Talk:Uranus

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Comical name

I think we should include a reference to the comical nature of this planet's name. It is important to modern culture I don't think. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.165.172.182 (talk) 17:10, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

The problem is, how do you cite something like that? Serendi^podous 17:14, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

References in popular culture? Maybe if a list was made on the discussion page it could be transferred to the article when it gets long enough —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.165.172.182 (talk) 19:55, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

I've been looking for reliable sources, and I can't find any as yet. Serendi^podous 20:17, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

I doubt you'll find any sources explaining the humourous potential in pronouncing Uranus' name as "your anus", but you might make a list of films/games/cartoons/whatever where this gag is made. The only one I can remember off the top of my head is in Futurama, where the professor explains the planet had been renamed in order to put a stop to all the stupid jokes (it had been renamed to "Urectum"). 151.68.5.224 (talk) 22:44, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Such a list would probably be tagged for citation or notability. Serendi^podous 11:00, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Uranus is a comical name. For example, one Saturn's moon is called Janus. Is that funny? Uranus is funny for meny people because is a planet, not some small rock. But joke is stupid.--Gospodar svemira (talk) 09:05, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure I agree with that logic. In English, "Uranus" can be read as a cognate of "your anus" as mentioned above. But I absolutely agree that pop culture references ("Oh, we scientists got tired of that joke years ago and renamed the planet." "What's it called now?" "Urectum.") do not belong here. The absolute most I could see is a single, reliably sourced sentence in the pronunciation paragraph under "Nomenclature". But even that's a stretch for an encyclopedia. Thompsontough (talk) 02:27, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

The 3rd and 5th Harry Potter novels have 'blink and you miss it' jokes around the standard pronunciation of Uranus. though they may only deserve a mention in the Harry Potter page. I have a hard time understanding pronunciation guide that is in the article. Can the difference between the scientific pronunciation and the one that causes off-color jokes be spelled phonetically(Ur-ran-is) maybe Tydoni (talk) 01:08, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Nomenclature

I’ve removed this (Where does this come from? I don’t remember seeing it before):
"this is the standard Latinate pronunciation"
This may be the preferred pronunciation for astronomers, but it’s neither literary (the spelling isn’t in question) nor Latinate. Are we saying the Romans pronounced “u” as “you” or “yuh” and the “a” as “uh”? Was unus said as Eunice, or canis as cunnis? Mars as Murs? We don’t really know how the Romans said anything (until someone digs up some audio tapes) but we can guess, from words like urban, ursine umbellifer, or like Milano, Roma, Napoli. That's "u" as "oo" or "uh", and "a" as "ah". So it’s a safe bet the Romans pronounced Uranus like the Greeks did (ouranos) especially as it was a loanword; which is pretty much like everyone in Europe says it except the Brits. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Moonraker12 (talk • contribs) 17:45, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
(oops, forgot to sign! Moonraker12 (talk) 17:56, 11 February 2009 (UTC))

wow nice article

69.14.239.216 (talk) 18:02, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Why thank you. :-0) Not all that sure that comment qualifies as a valid addition under Wiki rules, but hey, it's nice to be appreciated. Serendi^podous 22:22, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Formatting

From the beginning of the article:

[snip] It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky ([[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]],
''[[wiktionary:οὐρανός|{{polytonic|Οὐρανός}}]]''), the father of [[Cronus|Kronos]] ([[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]]) and grandfather
of [[Zeus]] ([[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]]). [snip]

I have no idea why this is formatted as:

 [snip] It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky (Uranus, [[wiktionary:οὐρανός|Οὐρανός]]), the father of Kronos (Saturn)
 and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter). [snip] 

Perhaps it was the template inside the link that caused this to fail, but I don't know. Please follow this up. --Ernest lk lam (talk) 10:21, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

fixed. :-) Serendi^podous 10:43, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Who unprotected this article?

This article, of all articles? Do they want to spend the rest of eternity reverting "your anus" jokes? Serendi^podous 15:10, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I do not, of course, want to spend the rest of eternity reverting these jokes. I only want to test the abuse filter 37, which I created. WP:Abuse Filter extension was recently enabled on en.wiki and can be very useful. I have just instructed this filter to disallow such edits, however, the filter may need some tweaking. You can find the log here. Ruslik (talk) 16:49, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Test completed. I can not design a filter that catches all kinds of vandalism to this article. Ruslik (talk) 20:14, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, it was worth a try, and you couldn't have used a better guinea pig. Fact is, if someone wants to vandalise an article, they'll find a way to do it. Just ask anyone who's had to deal with HAGGER. Serendi^podous 20:27, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

The article is not unprotected but semi-protected. That is enough to discourage the vandals, as registered users will be reported for vandalism while unregistered cannot edit. Full protection would really be overdoing this. We cannot full protect all articles prone to silly jokes.

My changes explained

I should have explained my changes the first time, I do so now:

• Right now, there is no reasoning given for a link between the element Uranium and the planet. If there is one, Uranium has a place in here, if not not. But it has to be explained.
• "Uranus" is a god in Roman mythology too, the father of Saturn. That he was imported from Greek mythology doesn't really matter - many elements of Saturn and Iupiter (not to mention the whole transformation of Mars into a war god) were imported too, regardless of the Latin names. And readers will either already know that the Greek was Ouranos or not be interested in this. We do not say the "latinized name" in other cases either. Caelus has no place in here, as he was never the father of Saturn or the counterpart to Uranus. Roman mythology has various sky gods, just as there are various sun gods.
• Why do we need to quote Maskelyne verbatim, given that the actual information of the quote is small and it contains all these strange spellings (faver, &). IMHO the picture fits better at the top of the section.
• The explanations about which syllables are stressed and about the differing sounds are enough, especially since we already have the IPA information. And why is "urunus" with three "u"s here?

Str1977 ^(talk) 16:34, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand your comment about Uranium at all. The article states that Uranium was named in Uranus's honour, just like Neptunium was named after Neptune and Plutonium was named after Pluto. What other connection is required? As far as I can tell, the only "strange spelling" used by Maskelyne was "faver" instead of "favour", unless the use of "&" instead of "and" qualifies. It seems strange because it's old. I don't really think it's wise practice to start removing material for being too old. I don't know enough about Roman mythology one way or the other to have an opinion, so I'll bow to you on that for now. Serendi^podous 16:59, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

But why was Uranium named after the planet, was it just a whim? The bare information that the element was named after the planet seems on topic in Uranium but not here, at least not under Nomenclature. It seems more like a "cultural reference".

OK. I found a citation for Uranium, though I'm not happy with it. Why I bother to do these things is a question I should be asking myself. Serendi^podous 19:30, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't have an objection against the quote if the article gained by its verbatim inclusion. But I don't see any gain by it. The information (and that's what I consider material) is still present. Str1977 ^(talk) 17:33, 30 March 2009 (UTC)