[meteorite-list] Anyone remember this?

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 12:27:44 -0500
Message-ID: <FAE99222C5814691903902B8528346A6_at_ATARIENGINE2>

> Shove a TV camera in front of about anyone,
> and it's amazing what comes out of their mouth...

The first words out of that mouth should be:
"Hi! Do you have a signed release from me?"


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: <MeteorHntr at aol.com>
To: <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; <GeoZay at aol.com>
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 12:01 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Anyone remember this?


> In a message dated 5/8/2009 11:25:52 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
> meteoritemike at gmail.com writes:
> I just don't understand how any "expert" could be fooled by that
> object in the first place.
>
> MikeG,
>
> It happens ALL the time. And reporter "experts" are sometimes the
> worst.
> I don't know how reporters can mess up simple facts. If it was
> political,
> it stands to reason why a reporter would error ALL the time in favor
> of
> their candidate or topic, but something as benign as meteorites, and
> they
> still mess things up.
>
> We should have a media "Hall of Shame" website devoted to chronicling
> all
> the meteorite mistakes as they happen!
>
> Here is the scenario:
>
> Geologist at the nearest Junior College gets a call from a reporter
> with
> the "facts": "Man has hole in his roof, with a metal rock on the
> floor
> under the hole. Fairly certain it is a meteorite, what do you
> think?" Expert,
> walking between classes he is teaching: "Does a magnet stick to this
> so
> called 'meteorite'?" Reporter: "Yes, strongly."
>
> Expert, choking on his coffee: "Sounds like it is the real deal, can
> I see
> it?"
>
> With TV cameras rolling, 2 hours later the expert arrives at the
> scene,
> with fresh images of meteorites in his head that he found on Google
> just
> before he headed out of the office, he is handed the object and he
> says...
>
> We all know what he says. Just read the quotes.
>
> That is how it happens.
>
> The universe is now rotating around him instead of the sun for a few
> days
> and his head is spinning on his great fortune. He starts swerving
> over
> into other areas of expertise like Financial Advising, telling the
> finder not
> to be suckered into selling his meteorite too cheap to the first
> greedy
> dealer that comes along to rip him off.
>
> Or he goes the other way and tells the finder, that if he donates the
> rock
> to his institution, that all the positive PR this will generate for
> his
> school will help him get on that tenured track he is coveting. Oh
> wait, he
> THINKS that, he actually tells the finder that only science will find
> the
> mysteries of the universe locked in his rock if he gives it to the
> school,
> and that if a dealer gets it instead, it will only be cut into
> pieces.
>
> He starts thinking about the grant money he can get when he writes the
> paper on it. Maybe he will get to speak at the Rotary Luncheon? Even
> now his
> students that laugh at him will HAVE to respect him.
>
> I could go on, about how "science" will have to look at the donated
> object
> through glass, as the committee at the school responsible for it
> won't
> allow it to ever be cut...but I won't.
>
> Shove a TV camera in front of about anyone, and it amazing what comes
> out
> of their mouth sometimes.
>
> Steve Arnold
>
>
>
> **************Remember Mom this Mother's Day! Find a florist near you
> now.
> (http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=florist&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000006)
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Received on Fri 08 May 2009 01:27:44 PM PDT