OT: The solar system has 12 planets

[PvK]

In the US, schools and students are frequently buying the latest editions... quite an industry...

But 30-year-old chemistry books? Wow! The opposite extreme.

[AngleWyrm]

Maybe we don't want any more brilliant chemists...

[Suicide Junkie]

Schools don't buy books... they make students buy books.

[Renegade 13]

Suicide Junkie said:
Schools don't buy books... they make students buy books.

I'm not sure how it works in Ontario, but here in BC, when you're in highschool the schools purchase the books, not the studnets... If you're referring to university's/college's, of course the students have to buy the books.

[Suicide Junkie]

Sure, in theory the highschools buy the books...
But have you ever seen a newly purchased text book in highschool?

[Renegade 13]

Suicide Junkie said:
Sure, in theory the highschools buy the books...
But have you ever seen a newly purchased text book in highschool?

Yep, once. My Biology 12 textbook was totally new. Then again, it was a total piece of crap (little story behind that...). Now it's time to go off on a tangent

I had Biology 12 in the second semester of my Gr. 12 year. Book was shiny and new, which for our school was a big thing, sadly enough. Anyways, our school (and I presume all others) had a policy that if you trashed the book you had to pay for its replacement at the end of the year. All well and good, except for the fact that they just patched them up and reused them. But that too is beside the point. At the end of the year, my book was in pristine condition, barely a scratch on it. About a month after school was out, the school sends me a bill for the replacement of the book, telling me that when I gave it to them, the covers were ripped off.

Being the kind of person I am, not willing to pay for damage I know I didn't cause, I ignored the bill. Just a couple months ago I started thinking and realized that the school hadn't sent me my diploma yet. Thinking this was just an oversight on their part, I gave them a call and asked what the holdup was. I end up talking to the principal and find out that they have arbitrarily decided to withhold my diploma, since I haven't paid for the fictional damages. I say the book was in great shape when I gave it to them, and the damage must have occurred afterwards. They, of course, don't believe me, but in their oh so gracious manner, decide to give me a deal on the price of replacement; it'd only cost me $50 instead of the $70 they'd wanted before.

Naturally, I told him I wasn't willing to pay anything for damages I didn't incur, but of course, being the prick he is, he didn't really listen to a damn thing I said.

So, after all that rambling, I was wondering; is it legal for a school principal to not send me my property, over damages that they claim I caused (but can't substantiate the claim) over a year ago? I doubt it is, but when I take up this little battle again in the fall, I'd like to know if I have a leg to stand upon when I demand he give me my property, as his actions are (I think) illegal.

Now, you might be saying to yourself it's a minor thing, and really it is. If I felt like it, I could probably get a replacement diploma from the Ministry of Education, but of course I'd have to pay for that too. Mostly though, I'm too stubborn to allow some [censored] on a power trip to get away with screwing me and who knows how many other people out of their rightfully earned property. It just fries me, worse than it probably should. If he doesn't give it to me I think I'll have to just go there in person and get it myself, despite his protestations. I think that'd be...most satisfying.

Whooo. If anyone reads all that, I'll be quite surprised!

[AngleWyrm]

It would be a minor thing if you were the only student. It would be a more serious thing if for instance, a large number of students were sent a bill for $70, for a fictitious book replacement. One might even suspect foul play and pocket money.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I'm not a lawyer, so I can't give you legal advice, but...

It perhaps might be a good idea to contact other students in your chemistry class and ask them if they also recieved a bill. Right now, it's your word against his.

[kalthalior]

There's still alot of controversy regarding this, a competing proposal has been put forth demoting Pluto to "dwarf planet" status.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...t_newprop.html

[Renegade 13]

From the previous link:

...the competing proposal, which inserts the criterion that a planet must be 'by far the largest body in its population of bodies'...

To me, this seems like a far worse proposal than a definition based upon gravity. After all, it's extremely ambiguous. They'd first have to define "By far the largest"; how much larger? 50%? 100%? 200? They'd also have to define "Population of bodies". By this would they include all of the Kuiper Belt as being part of the whole Pluto area population? That defines an absolutely massive area. If you're going to include that many cubic light-minutes as an area in which you can only have one planet and it has to be a lot bigger than anything else, then why not include all of the solar system up to Jupiter as being another area? After all, even with that great an area included as a "population of bodies", it would still be a hell of a lot smaller than the entire Kuiper Belt/Oort Cloud region which, it sounds like, this proposal wants to have recognized as being a single "population of bodies". If that were the case, only Jupiter would be a planet! Even it might not make it, since Saturn is relatively close in size. Come to think of it, by the strict application of this definition, you probably wouldn't have ANY planets in the solar system! Nothing could meet the criteria!

Whew. Hope that made sense, though I doubt it did. Even I can barely decipher what I meant to say!