Scientists prove themselves dumb by proving how smart they are.

Scientists prove themselves dumb by proving how smart they are.

Aug 24

(clap. clap. clap)

Nice work guys. So, at a time when science is under attack, you decide now is the perfect opportunity to show how much smarter you are than, oh, the rest of the world.

Here’s the deal. If it’s big and it orbits the sun, everyone in the world (still a world, for the time being) thinks it’s a planet. And it’s been that way ever since the scientists first fought long and hard to prove Pluto was there in the first place.

The average Joe doesn’t even realize there’s other shit out there past Pluto, let alone understand or care why Pluto doesn’t make the arbitrary cut as a planet. Astronomy is full of arbitrary firsts – what’s an AU? What’s a parsec? First guy into the pool got to call it. First guy to go, “hey, there’s something big out there” got to call it a planet, not realizing that his historic first would be tossed out the window by a bunch of elitist pedants who want to be in on their own historical first – and Clyde can suck it.

It’s not like the astronomers club couldn’t have their little insider esotericisms (if that isn’t a word, I’m making it one) – join the gang and you get to be part of the hip crowd that doesn’t treat Pluto as a planet, just as you’re the only group that takes all those other rocks into account when you’re doing your math. You know, like the math nerds – to us, Pi is 3.14. To the math wonks, it’s a lot longer.

The rest of us still think Pluto is a planet.

WikiWikiWhack: Pluto