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Largest Moon Rock Ever Auctioned Expected To Sell For $380,000
First time accepted submitter amkkhan writes "One lucky space-lover with some extra cash could become the proud new owner of the largest moon rock ever to be auctioned, according to the auction house Heritage Auctions. The moon rock, known as Dar al Gani 1058, is part of a lunar meteorite that was found on Earth in 1988 and is expected to fetch as much as $380,000 at auction."
Then you could sell each one for $1,000, appeal to a larger market, and make a shit ton more money.
Wow...
"For example, three seed-sized pieces of the moon that were brought back to Earth by a Russian robotic probe in 1970 were sold at auction 30 years later for $442,500," Pearlman told Space.com. "And while the moon rocks recovered by the Apollo astronauts are considered National Treasures and have never been awarded to individuals, hypothetical appraisals have suggested even a 1-gram sample could be worth millions."
I think NASA ought to be working on ways to ship back containers of moon rocks. Their budget woes would be solved!
If rarity in part determines price then I am surprised this isn't selling for more. I have heard, and I am not sure how true this is, that someone with a rock that fell from the sky broke it up and sold it by the gram - and made a lot more money. One thought though, how can people be sure this is a moon rock? All I am getting is that it was a part of a meteor.
Calling it a moon rock is kind of cheating, as it's probably been on earth longer than humans have. (uh.. right?)
Moon rock makes me think brought by humans, or something like this. Really neat, though.
Sent from my PDP-11
Samzenpus accidentally misspelled rich as lucky...
How about auctioning off the big piece of moon rock that they didn't brink back. That ought to fund space exploration for a long time without having to worry about congress cutting their budget. Of course they would have to do it before someone else (China) lands on it and claims it.
Memorable quotes for
Looker (1981)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/quotes
"John Reston: Television can control public opinion more effectively than armies of secret police, because television is entirely voluntary. The American government forces our children to attend school, but nobody forces them to watch T.V. Americans of all ages *submit* to television. Television is the American ideal. Persuasion without coercion. Nobody makes us watch. Who could have predicted that a *free* people would voluntarily spend one fifth of their lives sitting in front of a *box* with pictures? Fifteen years sitting in prison is punishment. But 15 years sitting in front of a television set is entertainment. And the average American now spends more than one and a half years of his life just watching television commercials. Fifty minutes, every day of his life, watching commercials. Now, that's power."
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"The United States has it's own propaganda, but it's very effective because people don't realize that it's propaganda. And it's subtle, but it's actually a much stronger propaganda machine than the Nazis had but it's funded in a different way. With the Nazis it was funded by the government, but in the United States, it's funded by corporations and corporations they only want things to happen that will make people want to buy stuff. So whatever that is, then that is considered okay and good, but that doesn't necessarily mean it really serves people's thinking - it can stupify and make not very good things happen."
- Crispin Glover: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000417/bio
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"It's only logical to assume that conspiracies are everywhere, because that's what people do. They conspire. If you can't get the message, get the man." - Mel Gibson (from an interview)
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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." - William Casey, CIA Director
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"The real reason for the official secrecy, in most instances, is not to keep the opposition (the CIA's euphemistic term for the enemy) from knowing what is going on; the enemy usually does know. The basic reason for governmental secrecy is to keep you, the American public, from knowing - for you, too, are considered the opposition, or enemy - so that you cannot interfere. When the public does not know what the government or the CIA is doing, it cannot voice its approval or disapproval of their actions. In fact, they can even lie to your about what they are doing or have done, and you will not know it. As for the second advantage, despite frequent suggestion that the CIA is a rogue elephant, the truth is that the agency functions at the direction of and in response to the office of the president. All of its major clandestine operations are carried out with the direct approval of or on direct orders from the White House. The CIA is a secret tool of the president - every president. And every president since Truman has lied to the American people in order to protect the agency. When lies have failed, it has been the duty of the CIA to take the blame for the president, thus protecting him. This is known in the business as "plausible denial." The CIA, functioning as a secret instrument of the U.S. government and the presidency, has long misused and abused history and continues to do so."
- Victor Marchetti, Propaganda and Disinformation: How the CIA Manufactures History
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George Carlin:
"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehous
This selling moonrock business is all fun and games until NASA comes along and says all your moonrock are belong to us.
how it got here.
Pretty sure the largest moon rock ever is still in orbit.
After few years there can't be any value of moon rock b'coz our scientists will make any idea for trip to moon..lol...lot's of Hope!!!!
one would expect from /. at least to put the stuff that matters the most in the summary. But no... Instead, the price. Who cares?
"The rock, which weighs in at 4 pounds"
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
How the hell can anyone say with any amount of certainty where a meteorite come from?
Whoever buys this is gonna be pissed in a few years when we've got people living on the moon.
"I found moon rock in my nose!"
Anyone interested in this number? 1$ for 1km, 380000km is about the distance from the Moon to the Earth. Standard of space-shipping?