[meteorite-list] Ben Guerir TKW and TAW

[Jeff Grossman]

No, I don't think so.  My point is that "availability" depends on who 
you are.  A typical scientist has neither a large (or any) meteorite 
collection nor a budget for purchasing specimens.  To him or her, 
privately owned meteorites are not directly available.  It's 
different for a researcher at a large museum, who has significant 
trading power and/or an acquisition budget.  In the same way a 
collector with a small collection has little trading power, so many 
museum specimens seem unavailable.  However, big-time dealers have 
the wherewithal to negotiate trades with museums for some very 
special meteorites not normally considered available.  For those 
collectors or scientists with the greatest resources, nearly 
everything is theoretically available except for objects of 
extraordinary significance.

So it's not a useful quantity, this "TAW."  There's no way to define 
it unless you want to change the A to stand for Advertised.

jeff

At 08:56 PM 9/7/2005, stan . wrote:

>I think  you have it all backwards. institutions ALWAS have things 
>that the colelcting public would give their eye teeth to get ahold 
>of, making nearly anything in the hands of colelctors avalible to the
>researchers if they want to go out and get it one way or the 
>other... now what lab wants to do a study on a nice big 100 lbs nwa 
>869 and has a 100g nakhla individual laying around that they dont need? :)
>
>
>>Gee, I would define Total Available Weight as that material which 
>>is accessible and ready for use in scientific research.  This would 
>>include the pieces in Morocco museums, but not pieces in the hands 
>>of collectors.
>>
>>Availability is a matter of perspective and access, which is 
>>different for different people.
>
>
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