Challenge Thread: Were you wrong about Pluto?

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

But let a group of Christians rig a vote though and it'll be all over the Internet, won't it?

I have no idea - is the internet interested in what Christians do?

 

[sjastro]

I get hives and writhe in pain all night long, often waking up in a sweat just in time to make it to the bathroom.

Another symptom is the creation of some incredibly ਗੂੰਗਾ threads.

 

[Phred]

This poster is not responsible for the actions of any church outside of his parking lot.

That's why the word "Independent" is in his belief system.

So you rake everyone here over the coals because Pluto is simply not called a planet anymore. As if that changes anything but saying "9 planets." But you get to ignore whatever a church does because you simply get to ignore it?

Here's the thing... If your god is real and if your churches and religions and all that falderall is real then at what point does your god actually bother to do anything? See, if God told them to make the guy a saint in the first place how can they just unmake him a saint? It's almost as if your god doesn't exist at all...

Oh wait.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Indeed. Now, I do think the manner in which the vote was taken was a good example of the pettiness of interal organisation politics. I also think the new definition of planets is flawed - "clearing their orbital path" is a qualitative, not a quantitative distinction. But having thought "that's a bit off", with regard to the vote, and "that's a lousy example of a scientific definition", in respect of the that, I moved on to things that were actually important. Meanwhile, as you suggest, others seem to view incessant whining as more important.

The difficulty was coming up with a clear definition that solved the problem. It's the same difficulty we always have trying to devise clear criteria for arbitrary categories in real-world continua. Like 'species', or 'adult' or 'fat'. It's another variation of the Sorites paradox.

 

[AV1611VET]

So you rake everyone here over the coals because Pluto is simply not called a planet anymore.

Either that, or HOW it got demoted.

See, if God told them to make the guy a saint in the first place how can they just unmake him a saint? It's almost as if your god doesn't exist at all...

Either that, or ALL born again people are saints.

Paul used the term "saint," a lot more than he used the term "Christian."

 

[AV1611VET]

If your god is real and if your churches and religions and all that falderall is real then at what point does your god actually bother to do anything?

You mean like this?

30 October 1991: The Halloween Monster, a.k.a. The Perfect Storm, strikes the U.S. amid the "land-for-peace" Madrid peace talks; President Bush's ocean-side home destroyed.

23 August 1992: President Bush moves Madrid talks to U.S. soil; that very day, Hurricane Andrew devastates southern Florida.

16 January 1994: President Clinton meets with Syrian President Hafez Assad to discuss more "land for peace" arrangements; less than 24 hours later, a 6.9 earthquake pulverized southern California.

1 September 1993: President Clinton announces a meeting with Arafat for the Oslo peace accords, to be held on 13 September; after a week of meandering in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Emily hits North Carolina on that very day.

21 January 1998: while waiting to meet with Arafat at the White House, President Clinton's sex scandal breaks out.

27 September 1998: Arafat is meeting with the president in Washington; Hurricane Georges hits Alabama and stalls. The hurricane stalls until Arafat leaves and then it dissipates. Parts of Alabama declared a disaster area.

17 October 1998: Arafat comes to the Wye Plantation meeting; incredible rains fall on Texas, which cause record flooding. Parts of Texas declared a disaster area.

3 September 1999: Secretary of State Albright meets with Arafat in Israel; Hurricane Dennis comes ashore on this very day after weeks of changing course in the Atlantic Ocean.

12-26 July 2000: Arafat at the Camp David meetings. Powerful droughts throughout the country. Forest fires explode in West into uncontrollable fires. By the end of August, 7 million acres are burnt.

9 November 2000, two days after the presidential election: Arafat meets with President Clinton at the White House to try and salvage the peace process; worst election crisis in over 100 years occurs.

Psalm 83:15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.

 

[dlamberth]

And what if scientists rigged a vote to change the name of the state you live in?

Would you justify it by claiming "nothing's changed"?

Better yet, what if a shrewdness of scientists got together and demoted Rhode Island to the status of "dwarf state" by rigging a vote based on what they considered an inappropriate definition of "state" in the dictionary?

Would you take a star off of the American flag, then claim "nothing's changed"?

I'm old enough to remember when the designation of two American territories were changed to that of state status with 2 stars being added to the flag. Nothing really changed that affected me. I do remember being taught why and how those stars on the flag were re-arranged to add those two new stars. The end result is that the designation of the 48 star flag changed to 50 stars. And the designation of those two territories also changed. Designation of things change, just like Pluto. Why your going on and on about this, I have no idea.

 

[AV1611VET]

I'm old enough to remember when the designation of two American territories were changed to that of state status with 2 stars being added to the flag.

Did they rig a vote to do it, claiming that the definition of "state" in the dictionary wasn't adequate enough to account for some new discoveries?

 

[Yttrium]

They don't vote planets in or out. They come to a new agreement on a definition of what a planet is.

If they hadn't changed the definition, we'd have to add more planets to the list (Eris, Ceres, etc). They changed definition, which left Pluto out.

 

[AV1611VET]

They don't vote planets in or out. They come to a new agreement on a definition of what a planet is.

If they hadn't changed the definition, we'd have to add more planets to the list (Eris, Ceres, etc). They changed definition, which left Pluto out.

The Pluto Issue

 

[Subduction Zone]

Nice try.

So another false claim by AV that he knows that he cannot justify. Is anyone surprised at all?

 

[Subduction Zone]

The Pluto Issue

And AV admits that he is wrong again.

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

The Pluto Issue

But Pluto is still Pluto.

 

[AV1611VET]

But Pluto is still Pluto.

Yup.

And a demoted human being is still a human being.

 

[sjastro]

Yup.

And a demoted human being is still a human being.

A ਬਕਵਾਸ post.

 

[Kylie]

That map gave the wrong information for 76 years.

Or so some would like us to think.

If it was so blatantly wrong, they wouldn't have had to rig a vote to change that map.

Not allowing the planetary astronomers to vote, insured they would get what they were after.

No it didn't.

A map from 1870 that shows Prussia isn't wrong just because Prussia no longer exists.

 

[Bungle_Bear]

Who cares? I never even heard of the IAU prior to Pluto's demotion.

I can see you as a [soon to be let go] detective:

BB: You say you saw the safe robbed?
Eyewitness: Yes, sir.
BB: Are you sure it was robbed?
Eyewitness: Yes, sir.
BB: How much money was in the safe before it was robbed, and how much is in there now?
Eyewitness: Well, I don't know. I just saw some guys rob it. And three state law agencies put out an APB on the robbers, as well as their method has been voted the agencies "Method of the Year" for 2021.
BB: Sorry ... can't help you.

Whoosh.

Try this instead:
BB: You say you saw the safe robbed?
Eyewitness: Yes, sir.
BB: Are you sure it was robbed?
Eyewitness: Yes, sir.
BB: That's odd because there was no cash in the safe to be robbed.
Eyewitness: Well, I saw a group of guys doing something I disagree with.
BB: Uh-huh. But they didn't actually rob a safe, did they?
Eyewitness: I don't Iike robbers! They should be prosecuted even when they haven't committed a crime!

 

[AV1611VET]

Whoosh.

Maybe you'd like to share with us why the American Dialect Society choose "plutoed" as its word-of-the-year for 2006?

 

[Bungle_Bear]

Maybe you'd like to share with us why the American Dialect Society choose "plutoed" as its word-of-the-year for 2006?

Because they thought it was a great word?

The whole point you're handwaving away is that, before 2006, there was no official definition of what a planet is. You cannot change a non-existent definition.

Get over it.

 

[AV1611VET]

Because they thought it was a great word?

I think it's a great word too.

I use it quite often.

Albeit not as a synonym for "a rigged vote" -- but as a synonym for "demoted".