[meteorite-list] Meteorite Picture of the Day
Today's Meteorite Picture of the Day: PAT 10308 (L5) Contributed by: AMN http://www.tucsonmeteorites.com/mpod.asp __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Novato update
Hi Jason, A few remarks on your recent email: With regards to Novato: Without Dr. Jenniskens' efforts (published fireball trajectory estimates and his description of what to look for), Novato #1 would not have been recognized, and we do not know whether or not any of the subsequent finds would have been made. Whether Petrus had published a trajectory or not, a trajectory *was* provided by me, just as I did for Sutter's Mill, Chelyabinsk, Mifflin and quite a few other falls over the last decade. So in the case of Novato, there was redundancy. Also, if not for the second find at Novato by a private hunter, the first might very well have gone unrecognized as a meteorite. Don't forget that Dr. Jenniskens initially misidentified it as being terrestrial. Instead, thanks to the newspaper articles about the fireball (with information from Dr. Jenniskens), Novato #1 was recovered. I agree that what Petrus should be most commended for is generating excellent PR in the Bay Area which no doubt contributed to that initial house-hitter being suspected by the homeowner as a meteorite candidate. Once we had that data point, we knew where to look. People knew where to look, with or without that data point -- at least to within a couple miles crosstrack. It also gave us greater incentive to look in general. There's no denying that there is always nagging uncertainty prior to making that first find. That first find is always a game-changer. Stanfield will be another case of a poorly documented fall unless the coordinates are eventually made 'public' on Galactic Analytics. There seems to be a bit of animosity directed toward the Stanfield fall, or at least it has become a bit of a whipping boy. I don't recall seeing similar negative remarks being made about Ash Creek or Whetstone Mountains or Grimsby or Buzzard Coulee or dare-I-say Chelyabinsk. Why pick on Stanfield? I'm not saying there are rules that must be adhered to or anything like that, but the way things are generally being done is unscientific. If data is being lost, it's a shame. No data is being lost, any more than data at any of the other falls I mentioned has been lost. Cheers, Rob __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Novato update
Let me tell you all one thing. 50-60% of Chelyabinsk is comprised of impact-melt pieces, most of which have little or no crust, and are hard for almost anyone to identify as meteorites. I have a piece my guide found that even the meteorite people had trouble identifying except for a tiny piece of metal protruding. It is almost a sphere of lava. First piece of Novato was a joke, several media debacles that made a mess of things. Luckily the first piece which was discounted by scientists was not thrown away and the second piece was discarded only to be recovered from the trash before it was too late. Please don't suggest Novato was handled in a professional way. The blimp was cool, but useless again. A lot more could have been found without the secrecy on the ground. Greed led to virtually no recoveries from a massive fireball. Russia is pretty much just private hunters and very determined locals and some institutions, and plenty of data sharing and recoveries. Private/scientific cooperation works when there is not an overlord:) Michael Farmer Sent from my iPhone On May 7, 2013, at 10:52 AM, Rob Matson mojave_meteori...@cox.net wrote: Hi Jason, A few remarks on your recent email: With regards to Novato: Without Dr. Jenniskens' efforts (published fireball trajectory estimates and his description of what to look for), Novato #1 would not have been recognized, and we do not know whether or not any of the subsequent finds would have been made. Whether Petrus had published a trajectory or not, a trajectory *was* provided by me, just as I did for Sutter's Mill, Chelyabinsk, Mifflin and quite a few other falls over the last decade. So in the case of Novato, there was redundancy. Also, if not for the second find at Novato by a private hunter, the first might very well have gone unrecognized as a meteorite. Don't forget that Dr. Jenniskens initially misidentified it as being terrestrial. Instead, thanks to the newspaper articles about the fireball (with information from Dr. Jenniskens), Novato #1 was recovered. I agree that what Petrus should be most commended for is generating excellent PR in the Bay Area which no doubt contributed to that initial house-hitter being suspected by the homeowner as a meteorite candidate. Once we had that data point, we knew where to look. People knew where to look, with or without that data point -- at least to within a couple miles crosstrack. It also gave us greater incentive to look in general. There's no denying that there is always nagging uncertainty prior to making that first find. That first find is always a game-changer. Stanfield will be another case of a poorly documented fall unless the coordinates are eventually made 'public' on Galactic Analytics. There seems to be a bit of animosity directed toward the Stanfield fall, or at least it has become a bit of a whipping boy. I don't recall seeing similar negative remarks being made about Ash Creek or Whetstone Mountains or Grimsby or Buzzard Coulee or dare-I-say Chelyabinsk. Why pick on Stanfield? I'm not saying there are rules that must be adhered to or anything like that, but the way things are generally being done is unscientific. If data is being lost, it's a shame. No data is being lost, any more than data at any of the other falls I mentioned has been lost. Cheers, Rob __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Ebay, Websites and State Taxes
Jason, Even in California, someone is usually required to pay the tax. States learned this early on to level the playing field between interstate and intrastate dealers. If I remember right California calls this a Use tax and it does apply to online sales in California revenue law. Use tax is one of the most abused taxes on the face of the planet. I would be safe in saying that the vast majority of any sale is taxable between any state in the union. Jim On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 9:18 PM, Adam Hupe raremeteori...@yahoo.com wrote: Jason, I will not argue the point anymore here on the List. It is turning into a purely political discussion. I just wanted to make online sellers aware that there may be some more excess taxation on the horizon. Just for the record, I believe in paying my fair share but dislike seeing it wasted on big government. Perhaps you can study the bill more, write a report and send it somebody who cares about another piece of misleading legislation. Many states already collect taxes on minor sells, including garage sales and swap-meets. I know because I used to live in such a state. The million dollar limit is a myth to mislead people like yourself. Wait until you need to send a 1099 to your paper boy who is trying put himself though college and then get back to me. That's right, you don't read a paper and get all your information from the interment which must make it true so don't bother responding unless you absolutely need to get the last word in. Either way, I don't care, . Adam . - Original Message - From: Jason Utas meteorite...@gmail.com To: Adam Hupe raremeteori...@yahoo.com Cc: Sent: Monday, May 6, 2013 8:56 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Ebay, Websites and State Taxes Hello Adam, So...you can read that the million-dollar lower limit applies, no matter what. Right? So the small guy is fine. Jason www.fallsandfinds.com On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 7:21 PM, Adam Hupe raremeteori...@yahoo.com wrote: You can read, great Thus you found the small print. The state is in charge therefore the small guy will take a beating. Adam - Original Message - From: Jason Utas meteorite...@gmail.com To: Meteorite-list meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Cc: Sent: Monday, May 6, 2013 7:10 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Ebay, Websites and State Taxes Adam, You're not telling the truth. SMALL SELLER EXCEPTION.-A State is authorized to require a remote seller to collect sales and use taxes under this Act only if the remote seller has gross annual receipts in total remote sales in the United States in the preceding calendar year exceeding $1,000,000. For purposes of determining whether the threshold in this subsection is met- 1) the sales of all persons related within the meaning of subsections (b) and (c) of section 267 or section 707(b)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall be aggregated; or 2) persons with 1 or more ownership relationships shall also be aggregated if such relationships were designed with a principal purpose of avoiding the application of these rules. http://www.marketplacefairness.org/bill-text/ This also clears up the issue of whether or not a brick-and-mortar store would have to accrue a total of $1,000,000 in sales -- versus $1,000,000 in exclusively internet sales -- before being forced to pay/charge taxes on online purchases. It's internet-only. In other words, if your business grosses ~$1,500,000 in in-store sales, but only sells $500,000 of merchandise online, you still wouldn't have to pay any online sales tax. Unless your state has preexisting provisions that require you to do so. Furthermore, the enforcement of this tax policy will be up to the states. In other words, they can choose to enforce it (or not) as they see fit. I'd read the document; it's only five pages. Regards, Jason www.fallsandfinds.com On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 7:09 PM, Jason Utas meteorite...@gmail.com wrote: Adam, You're not telling the truth. SMALL SELLER EXCEPTION.-A State is authorized to require a remote seller to collect sales and use taxes under this Act only if the remote seller has gross annual receipts in total remote sales in the United States in the preceding calendar year exceeding $1,000,000. For purposes of determining whether the threshold in this subsection is met- 1) the sales of all persons related within the meaning of subsections (b) and (c) of section 267 or section 707(b)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall be aggregated; or 2) persons with 1 or more ownership relationships shall also be aggregated if such relationships were designed with a principal purpose of avoiding the application of these rules. http://www.marketplacefairness.org/bill-text/ This also clears up the issue of whether or not a brick-and-mortar store would
Re: [meteorite-list] Ebay, Websites and State Taxes
Hi Jim, Adam, Jason, Sires.. Danger Mouse can't shut his mouth, whenever he hears over the pond the whining about taxes. Maybe you could take the following not as derision, but as a consolation to calm your worries, when I now demonstrate, how the taxdues situation is for the various German meteorite dealers, here in Europe, the birthland of meteorites and meteorite collecting. Hence such dealers, who you all esteem since many years for their assortments, offers and finally their prices. People like the Karls, Andi Gren, Siggi Haberer, Mirko Graul to mention a few only, or if you use ebay, Stephan Decker, Tim Gueldenpfennig and so on.. (And can't remain silent, as I'm fighting now for several months with the German offices, to get my pre-payments of taxesdues back, for the last year, where due to a disease I nearly wasn't able to work, so that currently I have to occupy myself with that matter). First of all, Adam, I noticed, watchin my niecesnephew, that the U.S.-educational system attaches importance to impart patriotism. (To a much higher extend as it would be possible in Germland with its evil history). Adam, isn't paying taxes an act of patriotism? Now, join with me a ride through the tunnel of horror and learn, what your colleagues from the old world, and they aren't all communists, are paying as a matter of course from their revenues - and note, that it is still possible for them to work in that profession, hence most probably the U.S.-sellers will be able to do so too. Germany: Sales tax. Yep, we dealers have to collect sales taxes for the state for all sales within the European Union. If a European collector purchases a stone from the U.S.-seller, he has to pay that tax directly to the state. Hence don't be worried, at least with your overseas sales nothing will change, as your clients there already pay your price + their domestic sale tax. In Germany the sales tax on meteorites as an exception of a mineral collectible is 7% of the price+shipping. If you have bad luck and you meet an officer, who is not of the opinion, that your meteorite sample is an unique mineral collectible, you pay the general sales tax rate of 19%. (and then you can fight 2 years forth and back, until you'll get back your 12% excess. Sounds strange, but it's due to us having, what a fun, approx. 70,000 individual tax regulations, where you have to know such funny things, that cauliflower is in the opinion of the Republic no vegetable, but broccoli is). Small business is exempt from sales taxes. And is defined as a business which generates less than 23,000$ turnover (turnover and not profit) per year. The sales tax is shared between the Republic and the federal states. Obama-Care: Comes already now into play. Cause you have to pay a percentage from you brut profit, hence still before deducting all the taxes. The compulsory health and long term care insurance costs a little more than 15% of your brut profit. But minimum for the self-employed even if he does earn almost nothing: 5,700$ per year. (And if you want to have the same benefits like employees, you have to pay more). Business Tax: We have to pay of course too, as soon as we have a turnover per year larger than 32,000$. It is a local tax, the height is appointed by the city/commune and varies therefore strongly. Highest rates you pay in such cities like Munich, where everyone wants to live. In ugly towns like Berlin it's much cheaper, half of it. In my case a few thousands per annum. Church Tax: A specialty in Germany, a relic from the secularization 200 years ago. If you're a member of the catholic or protestant church, the state collects from you for the clergy taxes. It's a federal tax, difficult to calculate, a couple of hundreds per year. Retirement arrangements. If you don't want to work as a meteorite dealer as long as a Nininger did and until you peg out, you have to pay an annuity insurance. Currently that is still voluntary, though government has already plans, to make it mandatory for self-employeds with a minimum due of around 9,000 - 12,500$ per annum. Solidarity tax From that, what still remains, we are charged with that special tax of 5.5%. Some 20 years ago the federal german republic purchased the german democratic republic in the East. After the western government had sold there everything at ballpark prices, which socialism hadn't destroyed yet, they found out that the new country was vast and empty and that one had to rebuilt it, since then we pay that tax and now the infrastructure and the villages in the East look much better than in my Bavaria. Income tax: Finally, finally we are allowed to pay our income tax! If the sum of all your incomes of all the sources you have exceeds 11,000$ per year, you have to pay income tax. Depending of the height of your income the rate starts at 14% and ends at 45% (in autumn is election afterwards 51% are possible). For meteorite collectors there exist no concept of sales of collecting stuff.
Re: [meteorite-list] New Sales Tax
Hi all - If one of the purposes is to eliminate an advantage that online firms have over local firms, IMO, that limit for reporting should be raised a whole lot to keep small local businesses going. Otherwise, someone is going to make a whole lot of money selling some type of software to handle all of the paperwork. E.P. __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] I love e-Bay
I love e-Bay! There is no other place where you can find such great deals on such a wide range of items. For those who complain and blame about the service, I'm sorry you feel that way, I suggest you focus your energy on something more productive than shooting down what has always been ultimately the best and cheapest place to find nearly any type of meteorite specimen.Yes there will always be plenty to complain about, politics, taxes, corporate profits, etc I suggest to take e-Bays policies with a grain of salt. It's the availability of so many specimens on e-Bay that through the years helped fuel the fiery passion of so many for meteorites. Nowhere else can you win a beautiful polished rare meteorite specimen for .99 Oh and lets not forget to mention how much fun the bidding process is! It is the ultimate place for the shopper to discover and fall in love with the world of meteorites, especially if you are on a budget. Lets put the customer first and focus on availability and price. The competition on e-bay keeps the prices down for everyone, and that includes collectors, scientist and institutions who want affordable specimens to study. I support e-Bay and believe it's impact on meteorites and the culture of meteorites and the science is much further advanced than had e-bay never existed. I have great respect for all meteorites dealers who do business on e-bay and off of e-bay, lets all share that sentiment of mutual respect for one another regardless of where we choose to do business. May the culture of e-bay and meteorites live long and prosper! Sincerely kindest regards, John Higgins IMCA#9822 ebay name : MeteoriteHunting ebaystore : OuterSpaceRocks From: Galactic Stone Ironworks meteoritem...@gmail.com To: Don Skidmore skiddylan...@aol.com Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Monday, May 6, 2013 9:33 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] eBay plus and minus For all of the smack I talk about eBay for sellers, as I buyer, I love it. Buyers can do no wrong. eBay coddles it's buyers because it's profit model changed when it acquired PayPal. Prior to the eBay/PayPal era, eBay tried to compete with PayPal by offering a rival in-house payment service called BillPoint. For years, eBay made the bulk of it's revenue from the fees generated by sellers. The playing field, vis-a-vis buyers and sellers, was more level then. BillPoint failed miserably and PayPal dominated. eBay bought out PayPal and then the profit model changed. Suddenly, eBay made revenues from sellers and buyers in a more equal proportion - seller's fees (listing, enhancements, final value) *and* now fees from buyers via PayPal (which are paid by the seller). From that point forward, eBay had to consider both sides using a different formula that eventually tilted the playing field in favor of the buyer. This is worsened when eBay started generating significant advertising and third-party revenue, further eroding it's financial dependance on sellers. eBay is now a hell for sellers and a heaven for buyers - more so than ever before. I salute those old guard eBay meteorite sellers like the Humphries, Bessey, and Hupes and others - they are a dying breed and a throw-back to the heyday of meteorites on eBay. If things keep going downhill for sellers, the last diehards may abandon ship for better venues to sell. Is the writing on the wall for eBay meteorite trade dominance? One look at Greg Hupe's killer new stand-alone website, and I see a trend gathering momentum. Ask Greg if he regrets setting up that website. I can't speak for him, but I bet he's wondering why he didn't do it sooner. Plus, it's good eye candy. :) Best regards, MikeG -- - Web - http://www.galactic-stone.com Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone Twitter - http://twitter.com/GalacticStone Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/galacticstone RSS - http://www.galactic-stone.com/rss/126516 - On 5/6/13, Don Skidmore skiddylan...@aol.com wrote: Hi list! I seldom post but enjoy all the remarks from the regulars. About the eBay thing... If I may weigh in... Aspects of eBay seem deplorable for sellers. As a buyer, however, I have at times gotten some incredible deals on ebay on high quality meteorites from trustworthy sources. To never shop ebay is a mistake, or would have been for me at least. (Though i have burnt myself a few times too) Yet, on the other hand, one can at times buy even better specimens of the same meteorite fall from a dealer's website for less people are paying in insane bidding wars on eBay. Dealer's are often very willing to offer a discount when they can. It certainly pays to know the dealer sites and remember what they have to offer. Getting to know dealers, hunters, and other collectors is part of
Re: [meteorite-list] Ebay, Websites and State Taxes
Hello Martin, First of all, Adam, I noticed, watchin my niecesnephew, that the U.S.-educational system attaches importance to impart patriotism. Just the opposite. Our current educational system is intended to indoctrinate Socialism to as wide an extent as possible. Adam, isn't paying taxes an act of patriotism? No. In fact: the tipping-point for the founding of our country was the protest of excessive taxation and taxation without representation. Our system of taxation is armed thugs pointing a gun at your head and demanding one pay the protection fees or suffer the consequences. Those fees go into supporting the purchase of more power and more leverage - the remainder goes to support the half of the country that doesn't have to pay taxes, the intent of course being to buy those votes thereby insuring the continuation of the reign of terror, and the increase of burden assumed by the producers to support the leeches. Right now, we're only required to collect sales tax for states where we have a physical presence. In our case, five states. With the new system, we'd be required to completely change the business rules in our systems, and assume the burden of having to distribute those funds which is a tremendous expense in accounting. The upshot is that everything in our catalog will go up by 10% to the end-user to cover the increased overhead. [Our attorney assures me I couldn't get away with instituting a big-government support test and adjusting the end-user prices based on that, so everyone has to pay.] The idea behind state taxes being collectable in that state and not outside of it was to prevent the Stupid of individual states from splattering into less stupid states. The King of Stupid has other ideas, however, and once they started dumping on the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, they just haven't stopped. Germany: Yeah, my grandmother sacrificed everything to escape, my mom in swaddling, because America promised something better. Sucker! --- Jodie __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Ebay, Websites and State Taxes - THREAD STOPPING
Stopping this thread -Art __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: April 27 - May 1, 2013
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html#opportunity OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Rover Back in Action - sols 3291-3295, Apr. 27, 2013-May. 01, 2013: Opportunity has safely emerged from solar conjunction. However, in the past week the flight team learned that the rover did experience a flash memory anomaly during conjunction on Sol 3286 (April 21, 2013), that put the rover into automode, a standby mode where no onboard sequences are running. The flight team attempted to recover the rover from automode on Sol 3294 (April 30, 2013), but was unsuccessful due to an operational error. This error is being investigated by the project. On the subsequent sol, Opportunity was successfully restored to normal operations. The rover is in good health with nominal science planning proceeding. As of Sol 3294 (April 30, 2013), the solar array energy production was 506 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.672 and a solar array dust factor of 0.573. Total odometry is unchanged at 22.15 miles (35.65 kilometers). __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] PRIMM DRY LAKE HELP
Hello Paul and List, In an effort to assist you (and your father, Nicholas) in this endeavor, I've made a plaster-cast of a corner-fragment meteorite that Moni Waiblinger found on Roach Dry Lake, and have mailed it to your father. Nick will then forward it to you, if he can't get it to fit onto any of the Primm (H5) masses that he has in storage. This has all been documented and photos can be seen in my 2013 May - Meteorite-Times Magazine article: http://www.meteorite-times.com/category/bobs-findings/ At some later date, I will send to you a table that lists the 102 provisionally-numbered Roach Dry Lake finds that have been reported to us (mostly compiled by Rob Matson). This will answer your question about additional finds, because it will list the mass, date of find, and finder. Hope this will be helpful. If it is, I will report back here, as well as, in Part 2 of my M-T article. -- Bob V. -Original Message- From: Paul Gessler Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2013 11:47 AM To: meteorite-list Subject: PRIMM DRY LAKE HELP To all You hunters who have searched Primm Valley / Roach Dry lake: Please help me to rebuild one of my favourite meteorite finds. This 242g individual was found back in 1997 and was reconstructed from 3 pieces and glued back together. It is still missing a small 8 gram wedge shaped piece that hopefully can be reunited with the main mass??? Just want all of you who have hunted Roach D.L. to take a look at this video and see if just maybe you have the piece I am looking for. It would be Incredible to COMPLETE this meteorite's saga. If found I would be happy to substitute for a larger Primm piece from our collection... and some detailed info on a Nevada strewn field that has yielded some really Amazing finds. Let me know. thanks. Would also be interested in the locations and mass of additional finds regardless of matching my piece so that I can get an idea of what we missed. I want this attempt at unification to get out to everyone so please forward the video to anyone you know who has searched this location or is even slightly interested. This just might work? I hope. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW54tdOXWiE Paul Gessler __ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
