Sunday, October 30, 2016

This is a map of the deposits of elements along the Great Lakes. This is not secret information. The mining has occurred for a long time. This is the extent the inland lakes have contributed to the USA's economy.

Calcite and dolomite, (click here) when heated and in some cases slurried or combined with salt, are used in making many everyday products such as paper, glass, paint and varnish, soap and detergents, textiles, refractories, baking powder, and pharmaceuticals, including milk of magnesia and bicarbonate of soda. Finely ground, they are used to control coal mine dust, to collect sulfur dioxide from power plant exhaust, to sweeten soils, and as ingredients in fertilizer and stock feeds, to name a few. Limestone is used extensively in Michigan to refine beet sugar.  When burned in a kiln to drive off gases, calcite and dolomite form burnt lime. Among the uses for burnt lime, in addition to steel making, are water and sewage treatment, acid waste neutralization, and road base stabilization. Crushed calcite and dolomite are used in concrete, road construction, building materials, and as a filler in asphalt....

It is amazing to me how many uses there are for porous rock. Calcium carbonate is organic. It is very organic. Right? I talked about it's highly ionic and reactive properties in the first few entries. Right? Albert Einstein's desk and the quality of education in the USA.

It is no surprise that I am not a fan of mining. I think mining is very mismanaged. Rather than securing the mining for safety, mines are not secured because it cuts into profits. 

This is the year 2016. As a society and world we are well into the 21st century. It is time to realize we need all the water we can find and lower pollution impacts as much as we can. The innovation of the current generations are incredible. This is one more area where critical thinking can bring about streamlined and efficient operations in areas that are benevolent to life on Earth. 

Mining and producing cement consumers enormous amounts of energy in the way of heat energy. There have to be better answers to all these operations to conserve energy, maintain water quality and minimize abuse of the environment. 

CO2 in the abundance that exists today effects Earth's oceans. The scientific community calls it acidification, but, in actuality it is less alkaline. The normal pH of the oceans is 8.2 with some variations in micro-environments within the marine environment. The CO2 turns into carbonic acid and pulls the pH toward the neutral 7.0 and then if it continues it will move into the acidic side of the pH scale.

The calcium in the oceans is vital for fish, especially shellfish. Calcium is what is used to form their shells, of which they need to survive. The oceans have had a pH of 8.2 for eons. There was never a time on Earth when the oceans were acidic. This change in pH of the oceans is anthropocentric. There is no natural process that changes the pH of the oceans. I mentioned some micro-environments are slightly different, up to 0.3 pH, but, that is due to such things as local dissolving rock, etc. The issue of ocean acidification is completely man made.

I have no more patience for the idea the human path forward can continue as if what nature is telling us is a lie. The sincere problem is Earth has been warning human beings for over a century now. Leaders during the Industrial Revolution, such as Henry Ford, fore told this scenario, hence his work with the electric car. There is no reason for leaders in this world to look the other way while abusive cultures are indifferent to the problems they are causing with other peoples. 

Insensitivity is rampant in the right wing culture in the USA, including the fact tornadoes are no longer singular and in the mid range of the Fujita Scale. The tornado outbreaks in the USA are killing people. In 2016 there is a total of 12 deaths to date.

2016 Fatalities by Circumstance: (click here)
In Home:3 In Manufactured Home:7 Outside:0 In Building:0 In Vehicle:2 Unknown:0

No back sliding. The future of our children and their children is precious. The current generations need to do the hard work and insure an economy with a livable Earth. Now there is an idea. An economy based in returning the balance of Earth's troposphere. Yep. There is a definite economy in all of that. There is a panel of scientists just waiting to advise the generations on the way forward. I heard the scientists on that panel came from some of the best universities in the world. The panel's title is the much maligned IPCC; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It's a pretty cool name. "Intergovernmental." Yep, it sounds like the smart folks in the world. Who in this world would ever come up with such a homogeneous and communal name as that. "Intergovernmental." Yep. That's the smart folks. They are very trust worthy, too. "Believe me."

This was a paleontological dig site in Florida.

This is an academic dig site. Imagine this as a commercial site. It would be a complete disaster.

Uploaded on Dec 7, 2006

Dredging goes on at a limestone quarry that is also the location of the Haile 7G paleontological dig site. The dig site is the location of the Florida Museum of Natural History's "Tapir Challenge," which I joined as a volunteer on December 6, 2006. More about the "Tapir Challenge" is at:
Photos from my day there are at:

(Close up the space before "6372" -- I can't seem to do it here.)
The water shown in this video is part of the Florida aquifer.

Moist climate dictates karst topography, especially, with limestone as the basement rock.

Limestone mining can pollute water and create sinkholes. When limestone dissolves while it's still in the ground, caves and gullies form, a natural phenomenon known as karst (click here). Although this doesn't hurt the environment in its natural form, once the limestone is mined out, sinkholes can form and disrupt underground waterways. This changes the natural water table. The actual mining process also changes existing waterways, adding additional water to streams and other bodies of water that not only floods the surrounding area, but adds pollutants to it as well. At the same time, it draws water from other features such as lakes and ponds.
Limestone can be damaged by the environment through weather and water erosion. The stone absorbs water that can cause it to deteriorate over time. If the water has a high acidity content, the damage is more immediate. Wind can wear away stone detailing. Limestone is also prone to discoloration by exposure to oil, dyes or even organic material, such as bird droppings or decomposing plant matter. It can even get rust stains if exposed to oxidizing iron.

Contractors drained the swamps and built retirement communities. What were they thinking? The government states, "...sink hole deaths are rare." SO! Therefore, what?

August 19, 2015
By Jason Silverstein

The hell hole has come back. (click here)
A sinkhole in Florida that fatally swallowed a man two years ago has now reopened, police said Wednesday morning.
The second-time sinkhole in Seffner is 17 feet wide and 20 feet deep, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokesman Ronnie Rivera told the Daily News. It has not swallowed anything or anyone, he said.
“We’re not expecting it to get bigger,” Rivera said. “It has not spread. It just opened again.”...

The community and their supporters are correct. Mining limestone in Florida is a horrible idea.

October 27, 2016
By Cecilia Fox

Miami  County — Citing opposition to the proposed operation, (click here) Piqua Materials withdrew their application to develop a surface mine in Washington Township.
The company withdrew its application on Wednesday.
“While confident that Piqua Materials would win on the legal merits of its application, those opposed to this move have raised a number of issues which need to be addressed. Accordingly, the better course of action is for Piqua Materials to take a step back to further engage the community on its proposed move,” Piqua Materials President Dennis Garrison said....
...The conditional use permit application was filed with the Miami County Planning and Zoning Department in late September. The application sought approval to develop a 93-acre site in Washington Township for the extraction, processing, and sale of limestone products....

Florida is a karst topography. What does karst mean? Karst topography is underlain by limestone that has been eroded by dissolution, producing ridges, towers, fissures, sinkholes, and other characteristic landforms.

It is insane to put an open pit mine in Florida. 




My favorite limestone deposit in the USA is Bryce Canyon. It is a national park and it is breathtaking.

Grand Canyon (A), Chocolate Cliffs (B), Vermilion Cliffs (C), White Cliffs (D), Zion Canyon (E), Gray Cliffs (F), Pink Cliffs (G), Bryce Canyon (H)

It is called stratigraphy and is the most fascinating way to study the time scale of Earth. Statigraphy is the branch of geology concerned with the order and relative position of strata and their relationship to the geological time scale.

Yes, a geological times scale. What this cross section of USA's statigraphy shows is the rise and fall of Earth's oceans. For every layer of rock in this cross section there is a time period when Earth's ocean rose above the land and deposited rock that would become this vast and beautiful vista of color and composition. 

Sea Level Variations over Geologic Time 
By M. A. Kominz
2001

...Long-term Sea Level Change Estimates (click here) are also made from sedimentary strata deposited on the continents. This is actually an excellent place to obtain observations of sea level change not only because past sea level has been much higher than it is now, but also because in many places the continents have subsequently uplifted. That is, in the past they were below sea level, but now they are well above it. For example, studies of 500}400 million year old sedimentary rocks which are now uplifted in the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains indicate that there was a rise and fall of sea level with an estimated magnitude of 200}400m. This example also exempliRes the main problem with using the continental sedimentary record to estimate sea level change. The continents are not Rxed and move vertically in response to tectonic driving forces. Thus, any indicator of sea level change on the continents is an indicator of relative sea level change. Obtaining a global signature from these observations remains extremely problematic. Additionally, the continental sedimentary record contains long periods of nondeposition, which results in a spotty record of Earth history. Nonetheless a great deal of information about sea level change has been obtained and is summarized here....

The Grand Canyon has the oldest EXPOSED rock in the USA.

The Grand Age of Rocks: The Numeric Ages for Rocks Exposed within Grand Canyon (click here)

Grand Canyon National Park [see Photo 1] is one of the best places in the world to gain a sense of geologic, or “deep,” time because the canyon exposes a great swath of geologic history. Rocks exposed in Grand Canyon are truly ancient, ranging from 1840 million years old (m.y.), or 1.84 billion years old (b.y.), to 270 m.y. The Grand Canyon landscape is geologically young, being carved within just the last 6 m.y. There are younger geologic deposits in Grand Canyon too, such as the Ice Age fossils found in caves, a 1000-year-old lava flow in the western canyon, and even the debris flow deposits that continue form each year....

Bryce Canyon National Park (click here) 



Some products that use limestone are not that obvious.

Adding Nutrients (click here) High quality limestone, such as found in California, is a source of calcium in foods and vitamins. Foods where limestone adds calcium include breads, granola bars, cereal, infant formula, pasta, pet food, tofu, yogurt, graham crackers, baking mixes, waffles...the uses grow daily. It also has many uses in making antacids and medicine tablets.
October 30, 2016
By Brian Thompson

No rain is in sight (click here) for most of the Southeast through the opening days of November, thanks to a persistent warm and dry pattern.

The ongoing stretch of warmth and dryness in the region will spell bad news for the worsening drought.

Cities such as Pensacola, Florida, as well as Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama, are likely to end up with no measurable precipitation during the month of October.

The dry weather has been accompanied by record-breaking warmth, which will continue for much of this week.

Atlanta will likely set a new record for the warmest September through the October period, on the heels of the city's second warmest summer....







The Southeast


 On this week’s map, (click here) most of the region saw deterioration in conditions as the dry pattern persisted. Georgia Climate Division CD 1 (Northwest), CD 3 (Northeast), and Alabama CD 2 (Northeast) all recorded their driest 60-day periods on record. Streamflow conditions continued to drop across much of the region, and drought-related impacts are being observed in the agricultural sector. Dry conditions have led to delays in the planting of winter wheat in Alabama. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service, topsoil moisture conditions (percentage rated short to very short) were as follows: Alabama - 78%, Georgia -73%, and Mississippi - 72%. On the map, areas of Moderate Drought (D1), Severe Drought (D2), Extreme Drought (D3), and Exceptional Drought (D4) expanded in both Alabama and Georgia while western portions of South Carolina saw expansion of areas of Moderate Drought (D1), Severe Drought (D2), and Extreme Drought (D3). In Upstate South Carolina, crop losses (hay) are being reported by the USDA Farm Service Agency. Overall, the region was dry, and average temperatures were one-to-eight degrees above normal with the exception of southern Georgia and Florida where temperatures were slightly below normal.

Limestone regardless of their inland location is formed by ocean waters.

Most limestones form in shallow, calm, warm marine waters. That type of environment is where organisms capable of forming calcium carbonate shells and skeletons can easily extract the needed ingredients from ocean water. When these animals die, their shell and skeletal debris accumulate as a sediment that might be lithified into limestone. Their waste products can also contribute to the sediment mass. Limestones formed from this type of sediment are biological sedimentary rocks. Their biological origin is often revealed in the rock by the presence of fossils.

One of the most famous formations of limestone are the White Cliffs of Dover in Great Britain. The rock is of very fine stone that is chalk, but, it is limestone. This is largest collapse of the cliffs known. 


Collapse: (click here) Thousands of tons of chalk fell from the white cliffs of Dover in an area known as Crab Bay. Here a woman surveys the damage


It is the warming world with David Letterman.

October 30, 2016
By Verne Gay

WHAT IT’S ABOUT (click here)

Last winter, David Letterman and a production crew went to the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh — population 204 million — to produce a story on India’s growing reliance on coal and attempts to also expand renewable energy. He interviews, among others, the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, who says that India needs international assistance if his renewable energy mandate is to be achieved. Meanwhile, Letterman learns of a plan to bring electricity to 300 million Indians currently without power. In this second-season premiere of NatGeo’s series on climate change, Cecily Strong of “Saturday Night Live” also reports on solar energy in Nevada....

Simple principles of chemistry is the elemental beginning of understanding quantum mechanics.

Quantam mechanics is real. It is set in stone. The United States of America cannot exist without it's brain trust understanding quantum mechanics. One very important area of science that benefits from an understanding of quantum mechanics is medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.

If Americans want their country to maintain any degree of competition in the world the study of science is paramount to that end.

This picture is Albert Einstein's desk the day of his death. There is no retirement to the ordered mind. Social Security, yes, but retirement, no. Of all the shelves on that wall I like the fifth from the top on the right side. It is where he kept his subscription to a peer reviewed journal. There was no doubt in his mind it was important to keep them in an arranged order that was easy to find.

Every student should be so engaged in their studies. Football may make money for a university, but, its students should be its priority. Emotional and sexual trauma doesn't fall into those priorities.

Quantum mechanicsscience
dealing with the behaviour of matter and light on the atomic and 
subatomic scale. It attempts to describe and account for the properties of molecules and atoms and their constituents—electrons, protons, neutrons, and other more esoteric particles such as quarks and gluons. These properties include the interactions of the particles with one another and with electromagnetic radiation (i.e., light, X-rays, and gamma rays).

Three revolutionary principles (click here)
Quantum mechanics (QM) developed over many decades, beginning as a set of controversial mathematical explanations of experiments that the math of classical mechanics could not explain. It began at the turn of the 20th century, around the same time that Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity, a separate mathematical revolution in physics that describes the motion of things at high speeds. Unlike relativity, however, the origins of QM cannot be attributed to any one scientist. Rather, multiple scientists contributed to a foundation of three revolutionary principles that gradually gained acceptance and experimental verification between 1900 and 1930. They are quantized properties, particles of light and waves of matter.

The forms of calcium carbonate, aka limestone.

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) 

The compound CaC03 is the reaction between the element calcium which has a naturally occurring 2+ charge on the atom and the compound carbonate. Carbonate has a carbon atom with four electrons in it's second shell and three oxygens each with six electrons in it's second shell. 

With only four electrons in carbon's second shell there is room for four more. With six electrons in oxygen's second shell it has room for two more. The second shell of any element can take a maximum of eight electrons. The carbon atom always seeks to fill up it's second shell of electrons, that is why it is a strong organic atom. In this case it accepts an orbiting electron from oxygen and in turn oxygen gets one orbiting electron from carbon. In the case of carbonate there are three oxygens sharing electrons with carbon and there is one electron provided by carbon that is shared with the three oxygens in oscillation. 

Each oxygen started with two missing electrons in it's second shell. Carbon accepted three oxygens into it's second shell providing a total of seven electrons in carbon. That leaves one electron on carbon and one each on oxygens without permanent bonds. Since carbon oscillates it's one electron space with each of the three oxygens that leave two of the oxygens with open space on it's second shell at all times. Electrons are negative, hence, the negative 2 charge on the carbonate ion. 

The carbonate ion then bonds easily with it's two open spaces on the oxygens with calcium with 2 electrons in it's outer shell, 4s.






















Aragonite is also Ca(CO3) as a percipitated crystal. Aragonite is not found anywhere on Earth as a rock. it is a process of biological organisms or as physical chemistry such as precipitation.

Aragonite is quite beautiful.





It's All Hallows Eve

"High blood drumming"...is when another can feel your blood pumping through your veins.
Darken the city, night is a wire
Steam in the subway, earth is afire
Do do do do do do do dodo dododo dodo
Woman, you want me, give me a sign
And catch my breathing even closer behind
Do do do do do do do dodo dododo dodo

In touch with the ground
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
Smell like I sound, I'm lost in a crowd
And I'm hungry like the wolf
Straddle the line in discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf

Stalked in the forest, too close to hide
I'll be upon you by the moonlight side
Do do do do do do do dodo dododo dodo
High blood drumming on your skin, it's so tight
You feel my heat, I'm just a moment behind
Do do do do do do do dodo dododo dodo

In touch with the ground
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
A scent and a sound, I'm lost and I'm found
And I'm hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme
I howl and I whine, I'm after you
Mouth is alive, all running inside
And I'm hungry like the wolf

Hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf

Burning the ground, I break from the crowd
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you
I smell like I sound, I'm lost and I'm found
And I'm hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you
Mouth is alive with juices like wine
And I'm hungry like the wolf

Burning the ground, I break from the crowd
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you
A scent and a sound, I'm lost and I'm found
And I'm hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme
I'm on the wine, I'm after you

Non-GMO food is the answer to nutrition in the USA and evidently Canada.

October 29, 2016
By Danny Hakim

...An analysis by The Times using United Nations data (click here) showed that the United States and Canada have gained no discernible advantage in yields — food per acre — when measured against Western Europe, a region with comparably modernized agricultural producers like France and Germany. Also, a recent National Academy of Sciences report found that “there was little evidence” that the introduction of genetically modified crops in the United States had led to yield gains beyond those seen in conventional crops....

It is time to label genetically modified foods clearly. I don't want to eat them. What do I have to do, trace the grain back to Monsanto seeds in order to end the GMOs in my diet. This is ridiculous. Label them!

July 8, 2016
By Dianne Lugo

...Senator Patrick Leahy (D–VT) (click here) spoke against the bill during yesterday’s debate, describing it as “a farce of a proposal.” He argued that “with the swift speed with which the proponents of this bill have moved, with no committee process, no debate or amendment process, we will not be able to ensure the language in this bill does exactly what they say that it does. Just take their word for it.”...

Pitting one American against another is unconscionable.

This is hate, plain and simple. There needs to be a safe place for young people to carry out their lives. A child who identifies as a different sex than their natural born gender have to be held in esteem for their needs to mature in an atmosphere of acceptance. 

October 29, 2016
By Ned Barrett
While North Carolina (click here) and its people face real problems, the top statewide campaigns have focused on phony fears, especially the campaigns of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and Republican Sen. Richard Burr.
McCrory is now in his seventh month of telling us to be afraid of laws protecting the rights of transgender people. He signed House Bill 2 in March to roll back a Charlotte ordinance that granted what a majority of the legislature won’t accept – that transgender people should not be discriminated against. For good measure, the law also nullified local ordinances protecting people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation.
HB2 created such a storm of protest, voters aren’t hearing about other issues. There could be debates about jobs, education, environmental protections and how climate change seems to be washing away the state’s eastern half. But, no, we’re talking about bathrooms....

8 May 2016
By Anna Tremonte
This presentation simplifies gender identity development using two articles by Pollock, and Morgan (click here)          

The Cubs have to win in Cleveland tonight.

October 30, 2016
By Bob Nightengale

...Yes, Cleveland, (click here) as Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo says, “is my new favorite city on the map.’’

For the Cubs to reach their oasis, they’re going to have to actually win a baseball game Sunday evening at Wrigley Field in Game 5, or their next flight won’t be until spring training.

The Cubs, clobbered 7-2 by the Cleveland Indians, now trail 3-1 in the World Series, leaving Cubs’ fans on the brink of uttering that old refrain:

“Wait ‘til Next Year.’’

The Indians, who have turned this postseason into their own pitching showcase, need just one more victory, and for the first time since 1948, they are World Series champions.

One more defeat, the Cubs will go home for the 108th consecutive winter without a World Series trophy.

Only this time, with all of the expectations, and heavily favored to win the World Series, this heartbreak is more painful....