Voice Box: Pluto

Scientists have recently decided that Pluto is not a planet. They say that due to its size and strange orbit, it is actually more likely a resident of the Kuiper Belt. In order to determine what a planet is, the IAU (the International Astronomical Union) came up with guidelines. The first is that in order to be a planet, the candidate had to be a sphere. Unfortunately, this also included moons and some asteroids. The second condition is that the planet has to orbit around the sun. These two criteria led to solar system with far too many planets, including Pluto, UB313, Ceres (an asteroid located in between Mars and Jupiter), Pluto’s own moon Charon, and numerous celestial bodies in the Kuiper Belt. So they IAU added a third. In order to qualify as a planet, these bodies would have to dominate their own orbit. This limited the number of planets to eight. Now textbooks, films, books, papers, and even gift shop items must be changed to eliminate Pluto’s claim to planet-hood. What is your opinion, should Pluto be a planet or not? Tell us what you think!

Intern Spotlight: Eliza

Hi Everybody! Eliza here. I’m doing a summer internship at New Moon. I had been looking for somewhere to put in some volunteer hours this summer, and after a few weeks of fruitless searching, I saw the latest issue of New Moon sitting on my bedside table. Immediately I knew what I was going to spend my summer doing. I called up Lacey, the assistant managing editor and my ex-roomie (when she first moved to Duluth to work at New Moon, she rented a room in our house). I asked her if she had anything I could do to help out around the office. She was going to New York in a week, but agreed to set up a time to meet with me when she got back. We had pizza and set up a schedule when I would work. Now I come down to the office two days a week just to help out. Some of the things I do are letting girls know we got their submissions, reading and filing submissions into their appropriate theme and department, and sadly, rejecting submissions. I always feel the worst when I reject the submissions, because I have been on the other end of the business more than once. I write a lot, mainly stories, and have sent some into New Moon for publication. Nothing I wrote ever got published, but that never stopped me.

Here I am reading poetry submissions.

I have a long history at New Moon. When I was much younger, my older sister’s best friend Kiah worked on the GEB (That's Kiah with me, at age 9, on the left!). When I was old enough, me and my sister both applied, but only I got accepted for an interview, because she was nearing the age of fourteen. I was nervous when I first came in at the age of eight, but everyone was friendly and I felt accepted right away. About two months later I found myself sitting in the GEB meetings making decisions about what went into the magazine. I loved it.

New Moon daycamp helps me get in touch with my tough side!

I served on the GEB for a little over three years, in which time I went to Hollywood, met the mayor of Duluth, went to Daycamp (which entailed not much sleep but lots of fun), saw an adult editor wake up in the middle of the night singing the words to Grease (which also got us busted for staying up so late), wrote a letter to the CBS morning show that was recognized and gave New Moon an interview on national television, and had many fun times with other girls my age.



Then, one winter, I had to choose between the GEB and the sport I loved-–downhill skiing. Well, I picked the sport, and was sad that I no longer got to go to Duluth every other Sunday in the winter (or Wednesdays in the summer) for the GEB meetings, but I could still read the magazine, and I continue to now at the age of fifteen. I also come down here twice a week and continue to spread New Moon’s message to the world, which is pretty cool.

Right: This is me during my last year on the GEB, at age 11.