[meteorite-list] Meteorite Black Market

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2013 19:35:35 -0500
Message-ID: <CAKBPJW9U3hgm3P7gDxBpjRdMazWKWvuJFNAOuQqWpT=rTe8emw_at_mail.gmail.com>

We should boycott every one of these publications and the advertisers
who use them.

I came home a few weeks ago and saw a copy of the NYT magazine (an
insert?) laying on the kitchen table. It didn't matter where it came
from or who it belonged to (still don't know), but it went straight
into the trash where it belonged.

And with William Broad having a Pulitizer under his belt, that is no
better than Eminem winning a Grammy - it shows that the prize has lost
it's meaning and they are handing them out to anybody now. I may not
have a Pulitizer, but I could write circles around that guy. My
grammar is awful, but at least I check my facts before I publish
something. And if I am proven wrong later, I admit it, apologize, and
take the correction. Broad is too good for that for apparently. I
have to believe that a monkey banging away on a typewriter can win a
Pulitzer these days.

Dr. Harvey is obviously a collector-hater and one of these elitists
who thinks the great unwashed shouldn't have meteorites. If he was
truly educated about meteoritics and the synergy between the private
market and academia, then he wouldn't say things like his "black
market" quote. It just shows that someone can be a doctor but have no
common sense whatsoever. He loses credibility by uttering such broad
and erroneous statements. It makes him look like he got his doctorate
out of a Cracker Jacks box.

If Harvey is so bent out of shape about private involvement in
meteorites, then fine - that is his choice and freedom to do so. But,
walk the walk. Stop reading abstracts and papers about NWA, Dhofar,
and all of the other hot desert meteorites recovered by the private
sector. Stop using them for research, stop citing them, and purge
your collections of them. I bet the barn that he talks this black
market crap, but has participated in research using specimens
recovered and donated by private hunters. So add hypocrisy to the
list with ignorance.

Boston Globe - I'll never read another Globe article again. I will
filter that publication out of my news aggregator. Any publication
that blindly reprints whatever is on the press wire without checking
facts is careless at best. What else are they printing that is
baloney disguised as fact? Kinda makes you wonder, and it definitely
hurts their credibility.

Big Think Blog - not much big thinking going on there. Just another
example of a portal-site reprinting press wire articles. It's easier
and cheaper to republish another's work than to produce consistent
original writing. I've never heard of this blog before, and I'm glad.
 No need for me to boycott it, because it doesn't exist in my book.

China Daily - well, I guess they have to criticize something outside
China, so why not meteorites? If they report on the massive
corruption in their business world and government, the editors would
be imprisoned and/or executed. Reading Chinese news is the most bland
and one-sided experience. They have no freedom to think or form
opinions of their own, so it is difficult to take their "journalism"
seriously. Just another news service devoid of original stories, so
they reprint what's on the wires.

Daily Astronomy - yet another portal site with a noise to signal
ratio. Average day in their editor's office : Hey, there's a
science-related story on the wire! Quick, copy-paste it, and put the
link on our front page!

And lastly, if asked to place a dollar amount on a meteorite during a
media/press interview - change the subject, or decline, or use that
opportunity to explain how science benefits from that meteorite. If
they keep pushing for dollar amounts, end the interview and refuse to
give them permission to use anything said before that. Yes, money is
involved in meteorites, and that is no different than any other field
or hobby.

Sorry for my rant. But this black market nonsense is not only getting
old, it is displaying a remarkable degree of longevity. It just keeps
popping up every time somebody republishes those terrible wire
stories, and now it's becoming a damaging thing. Some people are
easily swayed, and if they hear the same lie 1000 times, they will
eventually believe it, and that is happening with this black market
misinformation. Suing the liars won't do much good, because proving
material damages in a libel or slander case is difficult under
circumstances like this - it becomes a first amendment issue. So, the
best we can do is to refute these lies at every opportunity. Post
comments, letters to the editor, etc. Be vocal and give them some
blowback over it.

Best regards,

MikeG

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On 3/2/13, Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum <dorifry at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> >From the Boston Globe:
>
>  "Writing at the website of the excellent BBC Radio program "The Naked
> Scientists," Audrey Tempelsman looks at the global trade in meteorites, and
>
> finds a shadowy, globe-spanning gray market." "Many meteorite resellers,
> Tempelsman writes, close their eyes to the legal aspects of the merchandise.
>
> As Ralph Harvey, a geologist at Case Western Reserve University, tells
> Tempelsman,"The skill level that some collectors have to get stones out of
> Africa rivals that of drug dealers."
>
> "The black market for meteorites"
>
> http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/06/09/the-black-market-for-meteorites/poFPgK5REldREpXFylFH6I/story.html
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> >From the BigThink Blog:
> "The Meteorite Black Market"
> http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/the-meteorite-black-market
>
>
> "We have at our disposal a very limited number of [meteorite and asteroid]
> specimens to study and exhibit," said Dr. Mario Di Martino, who led an
> exhibition team to investigate the Gebel Kamil meteorite site in Egypt in
> 2009. Before his team's investigation could begin, however, the meteorites
> were found by someone else and later sold privately in France. "He and other
>
> members of the Gebel Kamil crater discovery team, he added, don't have the
> money to buy them on the flourishing black market." Some meteorite
> adventurers, however, turn to experts for analysis which cause some,
> including Carl B. Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the
> University of New Mexico, to argue the ambition of the private sector is
> once again aiding sluggish public research."
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >From the China Daily and Daily Astronomy:
>
> "Scientists see red over black-market meteorite sales"
>
> "A black market in meteorites"
> By William J. Broad (New York Times)
> http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-04/17/content_12338995.htm
>
> Contains the infamous quote:
>
> "It's a black market," said Ralph P. Harvey, a geologist who directs the
> United States search for meteorites in Antarctica. "It's as organized as any
>
> drug trade and just as illegal."
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >From KSL radio:
>
> "Meteorites Can Totally Make You Rich"
>
> http://www.ksl.com/?nid=895&sid=20208234
>
> "Looking for a place where wealth literally falls out of the sky? Head to
> Rescue, California, where you can find meteorites which go for around $1,000
>
> per gram. According toThe Los Angeles Times' Diana Marcum,there's a
> different type of California "gold rush" going on, the result of a meteorite
>
> leaving the Coloma-Lotus Valley of California littered with meteor fragments
>
> fetching thousands of dollars on the meteor black market."
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There are many more articles that repeat and rehash the statements of Ralph
>
> Harvey and the articles of William Broad.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Phil Whitmer
> Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
>
>
>
>
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>
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Received on Sat 02 Mar 2013 07:35:35 PM PST