Pluto, and my opinion of it

For Brandlyn, who gave me the heads up when the moon was just perfect.


Now, onto other things. Some of you may have noticed that I've had a lot of tests this week. It's true, but I am no worse for wear. I just hope that next time all of my professors don't hold another "How can we make life more difficult" meeting when it comes to test dates. Four tests in three days was not a pleasant experience for me.

This morning I had my French exam, my last exam of the week. Based on the chapters, I (and the rest of the class) anticipated it to be a really hard exam, but the reality was completely the opposite. It was a three-part exam. A 5 sentence composition started it off, then a 20 question listening comprehension section, and then 30 multiple choice questions. I was able to finish the composition and get nearly the entire way through the multiple choice questions before my professor started the listening comprehension part, and then after that I had to go back and finish four questions. And voila!

After the test, I was looking forward to the "break" that I would get in English, where I could finish writing my essay on the Demotion of Pluto. Oddly enough, I actually consider in-class writing as a break. It's easy, and the professor doesn't expect a perfect argument or anything. My take on the issue was this:

Pluto is not a planet and the likelihood is that the ruling will stand, even if the methods were a little less than satisfactory. The guy who discovered Pluto in the early 30s was - let's face it - basically an intern; an untrained guy who was paid to search the sky every night for the theoretical "Planet X" while the real astronomers probably drank coffee and talked about the economy in the break room. While the decision in 2006 was ridiculous (Since when has science ever been a majority vote?), too many bodies of Pluto-like size are being discovered in the Kuiper Belt every year. We've got a spacecraft (called "New Horizons") flying out there right now, which is supposed to get to Pluto in 2015, and we'll know more about both Pluto and the Kuiper Belt then. However, as much as everyone moans about the unfairness of it all, Pluto doesn't care. He's a chunk of rock. What should be more important is focusing on creating a definition of planet, be it a single definition or a multi-part definition. A lot of words have multiple definitions based on circumstance - why can't 'Planet'?

Sorry, Pluto. You're stuck being a Dwarf Planet.