Well it's been quite a while since I posted anything here. I have been meaning to but, you know...(enter your favorite excuse here). After looking over the last few entries I realized it kind of became "Dave's Death Blog" so I figured I should put up something a little lighter. Ready? Okay.
I have a question. It's been about eight years now and I think this needs to be addressed.
Has any body's quality of life improved since Pluto stopped being a planet?
No, seriously. Since Pluto lost its status as a planet is anyone saying "Wow. We were really in dire straits there for a while. Our finances were wrecked, the family was falling apart...and I was losing my faith, man, just ready to give up. But then the Pluto thing happened and BAM!!!"
My guess is no. And do you know why? Because it didn't help anybody. Changing Pluto's status to a "dwarf planet" (shouldn't it be "little" planet?) did nothing to benefit mankind and nothing changed when it comes to real everyday life.
Actually, no, I take that back, a few things were changed. Textbooks, for example, all had to be revised and reordered. So our public schools, already struggling financially, had to go and dump a bunch of money for new materials just to please people who stare into telescopes all day.
Science fiction has also been forever changed. I have friends who are professional scientists. I also know quite a few amateur ones (hobbyists, not like meth-heads or anything). They are all probably angry with me now, but if you truly know me then you should expect a silly tirade like this once in a while. Anyway, the one thing that all of these people definitely have in common is their love of science fiction. Almost to religious proportions, some of them. But now, this genre you all drool over has had much of its illustrious past negated. It just looks silly now. Even the stuff that didn't look silly before.
Also, Mickey's dog is now named after nothing.
And most people just seemed to be okay with it. Why? Why weren't people alarmed that a bunch of people over at the IAU just decided to change fact and history and we were expected to take it immediately as truth? Furthermore, why did it need to be changed in the first place? What was the point? Pluto was fine as it was. Just fine. The whole thing seemed like such a waste of time and effort.
Maybe it was a joke that went too far. Maybe a few emails were floating around just as a goof, and somebody let it slip out. The press took hold of it and being the IAU (International Astronomers Union) they couldn't pass up the idea of a new discovery and the attention that comes with it. Besides, they couldn't appear to be wrong now could they? Most of them have impressive letters after their names for crying out loud. So they went with this "not a planet" thing and made up a whole set of classifiers to prove their non existent point. Maybe, but probably not.
So basically the point is, I'm sick and tired of space. Not personal space mind you, but "the final frontier" type space. Other scientific fields I'm okay with. Medical research? Good, great, keep it up. Cure some diseases-YAY Science! Biology, Archaeology, Nature and Earth Sciences, all good. Well done. I would praise technological breakthroughs since we live in an amazing wired world. However the result of this brave new techno-world has mostly been selfies taken with too little clothing while posing in toilets. So that's a wash.
Once again, to be clear: science as a whole, good. But Astronomy? IAU? NASA? Sorry. I don't trust you anymore. Unless you restore Pluto to its rightful place as our solar system's ninth planet.
Or add more planets. Or discover David Bowie's home planet, and we start intergalactic trade with them and begin travel to and from Bowieworld. Then all will be forgiven.
