[meteorite-list] Stop thieves! Meteorite marauders of Norway!

[Darren Garrison]

On Sun, 13 Aug 2006 10:53:24 +0200, you wrote:

>And the first time such a meteorite has fallen since 1937. And, it is 
>the first time that more than two meteorite pieces have been found from 
>a meteorite fall in norwegian history. This means that there are 
>hundreds of pieces that will not be found. The meteorite is a holy 

This part jumped out at me-- he aknowledges that "hundreds of pieces" will not
be found.  So which would be better-- to have lots of people with incentives for
doing so out searching for those meteorites, giving SOME chance that they will
someday find their way to the hands of researchers, or leave them to remain
unfound-- but at least they are staying in Norway?  

At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, I REALLY start to get creeped out when
someone starts to talk about someone being required to turn over something from
their private property "for the good of the state" (as the writer in the
Norweigan blog seems to be doing).  As much as I care about the science, I'd
rather see the loss to science than see the loss of personal liberties and
property rights.  If a meteorite falls on my land, I expect to be able to keep
it, donate it to science, sell it to shifty foreigners, or grind it up and make
finger paint for chimpanzees with it.