this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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Poor Pluto. One day you’re a planet, the next day you’re a “dwarf with potential.”

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[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

The explanation I heard back then was that Pluto wouldn't qualify as a planet, EXCEPT that it has a moon. I'm not sure why that exception would apply, but it seems it's no longer good enough.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Well, there are seven other known sub-planetary bodies (dwarf planets) in the solar system that also have moons: Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Orcus, and Salacia. Eris in particular is larger than Pluto. So then Eris would have to be promoted to being a planet, too. Along with the other six, plus any more we might discover later. At the time of its discovery I don't think anyone had yet observed that Pluto has a moon, and it wasn't discovered until even later that Pluto actually has five moons.

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago

That was an attempt to preserve the order of planets, but a failed one since there are other non-planets with moons. https://xkcd.com/3063

The modern definition doesn't depend on moons. Which is good because not all planets have them.