July 12, 2005 In honor of Karl Rove (subject of the White House Press Briefing, above) we've updated the front page cover with an image of Varuna. Last week's New Moon was in a close conjunction to this relatively new planet. For the curious, there are two articles linked from the caption above, and this bit from a Sept. 2003 article called "Worlds Beyond Neptune." Full article is here: http://ericfrancis.com/issues/0309/chiron.html Salient portion is here; more on the "Cubewanos" at the link above: "Varuna was discovered in 2000 and has an orbital period of 283 years. A Cubewano [type of minor planet], it was the first planet beyond Pluto ever named (bearing Minor Planet Catalogue Number 20,000). Once a vastly important god of the ancient Vedic world, he was demoted by invading Aryan conquerors to a god of rivers and waters, sometimes depicted carrying a noose. In earlier times, mortals who did not keep their word would meet his wrath. He could bestow immortality as well. Astrological associations include the impersonal laws of nature (as opposed to human nature) and the incomprehensible cosmic order (as opposed to the order of society). Questions of the gain and loss of reputation, and the issue of immortality through fame, seem inevitable with this planet."     e