[Chaos-l] star naming services

[Tony Rice]

Had to share this.  My little victory over one of the companies
selling a name a star after a loved-one "service".  At least the ad
copy gives full disclosure now.

-Tony


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 2:21 PM
Subject: Response
To: rtphokie at gmail.com


Mr. Rice,

As the product category manager for Edmund Scientifics & X-treme Geek,
I appreciate your feedback.
After rewiewing your comments and your attached link, I approached the
vendor to seek
better clarification of the product.

As a result of your concern and the details from the vendor, I have revised the
copy on our web site to better represent the Name a Star Gift Tin.
The expanded copy can be read here:

http://www.scientificsonline.com/name-a-star-gift-tin.html


Should we decide to continue to carry this product after the holiday
season, the printed
copies in our catalogs (begining 2011) will be adjusted to match.


Thank you for taking the time to share your comments and helping me
improve the Edmund
product assortment.

Greg Baumgartner
Consumer Category Manager
Edmund Scientifics & X-Treme Geek
gregb at x-tremegeek.com
60 Pearce Avenue
Tonawanda, NY 14150
716-874-6020 x.204244
716-874-9572 fax




My family has been an Edmund Scientific customer for years.  Looking
over your most recent catalog (C109A3), I was surprised to see item
X31522-81 "Name a Star Gift Tin".  This is a very unscientific,
misleading, some might say fraudulent item.  This is in contrast to
the similar but ultimately different item "Message to Space Gift Tin"
which can be provided legitimately and customers can get what they
paid for.

Stars cant be named by individuals and companies cant sell the naming
rights.  Most stars are unnamed and bear codes indicating the year of
discovery for many many years until agreement on a name is reached by
members of the International Astronomical Union.  This is the only
organization that can legitimately "name a star".

Selling this misleading item does your customers and your company a
disservice.  Edmond Scientific is better than this.  I urge you to
remove this item from your inventory.


More information is available here:
http://www.iau.org/public/buying_star_names/