[meteorite-list] Moss, Norway meteorite laws and news

[AstronomicalResearchNetwork]

Great work Mike and thank you .
        Ken Regelman
Astronomical Research Network

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <meteoritehunter at comcast.net>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 5:19 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Moss, Norway meteorite laws and news


> Hi everyone, I am in Chigcago, on my way home after a travel day from hell with stops in the UK and the chaos at the airports 
> there. My advice, AVOID THE UK at all costs right now. Pretty much strip searches, plastic baggie with passport and money was all 
> I could carry on, overflowing bins of goodies taken from people, thousands of bags on the ground sitting in the rain, endless 
> lines and no-one seemed to have a clue what to do.
> My bags made is somehow, and I now have the Moss meteorites safely in my hands again, it was hard to sleep wondering if some 
> airport lackey had deemed them as dangerous and tossed them in the incinerator!
>
> Now on to this Norwegian article condemning myself and my fellow meteorite hunters. I am dissapointed in reading it, since I had a 
> meeting with the people from the National museum regarding the laws and was told that I was welcome to take anything I found or 
> bought, since Norway had no law against it. Now it seems, that while true, they did not want to cooperate hunting with me as they 
> suggested, but rather were just gathering information to use in harrasing me. I searched for 8 days in Moss, and never once ran 
> into a scientists, museum curator, or any other official out hunting meteorites in the forest, mosquito-infested bogs, or streets 
> of Moss. I met the museum people at my hotel for two hours, then they promtly took a bus back to Oslo. I guess hunting meteorites 
> is not their forte, just complaining about those of us who save them from destruction and preserve them.
> The piece that Morten Bilet and I found was in a parking area at a large factory. Many pieces had been run over and crushed into 
> grey piles of dust by the time we discovered it and saved over 800 grams of extremely rare material from further destruction. Now 
> I am called a thief for legally removing it from Norway. I have already submitted pieces for classification, and the thin sections 
> are being made and we will have perhaps preliminary classification by the end of the month. I have museums around the world 
> already slated for pieces, and collectors as well. There is enough material for both the museums in Norway, the scientific world, 
> and the private collection community to share.
> I am proud of what I do, the risks I take, and the time and energy I spend chasing these falls. Until I see legions of scientists 
> out there doing it beside me, I know who is the one who provides them with their study material, and who saves the meteorites from 
> destruction or loss. If Morten and I had not found our specimen when we did, it would be 800 grams of grey mud right now, not a 
> pristine meteorite already in the lab!
> Michael Farmer
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