Things that make me happy: When @mineralcup.bsky.social & Fat Bear Week overlap.

Voted yet? Both of these are so very, very weird in the best ways. For the strategic voters, the winner will face off against #perovskite next round.

File under things I did not know about myself: “Mommy, why are you a scientist? You’re supposed to be a bat.”

One of today's #MinCup15 contestants, #hematite, along with former contestants #topaz & #beryl and "We really should run this one day..." future-contestant #ilmenite. Safe but boring to lick. 📷 Paul Ramsey

Whoops! The error that blocked the chart from updating has been fixed. All votes were recorded, I just forgot to update the tally formula.

If you need something lightweight and joyous to focus on, this match is going to be extremely close:

If you need something lightweight and joyous to focus on, this match is going to be extremely close:

Last match for #MinCup25 Round 1! Tomorrow, established campaigns and festering grudges come in to play.

Things that make me happy:

Poor clay. Every clay we’ve tried has had such a tough time. 😕

#MinCup25 #Ikaite 1. is the melting mineral that disappears above the icy seas 2. is the ghosts of drown Viking invaders 3. whispers in the geologic record as oddly-shaped calcite & opal 4. hides on cheese rind & frozen shrimp 5. is a powerhouse of a carbon sink

#cuprosklodowskite widened its lead by another 5 votes during my mini-campaign for #ikaite. SIGH #MinCup25 (and really, every year of @mineralcup.bsky.social) is truly a game of hope, wonder, and heartbreak.

#Cuprosklodowskite is the essence of Do Not Lick, but in the same way every radioactive element needs to stay away. But #ikaite is the Melting Mineral (that’s gotta count as kin to 2019 champion ice) and it pseudomorphs into eliminated #calcite, so it’s a sneaky way to vote for beloved minerals.

#Topaz has run without winning since 2023. #Kyanite has run without winning since the inaugural 2017 #MinCup. Whichever mineral that doesn’t win this match will not be back in 2026.

Americans: US Department of Education cut all the Braille national training grants for developing specialized braille training resources in the United States. Signature collection for advocacy to push back: advocacy.preventblindness.org/prevent-blin...

Because an LNG terminal proposed for Kitimat will be in the news again, a reminder that many fjords on the west coast are subject to tsunamis from earthquakes as well as landslides. The one in 1975 wasn’t particularly big but they can be massive. ⚒️ www1.udel.edu/kirby/landsl...

#MinCup25 behind the scenes note: I have severe regret that I didn’t know #Thortveitite had its own STAMP. That’s a detail I absolutely would’ve included in the blurb!! 😭

Current events are intense. Mineral Cup can also be intense! But in a much more mellow, ridiculous-stakes kind of way.

5 minutes to go:

#MinCup25 behind the scenes notes: Round 2 blurb for #Pollucite would go into Canadian mining & maybe the freakiness of cesium. Round 2 blurb for #Tugtupite would lean heavily into weird optics & maybe a bit of linguistics.

Warning improvements of up to 5 seconds for folks living near CA/NV border and the rest of NV if modeled improvements are implemented to quake early warning system.

#MinCup25 folks, Have I mentioned I barely passed geochem & mineralogy by brute force memorization? Both this match’s contenders make my head hurt & I would appreciate explainers for when I need to blurb Round 2 😂

00:00 GMT turnover is brilliant for our backend systems and automation. But whoa is 5m Hangry Hour During Transition To School absolutely terrible timing if anything needs fixes.

This #MinCup25 match is absurdly close. You have minutes left, and can absolutely flip it in either direction

Someone timezone-math for me? I think I’m tripping over daylight savings time. 00:00 GMT is 5pm Pacific, yes? More importantly, our countdown clock should have 9.5 hours on it, not 8.5?

Hardcore #MinCup25 fans: I'm not sure why our website is being so laggy updating the charts this year. Our process is identical and I can't find anything to debug. I know #Calcite vs #Perovskite will be highly contested, so you can peek the chart directly here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Just sayin’ that along with being a classic Do Not Huff mineral, #Chrysotile has a curved crystal structure that makes it curl up into little straws. (I just learned that from one of the #MinCup25 volunteer team. So cool!)

Alright, we’ve chased out 6 gremlins. We have 2 aesthetic-gremlins (chart wonky with this many contenders, site navigation) that are being stubborn. 7.5 hours before matches start.

I found & fixed 2 glitches so far. Go on, help me rustle up the rest of the gremlins!

I thiiiiink the voting and results pages are all set for Day 1 of #MinCup25? Now I wait until 00:00 GMT on September 1st to see what breaks! 😂

ProTip: You might also spot the bracket if you poke around the website, we’re just not advertising until we get the alt text, update the home page, blah blah

Meanwhile in Canada: immigrants aren’t talking jobs, numbers edition

Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!

Things that make me happy: The sheer sensory delight of imagining this moment in time

Life advice from the insect trenches:

Update: 1. The union kept striking 2. The airline folded 3. The government is being roundly scolded for abusing its strike-breaking laws 4. The entire airline industry is in trouble for abusing unpaid labour fafo

Dear Canadians: Input on the next budget due Aug 28: www.canada.ca/en/departmen... How we spend money shapes our future. This is a quick act of civic responsibility. Get ‘er done!

Safe But Boring To Lick:

Behind the scenes note: Mischief may be afloat with increased turnover and new minerals on the bracket. Get those nominations in!

Meanwhile in Canada: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

USGS HIVIS data are a goldmine of info that a lot of folks aren't aware of. The ~ hydro related camera network has expanded rapidly in the last 5 years, approaching 1000 cameras, and you can find them all at apps.usgs.gov/hivis It was one of my favorite projects to collaborate on & the team is 🏅 ⚒️

Behind-the-scenes note: I have childcare Aug 18 & 19 then not again until September. If you want to nominate minerals, volunteer, suggest easy changes for this year, get them in by Aug 17! 😂

This box contains a tiny grain that was never destined to be on Earth. Until we intervened.

I know my kids are fully-vaccinated, but I wanted to make sure we had every available level of protection. We did MMR titre checks. My measles protection was weak & my partner’s mumps, so we both got boosters. We never would’ve guessed!

How is it already August??? Bracket will be released around Aug 20, so get in any suggestions for minerals soon!

Low-stakes brackets are my happy place.

It is hilarious and surreal spotting of my exact outfits from my teen years making the rounds with current high schoolers. Apparently, I was far more fashionable than I thought at the time!

Anyway the photos are precious, blended bird families are the best, this is surprisingly great scicomm from People magazine, and this is the kind of story I needed today: people.com/crane-family...

Via @mikamckinnon.bsky.social Deploying drones in Oregon to "haze" wolves away from livestock. The drones play the sounds of gunfire. fireworks. AC/DC, and...the argument from Marriage Story. “I need the wolves to respond and know that, hey, humans are bad,” www.theguardian.com/film/2025/au...

This is a good time to remind people that anywhere can experience earthquake shaking! If you feel shaking, drop down to the ground, take cover underneath a sturdy object like a table, and hold on until all the skating has stopped. www.shakeout.org/dropcoverhol...