Slashdot Mirror
Geologists Angry About New 'Pluton' Definition
An anonymous reader writes "According to a story over at Nature, some geologists are ticked off at the International Astronomical Union for using the word 'pluton' to describe a round object orbiting the sun with a period more than 200 years. A pluton, it seems, is a common type of rock formation that exists in most Geology 101 curricula. IAU head Owen Gingerich is quoted as saying that he was only peripherally aware of the definition, and because it didn't show up on MS Word's spell check, he didn't think it was that important."
IAU head Owen Gingerich is quoted as saying that he was only peripherally aware of the definition, and because it didn't show up on MS Word's spell check, he didn't think it was that important.
In other news, the US Congress voted not to move to Linux, after Senator Binghaman discovered that MS Word's spell checker doesn't recognize it.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
There's nothing worse than when rock geeks, and rocks in space geeks get into argument over vocabulary. ;)
Error 407 - No creative sig found
1. n. some rock thingy that noone* cares about.
2. n. some astromomical thingy that nooone* cares about.
* by weight, not intellectual capacity.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Today, the UFC brings you: Scientist Cage Match! My money's on the geologists. Despite their tendencies towards excessive beer consumption, at least they run around outdoors occasionally.
Geologist goes postal against Ballmer, fights back, actually throwing his chair at him (oh the irony) for not including the world pluton in the ms word spellcheck.
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
Plutrino
Plutonite
Mini-Pluto
iPluto Nano
They should have googled it.
Sheesh, those astronomers sure are lacking in the geekiness department.
. . . does it actually merit a new word?
Yes, yes it does. Precision of technical terms is always desirable, so the trick is to find one that no one else is already using.
I suggest we look for some distinctive feature of Pluto and form the new word around that. Lesseeeeeee, it' been variously suggested that it's either an ex-moon of Neptune, or an ex-Kuiper belt object, so I suggest:
Exxon.
That one should be safe. I can' imagine anyone else wanting such an obviosly made up; and utterly stupid, word.
KFG
"Seriously though, the word 'nucleus' has several different definitions in different branches of science, and I've never had problems with it"
Well I do because I don't know which one you've never had a problem with! *ARGH*
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
They're just p***ed off because whilst they can share the name, they can't share the domain name!
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
They also renamed Uranus to Urectum.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
I demand (DEMAND!) that everything that orbits the sun be called "natural space satellite" and that all other objects that do not orbit the sun be called a "space pebble" except for man made extra terrestrial matter that will be called "space junk" and that satellites of my newly termed "natural space satellite" be called a "remote natural space satellite" and that satellites of those satellites be called "remote natural space satellite subtype a [or b, c, d, e...]" and so on and so forth for satellites of satellites of satellites (and so on and so on...)
Now as for light within in the the heliosphere but not within the atmosphere of a satellite it must be called "space light type [star, phosphorescent gasses, space junk emitted]".
And the tails of comets must be re-termed as "debris of satellite [enter satellite name]" and that any solid particles put off in the tails of the comet over a half a gram must be termed "space pebble in the debris of satellite [enter satellite name]"
This of course will lead to the renaming of "meteor showers" to "space pebble fallout to natural space satellite Earth".
Furthermore we need to rename the "asteroid belt" to "natural space satellite collective between natural space satellite Mars and natural space satellite Jupiter". Objects within the "natural space satellite collective between natural space satellite Mars and natural space satellite Jupiter" that are not residence of "natural space satellite collective between natural space satellite Mars and natural space satellite Jupiter" for at least 300 years at a time must be rename "temporary natural space satellite not wholly belonging to the natural space satellite collective between natural space satellite Mars and natural space satellite Jupiter".
And this is just the tip of the iceberg! I have a million ideas on how we can further fuck up the order of things by bickering and fighting over some random bullshit that isn't going to make the slightest bit of difference under the sun.
Hold on! Damn it! A pebble is a rock formation! Jesus! My entire idea is for nothing! God damn those geologists!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Maybe the geologists shouldn't name shit associated with Roman Gods. The damned astronomers called dibs years ago!
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
joule: (n) a gemstone, such as amber, from which energy can be generated
candella: (n) a scented candle, usually used to illuminate bubble baths
angstrom: (n) a digital write-once medium for storing memories of fear and anxiety
-goltrpoat
As a burglar, I'm furious of geology's use of the word "intrusion".
For what it's worth, as a mathematician, I'm furious at the use of the word "matrix" by geologists, "integration" by sociologists, "differentiation" by biologists, the use of the word "domain" by web users, and the use of the verb "to commute" by ordinary people stuck in traffic.
Then again, I'd better watch out for those geologists, they walk around with pointy hammers in their pocket.
that's nothing, watch a slashdot reader perk up when he hears of an Unprotected Double Penetration