Nascent Drama

[The Dork Lord]

The Finnish government may combine cabinet meetings with power walks this autumn, Health Minister Paula Risikko said Wednesday, referring to a plan she has put forward to highlight health issues.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Risikko thinks a government decision requiring the cabinet to do more exercise and eat healthier food could help bring health issues to almost all areas of political decision making.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"Many ministers do sports, but some like me do not have energy for anything other than sitting on the sofa after a day of 20 meetings. Maybe this would give a kick-start for a healthier life," Risikko told AFP.

 

[The Dork Lord]

She said the government should set an example for Finns because some illnesses such as obesity or Type 2 diabetes could be prevented by doing more exercise and eating healthy food.

 

[The Dork Lord]

In 2007 some 57 percent of Finnish men and 47 percent of women were overweight, according to a survey by the National Public Health Institute.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"My colleagues are excited about the plan," Risikko said, adding that two of them -- Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sirkka-Liisa Anttila and Labour Minister Tarja Cronberg -- "already told me they were in."

 

[The Dork Lord]

The minister, who tries to find time for walks with her dog and daughter, will not force her colleagues to go for a jog, but said she had told Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb he would not be exempt from the government's sports plan.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Many Finnish ministers include sports on their list of hobbies, but Stubb, a triathlete, is definitely the fittest.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Last Saturday the 40-year-old minister finished 11th in a half triathlon in Joroinen, some 300 kilometres (188 miles) northeast of Helsinki.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Stubb took five hours and one minute to complete the competition, which included 1.9 kilometres of swimming, 90 kilometres of biking and 21.1 kilometres of running.

 

[The Dork Lord]

AFP: Offbeat News

Makemake --
or Easter bunny --
enters book of
space names ​

Tue Jul 15, 12:10 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) -

 

[The Dork Lord]

Pluto -- downgraded two years ago to the status of a dwarf planet -- has an exotically-named chum on the fringes of the Solar System.

 

[The Dork Lord]

The Paris-based International Astronomical Union (IAU) has decided to honour a Kuiper Belt object, 2005 FY9, with the name of Makemake, after the creator of humanity and the god of fertility in the Rapa Nui culture of Easter Island.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Makemake -- pronounced "maki-maki" -- was spotted on March 31 2005 by a trio of astronomers from the Palomar Observatory in southern California.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Under IAU rules, discoverers have the right to name the object. Tradition demands that objects discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune be named after figures in creation mythology.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Lead astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) says on his website (http://www.mikebrownsplanets.com/2008/07/whats-in-name-part-2.html) that the team had unofficially called the discovery "Easterbunny" as it was found just after Easter.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Realising that "Easterbunny" didn't quite meet the sobriety expected of a Solar System body, Brown hunted around for a rabbit god in native American lore, of which there are many examples.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"However, they usually have names such as 'Hare' or, better, 'Big Rabbit'," said Brown.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"I spent a while considering 'Manabozho', an Algonquin rabbit trickster god, but I must admit, perhaps superficially, that the 'Bozo' part at the end didn't appeal to me."

 

[The Dork Lord]

Eventually Brown lighted on Makemake, worshipped as a bringer of fertility, because his wife was pregnant with their daughter at the time.