Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing

[Nearly Sane]

The beauty of Pluto

http://mic.com/articles/122220/nasa-releases-first-photos-of-plutos-surface

[L.A.]

The beauty of Pluto

http://mic.com/articles/122220/nasa-releases-first-photos-of-plutos-surface

I wholeheartedly agree NS, it's a phenomenal achievement. The transmission rate is only 1kilobits so it's going to take months to get all the data back. There should be some interesting stuff in the pipeline.

[jeremyp]

The beauty of Pluto

It's certainly an achievement that we have these photos, but it looks like a barren rock to me.

[Rhiannon]

It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

[Udayana]

The beauty of Pluto

http://mic.com/articles/122220/nasa-releases-first-photos-of-plutos-surface

I wholeheartedly agree NS, it's a phenomenal achievement. The transmission rate is only 1kilobits so it's going to take months to get all the data back. There should be some interesting stuff in the pipeline.

At least they are getting a signal - our friends who have moved to Somerset can't get one at all!

I think they will probably change it back to being a full planet again.

[Hope]

I wholeheartedly agree NS, it's a phenomenal achievement. The transmission rate is only 1kilobits so it's going to take months to get all the data back. There should be some interesting stuff in the pipeline.

Up to 15 months if I heard the reporter correctly on the news at noon.

[Hope]

I'm looking forward to the higher res. picture due later this afternoon.

(You can't use so many shortcuts without opening oneself to misprints!!)

[BashfulAnthony]

It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

[Shaker]

I'm not sure this Pluto business is all it's cracked up to be 

https://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/capture.png

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?

[Shaker]

Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?

No, but we know that they should be.

[jeremyp]

I'm not sure this Pluto business is all it's cracked up to be 

https://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/capture.png

That's no dwarf planet. It's a space station.

[Rhiannon]

It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.

[Hope]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33543383

[BashfulAnthony]

It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.

Not sure whether your reference was to your dog's anatomy...?

[L.A.]

I wholeheartedly agree NS, it's a phenomenal achievement. The transmission rate is only 1kilobits so it's going to take months to get all the data back. There should be some interesting stuff in the pipeline.

Up to 15 months if I heard the reporter correctly on the news at noon.

Yes, I heard that it's likely to be over a year, which probably means that there are going to be ongoing discoveries as they receive new data.

[jeremyp]

An interesting point that nobody seems to have mentioned is the technical difficulty of taking photographs out there.  Pluto is apparently 3.67 billion miles from the Sun whereas the Earth is a mere 92 million miles.  At that distance, the Sun doesn't look very different to any of the other stars in the local part of the galaxy.  In fact we can calculate light levels using the inverse square law.  The light that Pluto experiences is as a fraction of the light Earth experiences is (92/3670)² or about 1/1600.  You need quite a sensitive camera.

[Rhiannon]

It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.

Not sure whether your reference was to your dog's anatomy...?

No. He left his at the vet's a couple of years' ago.

[cyberman]

It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.

Not sure whether your reference was to your dog's anatomy...?

No. He left his at the vet's a couple of years' ago.

Thank God for that! I thought we'd had a disturbing insight into life behind closed doors there!

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?

No, but we know that they should be.

Ah, Commercialisation on a cosmic scale.

[BeRational]

Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?

No, but we know that they should be.

Ah, Commercialisation on a cosmic scale.

I think you mean freedom.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?

No, but we know that they should be.

Ah, Commercialisation on a cosmic scale.

I think you mean freedom.

I don't know, One persons liberty to do may well impinge on another's liberty to
be but I agree that packing shopoholics and the ''let's shit on people who want a period of relative non commercialism brigade'' of to Pluto could be liberty all round.

[Shaker]

Non-commercialism? That's when you're not in a shop or shopping online, isn't it?

I'd have thought you can have that any time you like, by not being in a shop and not shopping online.

[Hope]

Non-commercialism? That's when you're not in a shop or shopping online, isn't it?

I'd have thought you can have that any time you like, by not being in a shop and not shopping online.

Oh Shaker, you seem to miss the point.  Commercialism has invaded just about every aspect of our lives.  It occurs on TV and radio (and not merely 'commercial' TV and radio), sport, the paid-for 'placement' of products in films, bus and train shelters, newspapers (many being paid for by commercial entities), etc. etc.  In fact, it's hard to get away from it.  I well remember one airborne advert for sun protection goods being flown across a beach in N. Wales at the height of the summer holidays.

[Shaker]

Non-commercialism? That's when you're not in a shop or shopping online, isn't it?

I'd have thought you can have that any time you like, by not being in a shop and not shopping online.

Oh Shaker, you seem to miss the point.  Commercialism has invaded just about every aspect of our lives.  It occurs on TV and radio (and not merely 'commercial' TV and radio), sport, the paid-for 'placement' of products in films, bus and train shelters, newspapers (many being paid for by commercial entities), etc. etc.  In fact, it's hard to get away from it.  I well remember one airborne advert for sun protection goods being flown across a beach in N. Wales at the height of the summer holidays.

And? Doesn't bother me. Most of it doesn't even register on my consciousness - if it did, and I was bothered by it, I'd look the other way.

Eleanor Roosevelt is famously supposed to have said that nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. Same goes for commercialism; the only person who allows you to be perturbed by it is you.