[meteorite-list] Meteorite Hits 14 Year Old Boy?

[csaconn at triad.rr.com]

In several of the photos it appears that the meteorite also removed most of this poor boy's fingers. What a horrible tragedy :(

---- JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com> wrote: 
> http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z126/tboswell/0667086000.jpg?t=1245180536
> http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z126/tboswell/article-1192503-054F2E95000005DC-83.jpg?
> http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z126/tboswell/SNN1235HH-380_823358a.jpg?t=1245180707
> http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z126/tboswell/article-1192503-054F2E95000005DC-34.jpg?
> http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z126/tboswell/_45916040_cen_meteoriteboy_03.jpg?t=1245180773
> 
> Here are some pics from this story on our young P.T. Barnum  which at last 
> count had over 100 article links on Google News.   I haven't read them all, 
> they pretty much rehash the original story with some added embellishments. 
> Incredibly, every single story I've read makes the same misquote:
> Ansgar Kortem, director of Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory, said: "It's 
> a real meteorite, therefore it is very valuable to collectors and 
> scientists."  According to the original  German article, the actual quote 
> is: " If it's a real meteorite, it's therefore very valuable to collectors 
> and scientists".  What a difference one word makes!
> 
>    It's almost as if not a single one of the journalists bothered to check 
> the primary source story. Probably not surprising since it was in German and 
> would require some effort to translate.  More work than I'd want to do for 
> $8 an hour (what I was offered to write  for the South Bend , (IN) Tribune.)
> 
> Anyway it's a fun story to follow, and I'm curious to see how the Susan 
> Boyle of the meteorite world ends up.  Probably more like the Octo Mom 
> narrative.
> 
> So, whaddya think, a carbonaceous chondrite, with black exterior and 
> interior?  I'm pretty sure the filled in pothole in front of the kid is 
> supposed to be the impact crater.  (LOL!)
> 
> In all the stories, mention is given to only one person saying this is a 
> Newtonian impossibility: Darryl Pitt who is given the role of voice in the 
> wilderness by MSNBC in one of the earlier stories.
> 
> Bad Astronomy's (Discover) Phil Plait believes that an exploding fireball 
> increased the velocity of the pea sized stone (hasn't this theory been 
> debunked on the List?) and that the kid's injury was from shrapnel from the 
> asphalt crater. And he says this with a straight face!  Phil got a little 
> miffed at me for saying that no real astronomer would believe any part of 
> this shaggy dog story.
> 
> Phil Whitmer 
> 
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