[meteorite-list] : Ad New Canadian Meteorite for sale

From: mexicodoug at aim.com <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:22:39 -0500
Message-ID: <8CB26C0AF1F105E-17D4-666_at_WEBMAIL-MA18.sysops.aol.com>

Time out on the HBO Meteorite channel,

Hi all,

This present discussion reminds me of a chapter which settled
everything completely in 1941.

"The Little Prince" (1941) has an excellent treatise on matters of
consequence, the roll of 'government' lording over space rocks, adults
and businessmen vs. the rest of us and common sense, and who owns space
rocks, and the roll of the collector:

http://home.pacific.net.hk/~rebylee/text/prince/13.html

Happy Holidays, tongue frozen to cheek.
Doug
Republicano
(Republic of Mexico, where everyone is entitled to their opinion even
if no one listens)

Chapter 13
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
The fourth planet belonged to a businessman. This man was so much
occupied that he did not even raise his head at the little prince's
arrival.
"Good morning," the little prince said to him. "Your cigarette has gone
out."

"Three and two make five. Five and seven make twelve. Twelve and three
make fifteen. Good morning. FIfteen and seven make twenty-two.
Twenty-two and six make twenty-eight. I haven't time to light it again.
Twenty-six and five make thirty-one. Phew ! Then that makes
five-hundred-and-one-million, six-hundred-twenty-two-thousand,
seven-hundred-thirty-one."

"Five hundred million what?" asked the little prince.

"Eh? Are you still there? Five-hundred-and-one million-- I can't
stop... I have so much to do! I am concerned with matters of
consequence. I don't amuse myself with balderdash. Two and five make
seven..."

[picture]

"Five-hundred-and-one million what?" repeated the little prince, who
never in his life had let go of a question once he had asked it.

The businessman raised his head.

"During the fifty-four years that I have inhabited this planet, I have
been disturbed only three times. The first time was twenty-two years
ago, when some giddy goose fell from goodness knows where. He made the
most frightful noise that resounded all ov er the place, and I made
four mistakes in my addition. The second time, eleven years ago, I was
disturbed by an attack of rheumatism. I don't get enough exercise. I
have no time for loafing. The third time-- well, this is it! I was
saying, then, five -hundred-and-one millions--"

"Millions of what?"

The businessman suddenly realized that there was no hope of being left
in peace until he answered this question.

"Millions of those little objects," he said, "which one sometimes sees
in the sky."

"Flies?"

"Oh, no. Little glittering objects."

"Bees?"

"Oh, no. Little golden objects that set lazy men to idle dreaming. As
for me, I am concerned with matters of consequence. There is no time
for idle dreaming in my life."

"Ah! You mean the stars?"

"Yes, that's it. The stars."

"And what do you do with five-hundred millions of stars?"

"Five-hundred-and-one million, six-hundred-twenty-two thousand,
seven-hundred-thirty-one. I am concerned with matters of consequence: I
am accurate."

"And what do you do with these stars?"

"What do I do with them?"

"Yes."

"Nothing. I own them."

"You own the stars?"

"Yes."

"But I have already seen a king who--"

"Kings do not own, they reign over. It is a very different matter."

"And what good does it do you to own the stars?"

"It does me the good of making me rich."

"And what good does it do you to be rich?"

"It makes it possible for me to buy more stars, if any are ever
discovered."

"This man," the little prince said to himself, "reasons a little like
my poor tippler..."

Nevertheless, he still had some more questions.

"How is it possible for one to own the stars?"

"To whom do they belong?" the businessman retorted, peevishly.

"I don't know. To nobody."

"Then they belong to me, because I was the first person to think of it."

"Is that all that is necessary?"

"Certainly. When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody, it is
yours. When you discover an island that belongs to nobody, it is yours.
When you get an idea before any one else, you take out a patent on it:
it is yours. So with me: I own the stars, because nobody else before me
ever thought of owning them."

"Yes, that is true," said the little prince. "And what do you do with
them?"

"I administer them," replied the businessman. "I count them and recount
them. It is difficult. But I am a man who is naturally interested in
matters of consequence."

The little prince was still not satisfied.

"If I owned a silk scarf," he said, "I could put it around my neck and
take it away with me. If I owned a flower, I could pluck that flower
and take it away with me. But you cannot pluck the stars from heaven..."

"No. But I can put them in the bank."

"Whatever does that mean?"

"That means that I write the number of my stars on a little paper. And
then I put this paper in a drawer and lock it with a key."

"And that is all?"

"That is enough," said the businessman.

"It is entertaining," thought the little prince. "It is rather poetic.
But it is of no great consequence."

On matters of consequence, the little prince had ideas which were very
different from those of the grown-ups.

"I myself own a flower," he continued his conversation with the
businessman, "which I water every day. I own three volcanoes, which I
clean out every week (for I also clean out the one that is extinct; one
never knows). It is of some use to my volcanoes , and it is of some use
to my flower, that I own them. But you are of no use to the stars..."

The businessman opened his mouth, but he found nothing to say in
answer. And the little prince went away.

"The grown-ups are certainly altogether extraordinary," he said simply,
talking to himself as he continued on his journey.





Happy Holidays
Doug


-----Original Message-----
From: Darren Garrison <cynapse at charter.net>
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 2:31 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] : Ad New Canadian Meteorite for sale



On Sun, 7 Dec 2008 14:17:43 -0500, you wrote:

>having some (class, that is). You wrote: "Here's the thing about my
>hobbies-- I don't expect to ever get back the money that I put into
them...I
>not only am used to falling prices on things (thus destruction of cash
value
>of investments)-- I want it." It would be hard to use logic to
respond to
>that thinking...

Why? What is illogical about that thinking? When you see something
that you
like, do you think "gee, that's cool-- I'd like to have that-- but I
wonder how
much money I can get back for it at some point in the future if I
decided to
sell it?" The value of hobbies is the pursuit of the hobby, not the
theoretical
future depreciated value of the subject of the hobby. HELL YES I want
price
collapses on the things that interest me! See, I think of money as a
necessary
evil to be used to buy things that I want, not an object of worship in
and of
itself. I'm not a Republican.

(wait, I didn't say that)
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Received on Sun 07 Dec 2008 03:22:39 PM PST