[meteorite-list] Non magnetic meteorites

Sat Feb 20 00:09:28 EST 2010

Hi, All,

The ultimate in this kind of crazy thinking is the case of
Randolph Kirkpatrick. He was the assistant keeper of lower
invertebrates at the British Natural History Museum from
1886 until his retirement in 1927 and made several valid
scientific discoveries. However, he had one immensely
crazy notion.

In 1912, he published a book entitled "The Nummulosphere"
which put forward the theory that the entire Earth was formed
from the accumulation of the calcium shells of forams, like
the Nummulites, small creatures like the ones he'd spent a
lifetime studying.

He believed everything geological -- basalts, red seafloor clays,
marble, granites, mountains -- everything was formed from
these little one-celled shelled organisms. It's crazy enough to
think the entire Earth was made out of them, but even better,
he apparently believed that the Earth GREW from a beginning
speck of water and nummulites into the planet of today, built
by the nummulites the way corals build a reef.

Russell T. Wing, like Randolph Kirkpatrick, has one immensely
crazy idea. The key word there is ONE. What we have here are
monomaniacs. They do not "tenuously believe" their crazy notion.
For them, it is a burning luminous concept that commands belief.

Monomaniacs are so obsessed with their one idea that it
overpowers every other thought and corrupts their judgment
until they believe it explains everything. I have no doubt that
if Wing got worse and worse, he would end up believing that the
Earth was made of accumulated Wingstars just as Kirkpatrick
believed the Earth was made of accumulated Nummulites!

PS: I haven't read Russell Wing, so I don't know that he doesn't
already think that. If the Earth is covered with a huge number
of fresh Wingstars (like in his garden), why not? What better
explanation? The Earth is just a self-gravitating sphere of
accumulating Wingstars -- a Wingstarosphere! Someone should
suggest it to him. Would it be fun to push him over the edge?
Assuming he's not already there, that is.

Sterling K. Webb
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You can read about Kirkpatrick here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=ddpCtPz8D78C&pg=PA139&dq=NUMMULOSPHERE&ei=e2p_S6XMIKHWNJ3WzOcP&cd=5#v=onepage&q=NUMMULOSPHERE&f=false
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "dave carothers" <carothersdl at gmail.com>
To: "Ken Newton" <magellon.ken at gmail.com>; 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Non magnetic meteorites

> Ken
>
> You ask:  "Can anyone explain this dogged type thinking? That the 
> owner's rock HAS TO BE a meteorite despite the fact that every expert 
> contacted has told them differently. I just don't understand the 
> thinking but I want
> to."
>
> I can only reply that people who think like this have rocks in their 
> heads.
>
> Regards,
>
> Dave
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ken Newton" <magellon.ken at gmail.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 9:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Non magnetic meteorites
>
>
>> >Perhaps many meteorwrongs actually were meteorites!
>>
>> I seem to encounter misguided individuals who tenuously believe such
>> dribble on regular basis. Russell T Wing is the exemplar of
>> meteorwrong 'wingnuts' just as Harvey Nininger is to meteorite
>> enthusiasts. Here is an example from Wing's book:"This entire
>> experience seemed incredible and unbelievable. How could a small
>> collection of stones - not over 100 - and over half of them picked up
>> out of my rock garden in 1969, produce 25 earth-type quartz 
>> meteorites
>> when never before had a quartz meteorite been known!  ... But in this
>> investigation, the unthinkable thing seems to be the common thing. 
>> And
>> again, after thinking things over, my unbelievable collection of
>> quartz meteorites needed to balance it off; they simply could not be
>> alone. There must also be many other kinds of meteorites here if my
>> quartz ones were authentic."
>>
>> And Wing goes on to 'discover' 'authentic' meteoritic petrified wood
>> and meteoritic fossils, etc. The wingstars were everywhere! All you
>> have to do is look!  Yikes!
>>
>> Can anyone explain this dogged type thinking? That the owner's rock
>> HAS TO BE a meteorite despite the fact that every expert contacted 
>> has
>> told them differently. I just don't understand the thinking but I 
>> want
>> to.
>>
>> kn
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:12 PM, James Balister 
>> <balisterjames at att.net> wrote:
>>> On the meteorite men Jeff and Steve showed a meteorite that was non 
>>> magnetic and seemed to have no iron at all. Anyone know if it had 
>>> nickel in it? How did they determin it was a meteorite? Has anyone 
>>> ever heard of wingstars? Could that stone be a wingstar? Wingstars 
>>> have always interested me because they are oriented and look just 
>>> like a meteorite but lack ni/fe. Perhaps many meteorwrongs actually 
>>> were meteorites!
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