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Friday, August 25, 2006

Angry Dwarf Planet Tossing

Dwarf Planet. That is so politically incorrect. I think the proper term is "Little Planet" or "Volumetrically Challenged Planet." Or maybe "Planet of Small Size."

There are all these news reports about how all the schoolkids (not to mention us adults!) will now have to relearn the now eight planets and the mnemonic device: My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas. I don't know about you, but 1) I never had to learn the planets in school (I'll get to that later) and 2) Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and (the now dethroned) Pluto is a helluva lot easier to learn than some ridiculous so-called mnemonic device about some not-so-educated mother serving mass quantities of junk food. A very educated mother would hopefully have a little better nutrition sense.

Maybe it was because I'd been through three different school systems in three different states as a schoolkid, but my educational experience never included fun science like learning the planets. I remember learning how to grow beans in 4th grade in New York. We tried adding funky stuff to the soil to see if that made the beans sprout better. I remember I was in the group that added vinegar to the soil. I'll never forget the smell of vinegar-infused potting soil....ick. I remember science as one of the very dry subjects that I'd rather not endure and never take as an elective. Such a bad, or boring at best, experience with science through my younger grades made me decide to steer clear from it in high school and then later in college, even though it might have been good to study minerology or horticulture instead of art. Maybe not...maybe I'd still be making jewelry with a minerology degree and growing cactii with a horticulture degree and wishing I'd gone into art, which I really loved. Yet I digress. No, I learned the planets myself. We had some astronomy books (Time/Life or some cheap things geared toward kids) and I'd look through those whenever I was home from school sick. I probably learned more that way than if it had been taught by boring teachers in my boring classes.

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10 Comments:

Anonymous N said...

Pluto was my fav. planet and will continue to be a planet in my book!

4:08 PM  
Blogger Stan said...

I use to love reading astronomy books about 12 years ago and all of those 'string' theroy books too. I chose to read about these things on my own too and really never had much about these things in school. I wish I had taken Astronomy for credits, but I missed my chance - of course that would have been pre string throry. I have some astronomy books and I'm not sure if I can bring myself to sell them at amozzon or not.

I'll always think of Pluto as a planet and those newly found other underworld "objects" too....

I worry that the scientific comunity is suffering from its own from of fundamentalism trends like religions are now. People --- why do you insist on being simplistic and stupid --- didn't your mothers ever tell you "life is messy"????

8:11 PM  
Blogger Ann said...

Poor Pluto...it's sort of like being kicked out of a clique in 6th grade. "We don't like you because your orbit is too eccentric!"

I always fancied Neptune myself, N. When I was a kid I used to think it was nothing but blue liquid air.

Stan, can you elaborate what you mean by fundamentalist trends in science? I mean as much as we may dislike the decision to kick Pluto off the team, the decision was based on scientific criteria and not any sentimental allegiance.

8:23 PM  
Blogger Stan said...

As I understand the problem Pluto was said to be a planet before they learned how eratic its orbit is and if they knew all of the facts Pluto may not have been defined as a planet. However, having made Pluto a planet and finding other objects like Pluto later the - Pluto could be seen as having expanded the definition of a planet. Instead - they've said this is planet definition is becoming too complex. Now rather than taking a broader more complex and perhaps ' grey thinking' approach to the question of 'what is a planet' they've gone to a tighter, simpler and dumbed down definition of 'what is a planet'....

This weeding out of 'grey thinking' is a very fundamentalist kind of rationalization and formula. It is a very 'formula' kind of logic that tries to avoid any sort of grey logic or messy thinking.

Gee Wizz Mr. Science I wouldn't want to have to think about anything....Duhhhhh just tell us how it is so we can get back to our computer games....

I'm very disapointed in the scientific comunity and I wonder if we should expect Mr. Science to give us more dumbed down formulas for living in the near future... like if the world looks flat it must be so....?

Fine, I'm going too far, but this kind of simplification is simply tedious, rediculous and unnecessary.

9:37 PM  
Blogger Ann said...

But Gee Whiz, Mr. Science, if we let Pluto back in our clubhouse, then we'll have to let Charon in, and Xena, and Ceres, and then we'll have to let in Goober and Gomer and Skippy and Stinky! Then it won't be the same Planet Club anymore!

I'm taking my toys and going home!

9:46 PM  
Blogger Ann said...

"Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home!"

"Oh my God, they killed Pluto! You bastards!"

9:54 PM  
Blogger Balsamae said...

omg... :: banging head against wall:: i couldn't believe it when i read this incredibly stupid notion to not let Pluto be a planet anymore. Pahleese! Quite frankly, if the scientists argued over it for how many days/weeks...i think it all boils down to a simple thing- they are BORED! why couldn't they have argued instead the thought of why they decided to name a planet 'Uranus' instead of Herchel ( sp? ) or where do the socks go in a dryer? or my personal favorite, just how many licks does it take to get to the middle of a tootsie pop?

Lori

12:23 PM  
Blogger Ann said...

"why couldn't they have argued instead the thought of why they decided to name a planet 'Uranus' instead of Herchel"

Uranus was a Greek God, as were the other planets, so it's in keeping with tradition that it the mythological naming system remain, rather than switching to the discoverer of the planet.

This page gives a good summary of what the planets and their satellites are named for. Most satellites are named for this associating with that Greek God, with the exception of Uranus's, which are named for Shakespearian characters.

1:29 PM  
Blogger Ann said...

meant to say: "things associated with that Greek God".

Bummed that blogger commenting doesn't allow target="_blank" tag in my a href. Sorry about that.

1:33 PM  
Blogger Lavender Dawn said...

"Oh my God, they killed Pluto! You bastards!"

funny!

in fourth grade we had a fun time learning aobut planets, and one student actually made a board game about it for us to play! I don't know that i learned anything, but hell was it fun!

pluto sin't a planet, and "ain't" is in the dictionary.

3:52 PM  

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