Parental Obeservation #6
Education is confusing, because things aren’t what they used to be. For example, when I was a child we had four oceans and nine planets. Since then we’ve gained an ocean and lost a planet. Not to mention that whole mess with dinosaurs not really being extinct anymore, and the confusion with what to call a brontosaurus.
Ambiance 
wj said,
March 27, 2014 at 12:38 pm
You didn’t have the 7 seas when you were young???
Just out of curiosity, which oceans did you have? I can’t figure out which one might be the new one for you….
Icepick said,
March 27, 2014 at 1:22 pm
The new ocean for me is the Southern Ocean. We just has the other four, whose boundaries were rather obvious. The Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean doesn’t have an obvious northern boundary before it bleeds into three of the others.
Donna B. said,
March 27, 2014 at 4:56 pm
Back when I was a kid we only six seas. And get off my lawn.
Icepick said,
March 27, 2014 at 7:39 pm
You had lawns when you were a kid? We only had a cliffface on the edge of a ravine in front of our cave.
U Farquar said,
March 27, 2014 at 8:04 pm
When I was young we only had one continent, our beloved Pangea, But later it split up and since then things have just gotten messy.
karen said,
March 28, 2014 at 7:26 am
Where i come from-
~Splat~ is a verb.
I’m still peeved over Pluto.
wj said,
March 28, 2014 at 11:50 am
I think the new standard is that a planet has to
a) be bigger than Earth’s Moon, and
b) not revolve around another planet — that is, it orbits the sun.
Clearly we need some kind of rule about what does and doesn’t quality. But if we don’t use that one, what is the alternative? Any suggestion for one which keeps Pluto, but doesn’t also include stuff that just feels wrong? (When I say “just feels wrong” I’m thinking of something like “has moons orbiting it.” Which might exclude Venus and Mercury, but include a couple of the larger asteroids — which apparently have smaller rocks orbiting them.) Suggestions?
mockturtle said,
March 28, 2014 at 1:16 pm
I, for one, was fond of Pluto [I suppose we can still call it Pluto!] and hated to see its planetary status ripped away with little fanfare. We could start a campaign to restore it but it probably wouldn’t accomplish much.
Icepick said,
March 28, 2014 at 2:01 pm
Don’t have time to dig up the link, but there is at least one other dwarf planet VERY far out from the sun that has a moon and is itself bigger than Pluto. It does orbit the sun. (Eris might be the name.) So if you include Pluto you would also need to include at least that and we still wouldn’t have nine planets officially.
karen said,
March 29, 2014 at 8:54 am
Wouldn’t this be an example of: … more bullshit!
Where something was found to be true- following guidelines- only to be pronounced as untrue either w/in those same guidelines- or w/new guidelines obscuring the old ones?
mockturtle said,
March 29, 2014 at 10:18 am
Yes.
Icepick said,
March 29, 2014 at 3:40 pm
The big problem is that no one has a good definition for planet. Things like stars are easy, but planets. Or at least they didn’t have one last time i looked into it. Annie is almost certainly more up to date on the matter.