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AUGUST 28 to 2nd September 2006
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TUESDAY August 29 Squirrels telepathy email 
Dear Jonathan,I was puzzled when I noticed the local squirrel family ferrying their offspring one by one from a large tree at the end of my garden to an equally large tree in the next but one garden. I couldn't understand why they should decamp from one tree to another especially as their new home was a fruit tree - not a nut tree! The next day, however, I returned home to find that tree surgeons had been and performed surgery on their old home. Those squirrels MUST have known their babies were imperilled! Jenny |
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WEDNESDAY August 30 Is Earth no longer a planet email 
Dear Jonathan,The International Astronomical Union has declared that a 'planet' is a celestial body that orbits the Sun, has sufficient mass to assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. Pluto is no longer a planet because it has not cleared its orbit. But Neptune has not cleared Pluto from its orbit either. And OUR MOON is in orbit round the Sun, not the Earth. It's just got a wiggle caused by interacting with us. So, as Earth has not 'cleared its neighbourhood', is it no longer a planet either? Marc |
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THURSDAY August 31 Is Cosmic Ordering selfish email 
Dear Jonathan,I can't help but feel that all this talk about Cosmic Ordering is very selfish. You keep printing letters from people who are trying to get what they want. Couldn't they do some cosmic giving - and help make the world a better place for others instead? Andy Dear Andy, |
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FRIDAY September 1 Pluto 'dwarf planet' comment 
You know what I find terribly offensive? It's not that Pluto has been named a 'dwarf planet' (that would be an honour for Pluto). It's the suggestion that a dwarf planet is not a proper planet. It is a linguistic absurdity - and it sounds terribly prejudiced. I've seen headlines that I find really thoughtless, like: 'Pluto Demoted to Dwarf Planet' or even 'Pluto just a dwarf'. Dwarf people are people (they're not just 'little people') so surely, a dwarf planet should be as valid and meaningful as any other planet.A dwarf friend, Mika |
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SATURDAY September 2 No Thought for the Day 
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SUNDAY September 3 Visiting a country on your birthday email 
Your Week Ahead:
Dear Jonathan,
Dear Margie, |
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Pluto has been weighed and found wanting, sized up and marked down. It is, says a selection of top astronomers, too skinny and scrawny to be a proper planet. I spent much of the weekend trying to write about this. It was hard to find the words to express my disbelief at the sheer idiocy of this size-obsessed decision. Then I learned that senior scientists feel the same. Already some have broken ranks and variously described the decision as 'inept' and 'embarrassing'. I hereby predict that they will yet find a way to reverse - or wriggle out of - it.
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