I think GP is suggesting it be renamed to Urbutthole or something like that to make it specifically distinguished as camp and pun so as to filter out anyone who would set their scientific priorities based on the name of the celestial body.
I’m not one to scream about kids these days but it seems really weird that someone would suggest renaming a planet to avoid elementary school puns. And the puns probably help with Uranus science.
Of course, some DNA sequences were recently renamed to avoid Excel errors so maybe we’re entering the era of trying to make subjective changes because it’s hard to understand or hard to change objective things.
Great video. It points out the similarity of "Uranus" and "uranium"; we should pronounce the first 2 syllable of those words the same if we want to be consistent, and I think we all know how uranium is pronounced.
'Uranus' is the same as 'Europa' (and many more terms): "breadth" - the former used for the vast cover which is the sky, the second for the land extension.
There's nothing funny about it unless one really hunts for coincidences in sounds through unduly overlappings.
What has «first language» do with it? If you read 'Al' in 'Alcohol' as "Alfred", you are reading it wrong: "Al" is a definite article there, irregardless of coincidences.
It's a good point about the first language, not so important.
The rest I dont' get, the fact Uranus actually sounds like "Your Anus" is just a thing, it can't be helped.
When I hear the word Alcohol, I do sometimes think of the nickname for Allan or Alistair which is often Al; However, it's not just as funny as thinking about a planet being called "Your Anus, Uranus".
You have not been "cancelled": you were being "noisy" - distracting on pretty weak basis of a joke as old as mold - and brought to margin. "Cancelled" is someone who found a nice theorem but boo, a bad guy cannot do culture. There's a difference, and again quite some proportion.
On the other hand, as you may see in the page, I have been called an AI and a "fake account" - which, you know, also tends to be quite insulting about one's person. Anything wrong with the air today?
I only meant, the reference from 'Uranus' to 'anus', that I referred to as the "joke". I am not sure about what was your initial comment, as it was hidden as flagged before I could read it.
Not to hurt your feelings but the fact you find it tiresome won't change anything, people aren't going to wake up one day and just decide its not a funny name.
We're not going to start to teach children classes on why it's wrong to laugh at the name Uranus.
I was just being practical when I said what I said. It's not a great name.
At least a couple of billions, when they have 'tachycardia', 'hydraulic', 'geosynchronous', 'Uranus' in their vocabulary.
> A lot more people hear
Well, they are missing a module, aren't they?
> coolness
The label you choose for "knowing your language" is "cool"? Some would say, "duly".
> today's world
What entitlements has that "world" you are mentioning?
> the choice of language
Unclear. If that is arguing against the choice of the ancients, entitlement for judgement remains appropriate. But sure, if you want to call it "S7" in your papers, it will probably work and nobody will stop you. Of course, others will call it as they deem appropriate - oftentimes with reason.
I understand the words are still used a lot but it feels very artificial.
The old Romans and Greeks seem to be adored by academia, especially the arts side. I used to do very well at school and they put me in a latin class to prepare me for 'academic greatness'. But I hated it, I just don't want to be learning about a stuffy language that was invented millennia ago. Luckily I was able to drop out a year later and focus on the sciences which I loved. I never needed it at university obviously (for computer science English offers much greater benefits)
I know these languages and cultures have had a great influence on our society and languages now but they were also really primitive people socially (blood games etc). I don't have much respect for them nor for my own middle-ages ancestors. I just wanted to learn about now and the future and don't care how we got there. The classes felt really stuffy to me. And much more tangential than regular history classes.
The same thing with Medicine: Doctors were basically clueless only 200 years ago. Almost all progress we have made in medicine was long after the ancients were long dead. There is no real need to use latin for medicine. It's just the language they use 'because it is'.
Anyway because of this unwanted expedition at school I have more hostile to the ancient languages :) I'm aware my opinion is very polarised.
For what it's worth I have the same with Dutch literature, after I was forced to read 25 'classic' literature pieces for my exam I vowed never to read any Dutch literature again and I never have. I found their works horrible, pompous and contrived. I consider the literature community there basically one big circlejerk of losers. Which is fine by me, they just shouldn't have forced it on me.
Well, you are writing already in a forum of relatively selected participance, are not you? Even today if you checked averages, medians and modes (types) there would be (there is) little to be happy about. The context here is about the "milestone setters" we had them then and we have them today. Not all of the progressive instances of the past are strongly seen today - far from it. And in fact,
> all progress we have made in medicine
the current extreme focus on disease and neglect of health which can be perceived nowadays in some areas should suggest that the "primitiveness" you see is really not gone and transversal though history. Of which it is said, "a curse which will force those who ignore it to repeat it" (similarly to gambling as "the tax on those ignorant of mathematics").
Sure, we have this exciting creational power to exploit "today": nonetheless, you have to "cultivate the man" - otherwise, what you will get is "a brute with heightened power at hand".
In that context,
> the words are still used
in my former reply I was literal and brief when I enumerated transliterations («'geo-' 'synchro-' etc)». More than the words, the roots are still used. In all of these tokens we in turn threw in. To have some proper acquaintance with the terms you use should be part of the art - they are your instruments... You can have different priorities, but if you work with wire or pans or blades, it is welcome to spend an adequate degree of consideration of those entities. And you use language. When you look into it, its origins become relevant.
One of the ideas I have, but will not have time to do, it's to make a site or browser extension to allow users to send extra content, reactions, memes, pictures, etc on Hacker News submissions and comments without having fear of the downvotes.
There's many many times that I wanted to post a funny reply but I'm certain that I'd get many downvotes from it.
Also a very old idea of mine :)
But in part that's what reddit does.
Also a general-purpose geographic forum, where you can leave notes to people in a certain area ("I lost/found this item around here"/"beware of the crazy old lady leaving poison for dogs in this area"/"beware the child toy in the park catches on children hands; make sure they keep their hands above the seat at all times").
I also thought about tinder before smartphones had finger touch screens.
Because it's hard to notice, but "Uranus" sounds like "your anus". It's funny to point this out, each and every time "Uranus" comes up in any context whatsoever.
