Hi Mike, I'd just leave this one alone and pick a more meaningful
alternate since unfortunately there is no shortage of damning rumors
out there and no organized meteorite enthusiast defense force. The NYT
has become a real fish-wrapper and bird-cage liner which is sad to me
considering I used to think it was untouchably awesome and actually
paid for a long-distance subscription.
Anything you tell them doubtfully would cast in a good light it seems,
and will likely be flamed and used for more inaccurate sensationalism
in their hope to sell more newspapers. The writer and his editor have
simply decided it is convenient to hassle collectors and perpetuate
antiquated stereotypes that are mostly based upon ignorant views of
their own.
What more could you expect from a newspaper that has been in a
meteoric-dive, publishing its own obituary, and couldn't reasonably
even get domestic funding to keep their vision in orbit? (They had to
pay 14% on a quarter of a billion dollar loan made from Mexico), and
are currently saddled with it doing anything they can to pay it back.
On a fair weather day, the press is a challenge; in their foul
condition IMO the best bet is to ignore them and eventually they will
lose their reputation for quality since the problem isn't limited to
meteorite/space stuff, it is slikensided throughout their financially
vesiculated wormwood matrix and friable, contracting universe.
"... and you'll be damned if you do ... and you'll be damned if you
don't."
--anon.
Best wishes
Doug
-----Original Message-----
From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <[email protected]>
To: Yinan Wang <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]; JoshuaTreeMuseum
<[email protected]>
Sent: Sat, Jul 9, 2011 6:14 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Moon Memorabilia Auction + Contact info
The only thing the NYT editor and that horrible writer deserve to
receive is a subpoena informing them of a class-action lawsuit for
defamation and slander on the behalf of the meteorite community.
On 7/9/11, Yinan Wang <[email protected]> wrote:
Here we go again!
Alright, anyone who wants to write a letter to the editor, follow
these instructions and email [email protected]
https://myaccount.nytimes.com/membercenter/feedback.html
Also, here's useful contact information if you have problems with
something printed:
The Times welcomes comments and suggestions, or complaints about
errors that warrant correction. Messages on news coverage can be
e-mailed to [email protected] or left toll-free at 1-888-NYT-NEWS
(1-888-698-6397 ). Comments on editorials may be e-mailed to
[email protected] or faxed to (212) 556-3622 .
Readers dissatisfied with a response or concerned about the paper's
journalistic integrity may reach the public editor at
[email protected] or (212) 556-7652 .
- Yinan
On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 3:09 PM, JoshuaTreeMuseum
<[email protected]> wrote:
We'll see how this one goes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/science/space/10moon.html?_r=1&hp
Shreds of Moon History on the Block
By DOUGLAS QUENQUA
Published: July 9, 2011
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It was two weeks before the liftoff of the Apollo 11 mission when
Thomas
Moser's boss walked into his office at NASA and announced, "We're
putting
a
flag on the moon."
Enlarge This Image
Goldberg Coins and Collectibles
At bottom, remnants of the American flag that went to the moon,
signed by
Mr. Armstrong, are expected to bring $100,000 at auction.
Enlarge This Image
NASA
Buzz Aldrin in a photograph taken by Neil Armstrong.
Mr. Moser, then a 30-year-old mechanical engineer, was put in charge
of
designing a flag mechanism that could not only fit into the lunar
module
and
survive the flight, but also make the flag appear to fly on the
windless
moon.
His solution involved two sections of a staff, a telescoping tube
and a
nylon flag bought at a local housing goods store (Sears, he thinks).
But
in
order for the flag to fit the staff, its edges needed to be trimmed.
"They
were throwing it all in the trash," Mr. Moser recalled of the
remnants in
a
recent interview, "so I picked it up out of the trash can, mounted
it and
had Neil Armstrong sign it."
Forty-two years later, Mr. Moser is auctioning off those flag
remnants.
The
expected selling price: $100,000.
"There's so much attention on the manned space program right now
that the
timing may be good," Mr. Moser said, referring to the final
launching of
the
space shuttle Atlantis on Friday.
Mr. Moser's flag shreds are the star lot of an extensive space
memorabilia
auction being held in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sunday. Other notable
items
include the astronaut Deke Slayton's handwritten training notes from
the
Mercury program and dozens of heat shields, crew patches and other
ephemera
that once transcended earthly bounds.
For collectors, the remnants of the space flag are "comparable to a
Betsy
Ross flag or the flag flying over the port in Baltimore in 1812,"
said
Michael Orenstein, who is overseeing the auction for Goldberg Coins
and
Collectibles. Two days before the auction, online pre-bidding for
the lot
had reached $49,999.
But trading in space nostalgia can be a dangerous business. In June,
investigators confiscated a triangular nub of transparent tape an
eighth
of
an inch wide from an auction house in St. Louis because it contained
tiny
particles of moon dust. Selling moon rocks, no matter how small, is
illegal,
as is selling NASA property that the agency has not willingly
disposed of.
Mr. Orenstein said that his auction contained no moon particles, and
that
all NASA property in the sale had been discarded by the agency long
ago. A
NASA spokesman declined to comment on the status of the items.
There are also economic concerns. The collectibles market tends to
follow
the overall economy; when money is tight, even avid collectors are
less
likely to spend money on memorabilia. But Mr. Orenstein said he
believed
that rule did not apply to one-of-a-kind items like the flag
remnants.
"Just
give me two flag collectors who can't live without it," he said.
As for Mr. Moser, he does not plan to attend the auction, but he was
at
Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday to watch the Atlantis lift
off.
"I
spent most of my life developing the shuttle," said Mr. Moser, who
retired
from NASA in 1989 after 25 years with the agency. "I was there from
sketch
pad to launch pad."
A version of this article appeared in print on July 10, 2011, on
page A15
of
the New York edition with the headline: Shreds of History, Going on
the
Block.
-------------------------
Phil Whitmer
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