My current e-reader is an Openbook Abridged designed by Joey Castillo of Oddly Specific Objects. It is larger than this tiny device, but smaller than something like a smartphone, and I think it is the PERFECT size. It's a similar kind of device which actually has even less features than this O24. I love it so much, and have been reading so much more than I used to since I soldered the kit together ~6 months ago.
These types of huge perfect specimens always take my breath away when I am able to see them in person. To think that this kind of stuff just kinda exists buried in the earth...
I am a part of a local mineral club which hosts several "field trips" a year to various mineralogically interesting locations (most of which aren't accessible as an individual, like private land and special digs at active mining/quarrying sites on their days off). I have never found anything even remotely as beautiful as the specimens shown, but the small collection of mildly interesting things that I've smashed out of the earth with my own 2 hands is amazingly satisfying to me. You don't even have to be a super dedicated "rock nerd" to take part, I highly recommend looking for local mineral clubs to join if this even remotely interests you. It's really a ton of fun!
That’s what really sucks about rockhounding as a hobby. In the US we have a blessing of public BLM lands where we can collect, especially in the West, but most of the interesting specimens in museums and fancy collections come from mines or some unique geological occurrence on private land. Getting them requires dropping lots of money or getting into commercial mining. The best most of us can really hope for is some small piece from tailings.
There are a few species you can sometimes find in washes when they get buried during massive floods, but other than that most museum quality specimens are impossible to find for rockhounds.
I still bring my trusty Estwing rock hammer everywhere but it kind of takes the wind out of the treasure hunting aspect.
> There are a few species you can sometimes find in washes when they get buried during massive floods, but other than that most museum quality specimens are impossible to find for rockhounds.
Well, that's kinda how it has to be, right? If art museums displayed the artwork anyone can paint, they wouldn't be interesting to most people. Most museums are about displaying the stuff you otherwise wouldn't be able to find, buy, or make. It's still fun to learn to paint, even if you're no Rembrandt.
To be fair, there are some museums that go for depth instead of scarcity and I personally find them more interesting. The Computer History Museum does this pretty well. They have some truly unique items, but also plenty of stuff you can buy on eBay, just presented and explained well.
> If art museums displayed the artwork anyone can paint, they wouldn't be interesting to most people.
It's very common for art museums in Japan to have a room dedicated to paintings from local residents. As one would expect, the quality ranges from "why would you show this to anyone" to "can't believe how amazing this is". I always enjoy going through them.
I live in the northeast USA, there are very few public collecting spots around me. It makes me really sad listening to people who have been in the hobby for a long time talk about all the amazing collecting sites they used to frequent before they were paved over with parking lots or condominiums and whatnot. There isn't a whole lot of "wild open space" left around here to poke about in. Another big factor for keeping the public out of collecting sites that do still exist is that some people can't be bothered to be respectful in their collecting.
The Loudville lead mine in Easthampton MA, which used to be open for public collecting, recently closed due to irresponsible collecting and severe erosion. They closed off the entire recreational trail system, which has far reaching affects far beyond the rockhounding community.
I'd collected once at Loudville shortly before it closed and found a couple scraps of Pyromorphite, some tiny Wulfenite you need a microscope to see, and some Malachite. I am sad that I can't go back, now.
I don't expect, or really even want to find museum-quality specimens, I just want the ability to explore the minerology of my home region on a physical and personal level.
"The best most of us can really hope for is some small piece from tailings."
Just this past weekend I pulled a plate full of rare tellurides out of Otto Mountain for a Caltech PhD. You have to be very observant to find a good spot to acquire minerals out of the ground, but excellent large specimens are still out there to be pulled.
It isn't that difficult to find excellent mineral specimens, some boulder-sized, on National Forest and BLM land in the mountain West. There are many places where people have never been or where a fantastic-looking mineral deposit was ignored because they were too small (common with e.g. copper minerals).
Most of the ones I've found were incidentally discovered while hiking around off-trail in the boonies. I do always bring my Estwing with me just in case though.
Finding specimens is not that hard or inaccessible if you are determined. Virtually any place on earth has its own geomorphology history. Start by looking at geological maps to learn what kind of rocks/minerals you can find in your surroundings and look for old/active mines, quarries or any activity that excavates soil, etc. Specimens can be found sometimes in land deposits from these activites.
I will forever remember the V20.
I was at the mall shooting the shit with some friends in late 2016 waiting for the bus to bring us back to campus. We went to the Verizon store to look at the hottest new phones none of us could afford.
There was a V20, and someone had changed the little top screen to display the static text "dicks out for harambe"
I still have a photo of it kicking around here somewhere.
Thank you for posting this. I've somehow never heard of Postcrossing, but I've now signed up and will have a couple cards put in a mailbox this afternoon. I am so so excited to actually receive mail. I've sent close to 150 postcards over the last 12 months to various people I know IRL, and not a single person has responded in kind. The only mail I get is from a penpal in Finland I met on Lemmy (which is always a treat to receive!)
I'll just so happen to be at the world stamp expo, so I'll be sure to try and check out the postcrossing meetups, and pick up some of these stamps hot off the press!
My brother and I still quote passenger dialog to each other to this day.
Take me to the Fila store!
We had it on the Dreamcast, and it was one of our most-played games.
I remember for YEARS trying to 100% the Crazy Box... but because we didn't know how to do the boost thing, it was just impossible. Specifically the Crazy Jump, there's just no way to even come close without doing the boost. Literal definition of insanity, us swapping the controller back and forth for hours trying to wiggle the car into the corner of the launch platform to get a little extra run-up and still failing.
I had never vacationed abroad in my whole life, then last year I traveled separately to Amsterdam (with 2 nights in Groningen) and Paris. Both trips ended up being cheaper than similar domestic trips. Both times I was extremely sad to return home.
I would love to emigrate to Europe. One of the nights in Amsterdam, I couldn't sleep and spent the night frantically researching how to legally emigrate.
If all of the undocumented people in the US spent this much time trying to emigrate legally, the US wouldn't need ICE and we wouldn't be having this discussion.
There are 2 separate topics that seem to get bundled together a lot.
1. Should we deport illegal immigrants? While there are some debate here (sanctuary cities, immigration reform etc), it's not the primary cause of the current ICE repulsion.
2. How deportations are done currently. Mass round ups, targeting everyone, including those with no criminal record, the violence involved. This is what most people are against.
Our immigration system is broken. Reagan realized this in the 1980s and gave amnesty to millions and Republicans were going to reform it. But businesses being able to abuse an unprotected 'undocumented class' won out instead.
> If all of the undocumented people in the US spent this much time trying to emigrate legally
Many of the "undocumented people" (what an Orwellian phrase) that have been rounded up by ICE are picked up during court hearings or immigration interviews. An easy way for agents to meet their quota without doing any actual investigative work. Say what you will about them but there's no denying those people were by definition "trying to emigrate legally." This has been widely reported.
No. If you're "trying to X legally", that means you don't just do X anyway no matter what the legal system says. Next you'll claim that robbers are trying to earn a living legally".
I appreciate the way you phrased that, "what the legal system says" rather than "the laws," since it's important to keep in mind a lot of what we're talking about is mercurial executive branch policy rather than statutory law. (which is why US immigration has been such a shitshow for such a long time)
On the other hand, you're apparently ignorant of what's actually happening, and it's making you write stupid things. The Trump administration's policy changes when he took office immediately made a lot of people, not my choice of words, "illegal" immigrants instead of "legal" immigrants. Maybe you support that, that's your business, but to claim those people were not "trying to emigrate legally" because the new administration changed the rules is simply dishonest.
Most illegal immigrants could spend the rest of their lives trying to immigrate legally and never make it, so that doesn't seem rational. Being undocumented is their best bet, as long as they don't break the criminal law once they're past the border and they make it 100 miles past the border their odds of being caught are next to nil. ICE is mostly catching people that either turn up in the legal system or are documented somewhere where they can be found.
Uh. Most of us will spend our whole lives trying to earn money but never make it to being billionaires. So are you saying it's rational to disregard the legal system and steal?
The irony is rich here. Country X is bad for enforcing its immigration laws. So let's run off to country Y and dutifully follow its immigration laws.
That depends if it's more practical to steal a billion or earn it legally. I suspect the most practical way to get to a billion is to legally steal it, perhaps with some form of regulatory capture or a government franchise granting a monopoly. Whether you think this is right or wrong is immaterial to what the practical approach is.
It is definitely easier to immigrate illegally for a large portion of the world population, and probably most illegal immigrants. Rational actor then would immigrate illegally.
I think this also very much depends on the country. Only a total idiot would try to "legally" immigrate to Argentina as their constitution essentially grants citizenship just for surviving for two years, and meanwhile there is essentially no immigration enforcement and fairly onerous visa process to do it "legally." On the other hand, you'd have to be an idiot to illegally immigrate to China in anything but the most dire circumstances, as they have an Orwellian surveillance apparatus and getting a legal business visa is fairly straightforward particularly in some special economic zones. On the Argentina<->China scale I would rate America as further towards the Argentina side, albeit with no path to regularization of status for most illegal immigrants.
Having a dogmatic adherance to the law leads to irrational actions. But also having a dogmatic disdain for the law also leads to irrational actions. Everything has to be considered in context. In the context of the USA you mostly have to be an idiot to try and immigrate legally if you are low skilled poor person from a 3rd world country with no connections. In the context of an educated American going to Europe, the rational choice is probably to immigrate legally.
From this lenses I don't really see any logical inconsistency in the fact the same person might pick illegal on one path and legal for another. Although yes if they are leaving the US because they hate immigration controls and dogmatically following immigration controls overseas in someplace like Argentina where it doesn't even make sense to do so, then they are definitely hypocrites.
As someone who immigrated here, legally, from a low-risk country, I can tell you it cost the best part of $35,000 going through the process, and byzantine weirdnesses and requirements that included things like my mother-in-law signing surety on my usage of Social Security and Medicare and other financial commitments because US immigration is in some ways so broken that it cannot at all comprehend a world where the immigrant might be the breadwinner, and not the USC (I was working as an experienced senior IT person while my US partner was back in college).
Ultimately, it would have been quicker, easier, and cheaper (and in the end, just as legal as my immigration) to come here on a tourist visa or the VWP, marry her in spite of the prohibition thereon, and ask for forgiveness and apply to be able to stay anyway.
When it's those three things versus "legal immigration", and other factors, I rather empathize with many of those people.
And as for your comment, it's more and more apparent that Trump intends for ICE to be his cudgel for all manner of opposition, not just immigration issues (witness the attempts to extort Minnesota into handing over state voter rolls, "We will move ICE enforcement out of the state if you do") so no, we'd still be having it.
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