@reddpenn / reddpenn.tumblr.com
One of my hobbies is writing songs for fake musicals. Here’s the demo track for “Soul Friend, Soul Brother / Big Juicy Coconuts” from On This Island of Mutual Killing, a fanmade Super Danganronpa 2 musical that doesn’t actually exist but dang if I haven’t written a lot of songs for it!
Lyrics under the cut!
So far my experience with ToTK has been essentially Chasm Explorer Simulator. I know there is a plot somewhere above me but I refuse to do it until I’ve mapped out the entirety of these cave systems. By the time I find Zelda again I’m going to be some gollum-like feral cave creature.
does your fiendish thirst for minerals know no depth
i have SO MUCH ZONAITE
So far my experience with ToTK has been essentially Chasm Explorer Simulator. I know there is a plot somewhere above me but I refuse to do it until I’ve mapped out the entirety of these cave systems. By the time I find Zelda again I’m going to be some gollum-like feral cave creature.
is there any geological distinction between rock and stone?
Geologically speaking, "rock" is the big mass in the ground, and "stone" is a smaller chunk broken off of that mass, but honestly they're used pretty much interchangeably.
In my head, they're kiki and bouba -- rocks are pokey and stones are smooth. TIL this is completely incorrect.
Actually this is the only correct person. You’re so right, they ARE kiki and bouba.
Hang on, is there more than one definition of mineral? Like, when you said they aren't organic, I immediately thought of pearls, 'cause they're classed as a mineraloid, right? Or like amber (I thought it was a mineraloid, but I guess it isn't according to the IMA? Are they the only authority on minerals? Then I looked at biogenic minerals and organic minerals, and apparently those are two different things, and this was only like in the past hour, but tbh, if there's like a more clear definition and delineation, it's be useful to know the difference/categories. I can't really figure it out myself here. I honestly thought at least some minerals were organic in origin. @_@'''
Well if you’re talking about nutrition, then “mineral” has a completely different meaning, so yeah I guess so!
But regarding geology, this is what I meant by “there are tons of weird exceptions.” When you get into concepts like biomineralization, the definition of a mineral gets really complicated! Because tons of living things produce stuff that fits every definition of a mineral except that it happened through a biological process. Is the aragonite in seashells a mineral? The calcium oxalate in kidney stones? What about the silica in diatoms? What about your bones? Should ore deposits count if they were created by bacteria? And the answer the scientific community has come up with is... sometimes we count them as minerals and sometimes we don't, and it's actually not all that important!
Here’s a silly thought: ice only counts as a mineral when it is naturally occurring, because the definition of a mineral is a naturally occurring non-organic solid with a defined chemical composition and an orderly molecular structure. So the ice on a pond in winter is a mineral, but the ice cubes in your freezer are not, even though they’re the exact same stuff! And to follow through with that thought: we humans are causing climate change which results in colder winters. So you can make a really solid argument that the ice on a pond in winter is NOT a mineral anymore, because it formed due to human interference instead of natural processes.
And when you start to think about that, you realize that this is not a problem with nature, but a problem with words!
The thing is, the word “mineral” is a concept we humans made up to try and describe the world around us. We can give it as rigid a definition as we like, but the real world will always be more messy and complicated. Nature doesn’t actually care about categorizing things into “minerals” and “not minerals.” Nature just makes stuff.
I have an important question, in light of your crystal minerals post: Does jasper count as a crystal by this definition? I told my brother it was not a crystal but now I am not so sure
What you told your brother is correct. Jasper is a rock! It is an aggregate made from very fine grains of the mineral quartz. The microscopic grains of quartz that make up jasper are crystals! But jasper is not a crystal.
I love how you are so great with minerals but keep messing up water as HO2
Whoops!
is there any geological distinction between rock and stone?
Geologically speaking, "rock" is the big mass in the ground, and "stone" is a smaller chunk broken off of that mass, but honestly they're used pretty much interchangeably.
What makes a rock a rock and not a crystal?
Ok SO
Let’s look through my collection for some Spicy Rocks! I’ve never deliberately collected radioactive specimens, so I have no idea what I’m going to find.
First, though, let’s test the baseline level of radiation in my house.
It’s fun to hear the Geiger counter click as it detects radiation. 20 counts per minute. Nice! You’re unlikely to ever see a count of zero, as pretty much everything in the world, including the human body, gives off a little bit of radiation.
20 is a normal baseline, nothing to be concerned about. Standing in my house, I’m getting a radiation dose of about 0.00013 milliseieverts per hour - or a little over one mSv a year. This is an average yearly dosage of radiation for people in my country, and is something my body can easily process. For context, a dosage of 100 mSv would slightly increase my risk of cancer, and a dosage of 1000 mSv would immediately give me radiation sickness.
But enough about these boring, safe amounts of radiation. I want to see some spice! Let’s check over by the Rock Wall!
Hm, I’d expected the CPM to be noticeably higher around my rock collection, but I’m getting nothing! Even testing each individual rock, nothing’s more than a few ticks above the baseline. So far, my fancy new toy is looking like wasted money. :c
WAIT! THERE!! 62 CPM! That’s three times higher than the base reading in the rest of my house!!! YESSS!! THIS ROCK IS SPICY!!!!
Here’s the rock that’s setting off my Geiger counter. (Yes I’m touching the spicy rock with my bare hands, don’t worry about it.)
This fossil, which is as big as my head, is part of the femur bone of a Megalonyx, a North American giant ground sloth!
These huge animals could grow as big as ten feet tall. They lived alongside humans during the last ice age, and it’s theorized that humans may have hunted them to extinction. This particular fossil was found in a phosphate mine!
Why is it radioactive? Because… sometimes fossils are just radioactive! They spend a lot of time in the ground, which is full of radioactive minerals, and often radiation just gets all up in there. There are some fossils on display in museums which are so radioactive that they have to be coated with lead paint for the safety of curators and museum-goers! Compared to those, this femur bone is barely radioactive at all.
So is it really safe for me to have this in my house, much less handle it with my bare hands? Well, yeah! Remember, despite having this spicy rock in my collection, the radiation baseline in my house is completely normal. Here’s why.
Even just a few centimeters away from this specimen, the Geiger counter’s reading is halved. A few inches away, and it can’t detect any radiation at all. It basically has to be directly touching the rock to get an abnormal reading. Which means I also have to be touching the rock to receive a meaningful amount of radiation exposure.
But even holding this rock in my hands, I’m only getting a dosage of about 0.0004 mSv per hour. If I never let go of this rock for an entire year, I would get a dose of about 3.5 mSv. Which is… still completely within the safe threshold for my body to process. Nothing to worry about!
Man, I gotta start collecting some spicier rocks.
Good news!! Further testing has revealed yet another spicy rock in my collection!
This little fellow is apatite. He is mildly radioactive because, like most apatite, he contains traces of thorium and uranium!
Hovering at 54-55 CPM, he is very mild indeed for an apatite specimen. Just today I had the opportunity to test someone else’s collection for radiation, and discovered a piece of apatite that clocked in at 250 CPM! That’s "maybe don’t touch this rock with your bare hands” territory! Ah, I’m jealous...
Let’s look through my collection for some Spicy Rocks! I’ve never deliberately collected radioactive specimens, so I have no idea what I’m going to find.
First, though, let’s test the baseline level of radiation in my house.
It’s fun to hear the Geiger counter click as it detects radiation. 20 counts per minute. Nice! You’re unlikely to ever see a count of zero, as pretty much everything in the world, including the human body, gives off a little bit of radiation.
20 is a normal baseline, nothing to be concerned about. Standing in my house, I’m getting a radiation dose of about 0.00013 milliseieverts per hour - or a little over one mSv a year. This is an average yearly dosage of radiation for people in my country, and is something my body can easily process. For context, a dosage of 100 mSv would slightly increase my risk of cancer, and a dosage of 1000 mSv would immediately give me radiation sickness.
But enough about these boring, safe amounts of radiation. I want to see some spice! Let’s check over by the Rock Wall!
Hm, I’d expected the CPM to be noticeably higher around my rock collection, but I’m getting nothing! Even testing each individual rock, nothing’s more than a few ticks above the baseline. So far, my fancy new toy is looking like wasted money. :c
WAIT! THERE!! 62 CPM! That’s three times higher than the base reading in the rest of my house!!! YESSS!! THIS ROCK IS SPICY!!!!
Here’s the rock that’s setting off my Geiger counter. (Yes I’m touching the spicy rock with my bare hands, don’t worry about it.)
This fossil, which is as big as my head, is part of the femur bone of a Megalonyx, a North American giant ground sloth!
These huge animals could grow as big as ten feet tall. They lived alongside humans during the last ice age, and it’s theorized that humans may have hunted them to extinction. This particular fossil was found in a phosphate mine!
Why is it radioactive? Because... sometimes fossils are just radioactive! They spend a lot of time in the ground, which is full of radioactive minerals, and often radiation just gets all up in there. There are some fossils on display in museums which are so radioactive that they have to be coated with lead paint for the safety of curators and museum-goers! Compared to those, this femur bone is barely radioactive at all.
So is it really safe for me to have this in my house, much less handle it with my bare hands? Well, yeah! Remember, despite having this spicy rock in my collection, the radiation baseline in my house is completely normal. Here’s why.
Even just a few centimeters away from this specimen, the Geiger counter’s reading is halved. A few inches away, and it can’t detect any radiation at all. It basically has to be directly touching the rock to get an abnormal reading. Which means I also have to be touching the rock to receive a meaningful amount of radiation exposure.
But even holding this rock in my hands, I’m only getting a dosage of about 0.0004 mSv per hour. If I never let go of this rock for an entire year, I would get a dose of about 3.5 mSv. Which is... still completely within the safe threshold for my body to process. Nothing to worry about!
Man, I gotta start collecting some spicier rocks.
I just added two new shelves for the Rock Wall to expand into! For now they can hold all my rock-appreciating paraphernalia, like my camera, microscope and loupe, various UV lights, and gemstone and mineral books. But soon... oh yes, very soon... they will fill up with Cool Rocks.
Oooh! What's the small purple one you got? If you don't mind telling us about it ^-^
Believe it or not, this stuff is called purpurite! Purpurite is a manganese phosphate mineral. I think this specimen is from Namibia? While naturally a dark purple color, specimens of purpurite are often washed in acid to remove their dark surface layer and bring out a more vibrant purple. Though it's hard to capture in photos, it has a slightly metallic sheen!
Ooo what's that yellow one you got?
Brucite! It is a magnesium hydroxide mineral. Brucite is most commonly white (in fact, it's often one of the constituent minerals of marble), but this particular specimen is from a locale in Pakistan which is famous for producing brucite with this yellow color!
My Rogerley and Diana Marie fluorite specimens showing off their beautiful blue daylight fluorescence on a sunny afternoon. They’re reacting to UV radiation in the sunlight!
For comparison, here’s what these rocks look like under artificial light:
He remains perfectly functional despite the pain, but why put forth the effort to power through it when he doesn’t have to?
