The name of our moon?

I have seen this name used in lots of sci-fi stories. Good SF is written by people with wide ranging interests and contains lots of info.

http://waltm.net/selene.htm



http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Selene.html

umbra

I've heard our moon called Luna, and at one point I used to write SF. So I had to do a lot of research. I'd still like to write one good novel"”"Belle Luna", a penal colony on the moon?

This is your competition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_is_a_Harsh_Mistress

http://www.sfreviews.com/docs/Robert%20A.%20Heinlein_19...Harsh%20Mistress.htm

umbra

Yes. I'm fully aware of Mike and his friend, Man. But I wanted to do a more current, grittier, heart-felt bit. Say; transport ryker's island, triple-max it, and remove any legal binding of Gov.

Yeah, Harsh Mistress is kind of dated. The style of SF changed in the 70s. It became grittier but I think the success of Star Wars attracted a lot of writers for the money who didn't know anything about science. Too much stuff calling itself science fiction is just stupid and shallow.

umbra

This is because the Editors are little more than lower-management. They are biased, as in: "If I"”with my ivy-league degree don't get this, then I'm sure my 4th grade-reading-level market won't." Besides, science is so hard, with all that math and stuff.
But R.A.H. was a patriot, and a great man. He really cared.

I put together a science fiction and non-fiction reading list for educational purposes. Since reading sci-fi got me interested in science and a lot of other things I assumed other people would be interested. Considering how often I hear Black people complaing about schools but talking about education I have found the lack of interest somewhat stupefying.

Here is the list:

http://africanamericansovereignty.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=58#58

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

umbra

Good list! but...no Phillip K. Dick? No Harlan Ellison? No Raymond Chandler?

I used to have a website up with a review of each book and the reason I included it in the list. I had one by Ellison but none by Dick. I have read THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE and DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP. I was trying to select books not just because the were good stories but because they also contained significant ideas to think about that related to real life, socially, psychologically and the impact of technology.

I divided them into scientific SF and liberal arts SF. The book BRAINWAVE by Poul Anderson was about humanity suddenly becoming more intelligent. I compared that to the internet with the more rapid exchange of ideas and perspectives. The ultimate effect of this interaction is quite unpredictable.

umbrarchist

quote:

Originally posted by MBM:
Does anyone know if there is a name for our moon? Isn't calling our moon, "Moon" like calling my dog, "Dog"? I know Jupiter's moons have names (Io, etc.), what about ours?

We don't have a name for the sun either.

Sol and Helios, hence heliocentric. A lot of sci-fi books refer to Earth as Sol 3.

http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/sol.html

umbra

quote:

Originally posted by umbrarchist:
I put together a science fiction and non-fiction reading list for educational purposes. Here is the list:

http://africanamericansovereignty.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=58#58

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

umbra

I just scanned through your list. I'm more interested in the non-fiction list, some classics, and some interesting new ones to follow up thanks.

I had to buy a(nother) darn bookcase a few weeks back to fit all 2005's book purchases in and it's full already.

I'm sure this will create protest but when it comes to sci-fi, I can't go past the film Existenz.
.

How about calling the moon Apollo, like after the lunar mission?

quote:

I'm sure this will create protest Wink but when it comes to sci-fi, I can't go past the film Existenz.

I haven't seen ExistenZ so I don't know if it meets my qualifications for science fiction or suggested science fiction.

Many people, myself included, do not consider STAR WARS to be science fiction. I call it space opera, being on the same level with Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. The Abyss: Special Edition is just about the best science fiction movie I know of The movie version falls kind of flat at the end. It is closely followed by 2001. The trouble with 2001 is the people aren't very warm or interesting. Babyon 5 is the best SF ever put on television, though personally I consider it to be just about the best television period.

http://www.infoshop.org/sf/index.php/Science_Fiction

This is from Babylon 5:

* "We are all slaves to our histories. If there is to be a .. bright future, we must learn to break those chains."- Ambassador Delenn, GROPOS"


umbra

quote:

Originally posted by umbrarchist:

Sol and Helios, hence heliocentric.

Those would appear to be merely the Greek translations, no?

Sol is from the Romans therefore Latin I presume.

Helios is Greek.

But since Latin and Greek existed before English and plenty of English came from Latin and Greek...

It is just a matter of how we use the words. In sci-fi stories with people traveling to different star systems it makes sense that they would use a name for our sun since every star is a sun, but as long as we are stuck on this miserable planet I guess it doesn't matter much.

We will have to catch one of those aliens and ask them what they call it.

umbrarchist

I know the sun is called Sol, and I'm pretty sure the moon is called Luna. Those may be the Latin words, but they nevertheless are considered to be the names. I've rarely heard these names used, though, except in science fiction.

I'm just wondering... considering many ancient civilisations used the stars as maps to navigate land sea and spiritually, surely the ancient Egyptians, and Australian indigenous people must have had their own names for stars, sun and moon.

Guess it's time to do some research...?

Well, Westerners call the Moon "Luna", "Serena" or "Artemis" (personally, "Artemis" is my favorite Western name for the Moon). I'd like to hear what various Africans, Aboriginees, Egyptians, Mesoamericans and Asians called it.

The Western name for the Sun is "Sol" (that's the root word in "solar").

I wrote a list of Aboriginal names I copied from a list of Indigenous words but I've lost it and have to go check it out again. They have around 10 or more names specific to the state of the moon... eg. full, quarter, etc. I'll get back to ya next week.

WOW... there are lots of indigenous Australian names for the moon, depending on the region and the concept of 'moon' - whether it's a moon, or a symbol of a crescent shape, or the symbol of a month.

I know this is an African American site, but I thought you might be interested.

Indigenous Australians developed star navigation systems way back - probably before anyone else on the planet... so I guess that explains it.

I could have just posted a short list, but what the heck... here are all the names and dialects I could find. I've listed by each state of Australia geographic heading and then name of the regional dialects from each.

NSW region:
Bundjalung ... gibam
Ngiyampaa ... kapataa
Paakantyi ... paatyuka
The Sydney Language ... yanada
Wiradjuri ... giwang

WESTERN AUSTRALIA:
Nyungar ... marradak & miaka (moon, month)
Gooniyandi ... jaalinyi
Yindjibarndi ... wilarra (moon, month, crescent shaped mark on rock)

VICTORIA region:
Wembawemba ... mithiyen (moon, month)

SOUTH AUSTRALIA:
Diyari (<< closest approximation to this word due to keyboard limitations) ... pira
Kaurna ... kakirra

NORTHERN TERRITORY:
Datiwuy ... ngarlindi
Eastern Arrenrnte ... atnyentye (moon, month)
Murrinh-Patha ... merrk

QUEENSLAND:
Meryam Mir ... meb (moon, month)
Wik-Mungkan ... kep (moon, month)
Torres Straight Creole ... mun

quote:

Originally posted by MBM:
Does anyone know if there is a name for our moon? Isn't calling our moon, "Moon" like calling my dog, "Dog"? I know Jupiter's moons have names (Io, etc.), what about ours?

I'm not even sure that our "moon" is a moon.

I think that it's too big, relative to the earth, to be considered a moon. I believe that the earth/luna system is actually considered a dual planetary system. In fact, I believe that the moon doesn't revolve around the earth. I think that both the earth and the moon revolve around a point that is outside of thge surface of the earth. That is, the center of mass for the earth/luna system is not a point somewhere underground in our planet, but rather a point out in space, between the two.

Calling the moon a moon is more like calling your dog "cat".

quote:

Originally posted by ricardomath:

quote:

Originally posted by MBM:
Does anyone know if there is a name for our moon? Isn't calling our moon, "Moon" like calling my dog, "Dog"? I know Jupiter's moons have names (Io, etc.), what about ours?

I'm not even sure that our "moon" is a moon.

I think that it's too big, relative to the earth, to be considered a moon. I believe that the earth/luna system is actually considered a dual planetary system. In fact, I believe that the moon doesn't revolve around the earth. I think that both the earth and the moon revolve around a point that is outside of thge surface of the earth. That is, the center of mass for the earth/luna system is not a point somewhere underground in our planet, but rather a point out in space, between the two.

Calling the moon a moon is more like calling your dog "cat".

Interesting - is this a commonly held theory?

I have occasionally read of the Earth-Moon referred to as a double planet but the barycenter is within the Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_of_mass

I wonder what the effect would be if the barycenter was just slightly above the surface.

umbra

quote:

Originally posted by ricardomath:

quote:

Originally posted by umbrarchist:
I have occasionally read of the Earth-Moon referred to as a double planet but the barycenter is within the Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_of_mass

I wonder what the effect would be if the barycenter was just slightly above the surface.

umbra

Looks like I misremembered the position of the center of mass.