[meteorite-list] The Meteoritical Society is neglecting all its duties!

From: dean bessey <deanbessey_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:46:23 2004
Message-ID: <LAW2-F5FGyvAV3GkwmK00006b34_at_hotmail.com>

As a sit here reading through the rampblings of somebody who is obviously
bitter that they have competation in the moroccan meteorite market (A
feeling that makes one wonder if you have an Australian passport instead of
an EU or Moroccan one) one feeling comes to mind. A FEELING OF TOTAL
CONFUSION. I am sure that there must be some point to your mumblings other
than "Like the secret society that protects the world in THE MUMMY RETURNS,
I am the secret protector of meteorite science". I cant pin down exactly why
I have such confusion. Maybe its because I am sad to part with the quarter
ton of meteorites that I have sold in the past 4 weeks. Maybe its because I
have this strange idea that actually finding the meteorite itself and losing
strewnfield data is saving more science than leaving it out into the
wilderness for another 50,000 years until it is totally a pile of rust (Like
we actively make efforts to do here in Canada - you know, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust). Maybe its because I got bitten by one to many black flies in
a relivitely unsuccessful sudbury crater trip this weekend. Or maybe its
because of the half full (Or is that half empty) can of guinness on my desk
right now.
Maybe you can send another email and give a little more details about how
you feel that the sky in the meteorite world should be painted. Five or ten
years ago most researchers drooled when they got a chanch to classify a new
meteorite. Material was scarce and hard to come by. Now, because people like
me can supply any researcher (Or anybody else who can supply me with enough
of that green stuff that you seem to not care to much about) with a quarter
ton of meteorites researchers dont want to classify material anymore since
they have to much stuff to study as it is.
Maybe you can explain how this hurts science.
Look at Mike Farmer. He saved a lunar and a rare type of C from the desert
(Will, actually it wasnt farmer that saved them, it was his cash that saved
those meteorites from the blistering deseret heat so that they wont become
dust in another 50,000 years time - an idea that would be rejected by the
likes of lennin, stalin and the governments of canada and australia). You
must feel envious that somebody from accross the pond snatched those two out
from under your nose eh? And he has gone through great pains to ensure that
more than a tiny 10mg of each of his rare meteorites are available to
science for research and study. Yep. Farmer is responsible for lost
strewnfield data - just as I am responsible for the lost strewnfield data of
each quarter ton of meteorites that I sell. Maybe science would be better
served if all of those meteorites were used for nothing more than camel
tracks and pointers in the desert (What is it that they are called - you
have it noted on your website). I doubt that all of the researchers who
studied more than 10mg of farmers new CK and lunar would agree with you
though. I dont know why you would expect more from him than you would from
the canadian governments meteorite police. (Rhetorical question - I wont ask
you to answer that question).
So once again, explain to us what the colour of the sky in your meteorite
world is, who is going to pay the cost of suppling every desert nomad with a
$300 GPS unit and the cost of the education so that they can properly use
them (Or convince everybody including the nomads about how we should destroy
their livelihood unless they have geology PHDs from harvard). Then assure us
that every moroccan fossil dealer and european searcher is totally honest
with their information. (ie: nobody is fudging coordines or creating false
stories about find or buy details and stuff like that - not that I am
accusing anybody of ever doing that. I beleive every single one of those
moroccan fossil dealers who tell me that they have never supported the
selling of bondo moroccan trilobites. Just about as much as I beleive every
desert hunter who says that they have never bought a meteorite in morocco).
Obviously you have no problem saying that you have never bought a meteorite
that some nomad rescued from the desert. Right????
Otherwise convince us all that science and collectors would be better served
by reducing the number of newly found desert meteorites by 95%.
But in the next email that you send with your "ashes and dust" ideas we
would all be appriciative if you could cut back on the high school
shakesphere and give us the Readers Digest version of what you are trying to
mumble. And also to write it before that bottle of Jack Daniels in half
gone.
You dont own the meteorite market. And your efforts to reduce the supply of
new meteorites entering the world market so that it will drive up the price
of the ones that you find or buy wont work anymore than communism worked in
the former USSR.
In support of the preservation and love of meteorites everywhere
DEAN






















>
> - The CNES (National French Spatial Studies Center), associated on Mars
>rock
>sample return program, gives $55,000 of public funds to a meteorite
>merchant,
>the same one who had created the false Tagounite strewnfield with no
>respect
>for meteoritic science, helping him to continue the plundering of Saharan
>meteorites with unknown location.
>
> - UCLA by fair of losing some interesting specimens helps American
>dealers
>to classify their Moroccan shopping and gives them opportunity of
>developing
>the erasing of 50,000 years of meteorite falls and data. Which one of the
>French or US laboratory will win the NWA race and will erase most
>strewnfield
>data ?
>
> - Businessmen sell quarter tons of ordinary chondrite with no respect for
>meteoritic science, too busy for spending time cutting and gathering
>information about each fragment of our early solar system history.
>
> - Meteoritical Society members give free unclassified Saharan meteorites
>just as a gift for publicity purpose. It seems that people are confusing
>solar system rocks with gadgets or unpleasant rocks which need to be
>cleaned
>out of the Sahara desert.
>
>
> Why continuing prospecting, with respect of meteoritic knowledge and a
>serious fieldwork today, rather than falling in violent hurry of
>collecting?
>
> 1 - to find more samples from a fall. More than 90 percent of the
>meteorites
>have an atmospheric fragmentation and show a distribution ellipse, paired
>finds will be found each time a meticulous fieldwork will be done, giving
>more samples available for science research and collectors, at lower price
>than North West Africa achondrites.
>
> 2 - to learn about the strewnfield features and understand the different
>stages of their formation. It will help us to discover new potential areas,
>remember that less than 5 percent of the Sahara are good prospecting places
>where meteorites can be preserved up to 50,000 years. If you want to know
>how
>to recognize a good strewnfield, you must keep note of maximum details and
>share your knowledge. If not, tomorrow you will drive randomly in the
>central
>part of the Sahara (no nomads here) searching several days for a single
>meteorite because you don't know where to concentrate your searches.
>
> 3 - to study pairings and location data. Those information will be used
>for
>many statistics, among which are earth meteorite fall rate and family
>populations. Dar al Gani (Libya), Gold Basin (USA), Oman are today the only
>remaining places where complete data are available...
>... For how long ?
>
>
> Richard & Roland Pelisson
>http://www.saharamet.com/

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Received on Sun 13 May 2001 09:12:45 PM PDT