Everyone loves rocks. They’re good for throwing at the windows of those who’ve wronged you or raising as a pet of your own that won’t crap on the floor or give you that terribly annoying love or affection. But would you pay $50,000 for something that’s basically a rock from ]]>

Everyone loves rocks. They’re good for throwing at the windows of those who’ve wronged you or raising as a pet of your own that won’t crap on the floor or give you that terribly annoying love or affection. But would you pay $50,000 for something that’s basically a rock from the sky?

The five-pound meteorite that crashed into a Park Forest home in 2003 was bought by a private collector for $50,787.50 Sunday during an auction by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

David Herskowitz, director of natural history at Heritage, says it’s the Garza’s provenance that makes it exceptional.

“The added value of this meteorite is that it hit a man-made object,” Herskowitz said. “And that’s extraordinary. They usually land in the desert, the ocean or the polar ice cap and are never found.”

Herskowitz says wealthy collectors aren’t the only ones who find meteorites, fossils and dinosaurs fascinating.

“Most people find this sort of thing really cool,” he said. “We can’t get enough of them. That’s the reason natural history museums remain so popular.”

[via]

Thinking about selling your life away? Prepare to be disappointed if you’re anything like this Australian dude.

A man who auctioned his life — his house, his car, his job, even his friends — on eBay said Monday he is disappointed with the ]]>

Thinking about selling your life away? Prepare to be disappointed if you’re anything like this Australian dude.

A man who auctioned his life — his house, his car, his job, even his friends — on eBay said Monday he is disappointed with the selling price: almost $384,000.

Ian Usher, a British immigrant to Australia, put everything he owned as well as introductions to his friends on the online auction site after a painful breakup with his wife prompted him to want a fresh start.

“I guess I’m a little bit disappointed at the final price, I’d hoped it to be a little higher than that,” Usher told Nine Network television on Monday. “But I am committed to selling and moving on and making a fresh start.”

He declined to reveal the buyer’s identity, or what his next step would be.

Usher said he had hoped to get at least $480,000 (a half-million Australian dollars) for his life — his house and all its contents, car and a motorcycle, a jet ski, skydiving gear, an introduction to friends and a trial period in his sales job — but that the final result was enough for him to make a new start in life.

Early reports say that the reason bids on the man’s life were lower than expected was because who the f wants the life of some asshole who has to sell his life on eBay. In a related story, I once offered a homeless guy $20 to trade places for a day. Under the guise of wanting to see how the other half lived, I rolled around in dirt, found the ugliest trenchcoat I could find, got myself a coffee cup, and prepared to brave the harsh conditions. It was an important sociological experiment to me; I believed that by putting myself in the shoes of the unfortunate, I’d be able to truly appreciate all of the things that I’ve been given in my life. Then after five minutes I got bored and wanted to eat a sandwich so I killed the homeless guy when he came to pick up the keys to my apartment and went to McDonald’s. It’s ok. He’s homeless, he didn’t have a soul anyway.