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Old 26-January-2006, 02:36 AM
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Jens Jens is online now
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I'm sorry to be a bit contrarian here, but I see little wrong with what they are doing, with the sole exception that they give people the idea that there is something official when in fact there isn't. But as long as that's stated, what's wrong with it?

After all, it's completely legal for me to start an artificial language and call the earth or the sun whatever I want to. People sometimes make it seem like the IAU has some monopoly right on the naming of astronomical objects, but AFAIK that's not correct at all. They have a right to give some kind of official naming, but nobody can arrest me for using the North Star instead of Polaris A or whatever it's called. In fact, in Japanese people often refer to Vega as "Orihime," but that's their right. So I think in principle, people have a right to call things (and that goes for numbers, too, as shown by the spoof!) whatever they want to.

Of course, if they are deliberately tricking people into believing that there is something more official, such as that their name will be recognized by the UN or IAU or whatever, then it may well be fraud.
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