Slashdot Mirror
"Xena" To Be Named Eris
rdwald writes, "After over a year of hanging in maybe-planet limbo, newly-classified 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena, now has a permanent name: Eris, goddess of strife. Its moon will be named Dysnomia, after the goddess of lawlessness — in Greek mythology, Eris's daughter — certainly not a reference there... I don't think I'm alone when I say, 'Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!'"
In the same IAU announcement (PDF), Pluto was given its official minor planet number: 134340.
You cant use that popular name. We will give it our own name so that you know that its ours, not yours.
Or something like that. My copy is upstairs and I can't be bothered to check.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Sounds more like a "film noir" or an old german submarine. Eris? It'll immediately be confused with Eros. UB313! UB313! UB313!
She was a great 'warrior' in her own right, I loved watching her show.
Especially those outfits, that was one of the best parts. I can never get my wife to wear things like that.
You will be missed, Xena.
The announcement cryptically mentions "...two other new potential dwarf-planet candidates" and I'm not sure which they mean.
Come in CowboyNeal, your time has come...
I have no idea about the second one though.
liqbase
and
Hi,
sweet! First planet named after an IRC network!
Long live EFnet!
bye,
Till
you're all popes!
Any sufficiently advanced man is indistinguishable from God
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...it's a giant golden apple!
Kallisti!
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
It was supposed to be called Yuggoth. So now, what, we have to wait for an 11th planet? Damn it.
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
hmm so how to calibrate the horoscopes?
:)
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.
Oh my.... Wrong!
All hail Eris!
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Does Hagbard know about this? Well, I guess Gold & Appel Transfers will be getting into the space-race too.
I will run my ddate programm to celebrate it :)
Today is Boomtime, the 38th day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3172
SHE does throw dice.
"Are all your planets called Eris?"
Your favorite sig sucks
Hail Eris, full of Taste, the IAU is with thee.
Funky art thou among Goddesses, and Blessed is the Golden Apple of thy planet, Eris.
Holy Eris, She who Dunnit, pray for all us humans now, and in the lifetime of our confusion.
Fnord.
Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
You are alone when you say "Nerd". Hello? This is Slashdot? "News for nerds"?
If you're not a nerd then wtf are you doing here.
given the strife and discord its discovery created within the land of astronomers
being vague is almost as cool as doing that other thing...
Indeed, Kierthos.
There are plenty of Discordians around, especially on Slashdot. It's just that whenever someone instructs a Discordian to "all hail Eris", most Discordian's first instincts are to do the opposite. Kind of goes with the territory.
Happily, there are also those like Kierthos, who even rebel against the disorder prevalent in Discordianism[1].
All Hail Discordia!
(Hah!)
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
I suspect that the astronomer who wanted Xena and Gabrielle to be the names of the planet and its companion has still got his Xenaphile way - Strife and Discord were two very prominent characters in many of the Xena episodes. Usually associated with Ares, the God of War who of course already has his own planet, Mars (the Roman version). The trio is united!
Watch my YouTube atheist video blog (user NickGisburne2000) for arguments against religion
I am not a number. I am a free planet!
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
Eris has her own planet now. Her ego's going to inflate so much that Mandy might finally meet her match.
It was always known that UB313 would not be its name forever -- everything is happening as I have foreseen...
These are Greek names, not Roman!
Moreover, the person who discovered them should have every right to name them wahtever he/she wants. Elitism is unacceptable.
:T:R:A:N:S:
Hail Goddess of Strife! Hail Eris!
All humble yourselves before DISCORDIA!
Kiss the sun lest she be angry!
THE STREETS *SHALL FLOW* WITH THE BLOOD OF THE NON-BELIEVERS!
*The crazed look in his eyes begins to settle as the morning 0xc0ffee wears off a bit*
Its moon will be named Dysnomia, after the goddess of lawlessness.
...and Xena Warrior Princess was played by Lucy Lawless... we're definately on to something here.
28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds... that is when the world will end.
Dear Earth,
Pleas do not take this letter as me being bitter but I must say I am rather upset. I have been there with you during the good times and the bad. I know I am smaller than most other planets, but I never thought you would reject me for it. We've been friends for so many years and now you no longer wish to call me a Planet. Just know that when the astroid comes flying towards you I wont be there to try and stop it anymore. I guess what I'm trying to say is... SCREW YOU!!
Pluto
P.S. Eris, you suck too
So many choices, so little tolerance.
Did someone on slashdot just call someone else a nerd as an insult? Uhh...*points to that little blurb next to title*
She Who Done It All.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Hail Eris full of grace, holy queen of outer space!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"Are all your planets called Eris?"
There's nothing so odd about that; Kemil Attaturk had an entire Solar System called Abdan.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Who says the goddesses Eris and Dysnomia weren't popular in ancient times? I'm sure the goddesses of strife and lawlessness were widely worshipped by ancient Greek and Roman hooligans, rioters, lynch-mobs and criminals in general.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Why did the image of Iraq suddenly flash through my head as I read this?
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
SSIAFNORD!
(%i1) factor(777353);
(%o1) 777353
This isn't a planet license; this is a Kuiper Belt object license with the words "Kuiper Belt" crossed out and the word "planet" written in in crayon.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
....Astronomy needs class to get funding.
May the Maths Be with you!
Hail Eris! Hail fellow discordian!
How appropriate. The Law of Fives states that all things happen in fives, or multiples of five, or are somehow directly or indirectly related to the number five.
If you add up the digits in the name (2003 UB313, u=21 and b = 2), it adds up to 32, and then if you add up those digits in 32, 3 + 2 = 5. Also, there are 5 non-zero digits in the name of the planet.
Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!
All hail Kibo! Beable beable beable beable beable beable
My very educated mother just showed us nine ... hmmm...
Couldn't they have at least chosen something with a P since they've demoted Pluto?
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
Duck and cover!
Better start looking out for Damocles!
Well, if you lived on Eris anyway...
fnordtherefnord is fnord nothing fnordfnord with fnord thatfnordfnord, your subliminal fnord mind strips fnord the word fnordfnordfnordfnordfnordfnordfnord so you just fnord feel uneasy fnord.
Anyone want to start an online petition?
Personally I find it unacceptable that the finder's name has been cast aside. I never watched Xena- not my cuppa tea, although, like the poster above wish my wife would wear some of those outfits.
Xena not being high-browed enough aside. Naming rights usually go to the founder. If he wanted to call the planet Pee-wee and the moon Herman- that's his right.
Crazy, obscene and ludicrous that they change the name.
The name should be changed back!
...British English...
So, when we find a stable wormhole nest to Eris - will it be called the Erishole?
Was Pluto not enough, was there a problem with Uranus too? Did you astronomers feel that perhaps there were not enough double entendres already that you had to add potentially many, many more by using Eris?
Sigh, I thnk we should really consider not allowing astronomers to name things anymore. Eris - arse... seriously people!!!
obviously Xena is the goddess of lucy lawlessness
Uh....IAU guys....wouldn't it be fair, since Pluto is thisclose to being a planet, and since it was discovered in 1930, to assign Pluto as Minor Planet #1?
Just sayin', that's all...
What man?
The man from the International Astronomical Union van.
The International Looney van, you mean.
Your favorite sig sucks
Or he could just be trying to stir up some general discord. Which do you think is more likely?
Thank you.
It's too soon for a planet named Xena. You've got to give it about 1000 years, when the lens of history has changed the common understanding of Xena from "television warrior bimbo" to "goddess of war worshipped at the start of the last millenium."
Please do consider celebrating tomorrow (Friday) in the traditional fashion by partaking of a hot dog with no bun... I have found that Eris seems to appreciate a nice side-dish in the bun's stead, such as some potato salad.
To diverse gods
Do mortals bow;
Holy Cow, and
Wholly Chao.
I have a doubt: How do say 'Eris' instead of 'Ares'? I think this is why she is the goddess of discord, no one knows how to pronounce her name without confusing with her father's, and it must piss her off :P
I don't think I'm alone when I say, 'Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!'"
:)
No, you're not. In fact, you probably aren't the first either. Slashdot isn't the *only* place that geeks hang out, you know.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
It's not called 'Eris' until www.IAU.org says so. This PDF is from Harvard and not IAU. It could be faked.
You must be new here. Confusion is the whole point.... Hail Discordia!
This is like earth's last gift to Robert Anton Wilson.
You mean they're not going to name planets after TV shows any more? I was hoping the next planet/moon pair discovered would be names Sanford and Son.
Look, it's people like you what cause discord.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Jerf throws a Golden Apple MacBook Pro into the discussion inscribed, "For the nerdiest".
Hail Discordia!
Shouldn't the moon be named after the goddess of gonads?
The poet Hesiod noted in his Works and Days that there were two kinds of Eris and one of them good. The spirit of friendly competition and one-upsmanship on it's own are good for society. Those are the challenges which advance the state of the art. It's lawless harm to others that is dangerous and makes us all poorer. When a thing is destroyed, the world is that much poorer. When things are created, the world is richer. Those who would destroy so that they can own more of what belongs to others are criminals. For examples of evil, observe Microsoft. For examples of creative growth see GNU, BSD and most free software projects which all aim to do the same things excellently. The English words, strife and discord, don't do the concept justice. Strife is good.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Let us all consume a hot dog tomorrow (Friday) in her honor!
So it has Aero Glass turned on by default?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
You used the words 'Eris' and 'confused' ... It is appropriate.
I picked it out of thousands. I didn't like the others, they were all too flat.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Resultant to this announcement, it seems all the more vital that all Discordians should remember to eat a hot dog tomorrow.
Might we have another holiday to lodge onto the Discordian calendar?
How appropriate is it that this should happen in the Season of Bureaucracy? Mark your calednars, all . . . Sweetmorn, Bureaucracy the 37th, 3242 . . . Discordians finally get a planet they can migrate to (as soon as a few technical hurdles are . . . well . . . hurdled.)
Raoul Mitgong: Unhelpful.
And I had my hopes up for it being named Rupert :-(
The current conflict in Iraq actually provides a beautiful illustration of the continued balancing of the Sacred Chao. The Sacred Chao, that Wholly mating of the Hodge and the Podge must always balance, for if it didn't balance, it would tip and tipping the Sacred Chao would be wholly disasterous.
So we see the esclation of Order, and an equal and proportionate esclation of Chaos, which is responded to by Order, which is countered with Chaos... and it will continue until the humans involved decide to stop.
Eris sits on the back of Ares' chariot, looking over the battlefield and laughing at the silliness of man.
Get a life, not a lifestyle. - Hikem Bey
Pluto is still Pluto.
Just because it has a number doesn't make the name go away. Let's see... I like the "Jelly Sandwich":
Mother Very Thoughtfully Makes A Jelly Sandwich Using No Persimmons... Everyday.
(Earnestly if you don't care for 'Terra')
(Jelly Sandwiches instead of A Jelly Standwich to keep the Asteroids out)
It still needs to be said, from an earlier thread:
Some people just seem to have a negative emotional response to the idea that there may be hundreds of planets in the Solar System, and that emotional response seems to be what has won the day here. There is no science behind this at all, it is a definition that is arbitrarily designed to permanently cap the number of planets to a small, manageable number. I see at least two big problems with this, first, the opening up to the possibility of there being hundreds of planets would force educators to rethink how these concepts are taught in elementary school. It could be something other than a memorize-these-nine-things exercise, but rather an opportunity to teach the basic concepts. Now it will just become a memorize-these-eight-things exercise. The other thing is that many of the newly discovered objects really merit study, and I don't see any Congress appropriating funds to send a probe to something that is just a "dwarf planet". The worst thing, though, is the pervasive media certainty that this is the end of the debate, five hundred really smart people voted on the issue and now it is settled for all eternity. I think that this new definition is deeply flawed in a number of ways, and we really need to treat this as a debate that has just begun.
Maybe it is a Latin name, I don't know. But there is no Xena in ancient Greek mythology. The damage is done from the popular show 'Xena' and 'Hercules and Xena'...but if we were to believe those shows, then Ninjas helped Hercules with his tasks, along with Asterix...
As declared by The Lady, Eris, Herself, please eat a hotdog on Friday in Her Honor!
Hail Eris, All Hail Discordia!
FNORD!
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
So they named it Eris beacause it started the whole planet argument?
I submitted this article last night and it was soundly rejected.
Thing is that link http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/special/08747.pdf was in my original submission.
So instead of it being named after a cheesy fantasy show, we get a planet named after a cartoon character.
I can't tell you how happy this makes me ...
.. you officially made my day ..
Thanks Slashdot fnord and IAU
Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!
I wonder what name they will give to the other dwarf planet "Santa" and "Easter Bunny" ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet#List_of_ dwarf_planets
I'm still stunned at the level of personal attachment people feel over planetary names. Pluto probably is as popular as it is because of the Disney character. People are upset that 2003 UB313 was named "Eris" because they had affection for the name "Xena".
All of this is incredibly silly.
I propose that we take an existing planet, say Jupiter, and start calling it the planet "Vagina". A popular affectionate name we can all call it, petition the IAU and write protest songs about.
It will be the Flying Spaghetti Monster of IAU proposals.
Astrologers who use more than the five original planets visible to the naked eye ought to be ashamed of themselves. If astrology worked when there were five planets, if astrology works when the constellations aren't even in the zodiac any more, then there's no reason we need more than the five TRUE planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Good Roman gods, none of these Greek has-beens, you'll notice! All these so called "scientific" definitions of planets say NOTHING about things that matter, like their influences on our lives. Don't listen to these "reality"-biased nerds and "rationality" geeks, real people know what a planet is and that's all that matters!
I'm just surprised everyone isn't making tasteless "Xena princess warrior" jokes.
actually battle Eris' minions in a couple of episodes of their shows?
We are the 198 proof..
O, Discordia!