Demotion of Pluto as a planet

[Antti Karttunen]

Brendan McKay wrote:

>It is supposed to a mnemonic for the new sequence of planets,
>but it isn't. It's a mnemonic for the old sequence. It is not
>self-referential at all but rather self-contradictory.
>
>  
>
Okay, self-contradictory then. What actually the mnemonic sequence like
"My! Very educated morons just snubbed unfortunate ninth planet" (*)
effectively says, if you know the context, is that
"the last element of this sequence does not belong to this sequence".
So maybe we get ideas for integer sequences, after all!
(or at least for some Cretan/Russelian/Gödelian paradoxes.)

(*): a hybrid of Josh Mishell's and Dave Child's solutions, that I would 
like the best.

-- Antti, my last post on this subject, hopefully.



>So it is sub-optimal.  A perfect mnemonic would use just EIGHT
>words to refer to the fact that there used to be nine.
>  
>
>Brendan.
>
>
>* Antti Karttunen <antti.karttunen at gmail.com> [060827 19:09]:
>  
>
>>Brendan McKay wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>But the winner and the next one include Pluto which is no
>>>longer a planet, so why are they even considered?
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Because Pluto is that "unfortunate ninth planet"! Excellently 
>>self-referential mnemonics!
>>I liked them, thanks to Jonathan for posting them.
>>(I guess we should get back to sequences soon, before the note comes 
>>from Paris...)
>>
>>-- Antti
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Brendan.
>>>
>>>* Jonathan Post <jvospost3 at gmail.com> [060827 04:06]:
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Post-Pluto mnemonics for the planets
>>>>
>>>>Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan held a competition to
>>>>come up with a better mnemonic for the planets' names
>>>>in the wake of the decision to demote Pluto
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>from planet-status. The winner, Josh Mishell's
>>>      
>>>
>>>>"My! Very educated morons just screwed up numerous
>>>>planetariums" is great, as are the runners-up:
>>>>
>>>> Many Very Earnest Men Just Snubbed Unfortunate
>>>>Ninth Planet (Dave Child)
>>>>
>>>> "My vision, erased. Mercy! Just some underachiever
>>>>now." (Delia, as spoken by Pluto discoverer Clyde
>>>>Tombaugh)
>>>>
>>>> Most vexing experience, mother just served us
>>>>nothing! (Bart Baxter)
>>>>
>>>>  
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>
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