OFF TOPIC- Columbia SCUM brought to justice

dwood · February 6, 2003 1:59AM

I hope these are some of the ones who tried to sell on eBay:
Making an example of SCUM

Russ · February 6, 2003 2:01AM

Yep, when I heard that on the news this morning, it brought a smile to my face. Bunch more under investigation.

Russ, NCNE

baccaruda · February 6, 2003 2:29AM

when i first heard it happened i told someone (jokingly) that it was gonna be souvenir time on ebay - not thinking that any fool would actually interfere with a shuttle crash investigation.

can you think of a better way to make LOTS of enemies (and serious ones) than to list shuttle wreckage on ebay (as if the ebay screeners weren't going to start removing such listings 5 minutes after the crash)?

who could be that stupid? it did make me laugh that NASA told people NOT to go near or touch any of the wreckage for safety's sake and then people were turning up with chemical burns from touching the debris.

FrattLaw · February 6, 2003 2:41AM

I'm too young to remember, but what happened when SkyLab came down as well as that Russian rocket. Did anyone find debris and keep it/sell it, or was that also confiscated as well.

I'm interested in the legal ramifications of this. If someone really wanted their piece of the Shuttle (of course found on their property), do they have the right to retain it after the investigation has been completed. If you were injured or had property damaged by a falling piece of the Shuttle, can you file a claim/lawsuit vs. US/NASA.

Hmmm.....

(Sorry to be the lawyer for the moment, but it does intrigue me)

Michael

baccaruda · February 6, 2003 2:53AM

i'm sure NASA will be compensating people for economic loss.

as far as you keeping part of the shuttle - no way. the government is VERY protective of such property. i know that ships and fighters lost at sea during WWII still belong to the government and they will claim them if you find them.

ScarsdaleCoin · February 6, 2003 4:57AM

First I think the space ship is very sad...yet I have to wonder about this situation of US government arresting....I would believe according to law of salvage and recover that items that fall onto your property would be yours to do as you wish....I would hope that people would do the right thing and turn them in but ....oh well just a thought

BNE · February 6, 2003 6:58AM

I agree Scarsdale. What they were doing is in poor taste, but arrest seems overblown. But then again, there are people who, years later, profess to still be all choked up about the death of Dale Earnhardt (which rates a big "so what"? in my book -- did they really give a %$#@ when he was alive?) so I guess I am not "typical."

baccaruda · February 6, 2003 7:00AM

while actually trying to grab a little piece for yourself is not a big deal to me, trying to profit from it is a huge no-no in my book.

Coppernicus · February 6, 2003 7:01AM

Hey barracuda - Suppose the piece you kept "for yourself" was the key to the accident?

BNE · February 6, 2003 7:05AM

Coppernicus --

That assumes that NASA is really trying to determine the cause of the accident, rather than create a plausible, ass-covering story. . . .

I just say this because the mantra now is "it's not the foam, it's not the foam. . . ."

Tootawl · February 6, 2003 7:17AM

The news showed some film shot in California with pieces breaking off. They have a lot of area to cover to look for parts.

dwood · February 6, 2003 7:34AM

Using the logic displayed here, if a 747 makes an emergency landing, and comes to rest in my yard, I'm suddenly the owner of a $400,000,000.00 aircraft?

The Shuttle is FEDERAL property, WHEREVER it is, in WHATEVER condition. The government certainly owes you for damages caused to your property by the shuttle, but you do not own the shuttle simply because a piece of it is laying in your yard. If I am proven wrong, I invite each and every one of you to come to a party at my house, on my property, but you must bring along your collections (your ENTIRE COLLECTION) in order to gain entry to the party. Expect to leave well fed, liquored up, and without any of the coins that formerly belonged to you

And don't get me going on NASA and some alleged attempt to cover up the cause of the accident. If you've ever watched a NASA conference before, you'd know that this is the most honest and up-front NASA has ever been. Looking for a reason other than the foam is the only responsible thing they can do at this juncture. They will inevitably return to the foam, and Lockheed Martin will be ordered to pay damages in the billions for the mishap (they manufacture the EFT). Its all about money, and NASA has none.

baccaruda · February 6, 2003 7:38AM

i'm not saying it's ok, i'm saying there's a difference between that person and someone would gather it up and put it on ebay.

dwood · February 6, 2003 7:39AM

There's a difference, I'll grant that.

One should go to prison tomorrow, and one should go today.

BNE · February 6, 2003 7:53AM

dwood:

I have no doubt that NASA's an honest agency in theory. But frankly my distrust of every government agency is at an all-time low right now. Secrecy and bullsh#$@ are all that we get from our elected officials these days.

mrfred · February 6, 2003 8:04AM

basic thing is this: selling that stuff on ebay is just in d**n bad taste. d**n bad.

jamesfsm · February 6, 2003 8:34AM

Short Primer on Law of SAlvage:

In the case of submerged and sunken vessels, when no owner exists or can be determined, the party who recovers property abandoned is entitled to application of the "law of finds". Under this doctrine, title to abandoned property is given to the person who actually finds and takes possession of the property. Most cases decided under the law of finds involve property which was lost long ago and which has remained under the sea and beyond the reach of its original owners for many years.

FrattLaw · February 6, 2003 10:02AM

I was talking about the farmer, who in ten years finds a bit of the shuttle on his back forty. The investigation is over, the mystery solved, the bodies buried ect. Does he get to keep it or is he obliged to take it to NASA and return it? What if I found a piece of the Challenger washed up on a Florida beach, should I run to NASA with it.

What if the Shuttle broke up over China on re-entry, do you think the US government would be arresting Chinese citizens for tampering/stealing US government property -- probably not. Don't say they can't -- no jurisdiction, because they do have jurisdiction, it would be with the help of the chinese officials through extradition.

Hmmm... more food for thought.

Michael

Donny · February 6, 2003 12:44PM

Hey BNE,

Why do you want to make a sarcastic comment about Dale Earnhardt. What does he have to do with idiots? That's pretty tacky dude!

airplanenut · February 6, 2003 12:51PM

<< <i>Using the logic displayed here, if a 747 makes an emergency landing, and comes to rest in my yard, I'm suddenly the owner of a $400,000,000.00 aircraft? >>

No- the only 747s made right now are the -400 and -400F; running about $170million - $200 million... therefore, you'd need about two to get $400,000,000 worth of aircraft

I like really good questions

goose3 · February 6, 2003 12:58PM

Michael
I believe that any time down the road that anyone finds or stumbles across any piece of the shuttle that the government or nasa will seize it if they find out about it.

Or you may run into such a scenario as you paint about a farmer finding a piece many years from now and the mystery has long since been solved. Maybe he decides he wants to sell it and make a few bucks. Then he might run into a similar problem like salvage people do when they find shipwrecks, etc. Everyone steps forward claiming their piece of the pie.

KenzoT · February 7, 2003 12:37AM

I have already checked my yard and no space debris to be found. Had I found some, NASA would have it now and I would have had my 15 minutes on the nightly news.
I live north of Dallas. East of here is where the majority of the shuttle came to rest, but they are finding pieces way back to the West, down South, and I have heard, even in Oklahoma.

BNE · February 7, 2003 1:49AM

Donny:

No offense about Dale Earnhardt, but he was a man who was engaged in an extraordinarily dangerous sport. He knew it, and so did his fans. Crashing during a race is a definite possibility, and it is this possibility that, frankly, drives a large number of people to attend NASCAR races. I do not understand the mourning that continues to go on two years after his death. We seem to have made him our own Princess Diana for a public display of grief that now -- two years later -- seems to be a little excessive. It is also the case that he was far less popular when he was alive than he seems to have become after his death, which strikes me as odd.

I mention all this because the public outpouring and beating of breasts over the deaths of the astronauts seems a little histrionic, and more designed to impress others than reflecting any real concern or care for the astronauts. They, too, were engaged in an extremely perilous endeavor (and they knew it): their deaths are an awful thing, but not a "tragedy," because there is no irony or unexpectedness in the eventuality. 9/11 was a tragedy: thousands of people going off for an ordinary day at work, not knowing they would be wiped out by a random, brutal attack.

This is solely my own view as a detached (obviously) observer.

ScarsdaleCoin · February 7, 2003 6:23AM

Now this is more like why NASA is freaking out over bits and pieces on ebay..... EBAY AUCTION.... Space Shuttle Communication Device... current bid $2,300,450.24 bidder Middle Eastern Man

NASA Searching for Communications Device
2 hours, 34 minutes ago Add Science - AP to My Yahoo!

By LISA FALKENBERG, Associated Press Writer

BRONSON, Texas - Debris crews combed an area along the Texas-Louisiana border for the wreckage of a secret device that allowed the encryption of communications between NASA (news - web sites) and the shuttle Columbia.

Space Shuttle Columbia
Special Coverage

NASA spokesman John Ira Petty said Friday that finding the box was a high priority because officials feared its technology could be used "to send bogus signals" to the other shuttles during future flights.

"We are searching for all debris. Certainly we would like to recover this one," Petty said.

Officials did not explain why they focused their search for the device on an area around Bronson, which is on the southern edge of the main debris field in East Texas.

David Williams, an on-scene search coordinator with the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites), said searchers spent Thursday in an area near Bronson. "They said they came out of there with very little," he said.

Williams' search party found a black box with a serial number about five miles east of Bronson, "but it didn't appear to be the black box NASA was looking for," he said.

Bronson residents said about 80 National Guard members arrived in camouflage-hued trucks and were accompanied by state troopers as they searched the woods Thursday.

"They were everywhere," said Beth Walker. They didn't say what they were looking for but told her to report downed tree limbs or uprooted ground, she said.

So far, searchers have found and cataloged the locations of more than 12,000 pieces of debris across Texas and Louisiana. The debris will be taken to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., then to Kennedy Space Center (news - web sites) in Florida for reconstruction, officials said.

OFF TOPIC- Columbia SCUM brought to justice

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