Husband. Lay Dominican. Newspaper columnist. Podcaster. Pipe smoker & creator of The Famous Howie Kailin Blend. Long-pants detractor, short-pants enthusiast.
South Bend, IN
Joined April 2007
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Pluto, unjustly demoted, will have the last laugh.
The dying Sun may tear the outer solar system apart far sooner than anyone expected.
New research in The Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests that once the Sun sheds its outer layers and collapses into a white dwarf, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune could be thrown into chaos in roughly a billion years—not the nearly eternal stretch of a quintillion years previously imagined. Earth will almost certainly be long gone by then, but the gas giants may not survive either.
Traditional models assumed the outer planets would quietly endure for eons until a random passing star finally disturbed them. Researchers Konstantin Batygin and Jim Fuller of Caltech, along with Fred Adams of the University of Michigan, found a more violent possibility: if the Sun loses mass in discrete bursts rather than a smooth wind, the planetary orbits can be destabilized relatively quickly.
“Everything changes when the envelope departs in pieces,” the authors wrote. In simulations of 672 burst-driven scenarios, up to 96% of the systems became unstable within 3 billion years after the Sun became a white dwarf. About 40% suffered disruption or violent scattering even earlier, before mass loss was finished. Some planets were ejected entirely; in others, Uranus and Neptune swapped places.
Gentler bursts sometimes locked planets into stable resonances that held for billions of years, but the overall picture is clear: the Sun’s death may not be a slow fade. It could be a comparatively rapid, chaotic upheaval that ends the orderly architecture of the outer solar system far sooner than once thought.
Fun fact: Pope St. Hyginus (r. 138–142) had a clean record as pontiff. Name is destiny.
ALT Statue of Pope St. Hyginus in St. Peter’s Basilica.
As an American, I think it’s weird that the English are so bad at spelling their own language. Adding the unnecessary “u”, flubbing the “er/re” ending. They belong in language gaol.
Just released my @ND_EthicsCenter podcast chat with Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P., Rector Magnificus of @_Angelicum & founding member of the Hillbilly Thomists. Where else will you find an exegesis of the hit song, "Bourbon, Bluegrass, & the Bible?" ndcec.fireside.fm/94
Ken Hallenius retweeted
On this Respect Life Sunday, we are proud to announce that the 2027 @NotreDame Evangelium Vitae Medal will be presented to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, honoring their 125+ years of loving care for “Christ's sick poor.” Read the story: ethicscenter.nd.edu/news/not…
ALT Nun praying with rosary by woman in hospital bed under pink and gray blanket.
On a vacation to the Pacific Northwest and overwhelmed by the number of drivers piloting #Cybertrucks, and they're ugly as sin. The trucks that is, not the drivers. I don't think the drivers are ugly. It's hard to tell with the tinted windows.
Ken Hallenius retweeted
Reminder: The proposal submission deadline is Monday, June 1, for our 26th Fall Conference (Oct 1–3) on the topic of wisdom from age to age. Learn more at: ethicscenter.nd.edu/programs…
ALT But Where Can She Be Found? Wisdom From Age to Age. 26th Annual Fall Conference, October 1–3, 2026. University of Notre Dame de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture.
While I appreciate innovation in the processed frozen potato space, how am I going to be able to tell my Dino Tots from my chicken nugget Dino Buddies when I am enjoying fine dining?
A blessed MEATING Friday to you all! Christ is risen! Alleluia!
ALT A slice of delicious bacon, fried crisp and full of flavor.
The Oxford comma is doing vital work in this sentence from @PillarCatholic's Starting Seven.
ALT + Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, discussed Traditionis custodes, attraction to the Traditional Latin Mass, and liturgical abuses in a March 17 interview with OSV News.
“Given recent events, it is our duty and obligation to recenter and rearticulate the strongest possible moral and theological claims that undergird Notre Dame’s ‘unwavering’ institutional commitment to life.” – dCEC Director Jennifer Newsome Martin in Public Discourse
How Catholic Should a Catholic Institution Be? thepublicdiscourse.com/2026/…
Ken Hallenius retweeted
Over 2,000 students gathered for #Candlemas Mass last night amid freezing temperatures at the new "St. Olaf's Ice Chapel" on North Quad at @NotreDame, constructed by seniors in Coyle Hall.
@NDadmissions @NDSMCObserver @NDAlumni
(OSV News video/Jack Murray)
Hey @belkin: have you heard the outcry yet and made moves to reverse your terrible decision about WeMo Cloud Services? Leaving your customers hanging is no way to thrive as a company.