[meteorite-list] metorwrongs...

[Robert Verish]

Hi Manoj,

You wrote:
"Hope this help. ;-)"

No, Manoj, as you may have already surmised, this does
not help at all.  You should advise your "legal
advisor" to go back and research this some more. 
Until then, the advice you were given should only be
considered as one lawyer's opinion.

The main point of disagreement is with the statement
that everything is a "meteorwrong until it is properly
classified".   It is a fact that there are many
meteorites that are properly IDENTIFIED, but which
have never been and never will be classified.  

Your legal advisor seems to be implying that most
meteoriticists consider anything that isn't properly
classified by them to be a "meteorwrong".  I have
rarely seen them use that term in print, and have
never heard them use it on any unexamined specimen.

I'm not saying that there is a common consensus on how
the term "meteor-wrong" is defined, but it would be
safe to say that the majority opinion would hold that
a "term TBD" becomes a "meteorite" only after a
qualified professional has IDENTIFIED it as such.  But
should that same expert deem the "term TBD" to be NOT
a meteorite, at that point in time it becomes that
other thing, whatever you wish to call it, but which
has been commonly called a "meteorwrong".  

My main point is that even legal terms are defined by
common usage, and the common usage of "meteorwrong"
isn't applied to "everything that isn't properly
classified".

Bob V.

------------- Original Message -------------
[meteorite-list] metorwrongs...
Manoj Pai manojpai at yahoo.com 
Thu Mar 24 13:04:17 EST 2005 

> Someone has just asked me an interesting question,
> what do you call a "potential meteorite" that isn't 
> a 'meteorite' nor a confirmed 'meteorwrong'

I would not like to spoil the fun of most of you, but
would like to point out that I asked this question to
our legal advisor, here. After going through some of
the info on a few sites and books, he concluded, that
the 'potential meteorite' will continue to be called a
meteorwrong, untill classified and identified as a
meteorite. Hope this help. ;-)

Manoj Pai
Ahmedabad, INDIA