Ruggles Mine in NH is an open mine, started in the early 1800s for mica, and later for feldspar. For the past 50 years it's been not-really-a-mine, but a tourist attraction, where people can go and whack at the rocks looking for interesting specimens.

The average person won't find a lot of marvelous stuff, but we had a great time. There are many side-caves opened by the mining, and some tunnels - one was probably 100 feet long and about 4' high and 10' wide. The kids really liked that one. The rest are larger and shorter, mostly.

We spent about 2.5h in the mine area, collecting some neat mica lumps, quartz, citrine, smoky quartz, and a tiny chip or two of uranium, which is a peculiar acid green that seems to fluoresce on its own and really flares in black light. We now know why radiation in cartoons is that weird shade of green, despite actual radiation being invisible.

After we explored and whacked on a lot of rocks, we headed for a rich deposit of sandwiches in the back of the car, and then headed home. We stopped in Concord NH for ice cream - if you are ever in Concord NH, I highly recommend the Granite State Candy Shoppe, just off the main drag in the center of town. Friendly staff, lots of excellent chocolates, many ice cream choices, and there's a little park next door with interesting rock benches, rocks for kids to climb on, trees, and a fountain.

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People sometimes wonder why little kids like dinosaurs. Lots of other people know why kids like dinosaurs: they're big and scary and powerful, and a little weird. I think that's why older kids and adults like superhero/action movies: the characters are big and scary and powerful, and a little weird. As a not-very-dangerous middle aged person, I find that transiently compelling. I wonder if fit young men who know how to be dangerous find it as compelling?

Despite not knowing all the characters, and not knowing most of their backstory, the kids and I enjoyed The Avengers a lot. There was at least one place where half the adults laughed and none of the kids got it - a reference to a character from another work of fiction. Lots of other good dialog and special effects. Had fun trying to figure out which real-world creatures the Big Critters were sourced from. Thought at first it was a coelecanth, but decided later that it was mostly more mundane than that.

In other news of the holiday-weekend-in-progress, Elizabeth slept in the tent last night and enjoyed it; she reappeared in the house around 7am. After the movie and before Friendly's, we went to Lowes to pick up an extra hammer and some eye protection, because tomorrow we're doing a daytrip to Ruggles Mine in NH, where you get to whack at rocks hoping for various minerals. I already have a splendid sample of mica, so I'll have to look for something else. Arthur, of course, is hoping that he finds uranium, which is one of the possibles there. We're not bringing Metageek because he's being snowed on while hiking at Yellowstone, and he wasn't very interested in whacking at rocks anyway. We'll bring him some nice warm uranium.

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I've watched the four installments over the past week at the HBO site, and it's very well done; I'm in the process of watching them again with the kids. The Weight of the Nation presents the issue without any of the finger-pointing that is so common to discussions in the public sphere about obesity. It discusses root causes in society and mass marketing instead, presents lots of opinions by people of all ages who are fat, and a lot of studies about what is going on with our bodies, and what that is going to mean for us as a nation.

I think it is quite worthwhile to watch for anyone, doubly so if you or your loved ones are overweight.

The first episode is the best to watch if you have only an hour to spend, but if you have two hours, also watch the third episode which is called "Children in Crisis."

Here's the description of the series provided by HBO: ( Read more... )

By now we all know that not getting fat in the first place is the best option, but one of the fascinating things I learned was that if you have two otherwise identical people, if one of them was fat and lost the weight, s/he is going to have to eat 20% fewer calories than the never-fat identical person in order to stay at the same weight. I wasn't that surprised, actually; physiology doesn't play fair, and I'm glad teaching the kids good food habits has been part of my mission as mom since I got this job.

Another interesting aspect was one of their additional pieces on discrimination - some real eye-openers there. All in all, chock-full of solid reporting.

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Spent 10 minutes on the phone with a real political survey, as opposed to the ones which ask two questions and then try to get you to buy a 3-day cruise.

It was almost certainly paid for by the campaign or supporters of Joe Kearns Goodwin, based on the way the questions tended once we were about halfway through. I stayed talking partly because I felt sympathetic to the phone guy, who couldn't pronounce "exemplary" 3 out of 3 times with me helping, and probably needed the paycheck.

The main reason I'm grousing is that the specific questions were forced choices, which I hate, on the order of "do you want a rank newbie, or someone entrenched with the special interests?"

There were also short bios of the candidates of around 20-30 words, and then I was supposed to give my impression of their suitability for the job. I don't think I could choose someone suitable for streetsweeper based on 20 words, and certainly not someone for state senate. ARGH.

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The professional organizer I hired for a consultation had the great idea of "clutter buddies." Instead of spending $50-$70 per hour for an organizer, you trade motivation with a friend, making an appointment to meet at alternate houses, and help with the not-getting-distracted and so on.

Today was the first day; I spent just under 2 hours at a friends' house and we cleared up a section that she'd chosen. I get to have help next time; lather, rinse, repeat.

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The tomatoes are finally all planted out. I have 15 of them. Four cherries, four "salsa" tomatoes, and the rest are "heirloom mix" grab-bag from Baker Creek.

Also planted out and tied up the snow peas and the asian long beans, both of which required careful de-tangling from each other, and tomorrow will do the zucchini, ditto. Then there are various other items that will get planted, including more seedlings in the flower garden. Yay.

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Humans generally have the idea that our faces convey our personalities, and the whole of our being as sort of a Cliff's Notes kind of thing. I think that's why obituaries usually include a photograph: a picture is worth a thousand words of biography, and of course it helps with the sorting function; it allows people to quickly scan the obits to see if they recognize anyone.

But purely on the "personality" front, I have been pondering which of our faces throughout our lives speaks most accurately or relevantly to the person we are. Babies' faces are distinct, but not really all that different for someone who doesn't know them. Someone in their later teens has acquired a lot of differentiation, but they are still not as differentiated as perhaps someone in their mid-thirties, or even mid-forties. And then when we get very old, it seems to me that some of that individualism is lost in wrinkles that just about everyone is heir to. On the other hand, I'm not there yet, so maybe to someone who is 70, their cohort all look quite distinguishable! (The old proven saw that people of an ethnic group different from one's own mostly look alike, no matter which ethnic group one is speaking of.)

At which age do you think a person's face is most unique and representative?


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I don't often manage to catch Radiolab on NPR, but today ran into their episode LOOPS. All about loops and recursion in real life.

After a rather odd piece about a song about a horse, they covered a woman who fell victim to transient global amnesia. This is a condition that lasts for a few hours to a day or so, in which the brain doesn't make any new memories. The discovery and diagnosis makes a rather powerful and spooky story. In this case, she was on a 90-second cycle. Her daughter filmed the repetitive conversation they had at the hospital, and it's on YouTube at this link. (Now if I were the daughter, I'd write all the common questions & answers on a card, rather than repeating them for nine hours.)

After that was a thing about audio tape degradation, and the circle of life of dead whales. Then I arrived home and had to do other things, but I'll try to catch the rest of it later.

The amnesia part was the most fascinating, however.

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Anyone been to Yellowstone? What did you enjoy the most? (Doing "research" for a friend who is going in a week.)

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I bought the smaller size bottles because I didn't want to waste oodles of coke, but it looks like the volume of liquid to the nozzle size (neck size) is just as important in the reaction as it is to rocketry. We're getting plumes of only a few inches, instead of the expected 10+ feet.

Will resupply later this week and try again. Having fun anyway.

Other notes: letting the bottles rest after agitation during separation from their six-pack plastic is important. Rested bottles give twice the height, possibly because the gas goes back into solution.



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