[meteorite-list] Ignorance is bliss - but only for the ignorant!

From: Steve Schoner <steve_schoner_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:16:30 2004
Message-ID: <20030807022004.98503.qmail_at_web12705.mail.yahoo.com>

--- Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_cox.net> wrote:
> on 8/6/03 2:15 PM, Matson, Robert at
> ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com wrote:
>
> > The operative point here is that (by definition)
> the average
> > IQ is 100, and education can only do so much.
> ---
> Hi Robert,
> A few years ago when I was remarking upon
> how stunned
> I was by how dumb so many people are someone stated,
> "You
> just don't appreciate how dumb an IQ of 100 really
> is." Well, I
> have been teaching at a Community College for about
> 12 years
> now and I am starting to become a believer.
> Best wishes, Michael PS: Not only is 100, by
> definition, the
> "average' - you must also remember that nearly HALF
> the people
> have an IQ LOWER THAN 100! (This is also by
> definition, since the
> original sample was so huge, the mean, median and
> mode were all
> the same, forming a true and absolute bell curve -
> it is only "nearly"
> half because some are exactly 100)
>


I have found that even with brain damage, the
"average" still astounds me.

One of the best "meteorwrongs" that I got was a piece
of pumice! It was the classical type, numerous
vesicles, nice gray color, and making matters best of
all, the finder claimed to have actually seen it fall
feet away from him!

The rock even floated on water!

I responded, "if you saw it fall, which volcano were
you standing as it erupted, and this rock fell next to
you?"

I never got an answer.

IQ aside, I think that people just do not know much
about meteorites. Nininger had the same problem that
we have, and he did not have the internet to help him.
 There is also so much popular folklore regarding
meteorites and how they fall. Glowing, red hot balls
of molten rock or metal; dangerously radioactive
rocks; fireballs falling all the way to the ground
hear by;-- stereotypic stories that do not tell the
real story.

And that is where we come in.

We have got to get it out so that what has been done
in North West Africa with the nomads, can be done here
in the U.S. and in other places.

They learned to identify meteorites, and most with not
much education at all... and I will bet that most of
those nomads have average IQ's or less.

So, the job is for us to convey what we know to those
that do not know... Rather than ridiculing them for
what we think is ignorance, or worse yet stupidity.

They really don't know, and that is for the most part
our problem rather than theirs.

Steve Schoner/ams
http://www.geocities.com/meteorite_identification

P.S. to all,

I am dying to do some meteorite hunting, but being
that I can no longer drive due to brain injury, I am
now stuck at home. Anyone wanting to go out here in
Northern Arizona, and pass through Flagstaff; to
Holbrook or any other place, let me know. If I am
pre-disposed to do so, I would like to go out and look
at some new areas that I know have meteorites.



 

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
Received on Wed 06 Aug 2003 10:20:04 PM PDT