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UAlbany Teams Up with South American University to Learn about Brazilian Economy
UAlbany students learned about Brazilian business on a new summer study abroad trip.
ALBANY, N.Y. (October 1, 2013) – The University at Albany has teamed up with Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paolo, Brazil, to offer its students a new summer study abroad program. Fourteen UAlbany students and recent graduates recently returned to the region from the inaugural trip to South America, where they learned about Brazilian business and its economy.
"Through a creative and dynamic curriculum, our new summer program at Mackenzie University helps students to understand firsthand what Brazil's economic strengths have been in the past and present, as well as where its greatest potential for further business development might lie in the future," said Austin Powers, program coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Office of International Education.
For the UAlbany students, the inaugural trip was a hit, with students reporting a transformative experience that left them with a love of Brazilian people and culture.
Roely Castro, a senior communication major from Harlem, N.Y., recalls visiting the heart of Brazil's financial district in São Paolo. Castro, who wants to work for the United Nations when she graduates, said the warmth of the Brazilian people shone through even though she spoke no Portuguese.
"My experience in Brazil was eye-opening both politically and socially," said Castro, a Dominican Republic native. "Ever walk down a busy New York street and see everyone rushing with their eyes glued to their phones? The experience was the complete opposite throughout Brazil."
According to Adebare Ogunleye, a recent economics and political science graduate who plans to practice international law or work as an attorney for a non-profit, "the whole four-and-a-half week experience was mind-blowing, from the course we took on the history of Brazil and the Portuguese language class, to the field trips we had to the favelas (shanty towns built into the hillside) and the local food market."
Ogunleye, from Queens, N.Y., was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. While studying emerging markets at UAlbany, he learned of this opportunity to travel to Brazil's financial district, the famous Avenida Paulista.
"Coming from Nigeria and visiting the Dominican Republic opened my eyes to how unequally wealth is distributed around the world, but the experience in Brazil showed me I need to explore the world more to experience new and interesting cultures," he said.
The group took classes just minutes from the Paulista, where they had access to the city's finest restaurants, clubs and cafes. They also spent three days in Rio de Janeiro. In Rio, the group saw the Cantagalo favela as well as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World, the 130-foot-tall Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) statue with its stunning views of the city.
"I loved São Paolo, but I left my heart in Rio and would definitely live there," said Alisha Espinal, a senior communication major. The entire trip "was almost like MTV's 'real world' experience."
The University currently boasts 120 study abroad options in 40 countries across the globe.
For more news, subscribe to UAlbany's RSS headline feeds
About the University at Albany
A comprehensive public research university, the University at Albany offers more than 120 undergraduate majors and minors and 125 master's, doctoral, and graduate certificate programs. UAlbany is a leader among all New York State colleges and universities in such diverse fields as atmospheric and environmental sciences, business, criminal justice, emergency preparedness, engineering and applied sciences, informatics, public administration, social welfare, and sociology taught by an extensive roster of faculty experts. It also offers expanded academic and research opportunities for students through an affiliation with Albany Law School. With a curriculum enhanced by 600 study-abroad opportunities, UAlbany launches great careers.


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2008 Adult National Results
Results of the Adult Nationals:
Men's Singles: Raju Rai def. Howard Bach, 24-22, 21-19
Women's Singles: Joo Hyun Lee def. Kuei Ya Chen, 21-3, 21-5
Men's Doubles: Howard Bach/Khan Bob Malaythong def. Daniel Gouw/Chandra Kowi, 21-15, 21-11
Women's Doubles: Joo Hyun Lee/Mona Santoso def. Kuei Ya Chen/Jamie Subandhi, 21-5, 21-15
Mixed Doubles: Chandra Kowi/Mona Santoso def. Daniel Gouw/Rulan Yeh, 21-6, 21-10

subset: commoncrawl


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Sunset over the Salt Dunes of west Texas
Stormlight at sunrise outside Sanderson
Looking across the salt flats of west Texas towards the Guadalupe Mountains.
Stormlight near Sanderson
Five mountains ranges and hills on a west Texas morning. From front to back: The Guadalupe Mountains (the v notch), the Patterson Hills (in the notch), the Sierra Diablo (the mesa edge in the middle), the Black Mountains (the twin ridges in the middle right), Sierra Blanca (cone on distant left), and the Franklins (distant ridge on upper right).
Salt Basin sunset
Rain over the Sierra Diablo Mountains of west Texas.
Pecos River morning light
Mountains and Hills. Looking across the Guadalupe Mountains, Brokeoff Mountains, and the Horned Mountains
A hint of rain in the desert
Clouds over Salt Flats and Guadalupes
Sunset on way to Big Bend
Pecos River and clouds
Lonely FM 2810 winds across the Marfa Highlands on it's way to the distant Cuesta del Burro Mountains.
Roadside near Sanderson
Waiting for rain
Spring rains gather on the flats
Rain falls on the Horned Mountains across the salt flats of west Texas.
Pecos River at twilight


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The Christmas encounter on December 25, 1993 featured two high-scoring teams that were on their way to the postseason. The San Francisco 49ers were perennial contenders and, in their fifth year under Head Coach George Seifert, were 10-4 and already had sewn up a spot in the playoffs. The mobile lefthanded QB Steve Young was admirably succeeding the departed Joe Montana, WR Jerry Rice was the best at his position, and RB Ricky Watters a temperamental but talented presence in the backfield. The 49ers scored 55 points in their previous contest.
The Houston Oilers, coached by Jack Pardee, overcame a slow start to win nine straight games and were also at 10-4 and playing for home field advantage in the playoffs. QB Warren Moon was highly productive in the club's run-and-shoot offense and the defense was responding to the coaching of coordinator Buddy Ryan.
There were 61,744 fans present for the Saturday afternoon game at Candlestick Park. San Francisco's first series of the game ended with a failed 47-yard field goal attempt by Mike Cofer. Both teams had difficulty moving the ball during the remainder of the opening period but it ended with Moon completing a pass to RB Gary Brown (pictured above) for a 20-yard gain and the second quarter started off with another Moon throw to WR Gary Wellman that picked up 44 yards to the San Francisco 6. That was as far as the Oilers could get and they settled for a 24-yard field goal by Al Del Greco to take a 3-0 lead.
On the next series, a fumble by Young, who lost the ball when sacked by blitzing rookie safety Blaine Bishop, led to Houston scoring a touchdown three plays later on a seven-yard pass from Moon to WR Ernest Givins.
Down by 10-0, the Niners put together a long drive from their 22 yard line that was helped along by two Houston penalties. However, after reaching the Oilers' 19 Young's pass into the end zone was intercepted by CB Cris Dishman to extinguish the threat.
In the third quarter, Houston was driving and seemed about to take control of the game when Moon was intercepted for the second time by CB Michael McGruder, who returned it 15 yards to his own 30. The 49ers responded by putting together a promising series. Following a five-yard scramble by Young, he threw to RB Amp Lee for a 22-yard gain and then to Jerry Rice for 32 yards to the Houston 11. The drive stalled at the six, however, and a 24-yard field goal attempt by Cofer was blocked by LB Eddie Robinson.
After a short series by the Oilers that ended with a punt, Young was relieved by backup QB Steve Bono with 3:33 remaining in the third quarter. The 49ers then methodically advanced 73 yards in 12 plays for their only score. Bono completed eight passes and Lee finished the drive off with an eight-yard carry around end for a touchdown. Cofer's successful extra point attempt made it a three-point game with over twelve minutes remaining on the clock.
Warren Moon had to leave the game due to bruised ribs with a little under seven minutes to play and was replaced by Cody Carlson. The 49ers reached Houston territory on their next series but were forced to punt. With Carlson under center, the Oilers then put together a long, time-consuming drive to keep the ball away from the Niners and clinch the 10-7 win.
In a game that was remarkably low-scoring for teams with such potent offenses, the 49ers led in both total yards (337 to 311) and first downs (20 to 16). Each club turned the ball over three times. The Oilers were penalized six times while San Francisco was only flagged once.
Gary Brown played a big role in helping the Oilers to maintain ball control as he rushed for 114 yards on 19 carries. Warren Moon had a less-than-stellar performance as he completed 11 of 26 passes for 158 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions. Cody Carlson completed all three of his passes in relief for 46 yards. Gary Wellman caught four passes for 82 yards and Ernest Givins also had four receptions, for 35 yards and a TD.
It was also a rough day for Steve Young, who was successful on just 15 of 29 throws for 178 yards and was intercepted twice and lost a fumble. Steve Bono completed 11 of 13 passes for 79 yards. Jerry Rice caught 10 passes for 83 yards. Amp Lee (pictured below) rushed for 65 yards and a TD on 16 attempts and added 45 yards on 5 pass receptions.
Coach Seifert had told Young he would be coming out early at halftime as he didn't want to risk his quarterback's health. Still, it did not sit well with the star quarterback. "To be pulled out of the game like that, I had to bite my tongue a little bit," he said afterward.
"We saw them score 55 points on the road last week, so this was a huge lift for us," exulted Houston's Eddie Robinson, who blocked the potential game-tying kick. "We almost had the shutout."
Houston made it 11 consecutive wins to finish out the regular season – with Cody Carlson at quarterback for the injured Moon – to end up at the top of the AFC Central with a 12-4 record, although they failed to secure the top seed in the postseason. Once again they fell short in the playoffs, losing in the Divisional round to Kansas City.
The loss to the Oilers broke a string of 13 straight home wins for the 49ers, who lost their finale the following week but still finished first in the NFC West at 10-6. They annihilated the Giants by a 44-3 score in their Divisional playoff game and lost to the Cowboys in the NFC title game for the second straight year.


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FRITZ!Box 7490 Service - Knowledge Base
AVM Content
Using an Xbox 360 in the FRITZ!Box home network
You can simply use a network cable or wireless LAN (WiFi) to connect your Xbox 360 to your FRITZ!Box. The Xbox 360 can then access the internet and be used as a playback device for multimedia content such as photos, videos, or music.
Note:Here we show you how to connect an Xbox 360 to the FRITZ!Box using the Microsoft Xbox 360 S with the NXE Dashboard (Version 2.0.13146.0) as an example.
Note:All instructions on configuration and settings given in this guide refer to the latest FRITZ!OS for the FRITZ!Box.
1 Preparations
Enabling the FRITZ!Box's DHCP server
In the factory settings, the FRITZ!Box automatically assigns the correct IP settings to all devices via DHCP. If you disabled the FRITZ!Box's DHCP server, re-enable it:
- Click "Home Network" in the FRITZ!Box user interface.
- Click "Network" in the "Home Network" menu.
- Click on the "Network Settings" tab.
- Click the "IPv4 Addresses" button. If the button is not displayed, enable the Advanced View.
- Enable the DHCP server and define the range from which the FRITZ!Box assigns IP addresses.
Note:The FRITZ!Box has the IP address 192.168.178.1 (subnet mask 255.255.255.0) and assigns IP addresses from xxx.20 to xxx.200 in the factory settings.
- Click "OK" to save the settings.
Configuring the Xbox to automatically obtain IP settings
- Call up "My Xbox" on the game console and select "System Settings".
- "Network settings"
- Select "Automatic".
2 Connecting the Xbox to the FRITZ!Box
Use a network cable or wireless LAN to connect the Xbox to the FRITZ!Box:
Note:The Xbox requires a wireless network adapter to establish wireless connections. With some Xbox 360 models (for example 360 Core Console), it must be purchased separately.
Connecting the Xbox using a network cable
- Use a network cable to connect the Xbox to a LAN port on the FRITZ!Box.
Connecting the Xbox over wireless LAN
- Call up "My Xbox" on the game console and select "System Settings".
- "Network settings"
- Select the name of the FRITZ!Box's wireless network (SSID).
Note:This guide contains information on determining the FRITZ!Box's wireless settings.
- Enter the FRITZ!Box's network key and confirm the entry.
Now the Xbox is connected to the internet via the FRITZ!Box. It can play multimedia content from the FRITZ!Box media server and other media servers in the home network (for example computers with the Windows Media Player).
Further information on how to set it up can be obtained from Microsoft, for example refer to the Xbox support.
3 Playing multimedia content from the FRITZ!Box media server
The following steps are only necessary if you want to use your Xbox to play multimedia content from a USB storage device connected to the FRITZ!Box:
Setting up the FRITZ!Box as a Media Server
- Set up the FRITZ!Box as a Media Server.
Playing multimedia content
- Call up "My Xbox" on the game console.
- Depending on the media type you want to play or display, select "Video Library", "Music Library" or "Picture Library".
- Select the FRITZ!Box Media Server.
- Now the Xbox 360 displays all of the files available on the FRITZ!Box Media Server that can be played by the Xbox 360.
- Select the file you want to play.
4 Setting up port sharing for online games
By default, the FRITZ!Box's firewall protects all of the devices in the home network from incoming connections and unwanted data from the internet. However, this may cause problems with certain online games (for example FIFA 17) because other players from the internet must be able to access it.
If the Xbox displays the NAT type "Open" under "Settings > All Settings > Network > Network settings", the FRITZ!Box and Xbox are already correctly configured.
If the Xbox displays the NAT type "Strict" or "Moderate", some of the services or data required by the Xbox are being blocked; this is usually because port sharing was not configured. In this case, adjust the FRITZ!Box settings:
Important:To be completely accessible from the internet, the FRITZ!Box requires a public IPv4 address.
Setting up automatic port sharing
Set up the FRITZ!Box for automatic port sharing so that the Xbox itself can open all of the ports in the FRITZ!Box that it requires:
- Click "Home Network" in the FRITZ!Box user interface.
- Click "Network" in the "Home Network" menu.
- Click on the "Network Connections" tab.
- Click the (Edit) button for the device you want to configure.
- Enable the option "Permit independent port sharing for this device".
- Click "OK" to save the settings.
Setting up static port sharing
If you still cannot connect to online games or the connection drops, configure the required port sharings manually:
- Configure static port sharing in the FRITZ!Box for the ports and IP protocols used by Xbox Live.
- TCP ports: 53, 80, 3074
- UDP ports: 53, 88, 3074
- If the online game uses other ports in addition to the ones required for Xbox Live, configure port sharing for those ports in the FRITZ!Box. For example, FIFA 17, the football simulation game, requires the following port sharings:
- TCP ports: 53, 80, 3074, 3659
- UDP ports: 53, 88, 3074, 3659
Note:With just a few clicks in the internet you can find lists of ports used by other games such as Battlefield, Call of Duty, Starcraft & Co., for example at www.portforward.com.
Now the FRITZ!Box is completely configured for incoming and outgoing internet connections. If you still experience problems when playing individual online games or the Xbox still displays "moderate" as the NAT type, the FRITZ!Box may not have obtained a public IPv4 address from your internet service provider.
AVM Section Navigation


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Do you want to pick the perfect in-ground swimming pool for your lifestyle? If yes, we are here to help. In-ground swimming pools are great for personal usage and a great financial investment. Your family can enjoy hours of family… Read More
Posts Tagged 'referrals'
Six Tips to Picking the Perfect In-Ground Swimming Pool
- October 10th, 2011
- Posted in Uncategorized
- Tags: completion, construction, cost, credentials, design, digging a hole, enjoy hours, entertainment, excellent company, facebook, family based, family fun, Features, great financial investment, homeguide123.com, homeowner, in-ground pool, Installing an in-ground pool, Landscaping, landscaping maintenance, leakingm, least expensive, lifestyle, llc, Maintenance, material, materials, perfect pool, personal usage, pool construction, references, referrals, ripping, six tips to picking the perfect in-ground swimming pool, staining, Sunrise Premiere Pool Builders, Sunrise Premiere Swimming Pool Design, swimming, swimming pool, timeline, timetables, twitter, usage, vinyl pools


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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Legal History Books That Hook
My own experience was somewhat different. As a junior at Grinnell College, I took Ira Strauber's constitutional law course. It was intense: a mixture of New York City attitude and pacing, with a dose of The Paper Chase, in a crowded classroom in Iowa. Strauber taught us close textual analysis, while simultaneously scaring the bejesus out of us. You did not want to come to class unprepared. I learned to anticipate the questions he would ask and began imagining how I would teach the material. Yet he had a trick up his sleeve. Even if you mastered a case, he then used historical context to force you to see the case from another perspective. I quickly realized that I needed to know more history. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to study with the constitutional historian Alan Jones whose scholarship had challenged the progressive interpretation of law in the late nineteenth century. His JAH article "Tom M. Cooley and Laissez-Faire Constitutionalism, a Reconsideration," (March, 1967), for example, garnered him the second OAH Brinkley-Stephenson Award and continues to be cited.
The book, however, that changed my intellectual life was not assigned to me. Each spring the Grinnell College History Department bestowed the Ida Pilling Welch '30 History Book Award to one or more rising seniors "whose interest in and commitment to historical study reaches beyond the ordinary reaches of the classroom." The award was a $100 gift certificate to purchase books. I spent a wonderful afternoon at the college bookstore browsing the history section. My final selections included a slim volume, C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow.
Once I started reading The Strange Career of Jim Crow, I could not put it down or stop thinking about it. Eventually, the introduction to my dissertation, "Policing the Child: Juvenile Justice in Chicago, 1870-1925," declared, "This dissertation is written in the spirit of C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow; a book which revealed that Reconstruction was filled with 'forgotten alternatives' and that twentieth-century segregation could not be justified by appeals to a history which ignored those possibilities. If the past could have been different, as Woodward's research implied, then so could the present because it, too, is the product of political choices." I now explain to my students at UNLV why Martin Luther King, Jr. called Woodward's book, "the historical bible of the civil rights movement."
2 comments:
A librarian here, and so my devotion to getting kids hooked on reading should go without saying. But I don't believe books change intellectual lives. As you hint in your closing paragraph, change can be triggered when books are reified as bibles. Exercising close reading skills is the ordinary course for pursuing a mature intellect. On the other hand, my law school career was marked by an affection, not quite an obsession, for Harold Berman's first Law and Revolution, particularly by its handful of references to "equity," a word whose historical and conceptual significances continue to baffle me. I'd read Berman before law school, and hoped the education would clarify the concept. Maybe I should be grateful that it wasn't entirely successful, as I continue to seek out texts about it to subject to scrutiny.
- August 16, 2011 at 2:10:00 PM EDT
Grinnell! What a great place. I visited with my son four years ago and came away thinking it was the ideal college.
- August 16, 2011 at 10:07:00 PM EDT


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I've posted some excellent new specimens from the Conselheiro Pena area in this Brazil Update (click here) – a small number of spessartines from the famous 2003 pocket at the Navegadora Mine, and some fine crystals of wodginite from the recent find at the Itatiaia Mine.
These spessartines are from the famous March 2003 pocket at the Navegadora Mine, regarded as the finest garnet pocket found in Brazil. The Navegadora Mine exploits a pegmatite and produces feldspar for commercial purposes – It is not mined for specimens, and this pocket was unique. In an article in Rocks and Minerals ("Spessartine from the Navegadora Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil" Vol. 84, Jan-Feb 2009) author John White discusses how these spessrtines formed. While etching was involved, the specific mechanism that resulted in the final forms of these etched crystals remains a mystery.
Spessartine, Navegadora Mine, Penha do Norte, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 4.5 cm
Spessartine, Navegadora Mine, Penha do Norte, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Close-up of the above specimen, field of view cm
Spessartine, Navegadora Mine, Penha do Norte, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 4.8 cm
Spessartine, Navegadora Mine, Penha do Norte, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.5 cm
Spessartine, Navegadora Mine, Penha do Norte, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.5 cm
Spessartine, Navegadora Mine, Penha do Norte, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.5 cm
Spessartine, Navegadora Mine, Penha do Norte, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 2.6 cm
Wodginite is not a common mineral, and it is quite difficult to acquire good crystals. These ones are from a 2017 find that produced a relatively small number of specimens. Their idetification has been confirmed at the University of Arizona, and, along with subsequent EDS work, it has been established that of the various members of the wodginite group, they are wodginite.
When initially found, they were sold within Brazil with incorrect locality information. This is often done to protect an original source soon after a find, although it's not clear whether that was the reason in this case. In any event, they are confirmed to be from the Itatiaia Mine, and the original attibution of early specimens to "Linopolis District, Divino das Laranjeiras" should be corrected.
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.5 cm
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Termination of the same crystal in the photo above
Approx 3 cm as shown
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.3 cm
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.4 cm
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 1.6 cm wide
I'm publishing this one a bit later than I expected this year, but I hope you will enjoy the content all the same. And for those of you who are in hot summer places, perhaps harking back to northern spring will feel refreshing…
Each year, I personally love the arrival of the Rochester Mineralogical Symposium for two reasons.
First, it's my favourite annual event in Mineral World. And second, the RMS always marks the arrival of spring out here in the Bancroft woods, with nicer temperatures and the occasional chance to drive with the windows down again.
So, in this photo taken the day before the Symposium, I'll leave it to you as to whether Emery's happy expression was about hanging out the window and soaking up the early spring sunshine or the arrival of RMS 2017…
…but my own happiness that day was about both!
If you've attended the RMS, you'll know why it's special. The Rochester Symposium is a unique event. It brings together professionals and amateurs, and a complete range of subjects in specimen mineralogy. It is collegial and friendly, meant for collectors and those who love to learn about minerals. The RMS prominently features What's New in Minerals each year. It is also a mineral show with excellent dealers set up and open when the talks are not on. And the RMS is a true mineral community with great cameraderie – it's a time for hanging out and having a good time with mineral friends, new and old. It's possible a drink or two is shared among us, and a few mineral songs are always sung.
If you haven't yet come, I hope you'll join us next year. Rochester is meant for you as much as anyone! You can reserve the dates right now: April 19-22, 2018.
2017 RMS Presentations
Opening – Bill Pinch
We began the 2017 (44th) RMS acknowledging the passing of our friend Bill Pinch, the great mineral collector who began the Symposium 44 years ago. As this had happened only three weeks before the Symposium, this was a hard period for Bill's family and friends.
At RMS 2017, the Program Notes began with an In Memoriam, written by Chairman Steve Chamberlain – I have reproduced it in full, below. Bill's website hosts both a great In Memoriam by Mark Feinglos (which he wrote for The Mineralogical Record) and some other great links – I include the link below, under Links and References.
Steve also announced that RMS 2018 will be dedicated to Bill's memory and, in celebrating him, we will have a Bill Pinch theme. In addition to a presentation about Bill himself, there will be talks on the subjects he loved most during his collecting career, including Tsumeb, rare minerals, and collecting fine minerals.
Bill was a good friend and a kind mentor to me. What we enjoyed most – as I'm sure was true with so many of his mineral friends – was losing all sense of time together talking about minerals. And so that's what we all did at RMS 2017 – we enjoyed each other's company and immersed ourselves in minerals.
The King of Tides: Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy
I gave the first talk of the 44th Rochester Symposium, about the minerals of the Bay of Fundy. For those of you who know my website, you will have seen the articles I have posted on the blog (Collecting the Bay of Fundy, and Collecting on the Islands). Although the RMS presentation was about the minerals from the classic Bay of Fundy localities discussed in the blog posts, I had a different goal in putting it together. My goal was to share not only the story and scenery, but specifically some of the top specimens, to show how great they can be. Those specimens reside primarily in a few Canadian collections, and so there was a collaborative effort to track them down and photograph them. This talk was only possible with the involvement of several people, so the presentation slides have four additional authors – Terry Collett, Ronnie Van Dommelen, Michael Bainbridge and David Joyce. Together, our efforts resulted in a well-received talk and many photographs of specimens that, until now, have not been well-known beyond our local circles. Some stunning pieces have been found on the Bay of Fundy.
Chabazite, Wasson's Bluff, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia – 7 cm
Terry Collett collection, Ronnie van Dommelen photo.
Chabazite on Heulandite, Wasson's Bluff, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia – 14 cm
Ronnie Van Dommelen collection and photo.
Chabazite, contact twin, Wasson's Bluff, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia – 1.2 cm crystal
(Penetration twins are common at Wasson's Bluff, but contact twins are not.)
David Joyce collection and photo.
Copper, Cape D'Or, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia – 15 cm
Largest spinel-law-twinned crystal 5 cm
Robert Beckett collection, Michael Bainbridge photo.
Copper, Cape D'Or, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia – crystal 15.7 cm
Rod and Helen Tyson collection, Michael Bainbridge photo.
Thomsonite, Cape D'Or, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia – 10.5 cm
Originally in the Doug Wilson collection, now George Thompson collection,
Michael Bainbridge photo.
Natrolite, Diamond Island, Five Islands, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia – 18 cm
Ronnie Van Dommelen collection, Michael Bainbridge photo.
Stilbite, Five Islands, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia – 5.7 cm
Rod and Helen Tyson collection, Michael Bainbridge photo.
Michael Bainbridge is taking superb photos for collectors and publications these days – a link to his website is below, under Links and References.
Overview of Silicate Structures
At the last minute, Dr. Frank Hawthorne was unable to attend and present at the RMS. Thanks to an above-and-beyond effort by Dr. Robert Lauf, this talk was in fact still presented at the RMS – Bob was up into the wee hours of the night working with the original slides to that he could then give both this talk and his own talk on Friday morning.
Bob gave a tough subject and it was a great morning for learning. After a late night of fun with friends, it's not easy to greet the next morning in a dark presentation room hearing the opening statement "silicates are a complex business…"
However, this talk gave context and focus for what is in fact an important issue in mineral work.
Silicate structures have been generally understood since the 1930s, when William Bragg developed the silicate groups that are still in use today. Those groups are defined on the basis of the nature of the structural organization within the minerals. Silicates are all defined by having a silicon-oxygen tetrahedron- SiO4 – at the heart of their structure, and the key differentiating factor among silicates derives from the way in which each such Si04 tetrahedron is linked to others. This linkage is determined by the way in which the SiO4 tetrahedron shares the other elements within the mineral. This can result in chains, rings and other arrangements, and as a result, the silicates are grouped on this basis – inosilicates, cyclosilicates, orthosilicates, tetrasilicates.
Silicate structures are vitally important, and this talk highlighted why. When we are conducting analyses to identify and define minerals, we can know certain things from chemical analysis, but ultimately we may need to combine chemical and structural analysis to arrive at a proper definition and identification. In fact, structural analysis can be determinative. For example, the mineral wiluite is identified conclusively by understanding the structure – the structure will reveal which site in the mineral's composition is occupied by boron, and that is determinative in the correct identification.
The silicates require much more structural work. Although definitive work has been completed with other mineral groups, the same cannot be said for the silicates – it is an overwhelmingly large subject, with lots yet to be done.
Fresh off giving the first talk, Bob Lauf was up at the podium to give the talk he had planned to give – an overview of the orthosilicate minerals. The orthosilicates include many awesome minerals, such as the titanite group, the zircon group, the garnet group, the humite group, vesuvianite and topaz, and this talk included many photos.
Clinohumite, Jikhan, Koksha Valley, Badakhshan, Afghanistan 2.5 cm crystal
R. Lauf specimen and photo.
The orthosilicates are defined not by chains or rings, but by isolated groups of SiO4 tetrahedra. Bob likened the results of packing these SiO4 groups, together with the metals, to packing groups of organized ball bearings, with configurations that vary mineral to mineral. In general, the orthosilicates have dense, tightly-packed structures, and this can often mean a high surface hardness and toughness – many of these minerals survive weathering exceptionally well. Meanwhile, properties like cleavage, striations and crystal forms are determined by the metals within the structure, not the SiO4 tetrahedra.
Bob has a new book out, Collectors' Guide to Orthosilicates. A link is below under Links and References.
Grossular, Calixico, California – 8 cm
R. Lauf specimen and photo.
Technical Session
Every Friday afternoon at the RMS, we have what we colloquially call the "Technical Session", Contributed Papers in Specimen Mineralogy, moderated by Dr. Carl A. Francis. This session is packed with great 15-minute talks on a range of topics, some completely specimen-oriented, some more mineralogical. I don't write at length in these blog posts about the Technical Session talks, because the abstracts from these talks are published during the year in Rocks and Minerals magazine (don't forget to watch for them!) and they are published in the RMS Program Notes.
However I really want to highlight the Technical Session for a moment this year. One reason is because the Technical Session is one of the features that makes Rochester unique, with professionals and amateurs all contributing. For collectors, there is a lot of interest in these talks – sometimes about rare or new minerals or finds, sometimes about localities, sometimes about scientific work done to establish fakes in Mineral World. And perhaps even more this year than in recent memory, we had a high percentage of truly excellent talks given by students. The group from the Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio did a particularly outstanding job. Too often, we look around Mineral World and see fewer young people than we'd all like – these students represent a bright future for mineralogy and the science that underpins everything we enjoy in Mineral World.
Friday Night
The Monteponi Mine, Sardinia, Italy
Our Friday night presentation was The Monteponi Mine, Sardinia, Italy, given by Dr. Renato Pagano, one of the world's pre-eminent mineral collectors. The Renato and Adriana Pagano Collection includes 13,500 specimens, and 4,300 species, making it one of the most remarkable collections ever assembled.
Renato gave a great talk on this classic locality, with great photos. One of my favourite facts from the talk was the origin of the name Monteponi (since we've all seen it on musuem labels and in the literature for decades…). The name has evolved from its original name, Monte Paone. Paone was an old Italian word meaning peacock, so it is Mount Peacock. Monteponi is a slightly (!) older locality than our New World ones – the Carthaginians mined silver-bearing galena there from the 6th century BC, and Monteponi later provided silver and lead to the Roman Empire, particularly for coinage and pipes, respectively. Renato took us through the history and stories from the past, including the tragic incident in which one of the great phosgenites was presented as a gift to a clumsy Swedish ambassador who dropped and destroyed it.
Among collectors, Monteponi is most famous for having produced the world's finest phosgenite crystals.
I had to include this one in this post – I have loved this crystal for about 40 years, as its photograph was featured in one of the first mineral books I ever owned, as a child (Encyclopedia of Minerals and Gemstones).
Phosgenite, Monteponi, Sardinia, Italy – 2.5 cm crystal
Milan Natural History Museum specimen, Roberto Appiani photo.
And here are two great phosgenite specimens from the Pagano collection:
Phosgenite in a vug in galena, Monteponi, Sardinia, Italy – 6 cm
Renato and Adriana Pagano collection, Roberto Appiani photo.
Phosgenite crystals, Monteponi, Sardinia, Italy – 2 cm
Renato and Adriana Pagano collection, Roberto Appiani photo.
Monteponi is also known as a locality for exceptionally fine anglesite crystals.
Anglesite, Monteponi, Sardinia, Italy – 8 cm
Renato and Adriana Pagano collection, Roberto Appiani photo.
A comprehensive article on Monteponi by Renato, together with Wendell Wilson, is included in The Mineralogical Record, November-December 2014, Vol. 45, No. 6 . If you haven't yet read it, it's superb, and if you read it when it came out, maybe time for another read…
Saturday – Annual What's New
At the heart of the Rochester Symposium for decades, the annual Saturday morning presentations have captured highlights of what has been new in Mineral World over the prior year or so, focusing on fine mineral specimens for collectors.
What's New in Minerals and Localities – Part I – Jeff Scovil
Jeff Scovil leads our worldwide survey of exceptional new mineral specimens, with an hour of stunning photos. It doesn't matter who was up for how long having fun the night before, the room is always packed. Jeff's presentation is always a Symposium highlight!
So here are a few photos to give you a sense – imagine an hour of this… It's Mineral Heaven!
Euclase, La Marina Mine, Muzo District, Boyaca, Colombia
Crystals to 5 cm
Irv Brown collection, J. Scovil photo.
Djurleite, Aït Ahmane MineBou Azzer, Ouarzazate, Morocco – 4 cm
Steve Smale collection, J. Scovil photo
Djurleite, Aït Ahmane Mine, Bou Azzer, Ouarzazate, Morocco – 6 cm
Fine Gems and Minerals specimen, J. Scovil photo
Wulfenite, Jianshan Mine, Xinjiang, China – 4.3 cm
Sam Yung specimen, J. Scovil photo.
Fluorapophyllite, Aurangabad, Maharastra, India – 3.2 cm
Spirifer specimen, J. Scovil photo.
Elbaite tourmaline with albite, Ouarzazate, Morocco – 3.3 cm
Spirifer specimen, J. Scovil photo.
Fluorite, Huanggang Mines, Inner Mongolia, China – 8.9 cm
Steve Smale collection, J. Scovil photo.
And this last one may not be quite as recent, but the photo is, and the lighting on these crystals is simply as good as mineral photography can get…
Wulfenite, Red Cloud Mine, Trigo Mountains, La Paz Co., Arizona – 3.9 cm
Unique Minerals specimen, J. Scovil photo.
Jeff is the Yoda of mineral photography. If you would like him to photograph your minerals, or you are looking for mineral photos for a publication, his website is under Links and References.
What's New in Minerals and Localities – Part II
Part II of What's New in Minerals is open to contributions from attendees. We had a couple of presentations about new books, including one mineral book, an upcoming book by Van King on Franklin, New Jersey, so we'll keep our eyes open for that.
I then presented a few more examples of what has been new in Mineral World over the last year or so. If you've been following this website over the past year, you'll be familiar with most of these.
Just a note of explanation about photographs here. Below each photo, I am including a link to the applicable blog post on the website where you can see more photos and specimens than are here. (Every new mineral update on this website is represented by a blog post, so even if you didn't see a specimen before it sold and was removed, there is a nice record of my favourite photos from each update preserved in the blog.)
I'll begin with the "Synchysite Mystery"… this goes back to a find from 2015, but the analytical work was completed in 2016…
In late 2015, I had posted on the website a small number of "synchysite" crystals from Novo Horizonte, Bahia Brazil. Although they had been sold to me as synchysite, some question arose as to confirmatory identification of these, in part thanks to some work that was ongoing to describe the new mineral parisite-(La) (described in my Tucson 2017 blog post). Analysis by Don Doell, first at the lab at University of Arizona, began to confirm more about their identity. Don then conducted semi-quantitative EDS at SGS Labs and narrowed things down. These are in fact phosphate mineralization: they are likely a combination of rhabdophane-(La), rhabdophane-(Ce) and possibly including monazite-(Ce). They appear to be pseudomorphs after a REE carbonate, probably in the parisite group, given that parisite-(La) has been found at Novo Horizonte in crystals with a similar aspect and appearance, at a similar time (therefore possibly similar part of the deposit). They could also be after bastnasite-(La), which has been described from the locality, although these are most similar in aspect to the parisite-(La) crystals. For now, I'm labelling them rhabdophane, pseudomorph after parisite, with the proviso that the above is the technically closest identification information to date. Thanks very much to Don for this analysis!
Rhabdophane, ps Parisite, Novo Horizonte, Bahia, Brazil – 4.3 cm
(More photos/specimens)
A few other "What's New" entries:
Aragonite, Mamsa, nr. Sidi Ayed, Boulemane Province, Fes-Meknes Region, Morocco – 6.9 cm
W.W. Pinch collection.
(More photos/specimens)
Rutile, var. Struverite-Ilmenorutile, Santa Rosa Mine, Itambacuri, Doce Valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.1 cm
(More photos/specimens)
Wodginite, Linopolis District, Divino das Laranjeiras, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.2 cm
Jack Smith collection.
(NB: If you are interested in these, I was able to acquire five more in Ste. Marie and they will be on the website soon)
(More photos/specimens)
Quartz with Red Phantoms, Orange River, Northern Cape Province, South Africa – 5.2 cm
(More photos/specimens)
More Saturday Presentations
mindat.org – Sixteen Years On: How mindat is Driving New Scientific Discoveries
Jolyon Ralph followed with a talk about mindat as it is today, status, and uses. (Jolyon has presented to the RMS on mindat before, so this was an update). As perhaps all of you know, mindat.org is a "Wikipedia"-like site for mineral information, contributed by users and monitored by administrators. What fewer of you may know (along with me, I didn't!) is that mindat now hosts over 5 million pages, including 800,000 photographs and profile information for 280,000 localities. (!) (As an aside, Jolyon calculated that the information on mindat would now print a stack of paper 5 km tall.)
Jolyon explained how mindat is now being used for scientific studies and more analytical use. He highlighted that mindat is now being used to draw links between localities, particularly with a view to predictive occurrence among similar types of deposits and occurrences. He also explained that an important consideration when using mindat relates to the biases of users and contributors. For example, there is far more collector interest in crystals of wulfenite than there is in crystals of nepheline, so the amount and quality of information on mindat for wulfenite is different than it is for nepheline.
Mindat is an incredible resource and it was interesting to hear the new ways in which it is being used.
Upside Down and In the Future – Mining Tasmania's Adelaide Mine
Saturday afternoon was amazing. John Cornish led off with his great talk about the Adelaide Mine in Tasmania, the world's preeminent crocoite locality. John is involved with the Adelaide Mine project and shared his experience with enthusiasm! He took us on a tour of the mine region, with great information on local flora, fauna and history. And then he took us underground, to see pockets of crocoite up to 7×4 metres. (!) Just amazing…
Crocoite Pocket at the Adelaide Mine, Tasmania
John Cornish photo.
There was one particular story I had not heard and really enjoyed…
All field collectors must adapt to the conditions and nature of the occurrence they are working. What that means in practice is that often the tools that will be of most help will vary wildly from one mineral locality to the next. And I think it's safe to say that all of us who have done field work for a long time have found resourceful ways of addressing issues, and collecting more efficiently. Often, the need for resourcefulness is driven by our desire to minimize the risk to specimens in the extracting process. Clearly, care is required when collecting crocoite! And in his focus on minimizing damage, John had a resourceful way of minimizing percussion and therefore lowering the risk of popping crocoite crystals off…
Trimming crocoite matrix with a hand saw, underground at the Adelaide Mine, Tasmania
John Cornish photo.
Some of the specimens recovered from the Adelaide Mine have been huge. Sometimes with large specimens in the field, we might include a prospector's pick for scale. But in this case, John simply had himself included for scale.
Crocoite from the Adelaide Mine, Tasmania
A very happy, if dirty, John Cornish for scale.
Crocoite from the Adelaide Mine, Tasmania
John Cornish photo.
John's enthusiastic account was a highlight of RMS 2017.
If you are interested in seeing a bit more online about the Adelaide Mine, and more crocoite specimens, I am including a link to the Adelaide Mining Company's website below, under Links and References.
Red Cloud Mine – The World's Greatest Wulfenite Locality
John's talk was a hard act to follow, but was Les Presmyk ever up to the task…
Les presented on the Red Cloud Mine, a locality that has inspired many of us as collectors since we began collecting minerals. Who doesn't dream at night of perfect, glassy, sharp, lustrous. red-orange bevelled-square wulfenite crystals from this legendary mine? (Be honest.)
The Red Cloud is located in the Trigo Mountains, near the western border of southern Arizona. It was named after the prehistoric Red Cloud Trail, which leads to the west, on the California side of the Colorado River nearby.
Les took us through the early history of the mine, with some fascinating insights. One I liked was the explanation that because it is so relatively barren with no trees, lumber had to be brought in for quite a distance and was therefore expensive. Of course they did this to timber the mine tunnels, but it was too expensive for miners' homes. So, the miners made their homes by digging tunnels into the side of the hill, to protect themselves and their belongings from the elements.
This presentation focused on significant mineral collecting at the Red Cloud over the years, beginning with Ed Over's famous finds in the 1930s, and detailing the 1990s project by Wayne Thompson, James Horner and Les. During this time, the Red Cloud Mine was developed as an open pit operation, specifically for wulfenite specimens.
The most striking fact for me about this project was that from 1995 through 1999, only one significant pocket was found during the entire project – the 1997 pocket, that measured approximately 6 ft x 4 ft. That was it. For all the money spent on each year's mining, very little was found. After major overburden removal beginning in 1995, and mining for months in advance of the Tucson show in early 1997, the team had assembled one flat of "decent" specimens from vugs and small pockets (under 10cm). Later in 1997 they hit the significant pocket, and from then until they stopped, very little was found – scare pockets and a few good specimens. Suffice it to say, for the period following the 1997 pocket, the expenses far exceeded the value of specimens recovered. This puts into real perspective just how remarkable it is to have excellent Red Cloud wulfenite specimens from any era – they are rare and have come out of the ground at major cost.
Wulfenite, Red Cloud Mine, Trigo Mountains, La Paz Co., Arizona – 10.7 cm
Les and Paula Presmyk specimen, J. Scovil photo.
Wulfenite, Red Cloud Mine, Trigo Mountains, La Paz Co., Arizona – 4.3 cm
Les and Paula Presmyk specimen, J. Scovil photo.
This was a super talk!
Just as an aside, Red Cloud has been written about a lot, given its legendary status among mineral localities. Of the many published articles and chapters in books, I particularly like the accounts in "Collecting Arizona, State of Mines, Legacy of Minerals" (recounted by Tony L. Potucek, Les Presmyk, Richard Graeme and others, edited by Terry Wallace with Gloria Staebler, Ray Grant, Suzanne Liebetrau and Tom Wilson, published by Lithographie, 2012), and I personally was originally inspired by the Red Cloud Mine section in Peter Bancroft's classic "Gem and Crystal Treasures" (published by Western Enterprises-Mineralogical Record, 1984). These are good reads – I highly recommend them.
Sunday Finale
By Sunday morning, it was time to recover from all the orange and red crystals from Saturday afternoon.
In past years, we have sometimes had lower attendance on Sunday mornings, but again this year Sunday morning was most-hands-on-deck. (Granted a few stragglers had had too much fun Saturday night.)
Meet an Important Unknown Mineralogist
Belgian collector Herwig Pelckmans led off with a talk that was fascinating, and not only for its subject matter. In his research and work on certain minerals, Herwig had come across the name Vaes, in connection with several uncommon species, and he was curious to know who "Vaes" was. However, when he looked him up, there was almost no information readily available. And so Herwig began an extensive research investigation that led him eventually back to the family and descedants, as he learned about the mineralogist Johannes Vaes (1902-1978). Vaes was a Dutch mining engineeer who became a mineralogist in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He worked with the company Union Miniere du Haut Katanga, and he identified and defined several new minerals.
J. F. Vaes in Jadotville (now called Likasi), when he was most likely in his early thirties.
Unknown photographer. Copyright H. Pelckmans
Vaes was at the famous Shinkolobwe Mine, and it was here that he made his discoveries.
Old Belgian postcard showing the open pit of the Shinkolobwe uranium mine, printed by Nels.
Notice the original French spelling of the locality. Photo and copyright H. Pelckmans.
One striking fact about Vaes' discoveries is that the only scientific instrument he had at his disposal was a polarizing microscope.
Saleeite, Shinkolobwe Mine, Shinkolobwe, Katanga Copper Crescent,
Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Field of view 3.6 cm
Paul De Bondt specimen and photo.
The mineral vaesite (NiS2) is named in his honour.
Vaesite with Nepouite coating, associated with black uraninite crystals
Shinkolobwe Mine, Shinkolobwe, Katanga Copper Crescent,
Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Field of view 3.5 cm, vaesite crystal 1.1 cm.
Paul De Bondt specimen and photo.
At the end of this talk, we had an example of one of the great things about the RMS – the amazing pool of mineral knowledge and mineral history knowledge that is collected together in that ballroom. Van King was able to add an extra footnote to the talk, giving further context for the mineral collecting community: he was able to share that Vaes had in fact been the boss of famous mineral dealer Gilbert Gauthier (who was ultimately responsible for handling many of the fine DRC specimens that now grace collections around the world).
The Pioneer District, Pinal County, Arizona – The Silver King and Magma Mines
Les Presmyk gave the final talk at RMS 2017, about the Silver King Mine and the Magma Mine in the Pioneer District. This was another excellent presentation, with detailed historical accounts and wonderful historical photos. This one really struck me – today, it is hard to imagine horse/mule-drawn ore trains.
Mule-drawn ore wagons at the Silver King Mine, 1880s. AHS Photo.
This part of the talk is very well represented by Les's recent excellent article in The Mineralogical Record, "The Arizona Silver Belt: Silver King to McMilllenville", The Mineralogical Record July-August 2015, Vol. 46:4.
Les then spoke about the famous Magma Mine, where he had worked as a mining engineer. This mine is probably best known among collectors for the glassy barites it produced, but it also produced some wonderful calcite specimens.
Calcite, 3700 Level, 4D Stope, Magma Mine, Superior, Pinal Co., Arizona -11.1 cm
Les and Paula Presmyk specimen, J. Scovil photo.
Barite, 3600 Level, 4D Stope, Magma Mine, Superior, Pinal Co., Arizona – 7.1 cm
Les and Paula Presmyk specimen, J. Scovil photo.
The Rest of the Fun
As I write every year in my RMS posts, a lot of the best of Rochester occurs beyond the talks – in the halls, over meals, and on the 4th floor (the dealer floor, open when talks are not on). Socializing continues well into the morning hours each night, and includes a few traditions – among others, the not-to-be-missed Saturday night mineral songs with David Joyce. (I assume most have heard Dave's mineral collecting and mining tunes, but if not, I'm including a link below).
The collegiality at the RMS is unique among mineral events!
The Exhibit Room had great displays this year, as every year. Some are contributed by museums and many are contributed by collectors attending the RMS.
Calcite, Terry Huizing collection.
Amazing variety in this case.
As a reader, I often find it hard to take in many full-case displays in photos, so here are just a few of the specimens that really struck me.
This brilliant bournonite in John Betts' case has truly gorgeous twinning.
Bournonite, Yaoganxian Mine, Hunan, China – 3.6 cm
John Betts collection.
A huge spinel from the classic New York locality featured in the display from the New York State Museum.
Spinel, Monroe, Orange Co., New York – approx 15 cm
Steve Chamberlain collection at the New York State Museum.
Super quartz from Palermo No.1 – for all the world looks like a fine contemporary Brazilian quartz, with bright, glassy lustre not conveyed in the photo.
Quartz, Palermo No. 1 Mine, North Groton, New Hampshire – approx 7 cm
Mined by Bob Whitmore. Maine Mineral and Gem Museum
A great nest of silver wires from Beaverdell, in George Thompson's case.
Silver, Highland Bell Mine, Beaverdell, British Columbia – approx 5 cm
George Thompson collection.
Two super specimens from John Medici's case.
Celestine, Holloway Quarry, Newport, Michigan – approx 7 cm
Fluorite with Calcite, Auglaize Quarry, Junction, Ohio – approx 5 cm
John Medici collection.
This hematite took my breath away. It is spectacular! It was part of an excellent display case of hematite and goethite from the Diane Francis collection.
Hematite, Casa de Pedra Mine, Congonhas, Minas Gerais, Brazil – approx 7 cm
Diane Francis collection.
David Joyce had a great case of Grenville minerals. I thought rather than include something you might be expecting, like one of Dave's great titanites, fluorapatites or zircons, I'd opt for something we don't usually see from the Grenville. This is a striking, bright yellow sphalerite crystal.
Sphalerite, Balmat, St.Lawrence Co., New York – approx 5 cm
David K. Joyce collection
This beautiful sphalerite was formerly in Bill Pinch's collection, and he gave it to Dave as a gift, so it seemed particularly fitting to include as my last photo entry from the cases this year.
Bill Pinch
As mentioned above, the following is the full In Memoriam written by Steve Chamberlain and included at the beginning of the RMS Program Notes this year.
In Memoriam – Rochester Mineralogical Symposium
Bill Pinch passed away on April 1, 2017 from complications of earlier surgery. A reception will be held this year in Rochester, New York, to celebrate his life. Next February, there will be a memorial service in Tucson, Arizona. We will celebrate his many achievements next April at the 45th Rochester Mineralogical Symposium.
Bill was an elemental force in specimen mineralogy. One of his most significant achievements was the initiation of the Rochester Mineralogical Symposium. The First Annual Mineral Workshop was held 20-21 April 1974 at the Sheraton Inn in Canandaigua. Under the auspices of Mineral Section President, Kay Jensen, Bill and Dave Jensen served as co-chairmen this first year. The second workshop, now the Rochester Mineralogical Symposium, was held 17-20 April 1975 in the downtown Holiday Inn and was again co-chaired by Bill and Dave Jensen.
For the next ten years, Pinch served as convening co-chairman and helped build the Symposium into an internationally-recognized annual event, setting the highest standards for speakers, exhibits and congeniality. He initiated the annual What's New in Minerals – still a popular Saturday morning part of the event. He also began the annual production of Program Notes. With the 13th RMS, formal leadership of the Symposium passed to others, but Bill continued to serve as an advisor. With his support, the Technical Session was added to the Friday afternoon program and important mineralogical works were reprinted, including Goldschmidt's Atlas der Krystalformen and Beck's Mineralogy of New York State, to name just a few.
At the 25th Symposium, Bill gave a keynote address, "50 Years of Mineral Collecting; 25 Years of the Symposium". The preceding year, the Symposium had donated the annual proceeds of its annual auction to the successful funding effort for the Canadian Museum of Nature to purchase the W.W.Pinch mineral collection, establishing another legacy.
Slowly, over the next decades, Bill drifted away from direct participation in the Symposium We were delighted by his attendance at the 43rd RMS on the occasion of Michael Bainbridge's talk, "The William W. Pinch Collection at the Canadian Museum of Nature". The coming book of the same title will be a fitting memorial to Bill's success in assembling a world-class mineral collection. Here we acknowledge our debt to Bill for his successful efforts in beginning and growing the Rochester Mineralogical Symposium. Godspeed.
As I mentioned up top, RMS 2018 will be a little different – it will be dedicated to Bill's memory, and it will include talks on several topics that were close to Bill's heart – among them, Tsumeb, Rare Minerals and Fine Minerals. Stay tuned for updates, as arrangements are finalized. The dates are April 19-22 ,2018.
Until Next Year…
The Rochester Symposium is a great event, that has seen many of Mineral World's most prominent names as contributors. At the same time, the Symposium continues to embrace contributions from all levels in mineral collecting – it simply would not be what it is without everyone who contributes.
Of course, the Symposium could literally not happen without the dedicated efforts of the team who put it together – countless thanks to Steve Chamberlain (chair), Helen Chamberlain (registrar), and many others on the committee and those helping at the event and in the background, including Dan Imel, Carl Francis, Bruce Gaber, Brian McGrath, Bob Morgan, Betty Fetter, George and Susan Robinson, Quintin Wight, Elizabeth Von Bacho and Tom White. I hope I haven't missed anyone!
And thank you to all of the speakers and photographers from this year, for all of your help with photos to share through this report.
Links and References
If you are seeking links for anything mentioned above, some of these may be of interest:
On Bill Pinch's website, there are tabs for the In Memoriam and also Links (this latter includes three links, with a video produced after the Canadian Museum of Nature acquired his original collection).
Our amazing professional mineral photographers (who – of course – take photos of private collection specimens for individual collectors): Jeff Scovil and Michael Bainbridge
The new book by Robert J. Lauf: Collectors' Guide to Orthosilicates
The Adelaide Mining Company has lots more crocoite photos (mining and specimens available) on its website. The underground photos are in the History section – they really give a sense of how tight most of these pockets have been, and provides good context for how remarkably well the specimens have been collected and preserved.
David K. Joyce has written – and plays and sings, of course – the soundtrack for so many great times in minerals. The tunes are available on itunes and the CD is available from Dave – if you'd like to hear them, here is the page where you can listen.
When they are available, the 44th RMS Program Notes will be posted online here.
I've posted the first of the new Tucson specimens in this Wodginite Update (click here). These are sharp, lustrous wodginite crystals from a small recent find at the Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Wodginite is not a common mineral, and it is quite difficult to acquire good crystals. The identification of these ones has been confirmed at the University of Arizona, and, along with subsequent EDS work, it has been established that of the various members of the wodginite group, they are wodginite.
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 2.5 cm
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 2.7 cm
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.2 cm
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 2.6 cm
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.2 cm
Wodginite, Itatiaia Mine, Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 2.0 cm
Always hard to contain my enthusiasm about Tucson… The world's largest annual gathering of mineral people and mineral specimens from around the globe never disappoints – it is a great time full of great minerals.
The foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains, just south of Tucson.
OK, I admit it's also a sunny and warm break from Canadian winter. While many others in North America seem to be having a bit lighter winter than usual, we've had lots of snow this year in the Bancroft area. It began in November and now the snow is high. A February 2017 snowbank by our house:
Bancroft, winter 2016-17. Snowbanks about 8-9ft tall.
(For scale, Emery is a 90 lb Lab. He never misses a chance to be out in the snow.)
Tucson's surroundings are obviously a real contrast to home, both as to weather and scenery.
Santa Rita Mountains and a saguaro.
During the show, there is so much to see and do with the minerals and mineral friends that, in the limited time of a Tucson trip, there is precious little chance for exploring the surroundings. However, every step out in the area is worth it!
As every year, the mineral events around Tucson are spread over many different show venues, over a few weeks. From one year to the next, dealers come and go, and move about. New shows pop up, older shows wane and sometimes disappear altogether, and then some rise again from the ashes. So, always something new and interesting to discover out there in the urban field-collecting jungle.
I thought maybe I'd start with my favourite warnings and signs from around the shows.
I didn't take a photo of the one in my rental car, but it was a winner: every time I turned on the car, a bright, bold electronic notice told me not to operate the car stereo while the car is operating, because it's dangerous. (Thanks so much to the Mensa-candidate lawyer who came up with that one.)
At one show:
(People do this?)
I quite liked this lawn sign:
And at that same show, within about 40 ft of the one above:
Anyway… On to the minerals!
On the whole, there were some excellent finds, mostly of the small and isolated variety (rather than large-scale splashes of new discoveries). I'm going to start with Brazil, because over the past year, it has produced many fine specimens.
A small number of new wodginite crystals have been found. These are sharp and great for the species!
Wodginite, Linopolis district, near Divino das Larajeiras, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 2.5 cm
Wodginite, Linopolis district, near Divino das Larajeiras, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 2.6 cm
Wodginite, Linopolis district, near Divino das Larajeiras, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 3.2 cm
If you'd like to see more of these, I've posted them in the Wodginite Update (click here).
The workings at Novo Horizonte have produced more excellent hematite-rutile specimens. Most of these are not in very good condition, but a few are really super.
Rutile on Hematite, Novo Horizonte, Bahia, Brazil – 4.8 cm
Novo Horizonte has also been the subject of some additional mineral analysis, with very interesting results over the past year. One of these is a new mineral, published in 2016. The work on this mineral began with our late friend, Luiz Menezes – one of the most observant and careful people in mineral world, who never missed something new, never assumed an identification, and whose work contributed to the description of several new minerals. The work on this material was continued by a group of mineralogists, and in June 2016, the new mineral, parisite-(La), was officially regognized by the IMA. (The full group: Luiz A.D. Menezes Filho, Mario L.S.C. Chaves, Nikita V. Chukanov, Daniel Atencio, Ricardo Scholz, Igor Pekov, Geraldo Magela da Costa, Shaunna M. Morrison, Marcelo Andrade, Erico Freitas, Robert T. Downs and Dmitriy I. Belakovskiy.)
I am including a photograph of one of the best specimens – there are not many in existence. This one was available from Luisa at Luiz Menezes Minerals.
Parisite-(La), Novo Horizonte, Bahia, Brazil – approx. 7 cm
Just before leaving Novo Horizonte, I have a small final update. In November 2015, I had a few specimens from this locality on the website, sold to me under the label "synchysite", and so-labeled on the website. Subsequent analysis by Don Doell has confirmed more about their identity. Having conducted semi-quantitative EDS at SGS Labs, Don found that these are in fact phosphate mineralization, and they are likely a combination of rhabdophane-(La), rhabdophane-(Ce), possibly including monazite-(Ce). They appear to be pseudomorphs after a REE carbonate, probably in the parisite group, given that this new parisite-(La) has been found at Novo Horizonte in crystals with a similar aspect and appearance, at a similar time. They could also be after bastnasite-(La), which has been described from the locality. For now, I'm labelling them rhabdophane, pseudomorph after parisite, with the proviso that the above is the technically closest identification information to date. Thanks very much to Don for this analysis! Very cool for rhabdophane. (If you'd like to see what these looked like, they are here.) Mine are all sold, but Carlos Menezes had a few thumbnail-sized specimens of this fascinating material available in Tucson.
Also from Brazil, there has been one I think will be underrated and missed by many collectors. From Mantena, Minas Gerais, there has been a find of beautiful muscovite crystals. Yes of course the mica group minerals are very common minerals, and one might be jaded and tempted to overlook them on that basis. However, it can be a challenge to acquire a genuinely good muscovite specimen. These muscovite crystals from Mantena have nice colour, giving depth and presence. I picked out the finest few I could find and they will be online in a coming update.
Muscovite on albite, Mantena, Minas Gerais, Brazil – 7.3 cm
I have always loved the blue fluorapatites from Ipira, but, although I always look for them, I am almost always disappointed. This is not because there aren't any – it's because very few of them are sharp and collection-worthy. The deposits mostly contain corroded-looking crystals with poor definition, and most crystals are broken crystal segments. This past year, Daniel Foscarini Almeida conducted significant mining operations in a zone that contained small, sharp crystals. Almost all had small chipping, but I went through hundreds and these best ones are extremely good. The colour with backlighting is hard to believe.
Fluorapatite, Ipirá, Bahia, Brazil – 3.2 cm
And finally from Brazil (for now), Minas Gerais yielded some very fine phantom quartz crystals this year, from the deposits at Presidente Kubitschek. As always with Brazilian quartz, it can be very hard to find specimens in excellent condition, but some of these are just great.
Quartz with phantoms, Presidente Kubitschek, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Crystal 2.0 cm wide
Moving on from Brazil to the African continent next, still on the quartz theme, there was a pocket of spectacular quartz with red phantoms from Orange River, Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Red quartz has been produced from this locality for many years, however, long-time South African dealer Clive Queit told me he has never seen any he liked as much as these, because these have such distinct red phantoms enclosed in sharp, clear quartz crystals – in his view they are the best. The crystals themselves are relatively small, and my favourite specimens were the ones that had good proportions (of crystal size to the piece), so the ones I consider the best are not large specimens. They are superb.
Red Phantom Quartz, Orange River, Northern Cape Province, South Africa – 5.0 cm
Red Phantom Quartz, Orange River, Northern Cape Province, South Africa – 4.0 cm
Red Phantom Quartz, Orange River, Northern Cape Province, South Africa – 6.1 cm
Further north in Africa, there's something a bit different and new from Arrondissement Diako, in Mali. We've seen thousands of loose single garnet crystals from here over the years, and occasionally we've been lucky enough to see matrix specimens. A new find, at Diabe Sira, has produced some very attractive specimens with sharp, lustrous grossular crystals on matrix. As is the case with all localities, and particularly much of the Mali material (of the various minerals), so much is damaged – the devil is in finding fine, collection-quality specimens. I worked through a lot of this material and I found a few – they are really nice!
Grossular, Diabe Sira, Arrondissement Diako, Cercle de Bafoulabé, Kayes Region, Mali – 9.7 cm
Further north still, I think we've all become a bit spoiled by the constant flow of excellent mineral specimens from Morocco in recent years. So it felt like a bit of a disappointment that there wasn't a spectacular new find, and that some of the material we've seen in recent times is drying up. As I mentioned in my Ste. Marie post last summer, the Sidi Lahcen barites are no more – I love those specimens, and good ones are now already hard to find (and in some cases very expensive). Speaking of production that seems to have dried up, I was also surprised that there were hardly even any signs of the Mamsa aragonites (the ones posted here last fall). I had expected to see some of the lesser material at very least.
However, from Morocco there were some beautiful erythrites from the Bou Azzer district.
Erythrite, Bou Azzer, Tazenakht, Ouarzazate Province, Morocco – 1.3 cm crystal
China seems to have produced less in the way of truly new material. There are some new bluish-purple quartz specimens, highly priced and different dealers were giving different locality names – we'll see what the future holds for these. From Huanggang, there were a few of the flat, discoidal calcites that made their debut last fall in Denver – here is a sweet small one.
Calcite, Huanggang Mines, Hexigten Banner, Ulanhad, Inner Mongolia A.R., China – 3.3 cm
From Russia, the mines at Dal'negorsk continue to operate and there was a new pocket of sharp datolite crystals found at the Bor Pit. These crystals are a beautiful light green and they are highly lustrous.
Datolite, Bor Pit, Dal'negorsk, Primorskiy Kray, Russia – 5.0 cm
As you'll know if you've read my posts from the past, I love Peru and Peruvian mineral specimens. Over the years, the large polymetallic mines have produced a variety of excellent specimens, and several workings undertaken purely for mineral specimen mining have provided spectacular pieces. However, this was really not a great year for new Peruvian specimens. Ucchucchacua has now produced no new specimen material in three years, and a new piece of unfortunate news from Peru is that the Lily Mine has ceased operations. Lily was operated for copper and is known to collectors for a few minerals – chrysocolla, and most notably some of the best atacamite and clinoatacamite specimens that have been found anywhere. I obtained only a few more of these, as good specimens are already scarce, and I'm told any future production is questionable.
Clinoatacamite, Lily Mine, Pisco Umay, Ica Dept., Peru
Superb crystal group, 5 mm
In much better news, a Peruvian collection and the workings at Mundo Nuevo have provided some excellent specimens.
Pyrite and Lautite, Mundo Nuevo Mine, Huamachuco, La Libertad Dept., Peru – 2.9 cm
Back to North America, I was lucky to pick up a couple of nice little wulfenite specimens from the Red Cloud Mine, including this one – it's not big, but this thing is a red window pane.
Wulfenite, Red Cloud Mine, Trigo Mountains, Arizona – 2.3 cm
(Crystal 1.0 cm across, 0.8 cm on edge)
Over the coming weeks, many of these finds – and more new material – will be posted on the website, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, as nice as it is to have had a break, it's so great to be home. (You can take the Canadian out of the winter but you can't take the winter out of the Canadian – at least not this Canadian.) It's beautiful out here in the winter woods in February, as always!
Yes, the snow piles are high.
Another 9 ft tall snowpile. Granted, it reduces the view for a while.
And we probably shouldn't expect this part of the garden to emerge until late May.
This year's snow-management issues aside, it's gorgeous and peaceful, with lots of active local residents in our woods…
Blue Jay, near Bancroft, Ontario
And there's this one guy who loves winter more than any being I've known:
Every day from the first snows until the last snow patches are too small in spring, Emery does snow angels.
Well, that's it, until the Rochester 2017 report.
If you haven't yet seen them, this year's Rochester Mineralogical Symposium program and registration materials are online here. Hope to see you there!
Meanwhile, of course these specimens will be coming online soon!


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This shot was taken for an assignment for a photography hangout I take part in on Google+. The idea was to shoot a creative book shot. I had some ideas in my head and immediately knew I wanted to shoot my leather bound edition of 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'.
When trying to realize the shot in my head I first off knew which books I wanted to shoot. The leather bound edition has some great texture and the writing on the binding and details on the covers is some sort of metal foil which really adds to the shot.
I also wanted to somehow incorporate some rings into the shot since that is a major character in the books. To make things interesting I decided to make the rings appear as if they were floating above the books.
To capture this shot I used 3 studio strobes and my Nikon SB-800 flash. I have a little DIY shooting table that I had made out of a piece of plywood and screwed that to an old tripod I had. Then I laid a piece of glass that I had spray painted black on one side to place the books on.
For the rings, I used a boom above and out of frame and hung them from that using fishing line.
For the lights, I started with the SB-800 on the ground behind the little table and put a blue gel over it and aimed at a piece of white foam core that was about foot behind the subject. Next, I had 2 studio strobes that were place right and left in front and level with the subject with DIY strip boxes. The 3rd studio strobe was hung above the subject by about 2 feet from another boom with a soft box on it.
Initially when I took the shot the blue color was totally washed out with barely a hint of color. That was due to the strip boxes that had over spilled the subject and blasted the white background. To remedy that I flagged each side of the table with a piece of white foam core and also used a little strip of it across the top.
To get the final shot I made one exposure. I did a little color correction in Lightroom for white balance and then brought the image into Photoshop and spend about 1.5 hours cleaning the image. I removed a few spots that I had on my sensor, some random dust I has missed while cleaning the area for the shot and also removed the fishing line. Oh, and of course I added a few sparkles to top it off with.
All comments are much appreciated. If you like what you see, please consider following my blog and passing it on to others who may be interested in learning how to do these types of shots. I do hope you found this post to be helpful for you in your own photographic endeavors.
Please also find below this final image a few bts(behind the scenes) shots I took.
If your interested in following me on Twitter you can either click on the link below or go to twitter and click on follow. I'm now also on Google Plus which is a great new platform. Are you on Facebook? If so please 'like' the Maugiart Photography Page.
Here are some BTS (Behind the scenes) shots of my setup. This first shot below shows the strip boxes from front and either side of the subject and the softbox above. You can also see the white foam core flags I used. That little black area to the bottom back of the tripod is the SB-800 with blue gel aiming up.
Here is another angle showing more of the same, but gets you a better idea on the overall setup.
This shot shows a closer view of the little DIY table I made. It's just a a small piece of plywood I cut and drilled a hole in middle where I put a 1/4″ blind nut to be able to screw to the table.
This final shot shows a closer side view to better see the position of the back ground.Follow @wordpressdotcom


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MIAMI – Jury selection began for a second time Wednesday in the trial of Joel Lebron, one of five men accused of kidnapping, raping, and murder Ana Maria Angel in 2002.
Last Thursday, the judge overseeing the case declared a mistrial after Miami Beach Police Detective Larry Marrero referred to a defendant who had already been convicted in the case.
"This court is forced -- forced -- to grant the motion for a mistrial because a veteran detective took the witness stand and made a statement that was not relevant and, in this court's opinion, highly prejudicial to Mr. Lebron's ability to get a fair trial," Judge William Thomas said Thursday.
Angel was 18-years-old in the spring of 2002, two months from graduating South Miami High, when she was out celebrating an anniversary with then boyfriend Nelson Portobanco on South Beach when five people kidnapped them and forced them into their truck at gunpoint, said investigators.
As they rode north to Orlando where the defendants came from, Angel was repeatedly raped and Nelson was beaten, said prosecutors. Police said Portobanco was eventually thrown out of the truck along I-95 and left for dead. He took the stand Wednesday, describing the kidnap and rape of his girlfriend.
The five are accused of killing Angel execution-style at the side of I-95 near Boca Raton to keep her from identifying them. Police said Lebron, now 33, was the gunman.
Three of the five have been convicted. Two were sentenced to life in prison; one is awaiting a second sentencing hearing since his death penalty sentence was overturned.
If convicted, Lebron could face the death penalty.


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Washington, D.C.—On December 11, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will host an event to announce the 13 winners of Powering Agriculture: A Grand Challenge for Development in Washington, D.C. USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah will deliver remarks.
The program will bring together agriculture experts from around the globe to discuss major agricultural challenges in the developing world and cutting-edge solutions. The 13 winning innovators will unveil their clean energy innovations, which range from microgrid technologies to irrigation and cold storage solutions presented in on-site booths.
Swedish Ambassador to the United States Bjorn Lyrall, Duke Energy Senior Vice President of Federal Affairs Heath Shuler, and Inventor and Author William Kamkwamba will also speak at the event.
|USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah,
Swedish Ambassador to the United States Bjorn Lyvrall,
Duke Energy Senior Vice President of Federal Affairs Heath Shuler,
Inventor and Author William Kamkwamba
|Event to Announce Powering Agriculture Grand Challenge Winners
|December 11, 2013
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
|Ronald Reagan Building
Pavilion Room
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20523
Press interested in attending, please contact: Courtney Hamilton, firstname.lastname@example.com; Tel: 412-736-4506.


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Love it or hate it, Wikileaks has become entrenched in popular culture. By releasing what are otherwise secret documents, Wikileaks has changed the world. But the repeated attacks on the group has exposed weaknesses of its centralized operation and have driven a wedge between it and previously allied groups, such as the hactivist collective Anonymous. And with Wikileaks founder and spokesman Julian Assange a wanted man, the days of Wikileaks have always been numbered.
But, as with the attacks on Napster, the attacks on Wikileaks did not crush the customers of the service. Instead, it restructures the operation, changing from a centralized agency to a de-centralized. Napster became replaced by bittorrent, and now Anonymous has announced its replacement for Wikileaks, a service they call TYLER.
The issues between Wikileaks and Anonymous go back to the financial problems forced upon Wikileaks after its finances were cut off. In order to continue functioning, Wikileaks had to begin to demand payment. This in turn added liabilities to Wikileaks and its supporters. Facing the added pressure, and the proven liability of the single target to focus efforts against the access of information, Anonymous took the same approach as taken several times before: decentralize. So began Anonymous's "Project Mayhem" which has produced TYLER:
Now instead of a single target, every single machine connected to Tyler will become a hub. Millions of machines, all churning over and handling the data. It is a nightmare scenario for any group or agency seeking to hide its secrets. No longer will there be a large rat to target, but millions of scurrying cockroaches, any single survivor enabling the reconstruction of the entire network.
The actions against Wikileaks have, instead of prevented the leaking of sensitive data, now made the leaking of that data now a trivial occurence, done by anyone in a matter of minutes, all in complete anonymity. The concerns over another Bradley Manning, being held for releasing secret documentation, are almost trivial, since it will be next to impossible to track when the next Private Manning comes along. It has now become no longer a matter of if, but when.
The Anonymous TYLER system, the culmination of years of work for the hactivist collective, stands poised to change the rules of not only the internet, but of society itself. The age of state secrets, of corporate lies, can not continue with the bright light of TYLER to shine on them. This is a disruptive technology, you cannot fight it, only adapt to it.


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Friends, some of you have expressed your eagerness in seeing the finished gown… However, that will have to wait until after the ceremony. I would like the final result to be a surprise to everyone. Hope you will understand! I'm sure you will, though 🙂
Let it only be said that I absolutely love my gown! It really feels like *my* dress now. I just love it! 🙂
I can show you pictures of the final evening of sewing (Thursday night), during which I hemmed the dress by slipstiching the edge to the underlining only (which shows another advantage to underlining a formal garment!). This took quite a few hours, as you may imagine, because the skirt is rather wide at the bottom and I had to make sure for every small stitch that the needle was only catching the batiste underlining, and not the dupioni. To keep me entertained, I watched (or rather, listened to) one of my most-watched DVDs: the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice adaptation. That one never palls on me.
Sébastien took pictures as a souvenir of this ultimate evening spent sewing this special gown… I didn't know whether you'd rather see Elizabeth or Mr. Darcy, so I'll let you choose:
This way you can also see my sewing corner. We live in a two-room, 45-m² flat, and this table is our everything table: this is where we dine (you can't even sit in the kitchen!), where Seb sets his laptop when he works from home (I have a desk in another corner). The right side of the table is my little sewing corner (the extremest part being most of the time slightly messy, as you can see here!), but I did need the whole length of the table to make that ample dress… You bet I made sure to clear up and clean the table thoroughly every time I wanted to do some sewing on the gown!
(I don't mind the small space, though! As long as the family doesn't grow larger, we're quite happy in our little nest.)
Oh, and, ahem, I was in my pyjama as it was getting on quite late that night!
Thank you very much for your comments to the previous post. I certainly wish I had started sewing earlier than 3 years ago. My grandma would have been able to teach me then… That is one of my bitterest regrets. Our only hobby when we were younger was music – lots of it, that's for sure. I can't regret being taught in music, that is another of my joys in life; but I sometimes wish it had been less exclusive, less exacting.
Nevertheless, Mamie was thrilled at my taking up sewing, and she admired my progress every time I came to visit her and we looked at what I'd been sewing. This played a major part in my motivation to try and keep improving – I kept striving to be up to her praise. I carry her last words to me in the depths of my heart and they were to that effect as well – I didn't feel that I quite deserved them, but I'll keep trying to be up to them.
Sorry for the talkative entry… I'll make it up with pretty pictures soon! 🙂


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In additional to ARCHICAD, you can also download these programs for FREE with your student or professor license:
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- Get your FREE copy of ARCHICAD today!


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Typhoid fever is a serious and sometimes life-threatening infection that mostly affects people in developing countries, where clean water and other sanitation measures are hard to come by. The disease usually causes symptoms that include a high fever, a stomachache, and achiness. It can be cured with antibiotics.
If you live in the U.S. the chances of someone in your family getting typhoid fever are slim. But if you're planning to travel to a foreign country, especially one in the tropics, it's a good idea to know about typhoid fever. Before you travel, get vaccinated against the disease and learn about safety precautions regarding food and water.
Typhoid fever is caused by bacteria called Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi), which are related to the bacteria salmonella that cause food poisoning. S. Typhi typically live in humans and are shed through a person's feces (poop) or urine (pee).
Once the bacteria get into the body, they quickly multiply and spread into the bloodstream. The body responds with a high fever and other symptoms, usually a week or two after exposure to the bacteria (but sometimes later). Symptoms can be mild to severe and usually disappear 2 to 5 days after antibiotic treatment begins.
Without treatment, typhoid fever may last a month or more and become very serious, even life-threatening.
After recovering from typhoid fever, some people still can become carriers of the bacteria. This means that they'll have no symptoms, but do have the bacteria in their bodies and can pass it on to other people.
People usually get typhoid fever by drinking beverages or eating food that has been handled by someone who has typhoid fever or is a carrier of the illness. Those infected also can pass the disease onto others directly (for example, by touching them with unwashed hands). People also get the illness by drinking water that is contaminated by sewage that contains the S. Typhi bacteria.
For these reasons, the disease is common in areas with poor sanitation and inadequate water treatment. It is also common in tropical and subtropical areas around the world, including Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The symptoms of typhoid fever may range from mild to severe, depending on factors such as the age, health, and vaccination history of the infected person and the geographic location where the infection originated.
Typhoid fever can come on suddenly or very gradually over a few weeks. Early signs and symptoms of the illness include:
When typhoid fever isn't treated, symptoms become worse week by week. Besides a fever, someone may lose weight; develop a swollen or bloated belly; or develop a red, spotted rash on the lower chest or upper belly. The rash usually clears up in 2 to 5 days.
In most cases, the symptoms of typhoid fever start to go away in the third and fourth weeks, as long as the disease doesn't cause any other health problems. After the illness has appeared to go away, it can come back.
Serious health problems (complications) as a result of typhoid fever are rare in children. When kids do develop complications, they tend to be gastrointestinal problems, specifically an intestinal perforation (a hole in the intestines). This life-threatening condition requires immediate medical attention.
Less common complications include problems with the lungs or heart, infections in the bones or joints, urinary tract infections, or mental health problems.
Call a doctor if you think your child has been exposed to typhoid fever or develops any symptoms of typhoid fever, even mild ones, especially after visiting an area where the infection is common.
To make a diagnosis, the doctor will evaluate the symptoms and ask you about your child's medical history and recent travels. The doctor probably will take a sample of stool (poop), urine (pee), or blood to test it for the disease.
Typhoid fever is treated with antibiotics that kill S. Typhi bacteria. If the doctor prescribes antibiotics, be sure your child completes the course of treatment. Do not end the treatment early even if your child begins to feel better.
Most kids start feeling better within 2 to 3 days of beginning treatment. In addition to giving antibiotics, offer your child plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration. Kids who are severely dehydrated from a loss of fluids due to diarrhea might be given IV (intravenous) fluids in a hospital or other medical care facility.
Acetaminophen can help reduce fever and make your child feel more comfortable. Call a doctor immediately if your child's symptoms persist, if symptoms go away and then reappear, or if your child develops any new symptoms.
If your child is recovering from typhoid fever or is a healthy carrier of the disease, washing hands frequently is the best way to prevent the spread of the disease. Use warm water and scrub hands with soap for at least 20 seconds. Also clean the things your child touches (such as toilets, door handles, and telephones) every day. People with typhoid fever should avoid handling or preparing food and should keep their personal items away from other people's belongings.
Kids with typhoid fever should remain out of school until the disease has run its course and a doctor has cleared them of having the S. Typhi bacteria. The same goes for teens who work in the food service industry, who may not legally be allowed to return to work until a doctor has proven them to be free of the bacteria.
There are two typhoid vaccines available in the U.S. One is a series of capsules and the other an injection. In certain cases, a booster is sometimes needed.
The typhoid vaccine is not a routine childhood vaccination, so if your child will be traveling to an area where typhoid fever is common, you'll need to ask your doctor for the vaccine. Kids should be vaccinated at least 1 to 2 weeks before traveling. This gives the vaccine time to take effect.
Even if your child has been vaccinated, keep in mind that vaccines are not completely effective and lose effectiveness over time, so make sure you and your child take the following precautions in high-risk areas:


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Building a small number of expensive houses and labelling them 'affordable' will do nothing to alleviate the chronic shortage of houses that ordinary families can afford to buy, Green Party housing spokesperson Holly Walker said today.
The Government has announced 'targets' for the Hobsonville development for 10% of its houses to be priced under $400,000 and a further 10% to be priced under $485,000. That is about 500 homes in total. Those targets are inflation-indexed, so by the time the homes are actually built the prices will be even higher.
"Half a million dollars for a house might be 'affordable' on Planet Key, but it is far out of reach for most New Zealand families," said Ms Walker.
"While the Government is trying to say these homes are affordable within the context of Auckland house prices, they are unaffordable when viewed within the context of real low and middle income New Zealand families and their stretched budgets.
"The fortnightly payments on a mortgage on one of these houses would be around half the net median household income in Auckland - that's unaffordable for the typical family, let alone those on lower incomes.
"John Key once said that building affordable housing at Hobsonville would be 'economic vandalism' but what's really economic vandalism is failing to provide housing that ordinary Kiwi families can afford.
"This plan consists of houses that are too expensive and too few in number to make any difference to the chronic shortfall in affordable housing in this country. It lacks any state or social housing or assistance for first-home buyers.
"It is clear what will happen: many of these houses will be snapped up by property investors who will price ordinary families out of the market and those families will remain locked into renting.
"The Greens are committed to expanding the supply of affordable housing, introducing capital gains tax to dampen speculation that forced up prices, and investigating ways to help first time buyers.
"John Key and National have never believed in providing New Zealand families with affordable housing. This announcement shows that they haven't changed their spots, only their spin," said Mr Walker.
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