Today marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Earthlings knowing of the existence of Pluto. No word yet on how long the Plutonese have known of us.

Relations between the Plutonese and the Earthlings have never been worse. Many Earthlings have begun to question whether we should even recognize Pluto as a fellow planet. It's an escaped moon of Neptune or an oversized asteroid, Earth men argue. In short, Pluto's too small to be a planet. But couldn't the Jupiterians say the same thing about us? A few years back, rumors circulated around the International Astronomical Union regarding internal debates to reclassify Pluto as a "minor planet" or a Kuiper Belt object. The group never reclassified the distant world, but, as the Plutonese rightly point out, what's an international body doing making decisions traditionally left to galaxian authorities? When we cast off our Earthocentric perspective, we realize that we're not so different from the Plutonese.

Take our moons, for instance. Unlike the seven other planets in the solar system, Earth and Pluto have but one moon. No other planets compare so closely in size to their moons as both the Earth and Pluto do. Peculiarly, Pluto and its moon Charon have synchronous orbits. Just as we see only one side of our moon (which is actually larger than Pluto) from Earth, the Plutonese see only one side of Charon. Lifeforms on Charon, assuming they exist (and have eyeballs), see but one side of Pluto too.

Being that the sun is like the hub of the solar system, Pluto's distance invites hick stereotypes. Not only does that bristle the locals, but Pluto's puny size--the Earth's circumference is almost six times greater--and its weakness in retaining its atmosphere give the Plutonese a major insecurity complex. Think Robert Plant with gym socks stuffed in his pants or Rudy Giuliani in the combover days, and you have the psychological makeup of your average Plutonese--only wearing the hayseed uniform of one-strap overalls. And like other rural folk (in Appalachia, the Nevada high-desert, or beyond), Pluto's major problem is meth--methane ice that is. Their planet is covered with it.

Seeking to shake its stereotype as an outpost of rubes and yahoos, the Plutonese every 200 years or so--kind of like the modernization attempts of Ataturk or Peter the Great--make a jailbreak towards the Sun in an attempt to be seen as more urbane. This lasts about twenty years, and then they resign themselves to their station as the ninth and last of the Sun's planets--until they try this all over again a couple of Earth-centuries later. The Neptunese, furious about this Plutonese encroachment upon their traditional orbital position about the Sun, recaptured their modest spot among the planets in 1999 after twenty years as the furthest planet from the Sun.

Perhaps some of the Earthling-Plutonese conflict is due to the lack of intercultural exchange. No spacecraft from either planet has ever visited the other. Unmanned craft from Earth have traveled to seven distant planets, but have gracelessly snubbed Pluto. But soon--after the Pluto-bound spacecraft New Horizons launches next year--all of this will change. And with a little luck, the frayed relationship will change too. The alternative--an intergalactic war that would surely ensnare the Time Lords, Vultan's Hawk Men, and the Cylons--is too horrific to contemplate.

Just for the record, eyeballs are merely a lense and do not see; Brains "see"...

The critical question is whether or not the Plutonese are a democratic people, if not then they are a threat to our security.

This is the wierdest thing I have ever seen. But as always, Brian hops in with his trademark reactionary support for dictatorships.

When you say cylons do you mean the old kind or the new kind? It's things like that that matter.

I think it's quite clear which era's Cylons he's referring to.

Old-school Cylons.

"When you say cylons do you mean the old kind or the new kind? It's things like that that matter."

-obijuan

Dude, this kind of stuff is Cyclon 101. If you arent going to bother to even educate yourself about the topic, dont post.

Truth: If eyes can't see, then brains can't see either: it's the animal who sees _with_ his eyes and brain.

Yes short, we need eyes as well. However, they just collect reflected light and actually project an upside-down image of the visual field to the brain, wherin the image is interpreted and processed, in attempts to make some sense of our surroundings. We all see differently because we all think differently.

Ben-T, you wrote, "This is the wierdest thing I have ever seen. But as always, Brian hops in with his trademark reactionary support for dictatorships."

Brian does not mean to infer he supports dictatorships, he just might stand for non-interventionalist policies, respectively.

Truth: Yes, I'm very impressed by your knowledge of how eyes work. How could you miss my point so badly?

haha Nothing makes me happier* than seeing that Truth is on Brian's side.

-ben

* -- aside from Cylons

Ben, the sexy blonde cylons or the metallic red eyed ones?

Obi, how dare you. Cylons are not objects for us humanoid men to just use and abuse.

I am not surprised that you get a kick out of that Ben, you are small-minded enough. Truth didn't even take my "side," he only corrected Ben-T's intentional misconstrual of my statement above. That only constitutes being capable of reading above the 3rd grade level.

Truth, Short's point is that you are being a materialist in reducing "sight" which is a sense that certain creatures have to some specific organ like the brain. Brains do not "see" just as you said eyes do not "see." A brain in a vat sees nothing. A brain with eyes attached to it in a corpse sees nothing. Animals capable of sight with the properly functioning material elements of vision "see."

"you are small-minded enough"

I'm hurt, Brian. Are you just going to sacrifice our relationship like this?

"he only corrected Ben-T's intentional misconstrual of my statement above."

Mr. T did not misconstrue your statement. You're apparently unable to examine the consequences of your desired action. (And I'm the small=minded one?) I think D'Souza called it "de facto support" for dictatorship.

To Truth, one of the looniest, most entertaining guys I've had the pleasure to see on the Internet:

"We all see differently because we all think differently."

We all may "see differently" in a metaphorical sense, but if your implication that we all literally see differently was true, eye examinations would be impossible to administer.

Ben, I meant that when one man looks at a landscape and another man looks at that same landscape; their attentions will be focused on different objects. Their attention will be drawn to different things in the same picture, depending on their minds' focus... thats all. Thats why some men are better hunters than others. Some fail to see the animals residing in between the trees; Some just look at the trees themselves. I understand and agree with your point however, that two men would in all probability, agree that the letter E is just that; providing they learned the English language. I was just speaking from a different perspective. No then, if we want to speak symbollically or metaphorically about the term "sight"... I will subjectively stand aside and say, I'll stick with the rods and cones!
Any fellow biologists out there?

"Love sees not with the eyes but with the mind." -- Shakespeare

Weird. Let's talk about Ur-anus.

"When the true eye opens, everything becomes one...it sweeps discriminating thoughts away and allows us to see...the absolute oneness of all things...it eliminates all separation and allows us to realize that nothing is hidden in the universe. Everything is just as it is."
- Maezumi Roshi

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear . Harry S. Truman

I like poop!

The real issue here is bargain-basement pricing for all of those "Pluto Rox!" and "We're Number Eight!" t-shirts.

Whoohoo,quotes.

"Brian doesn't understand what the word reactionary means."

-Ben-T