Time Waster On A Hot Afternoon

I just have to laugh at the Sci-Rangers, those Free Thinkers ® who are never, ever slow to attack in the face of heterodox views of science.  Dead, straight on, in their defense of the great and good old orthodox view of science.

Not that I especially care about the issue but this exchange I just read on one of those interminable articles about the Sci Guys getting together and demoting Pluto from being a planet, brought up an interesting issue.  I'll get to that in a moment.  Apparently it's the view of Ken Croswell of Scientific American that there are good reasons to reconsider.

Now Pluto itself seems to be fighting back. Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we’ve learned that Pluto has at least five moons—pretty impressive for something that’s supposedly not a planet.

And new research suggests Pluto is just what we were taught long ago: the largest world orbiting the sun beyond Neptune.

In 2005 astronomers discovered Pluto’s greatest rival, Eris. It’s three times farther from the sun than Pluto. And Eris was thought to be bigger than Pluto, too. But that initial estimate may have been wrong.

Other astronomers have now analyzed methane in Pluto’s air. Yup, Pluto has an atmosphere—again, pretty impressive for something that’s supposedly not a planet—and the methane suggests Pluto is about 1,471 miles across, versus just 1,445 miles across for Eris. The new study appears in the journal Icarus. [Emmanuel Lellouch et al, Exploring the spatial, temporal, and vertical distribution of methane in Pluto’s atmosphere]

Don't get your hopes up too high, Ken, since The World's Greatest Genius ® is quite invested in the demotion, having led the effort (geesh! that guy is such a self-promotion shill).   I mean, he never seems to lose a chance to bring it up so he can tell everyone to get over it.

Anyway, in the comments at Salon someone said this:

JustSlider 2 days ago
Guess what?  I still call Pluto a planet.  I don't care what Astronomers say.

To which the response was

Damo 2 days ago
@JustSlider "I don't care what scientists say".  Taking pride in ignorance has to start somewhere.

I told Damo that I was grateful to have it pointed out to me how ignorant all of those scientists who had called (and apparently some still do call) it a planet were taking pride in ignorance.

About the only interesting thing about this is what it says about the superstitious idea that 1. whatever scientists call Pluto actually matters in reality, 2. that a matter of definition (not of science) about something human beings will almost certainly never touch matters.  3. that scientists now, or at least those who agree with The World's Greatest Genius ® comprise the great and unchanging TRUTH of the matter.  4. that a lot of people don't have better things to do with their lives.

I'd better stop there, the list gets longer and longer the longer this goes on.   And it's too hot to fuss about it.