Well I hope you are right. I personally have encountered several people who don't know anything about astronomy but know I have an involvement in it and who interpreted the newspaper and TV stories as portraying amateur Utah astronomers as a bunch of weirdos who have no regard for the environment or public safety. I spent some time explaining things to them and I think most of them finally had their misconceptions dispelled. I just hope the way they interpreted the stories is in the minority for everyone who read and saw them. Kathleen McCarthy Warner Client Support Team Administrative Computing Services University of Utah -----Original Message----- From: Joe Bauman [mailto:bau@desnews.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 7:22 AM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Meteorites on the Salt Flats Hi Guys, I've been out of the loop for a few days and wanted jump in on the discussion. As the reporter who had the story second, I feel certain all of this publicity is doing a world of good for Utah astronomy. It really fuels public interest and it raises a few legitimate questions: are there meteorites out there to be found, and what's the physics of falling objects? It's a load of fun, appealing to the sense of wonder that we all have. It excites the imagination of the public partly because it relates ordinary objects, bowling balls, with extraordinary ones, meteorites -- and partly because of the sheer joy of dropping things from great height. It involves a resource that is peculiar to Utah, the salt flats. I think it's a fun story and nobody should be upset over it. With patience, everything will be worked out with the BLM and a classic experiment will catch the public's interest and answer a few questions too. Just my 2 cents' worth. -- Joe Joe Bauman science & military reporter Deseret News bau@desnews.com (801) 237-2169 _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy