cross-posted at skippy as well as a literal cornucopia of other community blogs.
it may be that, more than anything else in this universe, pluto represented the fact that we are all, ultimately, alone. it may be the fortuitous coincidence that walt disney named mickey mouse's pet after the roman god of the underworld (and they say walt had no sense of irony). it may be that people just got tired of uranus getting all the jokes.
whatever it is, the announcement last week that pluto is no longer a planet by the international association of astronomers with big space bugs up their asses has burrowed itself into our collective psyche deeper than the galileo penetrated jupiter's atmosphere.
jeff foust writes in the space review:
regardless of whether people agreed or disagreed with the iau's decision, there was a level of passion rarely found among the general public when it comes to space matters.
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what drives that passion? what's remarkable about pluto is that, even before this latest development, many people had ascribed to it human feelings, calling it a "lonely" world in the outer solar system and considering it something like the little planet that could. (the ultimate in this is a baltimore sun column "written" by pluto itself in response to the iau decision.) now, anthropomorphizing inanimate objects is nothing new for humans: we do it all the time from items ranging from cars to computers, but less often to celestial objects. how often do people talk about neptune's feelings?
however, perhaps the biggest reason why the iau's decision got so much attention was that it changed one of the fundamental facts that everyone knows. the vast majority of people alive today have only known a solar system with nine planets, even if they were hard-pressed to name those nine. yet suddenly, with little more than a stroke of a pen, that basic fact was suddenly changed. it would be like waking up to find out there were only 49 states in the union, or that snow white cavorted with only six dwarfs.
it does seem, even to those of us who respect and enjoy science, that a group of elitist know-it-alls decided to arbitrarily change our entire perception of the universe, or, at least, of our solar system.
and, in response to that very perception, a group of school children in bakersfield overwhelmingly voted to keep pluto a planet. bakersfield.com (registration required!):
third- through sixth-graders voted 258 to 64, defying the international astronomical union's thursday decision that pluto is a dwarf planet.
teacher nick dokolas invited other teachers to discuss the change with their classes and have them vote on whether the scientists made the right decision.
posters around columbia urged students to vote: "pluto makes the world go round!" or "boo pluto!" ...
dokolas took an in-class vote wednesday and his students were divided, 17-10 in favor of pluto's planetary status.
"i felt like there was sort of an emotional connection to pluto," dokolas said.
one student in dokolas' class said textbooks would have to change, which he thought was silly.
"they have to rewrite everything they know about pluto," said lenny gonzalez.
perhaps the first thing to change will be the mnemonic used for the solar system. dokolas said one of his fourth-graders, sydney lewis, suggested changing it from: "my very excellent mother just made us nine pizzas," to "my very excellent mother just made us noodles."
leave it to kids to see the important things in such matters.
the baltimore sun piece that foust referred to wraps it up pretty well, in first person pluton:
there i was, midning my own business, orbiting the sun just like all the others. i got my little bit of atmosphere going, got a lot of ice. i was cool. i stayed out of everybody's way, sometimes way out.
then some eggheds on that uppity third rock -- they think they're so hot becuase they have "life" -- went and decided i'm not a planet anymore. what's up with that? my life is hard enough as it is.
first of all, it takes forever for me to do a lap around the sun, and it gets really lonely out here. they tell me that part of the reason i'm not a planet anymore is that some of the time i sneak inside my buddy neptune's orbit. what do they expect? i need somebody to talk to out here sometimes. and don't get me started about that mass of junk they call charon that is supposedly my partner in non-planethood; charon is dead to me.
that, in a nutshell, is why people are taking pluto's side in this terrible injustice. so many of us feel that, even if we keep our heads down and stay out of trouble, the powers that be at anytime at all could make a decree that totally destroys our way of life, or at least our status in the universe.
pluto is, in more ways than one, the ultimate underdog. or, is it? dr. joan bushwell's chimpanzee refuge asks: is pluto really a dog?
- all dogs must have at least four toes on each paw (not including the dewclaw).
- all dogs must have at least two distinct eyes.
- all male dogs must possess external genitalia (or, if neutered, visible remnants thereof).
- if its tail resembles a flagellum, it ain't a dog.
[ed. note: at this point, we insert a picture of disney's pluto to prove the above thesis. but due to kos's new edict that no graphics without the kos seal of approval(tm) be applied on this blog, we can only direct you all back to our own. yes, it was a clever way to blogwhore, thanks for noticing!]