Results 151 to 178 of 178
-
2019-11-06, 12:28 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
-
2019-11-06, 02:24 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2014
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
I imagine, at least within Sci-Fi, there's a desire to not have distinguishers of "the". There are many moons, so they don't want a The Moon. Thus... it's a good-enough sounding alternative. Same with a The Sun. Especially because someone in another system would colloquially refer to "the sun" (and possibly "the moon", if applicable) of their own planet.
Earth doesn't quite have that problem (unless you go for "the Earth", which isn't possible with a more distinct proper name... you don't say "the Jupiter", after all), but any 'Terra' or other related thing is usually done in order to make it sound instinctively different.
-
2019-11-06, 02:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
It only ever becomes a potential issue when you're talking about living in other solar systems, because it would be odd for people living in such a system to refer to their sun by its full name all the time just to distinguish it from some random star elsewhere--this is why Sol is a popular name in SF. Not sure about the Terra/Earth thing myself, though, although I suppose there's a possibility of confusion between earth (as in the stuff you grow your plants in) and Earth the planet.
-
2019-11-06, 08:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- Sharangar's Revenge
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
As I understand it, the "surface" of the surface-less gas giants is the point where the atmospheric pressure equals Earth's average pressure at sea level.
Warhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
My Spelljammer stuff (including an orbit tracker), 2E AD&D spreadsheet, and Vault of the Drow maps are available in my Dropbox. Feel free to use or not use it as you see fit!
Thri-Kreen Ranger/Psionicist by me, based off of Rich's A Monster for Every Season
-
2019-11-06, 09:49 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
- Location
- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
The Hindsight Awards, results: See the best movies of 1999!
-
2019-11-06, 11:27 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Grognardia
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
I was a server for many years. When they came out with the mobile/handheld debit machines, one of the unexpected results was that, instead of being able to take three or four cards ("Just split it evenly.") over to the counter-top machine and doing the math on paper, I had to start doing it right there at the table, in my head, while they all stared at me.
I got really good at dividing things by two and three. Lightning quick with very high accuracy.(Avatar by Cuthalion, who is great.)
-
2019-11-06, 01:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2013
- Location
- Bristol, UK
-
2019-11-06, 03:02 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
I thought that they were switching to the names given by the International Astronomical Union, but apparently it's merely the influx of science fiction authors. I guess that sci-fi does this because English doesn't have names for most planets that aren't the Latin ones, so they use Latin by analogy.
In astronomy, "sol" actually means a solar day on a different planet than Earth. It's used with this meaning on the NASA website.Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955
-
2019-11-06, 03:23 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Washington D.C.
- Gender
-
2019-11-06, 08:29 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Location
- Bristol
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
Yyyup. It was a planet for 76 years, which is not only little more than a rounding error in terms of the history of astronomy (the first six planets having been known for at least three thousand years and possibly more than double that) but it's already been a sixth as long since the demotion as its entire lifetime as a planet in the first place.
Not only are there living people older than Pluto's discovery, but it won't be long until there are people with kids of their own who have never known a world in which Pluto was a planet, either*. Again.
*I mean, there probably already are, but I don't want to think about that more than I have to.GITP Blood Bowl Manager Cup
Red Sabres - Season I Cup Champions, two-time Cup Semifinalists
Anlec Razors - Two-time Cup Semifinalists
Bad Badenhof Bats - Season VII Cup Champions
League Wiki
Spoiler: Previous Avatars(by Strawberries)
(by Rain Dragon)
-
2019-11-07, 01:03 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2014
-
2019-11-07, 01:07 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
- Location
- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
I know my love for big words and long sentences may suggest otherwise, but I'm a big fan of the "yellow sauce rule"*. If my idea came across, I'm happy. But thanks for the lesson.
*If person A asks for the yellow sauce even though they mean the pink whisky** cocktail sauce, and person B gives them said pink sauce (prefferably without thinking about it too hard), success!
**Another favorite of the spelling game, since the spelling depends on where it's from.
I don't know, the lack of hp kind of hurts it. I hear they go pretty well with meteor swarm though, so maybe put some wizard in there?Last edited by Lvl 2 Expert; 2019-11-07 at 01:09 AM.
-
2019-11-07, 03:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
-
2019-11-07, 10:18 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Washington D.C.
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
Cuthalion's art is the prettiest art of all the art. Like my avatar.
Number of times Roland St. Jude has sworn revenge upon me: 2
-
2019-11-07, 10:43 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2009
- Location
- A nice, sparkly place.
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
There was a special astronomy video on a college campus I recently watched. It was designed for kids and they slipped in that pluto was still classified as a 'planet'. Those kids are in for a rude awakening when they get older.
Last edited by Silverraptor; 2019-11-07 at 10:43 AM.
-
2019-11-07, 12:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- The Land of Cleves
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
"Earth" might only be used for one planet, but it's also used for a substance. If we ever send colonists to a habitable world around tau Ceti, they'll plant crops in the earth, and try to get their chores done before sunset.
And I think this all started because of my use of "Luna", but that was a post arguing that said body should be considered a planet (or, more precisely, a rockball) rather than a moon, and it'd be absurd to say "the Moon isn't a moon".Last edited by Chronos; 2019-11-07 at 12:55 PM.
Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.
—As You Like It, III:ii:328
Chronos's Unalliterative Skillmonkey Guide
Current Homebrew: 5th edition psionics
-
2019-11-07, 02:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
-
2019-11-07, 02:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Washington D.C.
- Gender
-
2019-11-07, 03:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
- Location
- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
To be fair, even NASA is roughly as likely to talk about a lunar lander as about a moon mission. It's not that outlandish a word.
For good interstellar recognition it might help to have a good name for the sun. It's hard to think of a good one with few universal points of reference (we traditionally named most stars after the constellation they appear part of as seen from Earth, newer objects can just be known as "Person or telescope that found it [number]"). But ones you have a good name Earth is just [Name]3 or that one place where people live around there. (Unless dwarf planets and large astroids are common enough near stars that nobody agrees on a general method of counting.)The Hindsight Awards, results: See the best movies of 1999!
-
2019-11-07, 03:20 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Washington D.C.
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
Last edited by Peelee; 2019-11-07 at 03:27 PM.
Cuthalion's art is the prettiest art of all the art. Like my avatar.
Number of times Roland St. Jude has sworn revenge upon me: 2
-
2019-11-07, 04:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
-
2019-11-07, 07:04 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
Last edited by veti; 2019-11-07 at 07:07 PM.
-
2019-11-07, 07:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Location
- Bristol
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
Liberal use of "Terra" bothers me unduly not just because it's "wrong", but because I feel it's the wrong word to have chosen for the world of those available.
The "consistent" name would be Gaia, but if we're taking a straight Latin translation of "Earth" for some reason then we have a choice of "Terra" or "Tellus", and the latter is wholly superior.
Firstly, while neither word is wholly devoid of ambiguity, "Tellus" is used more in the sense that we mean "Earth" rather than "earth", is absent from Latin loanwords and phrases referring to "soil", "ground", etc. and therefore doesn't mirror the existing ambiguity in English. Because why would you want to?
Secondly, it's not a homophone of an existing noun.
Third is personal and aesthetic. I just don't like nouns, especially proper nouns, that end in a hanging schwa, which I think is principally because they're annoying when followed by "and" - which is probably the word that follows them more than any other. And "Terra" is particularly bad because the "r"s are approximants, and thus excuses for consonants. "Tellus" by contrast has a pleasing weight and and finality to it.
Now if only I could get all sci-fi writers to agree with me, the world would be improved (pun intended, such as it is).Last edited by Aedilred; 2019-11-07 at 07:23 PM.
GITP Blood Bowl Manager Cup
Red Sabres - Season I Cup Champions, two-time Cup Semifinalists
Anlec Razors - Two-time Cup Semifinalists
Bad Badenhof Bats - Season VII Cup Champions
League Wiki
Spoiler: Previous Avatars(by Strawberries)
(by Rain Dragon)
-
2019-11-07, 08:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Washington D.C.
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
Last edited by Peelee; 2019-11-07 at 08:31 PM.
Cuthalion's art is the prettiest art of all the art. Like my avatar.
Number of times Roland St. Jude has sworn revenge upon me: 2
-
2019-11-08, 04:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
-
2019-11-08, 11:04 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
-
2019-11-08, 11:59 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2009
- Location
- A nice, sparkly place.
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
-
2019-11-08, 11:59 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
Re: Pluto Isn't Even A Planet?! What?!
NASA chief Jim Bridenstine doubles down on claim Pluto is a planet, citing its moons, oceans and organic compounds
Why should it be Gaia? It's Greek, English planet names are Latin loanwords. There is the "telluric" adjective, although it may be less frequent. And both Tellus and Terra were names for the Latin goddess of earth (although Terra was used later in this sense), as well as for the earthly globe.
But I also would have expected the Anglophone to use Tellus, if just not to remind of Italian or Portuguese instead of Latin. Maybe Tellurean or Tellurian sounded bad, or even too "alien" for us Terrestrials?
EDIT: I later realised that Uranus is Greek. And, well, Pluto, if you will it.Last edited by Vinyadan; 2019-11-08 at 12:12 PM.
Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955