[meteorite-list] Anyone remember this?

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 19:14:14 -0500
Message-ID: <e51421550905081714k6041a736m41879ae0df6660d1_at_mail.gmail.com>

I'm with Carl on this one - if it's space junk, then it's collectible
- to me and to others. My main interest is meteorites, followed by
tektites and impactites - with terrestrial rocks not far behind. But
anything that is documented to fall from space and then strike the
surface of the Earth interests me, even if a man sent it up into space
in the first place. In fact, that makes it doubly-collectible - it
would be the only manmade "meteorite" in my display or cabinet. :)

Best regards to the list,

MikeG

On 5/8/09, cdtucson at cox.net <cdtucson at cox.net> wrote:
> Space junk.
> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272212,00.html
> Carl Esparza
> IMCA 5829
>
> ---- MeteorHntr at aol.com wrote:
>> All,
>>
>> In my last post, I failed to tie the first point together with the
>> second.
>>
>>
>> Sometimes experts actually do get it right, but the members media of the
>> media are the ones that twist it and make it wrong with misquotes.
>>
>> There is a story today in the Wichita paper (at least online) with a
>> mistake in it, saying Geoff helped me dig up the big 1,430 pound Brenham
>> 3 1/2
>> years ago. While Geoff did show up a couple of days later, and was
>> instrumental in helping us get the word out to the media about the Main
>> Mass find,
>> he wasn't there when it was dug up, Phil Mani was.
>>
>> Who knows how that mistake happened? Neither Geoff or I said that to the
>>
>> reporter. She didn't pull that from an earlier story she wrote. Go
>> figure?
>>
>> But now that it is in print, others will probably run with the "fact" in
>> future stories.
>>
>> The poor Fire Chief at Monahans still has the stigma of taking the
>> meteorite away from the boys that found it because an AP reporter stated
>> it as
>> fact. We all know it was the Police Chief of Monahans that confiscated
>> the
>> rock without the due process of law.
>>
>> "Little mistake" some will say. "Not a big deal" others would say.
>> "Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story" still others would
>> argue.
>>
>> It might be a big deal to the Fire Chief, or to Phil Mani, or to any of
>> the other BILLIONS of people who would like to be able to believe that
>> facts
>> stated in the media are true as stated.
>>
>> If editors would edit, or if reporters would run a story buy the quoted
>> person to fact check before it goes to print, mistakes could be avoided.
>>
>>
>> But, deadlines have to be met. The next story has to be started. Ads
>> have to be sold.
>>
>> It is life in the news media world.
>>
>> One day soon we won't have newspapers anymore. It will all be online.
>> And mistakes will be able to be corrected in short order.
>>
>> Until then, we suffer, and do the best we can with what we've got.
>>
>> Steve Arnold
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> In a message dated 5/8/2009 12:02:27 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
>> MeteorHntr at aol.com writes:
>> 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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>>
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>

-- 
.........................................................
Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA)
Member of the Meteoritical Society.
Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network.
Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and http://www.glassthrower.com
..........................................................

Received on Fri 08 May 2009 08:14:14 PM PDT