Send In The Plutons!

Kevin Drum is not impressed by the resolution of the debate concerning whether Pluto is a planet or not. The solution is to classify Pluto as the largest of a new class of planets called Plutons (fancy ice ball planets), and to upgrade other fancy iceballs, like Ceres and Xena, and make them planets too.

So, in a compromise worthy of the UN Security Council, a recently formed committee has proposed the creation of a new category of objects called "plutons." It's a floor wax and a dessert topping!

"[Richard] Binzel and other committee members stressed that categorizing Pluto as a pluton was in no way meant to downgrade its longtime status as the ninth planet.

'We might be demoting it from the list of eight classical planets, but we're promoting it by making it the head of its own special class,' said Owen Gingerich of Harvard University, who chaired the panel."

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds like something even a second grader wouldn't fall for? Even a dumb second grader? "No, you won't be going to regular third grade with the rest of your friends next year, Billy. You'll be going to second grade again. A special second grade!"

To me, it sounds like a great way to resolve this debate! Would that all debates were so easily resolved! Welcome the Plutons!