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THE METEORITE CHANNEL

The annoying Learning Channel aired a documentary today (Sunday, March 1)
at 2:00 p.m. EST about meteorites and comets, narrated by Michael Dorn from
"Star Trek: The Next Generation." I missed the first minute or so, but
gather that it was part of their "Science Frontiers" series. Subscribers to
this list will doubtless find much of the program's content to be
elementary, but there were some interesting bits of animation, and
enjoyable interview segments with Bob Haag, Dr. David Kring (on Chicxulub,
etc.), a very gentlemany Gene Shoemaker (up on the Colorado Plateau), David
Levy and others.

In typical Learning Channel style they did a sensationalist segment on the
dangers of large Earth impacts, complete with lots of animated explosions,
archival footage of the Bikini Atoll atom bomb test, volcanic craters, and
so on. Also, a hilarious scene where a young female "hiker" brings in for
identification something she has "just found" that "might be a meteorite."
The piece was obviously a shiny and very attractive wire-brushed iron,
straight out of somebody's collection. This sort of thing just misleads the
public; viewers of this show, not acquainted with meteorites, will now
expect meteorites found in the field to look exactly like
perfectly-polished Odessa irons.

I have no idea if TLC plans to repeat this show. Anyway, I videotaped
nearly all of it, in case anyone is just dying to see it. The best part was
easily Bob Haag landing his microlight aircraft on a dry lake bed, and that
was right near the beginning, so you don't even have to sit through the
whole episode.

Oh yes, in one of the ad breaks, TLC showed a trailer for another one of
their upcoming shows: "Curse of the Cocaine Mummies." That sounds like it's
much more their style. I can't wait!

Regards,

Geoff Notkin