As Controversies Go, This One’s on a Mammoth Scale

The Postal Service is sticking to the name brontosaurus for one of the creatures depicted on its new dinosaur stamps, even though it is actually an apatosaurus, a long-necked dinosaur that wandered North America 150 million years ago. “The stamp is simply wrong,” said Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton). O. C. Marsh, who dug up two similar fossil skeletons in the 1800s, named the first fossil apatosaurus and the second brontosaurus. But over the years, scientists determined that the fossils Marsh found were all from the same kind of creature. In 1974, paleontologists discarded the name brontosaurus, and apatosaurus has been used since then in textbooks. Brown was alerted to the error by Ruth Kirkby, executive director of the Jurupa Mountains Cultural Center in Riverside, Calif. “If we can’t get the name of the dinosaur right, what does that tell our children about the adults?” she asked. Frank Thomas of the Postal Service’s Stamp Information Branch said the agency knew that the name brontosaurus was technically incorrect. “But the decision was still made to go with brontosaurus. . . . Brontosaurus was more familiar to the general public,” Thomas said.

--Malaysia’s ninth king was crowned during an elaborate ceremony at the national palace in Kuala Lumpur. Sultan Azlan Muhibuddin Shah, 61, hereditary ruler of Perak state, was proclaimed Yang Di-Pertuan Agong (One Who is Chief Among the Most Prominent) and constitutional monarch by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed. The former judge was elected king by the sultans of nine of Malaysia’s 13 states. He succeeds Sultan Iskandar Mahmood of Johor, and his installation completes the rotation of the sultans, who must elect one of their number every five years, under the constitution enacted after Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957.

--Singer Willie Nelson is officially a farmer--an honorary North Dakota Centennial Farmer. In recognition of the singer’s Farm Aid benefit concerts, state Agriculture Commissioner Sarah Vogel presented him with a centennial plaque and several products made in the state when he performed at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Nelson, founder and chairman of Farm Aid Inc., said the concerts have raised more than $10 million since 1985. “It’s sort of a drop in the bucket in one way,” he said. “These people have been helped, but their problems haven’t been solved.” Vogel said: “Farm Aid has made a lot of difference in North Dakota. People have food that they wouldn’t have without Farm Aid.”