[meteorite-list] Ignorance is bliss

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:16:29 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4EC28_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi Steve, John and List,

Steve wrote:

> It is simply amazing, no matter how clear one can be
> at a meteorite identification site, how many people
> think that after reading the information that their
> sample meets "all of the criteria."
>
> I have had thousands, upon thousands of submissions
> since first putting up a site for meteorite
> identification, and only a very few out of that have
> turned out to be meteorites.

What's ironic is that while you've got one cross section
of humanity turning in slag, hematite, concretions, gravel
and magnetite, another set of people will go to the desert,
unwittingly stumble across a large meteorite, move it with
difficulty to a clear location, only to use it as a backstop
for pistol target practice! (Read Bob Verish's report in
last month's Meteorite Times).

The operative point here is that (by definition) the average
IQ is 100, and education can only do so much. As evidenced
by all the meteorwrongs that get turned in, and the meteorites
that get shot at (!), the average yahoo apparently wouldn't
recognize a meteorite if it hit him in the head. ;-) --Rob
Received on Wed 06 Aug 2003 05:15:38 PM PDT