Have two different definition is fine, but you can't deny that Pluto's different from the other planets, its orbit crosses Neptune's...
I think that's what the third characteristic means, if Neptune and Pluto were to collide, Pluto would cease to be...

Didn't know about the first one though "it has to orbit around the sun", what do we call the celestial objects orbiting around other stars ? Exoplanets ?

All the plants are different from eachother though. :-/
Crossing Nepture is no more significant then, say, the difference between a solid and a gas giant.

"clear its orbit" how clear? (Neptune hasn't cleared its orbit of pluto has it?)
"round how round?

etc.

And even if they all had precise values ("X amount of mass cleared from its orbit" etc), I dont see why this would be anything useful scientifically when combined.

What does it tell you if something forfills all 3 criteria?

Calling something "a fruit" tells us its something a plant has evolved to help seed distribution and growth.

Calling something "a planet" tells us......umm....its round and has cleared its orbit?

Doesn't seem the same thing to me really. You could redraw the lines to include/exclude stuff pretty easily. I dont see the criteria as any more useful then, say, ordering them by colour or what they smell like :D

:)

New fusion reactor design:
http://aviationweek.com/technology/s...eactor-details

Seems pretty hopeful.

Presumably to celebrate my birthday, Nasa has sent a craft to land on a comet;
http://new.livestream.com/esa/cometlanding

A few hours left till touchdown.

I think you mean the ESA. Don't let NASA get all the credit. ;)

whoops my mistake!

Anyway, you can follow the landing via xkcd;
http://www.xkcd.com/
:D

Haha, awesome! (ps: thanks for reminding me of xkcd, been some time I didn't follow it)

I was thinking, why this is certainly impressive, does it have any use beside being beautiful ?

Mainly my understanding is we dont understand much about where comets come from, and only vaguely about what they are made of.
This should give us a better idea of both.

I suppose that means the use is basically; a) Curiosity; the history of our solar system
and b) potential data for future mining operations.

And now firing a lazer at droplet of water and viewing it at 10million "pseudo-frames" per second;

humans rock.

The future is now. And its people falling over:
:D

oh, and while not as "omg future" as some stuff this is going to make google image searches massively more useful;
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/sc...ware.html?_r=0

Not bad. Actually no, very impressive ! I like how the program completely messes up the third pic though :lol:

Yeah :D
Perhaps it read a lot of Silver Surfer comics and hasn't yet learnt what's real and what's not yet.

:eek: Daaaamn. It's real.

I'm pretty sure we'll look up to this decades later, when we're sick and tired of them dropout kids hangin' around graffitting and carrying their hoverboards and smoking pot, as "Oh wow how naive haha, look, the first try of the hoverboard" "yeah lulz".

I wonder how teaching instituitions will be then, how will they teach these new historical events which take place on the internet? "And so, after a kickstarter, the invention of the Hoverboard was conducted to terms, now watch this video and make notes, class".

Heh. I'm pretty sure porn was one of the first things those guys tried their new system with. "Computer model: Midgets in homo action."

Yes, they trained their neural net on youtube...which is fairly strictly monitored....and it learned to recognise cats.
Now they turn a similar technology on all the images online....I am scared to think what it will learn O_O

Ive long been a supporter of 3d printers - proudly owning a Ultimaker - and being even more pleased how the tech has leapt on since that one came out.

Now, theres 3 basic techs;

1. Dripping bits of plastic down at a position, moving, dropping some more (how Ultimaker,RepRap,MakerBot and a load of others work). These have always been the cheapest - partly because they can be made by amataurs with 3d printed or lazer cut parts.

2. The other tech is using Resin and setting it by projection or lazers. This makes the result quicker, allows greater overhangs, higher resolutions without so much fine tuning of motors, and less wasted plastic. These used to be purely high end stuff, but first thanks to the FormOne;
http://formlabs.com/en/products/form-1-plus/
These are now accessible to home users. They are easier to use typicaly, and can be found in highstreet shops now. The downside is the resin is much more expensive the the PLA the first type uses.

Even better, there is the astonishingly cheap $100 Peachy printer in development;
http://www.peachyprinter.com

3. The 3rd type is lazer skittering - using a lazer to set a layer of dust material before scrapping it away to do the next layer. These are crazy expensive, professional grade and used for industrial applications.
Till now;
]

The main advantage being they can form any shape without support and can be used on a huge number of materials - professional metal printing is done this way.


Whats nice about this last one is it completes the set; Nothing is out of the hands of "amateurs" now, we can all make basicly anything from digital files with devices costing $100-$3000 depending what we need.


btw...did something change on the forum :?
Try to make a link of "https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ester-sls-3d-printer-development-kit" with the link tool...it goes funny for me.

Hoverboards are so cool :(
Dark, I believe there should be a photo in your last post? It isn't showing here

Nah, it's a problem with the link.

Yea, I read the other thread where you guys discussed about the issue :p

Orions launch was a few minutes ago - completely successful so far. :) :) :)
An insanely big spaceship currently on its way to a high orbit.
*edit*

Successful splashdown!!!

Awesome.
This is a huge leap forward - this craft is powerful enough to visit the moon,comets and one day Mars.
Still got a lot to work out, but its the first time in awhile humans have had a craft that can go those distances.

This is neat;
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/n...-takes-selfies

Its a small drone that you can wear around your arm, you can detach it tose it away from you and it will take a photo of you before returning.

I mean, if you must do Selfies, thats pretty much the coolest way to do them.

Have you guys ever heard of the whole "Selfie Stick" trend that has been going on? I mean, seriously? Lets at least use cool robots instead of sticks :lol:

Indeed. Wrist mounted quadracopter is way cooler.
I mean, its a crazy amount of tech to use for something fairly pointless, but still awesome.