[meteorite-list] Lunar/Meteorite Samples Stolen from Car in Virginia

From: Francis Graham <francisgraham_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jan 17 17:01:39 2006
Message-ID: <20060117220117.77060.qmail_at_web54715.mail.yahoo.com>

List:
 A few comments were made about the likelihood of the
stolen samples being discarded into a nearby dumpster,
or offered stupidly on E-Bay. That may happen and
these possibilities should be explored for recovery.
 Criminal intelligence is bimodal in the US ,
according to an insightful analysis by John David
Keller, a Kent State education prof. Criminals are in
the main very dumb or very smart.
  The dumb ones are generally cajoled by the smart
ones who use them as patsies or frame them. The dumb
ones are repeatedly arrested. Smart criminals in
general do not get caught, as evidenced by the 2-10
metric tons of cocaine daily that cross US borders to
conservatively satisfy US demand. Those smart crooks
that do get caught have done their criminal acts
innumerable times, and finally ran into bad luck, got
careless, or ran into smarter cops.
  Smart criminals are not served by the kind of
detached intelligence that constitute academic
intellectuals. Witness the laughable screw-ups of the
NASA college interns who stole the Johnson lunar
samples and Gibson's notebook. Real smart criminals in
general are very resourceful, very adept at lying
convincingly, think in legal terms, have good
memories, think fast on their feet, can readily
manipulate others, and can scheme creatively in minute
detail.
  The highly competitive labor market makes criminal
intelligence bimodal. Large number of persons who, in
the 20th century industrial society, would have become
employed as unskilled laborers now subsist on a
reportable $5000 or less per year and some therefore
will try their luck in criminal enterprises to gain
headway. Most of those that do engage in crime are
arrested repeatedly and eventually jailed for long
terms. Because of the large number of unskilled
people, even a small percentage (smaller than, say,
upper class tax cheaters) means that large numbers of
people show up as a bimodal hump on the low end.
  But since the highly competitive labor market in the
USA cuts across all socioeconomic strata, a percentage
of middle class folks engage in crime, too, but those
who do not have the required personality traits for
successful criminal behavior are quickly caught. The
numbers, though, are not as many.
  On the other end are people who have a "gift" for
criminal enterprise who do not get caught, so their
numbers, though few as a percentage of initial
offenders, contribute to the bimodal hump because they
do not get caught. The internet phisher for ID
information is likely to be a former dot-commer rather
than an automatic weapon finessed drug kingpin, but
their capacity to victimize others without remorse is
no less.
  Further, the highly competitive labor market also
discourages smart cops by depressing wages, and
overworks them to a hasty burnout. Not all, but too
many.
  In short, while it is likely that the lunar samples
will be found in a nearby dumpster (if anyone bothers
to look) as an unfencible item, it's also possible
that they are in the hands of a capable criminal and
will make their way to rich collectors in Tokyo,
Riyadh or some other cosmopolitan place quite
clandestinely. It's even possible that this e-mail,
once archived, will be read by the perp from an
anonymous library terminal as a general survey of
intelligence about his/her crime.

Francis Graham


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Received on Tue 17 Jan 2006 05:01:17 PM PST