[meteorite-list] Meteorite hunter takes £10,000 rock to auction - And a particularly BAD quote

From: Malcolm S Pringle <mpringle_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 11:41:35 -0400
Message-ID: <20130819114135.du9tnqj1ck8cskwo_at_webmail.mit.edu>

Hi, all --

Further to Mendy's comments -- I'm a list newbie (I joined to help acquire a
mini-teaching collection to use in K-12 schools in the Boston area) -- but I
had seen the original article, and found it amusing enough that I almost
pointed it out to you all a couple of days ago:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/16/hambleton-chelyabinsk-meteorite-auction-rob-elliott

In other words, this was in the Guardian, supposedly one of the more reputable
newspapers worldwide (for example, the lead investigatory paper in the
Snowden/NSA stories), attributed to the Press Association (supposedly one of
the UK's leading news organizations, http://www.pressassociation.com). There
wasn't an option to comment on the article directly, and the Press Association
doesn't appear to have an ombudsman, but here is the press officer /
communications manager, in case anyone with more experience/local UK
perspective wants to take up the gauntlet:

sean.ottley at pressassociation.com

The most amusing misinformation seemed to be in the figure caption:

"Other items to be auctioned include one of the only pieces of the Russian
meteorite ?Chelyabinsk to have made it to the west"

[well, not quite accurate, with like 300+ active auctions on ebay as of this
morning alone ...]

;-)

As usual, reiterates that we have to be careful what info we get from even the
"good" news outlets. Also, as Mendy suggests, how careful we need to be when
we ourselves are the source of information?

-- Malcolm

Quoting Mendy Ouzillou <ouzillou at yahoo.com>:

> http://www.astrowatch.net/2013/08/meteorite-hunter-takes-10000-rock-to.html
>
> Dear list members,
>
> This is an interesting article but what really caught my eye was the
> following quote: "The Russian government told the local residents
> that they would arrest anyone selling pieces of the meteorite
> overseas, so my contact had to disguise the airmail package and mix
> the meteorites with pieces of electronic equipment to hide them,"
>
>
> The intricacies of Russian export laws are as dense as as any Russian
> novel and less decipherable as highlighted by some of our own
> conversations regarding the topic. This quote unfortunately removes
> any doubt that the Chelyabinsk meteorites were smuggled out and only
> reinforces the misconception that our (a)vocation is run like a black
> market.
>
> I am sure that the actual interview was filled with more details and
> clarifying comments, but that is clearly NOT what was printed.
> Dealing with the press is a skill like any other that requires
> training and experience. At the very least ask for the questions in
> advance and respond by email if at all possible. The most important
> thing to do is to ask for the ability to review and make edits to the
> article BEFORE agreeing to doing the interview.
>
> Though you will figure out easily who was quoted, this is not about
> the individual. I was not there during the interview (obviously) and
> can't say what was or was not said. I really just want to highlight
> this story as a cautionary tale.?
>
> As a final thought, not all reporters are bad or out to get people.
> They have a job to do and are motivated by a different set of
> requirements than what we may understand. They want a good story and
> you (may) want the public recognition. This is a symbiotic
> relationship, but if you do not understand how the game is played,
> you will likely get played.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Mendy Ouzillou?
> ______________________________________________
>
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======================================================================
If you don't feed the teachers, they will eat the children.
Anonymous teacher, told to Linda Albert, Cooperative Discipline, 1996.
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But none of that will transform education if we fail to cherish --
and challenge -- the human heart that is the source of good teaching.
Parker J Palmer, The Courage to Teach, 1998.
======================================================================
Malcolm S Pringle, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Massachusetts Inst of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave Bldg 54-1210
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 USA Cell: 617-319-6584
======================================================================
Received on Mon 19 Aug 2013 11:41:35 AM PDT