[X] My Assistant

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

As there isn't any topic on pointing out interesting TV-programmes, I'll start one ...
Topic works on both sides of the Ocean

For the Europeans:

Just wanted to inform that BBC television has another space-related Horizon documentary entitled ' Bye Bye Planet Pluto ' ... airing Thursday 22nd June at 09:00 GMT

[ngunn]

Well, I enjoyed the programme - and that's despite sharing the general allergy to today's anachronistic astrologers so fervently expressed by others here. I think an important point was made that the word 'planet' comes to us from an age when there was no distinction between the science and the hocus-pocus. Also, since the ancients were ignorant of both the physical nature of the 'heavenly bodies' and their places within the hierarchy of orbital dynamics, their terminology did not have to reflect these distinctions. What is entertaining is seeing otherwise rational people getting worked up over the definition of a 2500 year old word and the BBC picked up on this very well, I thought. We might as well be arguing about whether galaxies are male or female - something perhaps best left to the astrologers.