Tony Snow: Pluto is "just a number..."

[DRoseDARs]

...and had he said this instead, he wouldn't have come off as a total asshole. ;)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060911/sc_space/plutoisnowjustanumber134340

Pluto is Now Just a Number: 134340

Ker Than
Staff Writer
SPACE.com Mon Sep 11, 6:15 PM ET

Pluto has been given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet.

On Sept. 7, the former 9th planet was assigned the asteroid number 134340 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the official organization responsible for collecting data about asteroids and comets in our solar system.

-snip-

The MPC also issued a separate announcement stating that the assignment of permanent asteroid numbers to Pluto and other large objects located beyond the orbit of Neptune "does not preclude their having dual designations in possible separate catalogues of such bodies."

-snip-

[Kutjara]

1. The whole Pluto debacle is a perfect metaphor for our times.

A named planet, one of the nine that compose our solar system, is demoted to sub-planetary status, then stripped of its name and identity, before being assigned a number and relegated to the outer dark. Pluto has become a Gitmo planet: no existence save for what a small elite group allows it.

[eviltwin2525]

4. Quite the contrary!

Try this view of reality:

A popular supersition (fueled by Disney exploitation, no less!) causes a baseless claim to be assumed as fact. When logic and scientific method are brought to bear, the drooling mob screams for the heads of those who dare disturb -- or even question -- their tidy little fraudulent "reality." Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Pluto to has not been demoted. It NEVER WAS a planet. We've just recognized that fact. It's called SCIENCE.

[Bucky]

6. "No, it's like this," said the 3rd blind man, groping the elephant...

Pluto represents out lost innocence. No, I mean it represents our Bill of Rights. Just as Pluto was the Roman god of wealth, the Bill of Rights was the source of our nation's wealth. No, wait. On second thought, Pluto represents the soldiers we've lost in the fake war in Iraq, tossed cruelly into the void and forgotten. Only, no, wait a minute... Pluto is mother nature, wild, untamed. We relabel it, but it's still there--watching us, forgiving us, but never changing no matter what we call it. Oh, oh, oh. Now I've got it. Pluto is...

[Vidar]

8. "Groping elephants"--another Republican sex scandal.

[ProgressiveFool]

10. so sad

and yet I can't stop laughing... :-( :D

[Cobalt-60]

2. I got your dwarf planet right here.

Planet 9 is still in outer space.
And we will call it Pluto no matter who says not to.

[Blackthorn]

3. I agree. It should remain Pluto

But I've always been against the inclusion of Pluto as a legitmate planet. It's orbit alone indicates that it was not created during the same period as the sun.

[Cobalt-60]

5. Ill grant that it has an eccentric orbit

We don't get out humanity revoked for taking a different route to work!
(Its not a serious issue, I'll grant you. But I have to insist on at least a close fly by before they demote it.)

[Bucky]

7. That's it! Pluto is a nonconformist. Like Hester Prynne. We must punish it

Sure Pluto isn't hurting anybody. But still, we must punish it as a warning to Uranus.

[Blackthorn]

9. 2015 is when the current craft reaches Pluto.

It left Earth when it was still technically a planet, so it sort of counts.