It ain't over, but my vote was not heard at the International Astronomical Union. Sometimes you can't complain loudly enough against those wanting to make a statement. In this regard the current bunch are really talking fashion. The traditional planets could have been left alone and the trans-Neptunian's recognized as frozen scatterings that iced and methaned up as the solar condensation proceeded to catch afire. There are traditions that have some value; Pluto as a planet, was one of them. Currently traditionals give way as profit-motive and one-ups-man-ship arise and sickly soar on hubris neath it's wings. Imagine! Christmas extending from Thanksgiving through New Years. That is New Marketing, Non-traditional, in fact anti-traditional. Every professional and every advanced student of the field knows that Pluto and Chiron are captured trans-Neptunian objects. The idea of calling Ceres, the traditional giant asteroid a "dwarf planet" is about on the same level of hubris as the rest of this bull. Astronomers need to earn some human respect after this, and unless they come to their senses, I do not see much relevance to the historical vastness of Astronomy, played out this recent few minutes. Why call them anything else than their historical traditional characterizations? The new students have no sense of the historical accumulations of Astronomy, even since Astronomy is the oldest true Science. These singers of the dwarf planet school fit with the mythical legions of the Hindus, the ants marching along reincarnation after reincarnation; yes Shiva says, "They were all Princes!" Much less a part of the whole Hubris-laden class of stuff, you an I and others around the planet have financed finding? This is a true case of the "human stupids." Tony Tyson, yeah, I just shake my head. . .no perspective, no true Christmas even in their hearts. Not much humanity. Sagan would have been torn slightly I think, but I think, though I may be wrong -- he would have supported the historical traditionalism to outweigh lumping everything into a bifurcated is/is not classification. Human passion has some value. Tombaugh worked for Percival Lowell, and Flagstaff was a private non university non-government or educationally associated observatory. Mars was Lowell's True passion, and he could see the "canals" on Mars! Yeah, I should xombyted this. Plutoed is a good word, even if there is an "official" reversal.

Just wanted to clear up any potential confusion--I was referring to MYSELF as old and clueless, not the author of the xombyte.