[meteorite-list] Canada laws

From: star-bits_at_comcast.net <star-bits_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Apr 26 10:22:02 2006
Message-ID: <042620060543.806.444F0869000C0CB60000032622070206539C9B070DD39D0E9B9C_at_comcast.net>

Armando Afonso Wrote:

<Sadly, in Portugal, and in contrast, any ignorant american "enterpreneur" with (relatively) much money, can buy for a (relatively) few peanuts a rare meteorite from the local ignorant farmers, making a substancial personal profit, enough to start a career in piracy, all this as easily as going to shop in the local supermarket.>

    Hardly as easy as going to the supermarket. It required the expenditure of several thousand dollars with no guarantee of getting anything when he arrived. A career in piracy??? Maybe you ought to go to a dictionary and read a defination of the word. Pirates are not in the habit of paying anything (not even peanuts) for the goods they accumulate.

<As I am very naive, I imagined, when I heard the news in 98, that the total mass of the meteorite of Ourique was deposited in the university of Lisbon (yes, there is more than ignorants, around here), but no, it was saved from our 3th world ignorance by the hands of an american specialist .....This is a shame to my country.>

     The shame is that the University of Lisbon thought so little of the meteorite that they collected a few pieces and left the rest to rot. Anybody could have done what Farmer did. You could have done it. Have you even jumped in a car and gone to Ourique yet? If not why not, it is a whole lot cheaper than a transatlantic flight. There are undoubtedly still pieces there.

     The even bigger shame is what happened with Tagish Lake. I think it is great that Jim Brook took the Canadian Government for $750,000. Had they not been so secretive about the fall location significantly more material would have been collected and the price would have been 1/10 of what it is today. Canadian policies drove the price way up and now they have paid the price for it. The sad thing is if another fall happened again they would still do the same thing and let most of it sink in the lake.

Eric Olson
http://www.star-bits.com

-------------- next part --------------
An embedded message was scrubbed...
From: "Armando Afonso" <armandoafonso_at_oniduo.pt>
Subject: [meteorite-list] Canada laws
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:37:48 +0000
Size: 13490
Url: http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/attachments/20060426/45b950cd/attachment.mht
Received on Wed 26 Apr 2006 01:43:06 AM PDT