Closer to Home

In my previous post, Pluto vs. Science,  I ranted a little about groups redefining things for us whether we knew we needed them redefined or not.

I kept it short because Pluto has had some more recent Press and new selfies, I mean photos.

I did keep reading stuff about the definition of planets. 

Phil Metzger, a planetary physicist retired from NASA, said the problem was today's definition of "planet" doesn't work when comparing this solar system to ones light-years away. 

Why? Has he been getting input from the locals?
They are light-years away. Light-years. Google it.
To give you some perspective, if you headed there on a road trip, beginning at the dawn of humanity, we wouldn’t be anywhere close to being finished saying “Are we there yet?”

I am all for broadening my horizons but the news that winds on a planet three light-years away are 20x stronger than the strongest winds here, will probably never be germane to me.
Not even on trivia night.

I guess I would like to see more focus on solving problems a bit closer to home. Maybe tackle world hunger or cure diseases or battle global warming.

Why global warming? Coconut crabs.

Coconut crabs are the world’s largest land-living arthropod weighing up to 9 pounds and stretching to over 3 feet. 

They are hideous looking so I will not include a picture or video but I’ve put in some links.

Following the migration pattern of the coconut palm, the beast is found through-out the lands around the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Nice warm places. Far away places.

So what’s the problem?

Well if the video did not alarm you, how about the fact that there is irrefutable evidence of global warming, coconut palms are growing in places they never grew before and these buggers climb coconut trees and drop coconuts.

And we all know coconuts kill more people each year than sharks.

Imagine a swarm of 3 foot wide 9 pound exoskeleton monsters making their way across your lawn. Sure you could set your riding mower to mulch and wade in, but I prefer to be a little more proactive.

You can find me out in my yard with a book on how to spot coconut trees, and a chainsaw.

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Pluto v.s. Science

I love learning things.

Things about medicine, time, space and well, just about anything.

I don’t always agree with the things I learn such as Pluto being demoted to a dwarf planet by a bunch of astronomers. Must have been a slow day in astronomy. 
I know I am late to the party. Not thinking about it, just writing about it.

One of Pluto’s main detractors, Neil (I won’t name him here because he has already got a lot of press over his nay-saying (I am now following you on twitter so I will know when you recant)), uses science-y jargon and reason to support his views.

This is where it all goes wrong. 

Things are defined by people, usually groups of like-minded people who have been accredited by other people who are quite a bit like them.
Hmm…this is starting to sound like a conspiracy. Or a lobby group.

Should we take the word of a small group of scientists that may have a hidden agenda (i.e. first we demote Pluto and then remove it from orbit because it blocks the view) or were we happy in our knowledge of Pluto’s planet-hood as defined by scholastic rhymes similar to:
Man – Mercury
Very – Venus
Early – Earth
Made – Mars
Jars –Jupiter
Stand – Saturn
Up –Uranus
Nearly – Neptune
Perpendicular –PLUTO

Sure school didn’t actually prepare us for life but it did teach us critical thinking or was critical of our thinking, I’m not sure which, but it did give us a base to build on.
Demoting planets is just kicking out our foundation blocks.

What’s next? Some group decides we don’t need “Z”. Could solve the Zee or Zed issue ‘tho we could never talk about “the letter that shall not be named”.
What if mathematicians collude and decide "4" was a mistake and we are to stop using it. They could mail out an apology and new directives on circumventing problems caused by the former 4. Unfortunately, the letter would never reach my address. Couldn’t even text me for that matter.

We need to take a stand against all of this flip flopping.

Coffee is good for you
Eggs are not tiny assassins in your fridge
Cholesterol is necessary
Bacon… mmm bacon
and Pluto is a planet. Period.

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