 250 students.

The bolo "was not considered by staff to be a tie," said Katie O'Malley-Simpson, a spokeswoman for Charles County schools. "We have many opportunities throughout the year to express cultural heritage. But we don't do that at graduation."

[...]

What?! "We have many opportunities throughout the year to express cultural heritage. But we don't do that at graduation."

*sigh* Wearing a cap and gown and western-style tie _is_ expressing some kind of cultural heritage, since not everyone around the world wears a cap and gown and western-style tie to graduation. Geez.

And to withhold a high school diploma for wearing something that is not only quite tasteful, but very common in the American southwest? Under his gown, where no-one can see it? Idiots.

Via National Geographic: "Earth's Bigger Cousin" Found Outside Solar System.

The as-yet-unnamed new world orbits Gliese 876, a star that is about one-third the mass of our own sun. The planet orbits much closer to the star than our system's innermost planet, Mercury, does to our sun. As a result, the newfound body takes just under 48 hours to circle Gliese 876 giving the planet a year that is equivalent to about two Earth days.

So what makes it "earth-like" in this instance? For one, it's rocky, rather than a giant ball of gas and dust like Jupiter and Saturn. Second, it's orbiting a star. (Rather than a pulsar, or collapsed star like the only three other rocky planets known.)

Our extra-terrestrial cousin is big - about 7.5 times more massive than Earth.

I think I need one of these: Clocky: the alarm clock that runs away and hides. A little more info about this cute little evil thing is on the MIT Media Lab web site.

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