Earth

Less than three weeks into the new fall season, CBS yesterday became the first network to announce schedule changes. First to get the ax is the universally panned "E.A.R.T.H. Force," which "has been placed on hiatus," according to a network statement. The environmental do-gooding "E.A.R.T.H. Force" ranked 86th of 94 shows in last week's Nielsen ratings. It was the lowest-rated of CBS' new fall shows. Things sound a bit better for "Lenny," yanked from its Wednesday, 8 p.m. slot effective immediately.

The trouble with trying to throw something away these days is, there is no "away. " Sometime around the year 500 B.C., the Greeks in Athens passed a law prohibiting people from throwing their garbage in the street. (Some people in New York City would be arrested if they were living in Athens 2,488 years ago.) This Greek law was the first recognition by civilized people that throwing things away was a problem. Today it's one of the most difficult problems we have and, if we don't solve it, we're going to ruin the Earth we live on. The more civilized a country is, the worse its refuse problem gets.

When Christopher Columbus proposed to reach the spice islands of the Far East by sailing west, the experts said it couldn't be done. They thought the Earth was flat - right? Wrong. True, the learned men of the Spanish court did advise Queen Isabella not to put up any money for Columbus' crazy scheme, but it wasn't because they thought the Earth was flat. They knew that it was round and, in fact, had a much more accurate picture of it in their minds than Columbus did. Forget the flat-Earth theory, which Greek philosophers had demolished about 2,000 years earlier - as all classically educated persons knew in 1491, when Columbus was making his pitch for royal funding.

Eight-year-old Jahnai has big plans for his future. "I might be an artist or a movie star," he says. He also knows how he is going to reach his goal. "I'm going to go to college and then graduate college and then go to Hollywood," he explains. Jahnai is bright, energetic, and inquisitive. His social worker says he seems older than his age. "He has a great wealth of knowledge," she says. Jahnai enjoys playing video games, putting together puzzles, and drawing. In second grade, he likes school and does well academically.

In Michael Glier's dramatic landscapes, growth and decay occur simultaneously, as if they were interchangeable. Plant and animal forms are recognizable, but scale and space are so ambiguous that we seem to be looking at a world that has been distilled to its essentials - a universe in microcosm. Six of Glier's large-scale drawings in charcoal on canvas make up the latest exhibition at the Morris Gallery of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. They aren't landscapes in the traditional sense, but evocations of the earth and its natural processes expressed in bold visual shorthand.

LOS ANGELES - SpaceX's Dragon space capsule, which last week became the world's first privately built and operated spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station, is scheduled to return to Earth on Thursday morning. The unmanned capsule is set to splash down at 11:44 a.m. Philadelphia time in the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles west of Southern California. It will be the culmination of a historic mission carried out by the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company, officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

I can't tell you how relieved I was to discover that "I Am Number Four" is not about Brett Favre. When is that antiquated QB and digital exhibitionist going to go away? And what is ESPN's ongoing fascination with the guy? Really, it's like the network is run by teen girls, and Favre is Justin Bieber. Green Bay has moved on. It's time for SportsCenter to do the same. So who, then, is number four of "Number Four?" A little bit of everything, as it turns out. Part E.T., part Clark Kent, part Edward Cullen - a superpowered humanoid alien deposited here on earth, trying to fit in at his local high school, where he falls for a classmate, and at one point saves her life by stopping an oncoming car with his supernatural strength.

Some of Marvel's heroes have made one of the most dangerous creatures alive very, very angry. To recap the Hulk's recent trials and tribulations, a group called the Illuminati - led by heroes such as Iron Man and Mister Fantastic - decided that the Jade Giant's rampages were becoming too frequent and unpredictable. Instead of killing him, they used trickery to shoot him into space to a distant, harmless planet from which he would never return. They miscalculated on both counts.

John B. Rossi, 75, a semi-retired structural engineer and a devoted family man, died Thursday evening at his Broomall home. He had been ill for several months. Mr. Rossi was the father of Steven B. Rossi, executive vice president and general manager of Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., which publishes The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. Mr. Rossi was born and raised in Bryn Mawr, and was an Army veteran of World War II. He graduated from Drexel's evening engineering school in 1945.

It was a good year for reality. Sure, there was plenty of escapist pop nonsense in the record stores - always is. Madonna vamped her way through yet another lurid tour that failed to raise eyebrows, and Meat Loaf made an improbable comeback that served up little more than leftovers. Not surprisingly, both did huge business. The real stuff brought us right back to earth this year. Consider: The Michael Jackson controversy complex - a series of intertwined but not always connected plot lines, some courtesy of paid sources - offered the possible dethroning of the self-proclaimed "King of Pop. " More than just a news story, Jackson's unraveling approached Shakespearean tragedy - containing betrayals by family members and employees - and was reported with the breathlessness usually attached to high-level political scandal.