Friday, August 25, 2006

Demotivational Friday: Astronomy


So as you probably know, Pluto is no longer a planet. This is going to screw up test scores and lesson plans everywhere. I actually think it would be best for teachers to come up with a new acronym to memorize the planets. That way, it this important change will stick in the minds of kids better. I suggest:

My Vasectomy Effects Many Japanese Singles Until November.

Just try forgetting that.

I have to say, I think I’ll miss Pluto. Now that its no longer a planet, who knows what we'll think of whenever someone mentions it?




I love astronomy, but it’s always been more elemental to me then scientific. Knowing the planets is like knowing about the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. They could remove the 27th for not being important enough, and really, it would have almost no impact on any of us. But hey, you shouldn’t mess with the Constitution. I imagine that if I had lived during the time of Copernicus, I would have thought something similar. “Hey Nicolaus, your heliocentric theory of the solar system is amazing. I read De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium cover to cover, and I have to say that your logic is inescapable. By the way, dedicating it Pope Paul III was a brilliantly shrewd move. But seriously, I think we all sort of enjoy thinking of the Earth as the center of the universe, and I don’t think we’re actually going to go to space for another 400 years. So try not to discover anything else for a while so that we can all catch up. Now, I’m off to the barber to get some leeches. Later.”

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