[meteorite-list] Seeking Knowledge and Dealing with Meteorwrong Owners wa...

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

Pete, Elton, Norm, Gary and friends,

The idea that one more meteorite wrong is going to over-tax a system that is 
ready to break in a second and do an enormous disservice to the interest of 
science is ridiculous.  Considering that 1000's of rocks are scanned and tiny 
amounts are actually graduated as meteorites, it will take a lab all of two 
seconds to toss the sample out if it as as most of us believe.  It is absurd to 
think that this is squandaring scientific resources as if it is a big deal.  
What has the world degenerated to nowadays if someone can't get a rock looked at 
by a scientist.  My head isn't in that osterich hole.  

Gary has gone to check this rock out.  He has invested time and money and 
enthusiasm in it because he is curious and learning like all of us.  Gary has 
also spoken to the owner and the owner did not exhibit snake-oil behavior.  He 
gave Gary a big sample.  Gary believes there is a good chance the the owner 
truly believes his divine account.  Up to there we have honest curiosity and 
enthusiasm.  Gary has been a listmember for at least 6 months and I think he has 
demonstrated to be as pleasantly eccentric and contributing as others here.  Why 
would anyone want to tell him he is wasting his time, as if you knew how to 
spend his time better - maybe guidance, ok, but Gary will decide when he is 
done.  I think his quest is a good one and I congratulate him for his project 
which he has approached honestly.  No one seemed too concerned that Gary 
investigated, but suddenly the Prohibition Amendment is being flashed around.  Maybe 
he'll just toss it because of comments belittling his quest made on this list.  
I got the idea that a church of believers is also somehow depending on this, 
though maybe I got it backwards - this is the real importance imo.  Here we 
have 5, 10, 50 churchgoing-folks thinking maybe something great will happen for 
their church.  I think the least the meteorite community could do is help 
here, and stop trying to monopolize scientists' time for their own 
classifications.  The problem isn't that there are too many meteorwrongs being submitted, it 
is that there are too many meteorites being submitted. Think about the 
positive social impact and how science has a good chance to help here - with all due 
respect to my senior list members.
Saludos, Doug (pardon to Gary for over using his name)