Some United States Postal Service URLs

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Apr 24 09:17:57 EDT 2007

Below are some United States Postal Service URLs, which might be
of interest to people.

United States Postal Service Mail Fraud Complaint Form

https://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/MailFraudComplaint.htm

Mail Fraud Report Form

https://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/ps8165.pdf

https://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/ContactUs.htm

Best Regards,

Paul

Chinese Meteorite Fraud on eBay - Federal Mail Fraud Charges??

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Apr 24 09:05:29 EDT 2007

It was written

"Dear Adam and List,
Still more meteorite fraud still on eBay:"

...rest of text removed...

Looking the mailing instructions, the person or persons are
using the US mail to send their "merchandise" to the auction
winners. It seems like the use of the US mail would make
them open to federal mail fraud charges if one of the winners
or someone else complained to the United States Postal Service.

Best Regards,

Paul

Mysterious stone eggs...

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 21 22:09:44 EDT 2007

kevin decker asked if the "Mysterious stone eggs..." from Hunan
Province..China. were "Something like The Eggs from the Osceola
Impact Crater?"

No. They are meter-scale, cannonball concretions. Cannonball
concretions, composed of carbonate-cemented sediments, of their
size have been found in a number of places, including:

1. Rock City, Kansas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_City%2C_Kansas

2. Along the along the Cannonball River within Morton and
Sioux Counties, North Dakota

http://nd.water.usgs.gov/lewisandclark/points/concretions.html
http://nd.water.usgs.gov/lewisandclark/photos2.html
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/id/cannonball.htm

3. In the Frontier Formation in northeast Utah and central
Wyoming.

http://jsedres.sepmonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/73/3/462
http://www.wvup.edu/ecrisp/crisphomepage.htm

4. Along the shores of Hokianga Harbour of Hokianga, North
Island, New Zealand

http://www.hokiangatourism.org.nz/activities/koutuboulders.htm

5. near Mecevici, Ozimici, and Zavidovici in Bosnia-Herzegovina

and 6. near Moeraki, South Island, New Zealand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeraki_Boulders
http://jsedres.sepmonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/55/3/398
http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/M/MoerakiBoulders/MoerakiBoulders/en

Some papers, which describe, illustrate, and discuss the origin
of cannonball concretions, which are similar in size to the
Chinese "mysterious stone eggs" are:

Abdel-Wahab, A., and E. F. McBride, 2001, Origin of giant
calcite-cemented concretions, Temple Member, Qasr El Sagha
Formation (Eocene), Faiyum depression, Egypt. Journal
Sedimentary Research. vol. 71, pp. 70-81.

Boles, J. R., C. A. Landis, and P. Dale, 1985, The Moeraki
Boulders; anatomy of some septarian concretions. Journal of
Sedimentary Petrology. vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 398-406.

Forsyth, P. J., and G. Coates, 1992, The Moeraki boulders.
Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences. Information Series
no. 1, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

McBride, E. F., and K. L. Milliken, 2006, Giant calcite-cemented
concretions, Dakota Formation, central Kansas, USA. Sedimentology.
vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 1161–1179.

McBride, E. F., M. D. Picard, and K. L. Milliken, 2003, Calcite-
Cemented Concretions in Cretaceous Sandstone, Wyoming and Utah,
U.S.A. Journal of Sedimentary Research. vol. 73, no. 3,
pp. 462-483.

Thyne, G. D., and J. R. Boles, 1989, Isotopic evidence for
origin of the Moeraki septarian concretions, New Zealand:
Journal of Sedimentary Petrology. vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 272-279.

The original article which discusses the "Mysterious stone
eggs" is:

Mysterious Huge Stone Eggs Discovered in Hunan Province, Epoch
Times Staff, April 17, 2007.

It can be found at:

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-4-17/54224.html

The article stated in part:

"Upon photo analysis geologists believe that the
stone eggs are rare, large concretions of the
carbonate rock. They were formed, starting from a
tiny nucleus in the center, snowballing slowly in
the oscillating sea water."

In this sentence, the reporter has very likely either mistranslated
what the geologists told him or her or is indulging in some poetic
license in writing his his story. No geologist, whom I know, would
argue that these concretions formed like snowballs. Instead, these
concretions, like many other cannonball concretions, started growing
within sediment underlying the bottom of a sea or ocean only after
it had accumulated. In the pictures accompanying the articles,
the original layering of the strata, in which the concretion grew,
can be seen as concentric rings around one of these concretions.

The original Chinese article is at

http://epochtimes.com/gb/7/4/1/n1665041.htm

Looking at the lowermost figure in the Chinese article, I have to
wonder, being unable to read Chinese, if the author of the Chinese
article is confusing them with the man made stone balls in Costa
Rica. (A translation of this article would be greatly appreciated.)

Best Regards,

Paul H.

Iron Sulfide Concretions Selling for 6.08 Dollars a Gram (eBay)

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 21 20:38:54 EDT 2007

If a person wants to see an example of geological illiteracy, which is
on par with the worst of the meteorwrongs, which have appeared on
Ebay, they can go to the "Awesome Boji(r) Stones! Balance/Align
Chakras!", Item number: 130101485377, at;

http://cgi.ebay.com/Awesome-Boji-r-Stones-Balance-Align-Chakras_W0QQitemZ130101485377QQihZ003QQcategoryZ19268QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The eBay web page, along with the usual pseudo-scientific, mumble
jumble about healing properties normally associated with these objects
does correctly identify the "Boji(r) Stones, also known as Kansas Pop
Rocks" as being concretions. However, it incorrectly states among
many other claims, that these iron-sulfide concretions are composed
of "iron-magnetite".

Despite the fact that the items, which are being auctioned are
nothing more than ordinary iron-sulfide concretions, of which
thousands can be found eroding out of the Smoky Hill Member of
Niobrara Formation, the bidding as of 7:45 Eastern Standard Time
had reached 152.50 dollars. Given that stated weight of each
concretion is 12.5 and 12.6 grams, for a total weight of 25.1 grams,
the dollar per gram cost comes to 6.08 dollars per gram.

It shows a significant degree of geologic illiteracy that some people
are willing pay for ordinary iron-sulfide concretions, which completely
lack any scientifically documented healing properties as argued for
by personal religious beliefs and erode out of Kansas chalk by the
thousand, as much per gram as some meteorites. Looking at web
pages like this, it should not be surprising that meteorwrongs are
also a standard part of eBay sales.

It seems like anybody looking for meteorites in Kansas could make
some money by leasing their own outcrop of the Smoky Hill
Member of Niobrara Formation to mine iron sulfide concretions
from and selling them under their own trademarked name with
similar claims for them having healing powers. It seems like
iron sulfide concretions from any formation could be marketed
with the right trademarked name and suitable mumble jumble
about them having healing powers; being useful for aligning a
person metaphysically; balancing a person's energy field; and
relieving their pain and there would be no shortage of people
willing pay several dollars per gram to purchase them. Given this
type of scientific illiteracy, which pervades it, eBay would one of
many places a person could sell them with great success.

Best Regards,

Paul

GSA Paper Demonstrates Single Impact at Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 2 08:28:10 EDT 2007

Dear friends,

There is a new paper on the impact and extinction
at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary. It is:

MacLeod1, K. G., Whitney, D. L., , Huber, B. T.,
and Koeberl, K., 2007, Impact and extinction in
remarkably complete Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary
sections from Demerara Rise, tropical western
North Atlantic. Geological Society of America.
vol. 119, no. 1, pp. 101-115.

http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1130%2FB25955.1

They found a single, about 2-cm thick, layer of
spherules, which is interpreted to a primary air-
fall deposit. They found no other spherule layers
in the multiple cores of the K-T boundary section,
which were recovered.

They concluded:

"Sedimentological, geochemical, and paleontological
changes across the boundary closely match patterns
expected for a mass extinction caused by a single
impact."

Best Regards,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA