#Kyanite has a soft side as well as a side that's harder than steel. It takes on countless jobs because it can handle the heat better than most. Kyanite is strong and beautiful. #MinCup

team tugtupite over here! because there aren't enough minerals with indigenous names, imo. plus all the other reasons everyone else said

Today I met 2 Bsky people irl. I met a colleague whose work I've been inspired by. I put on a show featuring a friend and colleague I haven't seen in a while. 2 audience members came all the way to Pawtucket from Boston. My heart is so full.

💖 Looks like I'm cleared to cast my own #MinCup25 vote and I wanna make a post for pretty pink #tugtupite! It's got so many amazing properties and stole my heart with its superpowers! Gotta give my Indigenous vote to the Kalaallisut name origin, too! The way she glows! I'm so in love! Sorry Omen!

As in Rounds 1&2, it’s #Tugtupite for me! It’s got an Indigenous name & as @redsage.bsky.social said it is: tenebrescent, fluorescent in short & long wave UV & phosphorescent—from Greenland, it would go dim & mild during the long winters and then bright and intense during summer(!) #MinCup25

#Tugtupite is... #Tenebrescent -It darkens when exposed to UV. #Fluorescent -It fluoresces under long-, mid-, or shortwave UV. #Phosphorescent -It GLOWS IN THE DARK!!!! www.flickr.com/photos/28617... www.flickr.com/photos/28617... www.flickr.com/photos/28617... #MinCup25

If I wasn’t already voting for #Haüyne in #MinCup25, I would be now. Vote: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r2... Though of course, speaking of Haüyne-colored eyes…

First matchup of the quarterfinals and it’s gonna hurt! #Haüyne is blue & can be part of lapis lazuli, so I gotta go with it… but oh it hurts to not be able to support the mineral that makes Mars red! Stake your position & vote! #MinCup25

It looks like this will be a horse race, so let me just say that #haüyne is a tectosilicate made of paired tetrahedra, each tetrahedron a Si atom surrounded by 4 O atoms except that the two Si atoms share one O atom at one corner. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicat.... #Hematite is just rust. #MinCup25

Sure it's easy to vote for a bright green, radioactive mineral. But mannardite has vanadium, which is a very cool element. Also, have I mentioned the fun optics of mannardite grains? That's WAY more colors than just green. #MinCup25

#kyanite in biotite gneiss from the Entia Dome, central Australia. Kyanite forms deep in the crust before it makes its way to the Earth’s surface, a slow and much more challenging journey than taenite’s fall through space. #MinCup25

📣 Exciting News! The full-color print edition of my book “Introduction to GIS Programming: A Practical Python Guide to Open Source Geospatial Tools” is now available on Amazon! 📘 Grab your copy: amazon.com/dp/B0FFW34LL3 Prefer digital? The PDF version is available on Leanpub: leanpub.com/gispro

A very friendly clan, but I was a little disappointed by the lack of physics going on. @deanbaird.bsky.social

Spending my evening in Northfield MA for a library talk because I love libraries and I love attention. www.youtube.com/live/1qnTKEu...

Can someone explain to me why natural #carpathite and synthetic fluoresce with different colors? Is it related to purity versus a solid solution? #MinCup25

As you cancel streaming services, here is a casual reminder that only 16% of Americans read for pleasure anymore, and your local library has hundreds or thousands of books you haven't read. They would love to see you stop by and renew your library card.

A big part of my goal as owner of the oldest map store on the East Coast, is show people that maps aren't antiques. They are living, breathing, ways of seeing the world. Audio-visual artist Eric Theise gets this. Come see him perform at The Map Center next week! www.eventbrite.com/e/a-synesthe...

“NASA is researching #perovskite solar cells for space, because they are lightweight, flexible, & can be manufactured in space at a lower cost. Key goals perovskite solar arrays to support the Artemis program.” VoteTheFuture #MinCup25 #MinCup25 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology 🔭🪐

This one is simple. I supported it in #MinCup24 & am on board once again for Borg cube #Perovskite. It has me at “found in the rain in brown dwarf stars,” thrills me with “in volcanic fumaroles” & seals the deal with “in pipes rocketing from mantle to crust.” Be cubular. Vote Perovskite. #MinCup25

Perovskite LEDs, Perovskite solar cells, they look like Borg cubes...Perovskite is the future. I for one welcome our new calcium titanium oxide overlords. #MinCup25

A vote for #Perovskite is a vote for the future. Perovskites are particularly promising for space exploration, where high power-to-weight ratios and performance in low-light conditions are crucial for satellites and planetary missions. Imagine. See comment below for more. #MinCup25

Do any physics teacher folks know of any PER papers or papers in TPT about the use of/effectiveness of TIPERs? I thought I had some PDFs somewhere but can't find 🎢 (apologies to everyone else for the jargon)

If you see this, quote the energy you bring to Bluesky

Mannardite has a fun polarization simulation on www.mindat.org/min-2567.html. Also it contains vanadium. #MinCup25

Appendix JK: my own Appendix N This week's Indie RPG Newsletter mentioned Prismatic Wasteland's Appendix N Blog Bandwagon and so here's mine.

If you haven't voted yet in this round of #MinCup25 there is still time to set things right by voting for #ikaite. Calcium carbonate hexahydrate, so a close relative of #calcite. Long list of other virtues here.

@fnoschese.bsky.social do you know how to show students if their @desmos.com card sorts match the key? I feel like I've seen that on a card sort before but don't know how.

Ruin a song by adding "literally" to the title. The System is Literally Down

I voted for ikaite in large part because I too struggle to maintain my structure when exposed to warm temperatures. Though it was hard to vote against the Marie Curie inspired cuprosklodowskite. ##MinCup25

The wonders of science and medicine!

I have amazing #ITeachPhysics and #TTRPG news to share! Adventures with Emmy (AwE), a STEM education tabletop roleplaying game, has been AWARDED FUNDING by the National Science Foundation. In AwE, mathematician and physicist Emmy Noether invites you to learn science by exploring imaginative worlds.

Me: "I wrote this." Carbon dioxide: "It sucks. It's utter trash. A child could have done better. Plus your outfit is horrible. Did a cavefish dress you?" Me, to other guy: "Who is this jerk?" Other guy, the one who says the punchline: "That's supercritical CO₂."

Cs is great but how cool is #Tugtupite? It contains Beryllium, which is also very rare and the red color results from small amounts of sulfur and not some Fe or Mn. When pale tugtupite is exposed to UV light or sunlight, the red color intensifies. #MinCup25

Day 1 cont: 12 Ss started with @cossettej.bsky.social's passionatelycurioussci.weebly.com/blog/game-of.... This is a great way to kick-start the 12s and we talked about the challenges of figuring out the rules of the game from within the game #teach180 🎢

This #MinCup25 thing is not helping me reduce screen time. 🫠 I’m Googling minerals I’d never heard of, falling into rabbit holes, and obsessed with trying to resolve puzzles I didn’t care about a week ago. But I love learning! I’ll set the phone down next month. 😊

Ruin a movie by making it about Gary. The Devil Wears Gary

I am so glad I live near the water so I can get fresh caught horseradish.

I think i got 3 co-workers interested in #MinCup25. Eeeexcellent.

It's a reminder that we are all made of stars (as it's found in the Earth's mantle and in brown dwarf & other stars & some meteorites)! Cast your vote for our solid, interstellar, pseudo-cubic friend #Perovskite! #MinCup25 🌟

Oh man, I love me some calcite, but I had to go with perovskite on this. #MinCup25

Happy Labor Day everyone!

The camera is a 360' GoPro on a telescopic mast clamped to my bike frame. Google Streetview is a proprietary product with high licensing fees but the service I contribute to, Mapillary, is opensource. Pavement surveys, bike lanes, signage etc all get mapped for anyone who wants it (like the city).

A beautiful day to make music.

First 3 #TTRPG box sets for 12-14 yo me: 1. Star Trek 2nd edition (FASA) 2. GURPS 3rd edition 3. Paranoia, 2nd ed At least one of them was purchased in a hardware store. And I couldn’t get my friends to play any of them. (AD&D 2nd edition ruled those years).

Game on.

A couple came in today because they read this a while ago when it came out. It's still something I'm incredibly proud of. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/06/m...

3d6 DTL Ep 01 of #Mothership Gradient Descent! The reluctant and debt-ridden crew of the Dashwood approach the Deep, an abandoned yet terribly active android production facility. They seek the lay of the land inside the Bell, a retrofitted thruster cast off from the station. #OSR #TTRPG Links below!

An Open Source sustainability story in two slides. (for a coming talk of mine) Slide 1: car brands using #curl Slide 2: car brands sponsoring or paying for #curl support

1/ Quick update on #fallvaccines: Flu and RSV vaccines remain business as usual this fall: if you’re eligible, you should be able to get them without issue. Vaccinations should start in September. Covid-19 vaccines are another story. There will be three key developments this week 👇

I guess you're probably not getting the lead or the cobalt ice cream