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Martian Naming Madness
Macblaster writes "With the rise of robotic exploration of Mars, scientists are having difficulty naming all the new features they're discovering. Accepted name lists have fallen by the wayside, and now scientifically important features are named after everything from 80's bands to romantic interests." From the article: "Like European explorers who named the New World after their homes in the Old, the Mars scientists have filled the strange landscape of the Red Planet with a mishmash of modern life on Earth. The twin rover missions have forced scientists to come up with more than 4,000 names to mark everything from the majestic Columbia Hills to a few pebbles in the sand. The result is an extravagantly labeled map punctuated by the scientists' ever-changing preoccupations with history, holidays, monkeys, ice cream, cartoon characters, sushi, Mayan words, Scandinavian fish delicacies ... the list goes on and on."
Scandanavian fish delicacies? Ye gods!
Oh someone please don't tell me they've named a hill or rock or crater "Lutefisk"! Please, no!
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Unfortunately, people have to be dead for three years before you can use their name, so CowboyNeal Crater is right out.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
See this is what happens when you don't have a handy native to pull over and ask what the landmark is called. For those who don't know here's a quote from Terry Pratchetts "Light Fantastic"
The forest of Skund was indeed enchanted, which was nothing unusual on the Disc, and was also the only forest in the whole universe to be called -- in the local language -- Your Finger You Fool, which was the literal meaning of the word Skund.
The reason for this is regrettably all too common. When the first explorers from the warm lands around the Circle Sea travelled into the chilly hinterland they filled in the blank spaces on their maps by grabbing the nearest native, pointing at some distant landmark, speaking very clearly in a loud voice, and writing down whatever the bemused man told them. Thus were immortalised in generations of atlases such geographical oddities as Just A Mountain, I Don't Know, What? and, of course, Your Finger You Fool.
This is not serious at all. The names are without a doubt temporary used by the NASA employees for charting. Its quite a bit easier to remember something that sounds completely retarded compared to a couple numbers and letters.