[meteorite-list] Even More stupid media use of meteorites + Age of Man

[Mr EMan]

So... what... like a mining gang NEVER EVER pulled a prank on their mining engineer? 

Wind or water transported volcanic ash will date to the same age as the ash fall they are composed of when using Zircon and Uranium dates because mechanical transport doesn't reset the clock. Like most UFO/Atlantis/X-File-realm reports, inconvenient facts are omitted so as not to leave obvious doubts in the story line.

And YES it does happen in meteorites.  How many people have you helped ID a meteor wrong who dogmatically clung to the slimmest of unprovable and dubious "fact" while they ignored all evidence that showed their stone was not a meteorite?  ( e.g. I know it was a train that hit my dog, I saw its tracks) The statement that "I found this rock in my yard and it wasn't there yesterday so it must be a meteorite" is not ipso facto valid.  It only means that you do not remember seeing it there before you picked it up.

Remember the Cardiff Giant?
<http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_cardiff_giant/>

The Giant That Fooled the World
...the incredible tale of history's weirdest hoax

When George Hull left his weed-choked, debt-ridden tobacco farm outside Binghamton, N.Y., and headed west in 1868 to seek better fortune, he thought maybe he'd go prospecting for gold. But he never reached gold country. On the way, 90 years ago, he stumbled on something more precious than the yellow metal: human gullibility.

The result was one of the most successful scientific hoaxes in history. On a total investment that probably didn't top $4000, Hull netted a profit estimated at $30,000 to $60,000 -- a small fortune in those days.

Hull's hoax was the famous Cardiff Giant -- a 12-foot statue of a man, secretly made, secretly buried, and then "discovered." Hull had a fabulous double-barreled lie to go with it: It was either a petrified man or an ancient statue -- take your choice. Not only the general public, but many learned men, paid to see it and swallowed it whole.

Elton