wow… the world of scientific facts is so definite…
msnbc.msn.com/id/14489259/?GT1=8404
-Imp
08.24.06.1450
What’s funny is that 2003 UB313 is bigger than Pluto. I like the popular ring of calling it Xena and its moon Gabrielle. It’s lame, but it’s short and definitive. Then again, calling the Plutons part of the Kuiper Belt is a fair classification. Now we can all listen to Holst’s The Planets as they are meant to be once again!!!
Poor Pluto … 
What we really need is to rename Uranus. Too many pathetically lame jokes. I mean, what is an alien supposed to think of that? 
that we have a fetish for roman names of greek gods
-Imp
So whats going to happen to the damn dog from Disney?
08.24.06.1453
This… albeit not as entertaining as Billy commiting suicide after eating the heart of his mother (who will live inside him forever).
What I don’t get is why there are Greek names to a mostly Roman solar system?? How about a completely Roman terminology?
Sun = Apollo: Why not give our star a name like every other star in our view?? Name the constellation something else, it’s not as bright anyway!
Mercury = Vulcan: It’s the hotest place in town… like a forge.
Earth = Ceres: Forget that ball in the asteroid belt… home needs a name too.
Uranus = Janus: Forget the moon of Saturn… name it something else and give the ass of the solar system a better, proper, Roman name.
oldphil - This just in. Pluto is now a puppy.
Doesn’t Mickey mouse have a friend who is a dog and a pet dog as well? Is it just me, or is that a little weird?
“Gordie: Mickey is a mouse, Donald is a duck, Pluto is a dog. What’s Goofy…?”
Does Goofy pet Pluto? Is Pluto just really dumb? What message does this send to the kids? I’m just concerned about the kids, damnit.
I just thought of something. If Goofy pets Pluto, does that make Goofy gay?
Actually, I think both Goofy and Pluto are members of the Illuminati. I hear “Fool 'em early” is one its mottos.
question for the ages.
Only if the petting involves a “red rocket”.
what are we supposed to call it instead? urectum?
This is a quality thread 
Impenitent’s claim is based on a misunderstanding of what a fact is. I realise he is being funny, which is why he has elicited less-than-serious responses. No facts have been discovered, or changed by this pronouncement about Pluto. Facts are based on observation, and no new observations have been made of Pluto itself.
This is exactly analogous to the occasional changes is biological taxonomy - when the change is taxonomical only. Sometimes two species are combined (usually allowing “sub-species”), taxonomically. Or subspecies are separated into two distinct species. This latter, in particular, can be the result of better observation - that of actual biological differences, but may be of nomenclature alone. When it is the latter, no facts change, but only names.
The fact is that taxonomy is not “scientific” at all, but an organisational tool for scientists. It does not create facts, it only organises them. It’s a filing system, and not the files themselves.
faust,
Soooo, flatulence is still a stinking fart even if we call it perfume?
Creation,
I dunno. I was thinking something a bit classier like testicle or sumthin…
tent - to each his own, in that regard. I fear to tread where you have led.
But doesn’t “the moons of Uranus” have a certain ring to it?
Hmmm. I’m just a little queasy at the thought that Testicle rotates.
faust, sorry, gutter carryover from mundane… 
Testicle is a good name! It’s free ballin’! Moons of Uranus… Now you know where I came up with the Testicle name…