Let me get this in perspective.  25,000+ meteorites are locked up in ANSMET 
deep freezers wholly available to researchers only.  Another  31,000+? non 
ANSMET ( ANSMET and METBUL figures) are in the met bulletin.  All meteorites 
passing muster have between 100% and 20% owned by approved/certified 
institutions of curation.  

As Emma Peel the Wendy's Lady might have said..."Where's the beef?"

So please someone somewhere give me the name of a credentialed researcher 
anywhere in the world that cannot get hold of specific material to do their 
research? Were it not for the collector community there would not be the 1000's 
of newly found meteorites available in the first place.

How many confirmed but non-NONCOM approved, distinct meteorites are totally in 
private hands without a speck available for research?  Does anyone on the list 
have an unclassified NWA that would not gladly share a portion if a scientist 
came calling?  

The blurb bout selling it "illegally on ebay" is outright fear mongering. If he 
is a maritime law expert shouldn't he be calling us "pirates" as well?  And 
speaking of slander, why is no one publicly concerned about Jennskins' 
interviews where he talks about "Outlaw meteorite hunters"and the "meteorite 
black market"? Give me an answer and I'll hold my tongue and(Chicago convention 
excepted) speak no more of it.  I do not care that he is "Mister Meteor" nor 
that he may be world renown but he shouldn't be given a pass on his uninformed 
public statements regarding our community.  I really would like to see his 
direct response published, should he ever again be misquoted like the "black 
market" statements regarding the Gabal Kamal Iron. We would have his position 
on record.  Better yet, if he truly understood from an informed position he 
might never make disparaging comments to reporters. 

Which brings us to the other meteorite law logical fallacy: "Cultural property" 
and Doug Schmitt's building on the "cultural heritage defense to outlaw private 
ownership of meteorites.  Where a meteorite should land is random so its 
ascension to protected "native heritage/cultural object" is unfounded.  I 
understand Willemitte and Hoba, perhaps Cape York owing to separate reasons.  
If they were men of integrity they would just pass their LOCAL laws regarding 
meteorite ownership. And let the rest of the world be.  By using cultural 
object status they are violating their own obligation to preserve in tact and 
not slice it up for study.

Elton

PS:  So according to Schmitt's TED talk only iron meteorites originate in the 
asteroid belt and are the oldest objects in the universe(sic)



----- Original Message -----
> From: Adam Hupe <[email protected]>
> To: Adam <[email protected]>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 5:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Doug Schmitt's Talk at TEDxVancouver on 21st 
> October 2012
> 
> 
> In my opinion, NOT a friend of the meteorite hunting community. 
> 
> 
> Seems he found his 
> 22-minutes worth of fame outside of his area of expertise.  He should 
> stick to maritime law instead of demonizing the commercial aspects of 
> meteorite hunting which have contributed far more to science than his 
> videotaped self-promoting blather.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: karmaka <[email protected]>
> To: met-list <[email protected]>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 11:16 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Doug Schmitt's Talk at TEDxVancouver on 21st 
> October 2012
> 
> There Are 5,000 Meteors Heading Our Way... Now What?:
> 
> Doug Schmitt at TEDxVancouver on 21st October 2012
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqcHaN91YSA
> 
> " Doug Schmitt is a Partner with Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP, who 
> has been practicing maritime law for over 32 years. Drawing on similarities 
> to 
> the law of the seas, Doug has become one of the world's few published 
> authors on meteorite law. A member of the Meteoritical Society, a non-profit 
> scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote the study of 
> extraterrestrial 
> materials, he sits on that organization's Working Group drafting the code of 
> ethics for collecting and distributing meteorites. Doug's scientific and 
> legal backgrounds position him ideally to offer insight from two distinct 
> disciplines into a fascinating topic: the possible consequences for humankind 
> of 
> a failure to properly study meteorites."
> 
> Martin
> 
> 
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