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Originally Posted by Sticks
It looks like the fight back has begun
We need to fix this before some one gets it into their head to revisit NH 
(I do want NH to report back from Pluto)
Thinking about this, I think I preferred the original one where we got new planets
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What ridiculous arguments to make!
I find it amazing that Alan Stern & Owen Gingerich - both astronomers, and members of the IAU, who are opposed to the resolution in fact adopted, can complain about the end result of the process when they did not even bother to hang around and participate in the final debating session and subsequent vote over the definition!
Any complaints they may have with the decision are simply sour grapes and completely without foundation! They knew full well of the process that was being followed, and their non-attendance indicated staggering hubris, and its hard to believe they can't realise and accept that their non-attendance meant they forfeited their ability to legitimately criticise the decision arrived at. If defining a planet was really as important as they seem to be making out - why on Earth were they not able to hang around for a few days to participate in the final deliberations?
For Owen Gingerich in particular, its hard to believe he has any complaints - given he was there in Prague a few days prior helping to try and come up with a definition, and then he left!
BBC Article from Sticks
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Originally Posted by BBC Article
E-voting
Professor Gingerich, who had to return home to the US and therefore could not vote himself, said he would like to see electronic ballots introduced in future.
Alan Stern agreed: "I was not allowed to vote because I was not in a room in Prague on Thursday 24th. Of 10,000 astronomers, 4% were in that room - you can't even claim consensus.
"If everyone had to travel to Washington DC every time we wanted to vote for President, we would have very different results because no one would vote. In today's world that is idiotic. I have nothing but ridicule for this decision."
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Alan Stern's complaint here is simply staggering in its ignorance. For someone of this education, what he says bears little resemblance to reality. Has Mr. Stern ever heard of the Electoral College that convenes after each Presidential Election in the US to vote upon who will assume the Presidency? Is he aware that if a member of this Electoral College fails to turn up, they can not cast their vote down the wires and expect it to be counted?
In fact, after the election of 2000, the results were so close in the Electoral College - 271-267 (IIRC), if only a handful of people had have decided they didn't need to turn up (far less than the number of astronomers who apparently decided they had more important things to attend to - in real terms and % terms), then in fact Al Gore would have been elected President 6 years ago and (this is for you 777 Geek) - An Inconvenient Truth would never have seen the light of day!