NY Times vs Pluto
Aug. 17th, 2006 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteA quote from an editorial in the NY Times about why PLuto should lose its planet status:
"Whatever merit the new definition may have scientifically, it is an abomination culturally. When the astronomical union votes on the matter next week, it ought to reject the new definition and summon the courage to scratch Pluto from the list of planets."
In other words, even if science determines if Pluto is a planet, the insistence by millions of people that Pluto should be called what it's always been called is a crime as bad as any in the Culture Wars. And that the IAU will be gutless if it approves this.
I've never been accused of a cultural abomination before. How should I react? What should I wear?
"Whatever merit the new definition may have scientifically, it is an abomination culturally. When the astronomical union votes on the matter next week, it ought to reject the new definition and summon the courage to scratch Pluto from the list of planets."
In other words, even if science determines if Pluto is a planet, the insistence by millions of people that Pluto should be called what it's always been called is a crime as bad as any in the Culture Wars. And that the IAU will be gutless if it approves this.
I've never been accused of a cultural abomination before. How should I react? What should I wear?
