Demotion of Pluto as a planet

[Jonathan Post]

For mathematical self-referentiality, hinting at Godel paradoxes, please
allow me to mention:

"*This sentence contains
ten words,
eighteen syllables,
and sixty-four letters.*"
[Jonathan Vos Post, Scientific American, reprinted in
"Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern",
by Douglas R. Hofstadter, paperback reprint March 1996, pp.26-27]



On 8/27/06, Antti Karttunen <antti.karttunen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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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