Thursday, August 05, 2010

Science shocker

First they took away Brontosaurus, renaming it Apatosaurus, and no one said anything.

Then they came and took away Pluto, and again no one tried to stop them.

Now they are taking away Triceratops ...

Though just for the record, I am actually fine with the latter two developments. What's a "planet" is arbitrary (it's a language issue), and yes, Pluto seems more like Ceres and the farther-out Kuiper Belt objects than like the Elite Eight.

And if Triceratops is merely an adolescent Torosaurus, that's fine, good to know.

As for renaming Brontosaurus, this was a bad language decision - why be so rigid about the first-in-time naming rules when it's just about some 19th century guy who's long past caring? Do something dumb like that, and the next thing you know, you'll find yourself renaming Haig-Simons income as Haig-Simons-Schanz, and then also having to add Smith, Malthus, Sax, Garelli, and Seligman to the list of honorees.

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