[meteorite-list] AD - A FEW DANDYS

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

Hola David,
 
Yes, I initially thought you were right, really.  Smoking  grapevines isn't 
my thing so I wouldn't know about its  effects; I was joking about the "bribe" 
to science (though I think  science can use all the bribes it can get and like 
the idea) and what I perceive  to be the grey area when a paper is accepted 
for publication before it has  an official published bulletin name for a 
scientifically important meteorite  that is handled on a case basis according to the 
author guidlines, which I saw  as a reasonable exception.  I suppose it is 
conceivable that such a  hypothetically important meteorite could appear in 
print in MAPS before the  Bulletin entry is formalized by publication.  However, 
the practice of  opening the Bulletin in provisional form for public comment 
would seem to be  more like a wedding when the marrying facilitator has no 
objections but  still asks if anyone else has any objections, so that is why I 
agreed with you,  since there is never anything wrong with telling the truth (The 
name is approved  provisionally for publication {in MB#}).
 
Mark, regarding my suspicion, which was more a opinion than a guess,  it 
certainly would be a magic email to short circuit the entire process and get  an 
official name out of an email.  That is why I called it a magic  email.  But it 
seems we're now on the same page after messing with David,  since you have 
acknowledged the difference between the more ambiguously word  "approved" vs 
"official"...
 
Saludos, Doug
 
 
David clobbered me with a good natured personal attack for not recognizing  
the gravity of the issue:

>Hey Doug,
>I don't know what grapevine you've been smoking, 
>but I highly doubt that the NomCom would accept 
>bribes to get a meteorite deemed "official". Besides, 
>the only way to tell if it's "official" is by looking at the  
>MetBull; as Jeff G. wrote, "If it's not there, it's not an 
>official name, period, no exceptions." He also said 
>the following concerning provisional names: "Also,
>the journals MAPS and GCA have a policy that 
>should prevent  publication of scientific reports on 
>these specimens." I would defer to these statements 
>by the then-acting Editor of the Meteoritical Bulletin,
>and discount what you heard through the grapevine.

Mark retorted  on a serious note from his own recent experience with an email:

>Hello  Doug and list,

>Doug guessed, "I would suspect the only way the NomCom  
>is going to give advance approval via magic emails...'

>I  wouldn't say email is magic.  People that submit 
>information  usually always know if what they 
>submitted is approved or not before  publication.
(Doug: Only at the point when the fat lady sings can we deal with the word  
"official", your word approved is slightly ambiguous, and we three  happily 
conclude that that ambiguity doesn't usually always usurp the  Bulletin)

Doug butted in and attempted a joke that miserably failed since  even David 
didn't get it:

> Hola Mark, A name is official when  you are allowed to use it in a  
> Meteoritical Society publication,  right?  I would suspect the only way the 
 NomCom is 
> going to  give advance approval via magic emails, is if you promise you  
are 
>  working on a peer-reviewed paper for publication in a scientific journal   
> especially MAPS, and need an approved name for your rock, and have the  don 
to  
> convince them.  I heard through the grapevine,  however, that those magic  
emails were 
> also available to  commercial dealers with no publications, one of  the 
> amounts  of:  an additional 5 grams or 5% type specimen contribution, or  
$500  to the 
> endowment, as long as it isn't the smallest of the  three.   Saludos, Doug