Strata Gem

Tooele Gem & Mineral

September 2004

 

The Presidents Message

 

We had out Steak Fry on the 21st of August. We missed some of our club members.  Next year we will try to plan the steak fry in the middle of the month.

 

Our show is coming up and we sure do need a lot of help. Please come down on Thursday the 23rd to help with the set up. Don will be there at 7:00 am to do the electric work, those of you that can come help can show up at 9:00 am.

 

We need a lot of door prizes, please donate a $10.00 gift for each member, if you can.

 

We need pies, cookies, cakes, etc… for the kitchen, so donate if you can. Lets make this a great show. Our show chairman has done a lot of hard work for our club. Thank You Janet Nix.

 

Hope to see you at the meeting on the 14th. The last one before the show.

 

Good Luck and Good Health to Everyone

 

Your President

Ruth Smith

 

What To Do If Your Purse Or Wallet Is Stolen

By VeOna Hayes

 

We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed using your name, address, SS#, credit, etc. Unfortunately I (author of this piece) have firsthand knowledge, because my wallet was stolen last month and within a week the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package,, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know.

 

As everyone always advises, cancel your credit cards immediately, but the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know who to call. Keep those where you can find them easily (having to hunt for them is additional stress you WON'T need at that point!). On a personal note, I remember loosing a Master Card and until I got the toll free number from information, etc. I was a wreck.

 

File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where it was stolen, this proves to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

 

But here's what is perhaps most important: I never ever thought to do this. Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and SS#. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

 

By the time I was advised do this - almost two weeks after the theft all the damage had been done (there are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert). Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them in their tracks.

 

The numbers are:

Equifax 1-800 525-6285

Experian (formerly TRW) 1-800-301-7195

Trans Union 1-800-680-7289

Social Security Administration also has a fraud line at 1-800-269-0271

 

We pass along just about everything .... do think about passing this information along .... it could help someone else!

 

From Northwest Federation Newsletter 6/01 via AFMS Newsletter 9/01

Via Mid-Tenn Gem’ers 9/01

 

Hints & Tips

 

-  When buying a cut slab, here is a good way to look for flaws- wet the slab and wipe till damp then watch the slab air dry. If there are any fractures or pockets, they will retain the water and dry slower leaving a wet area. A second way is to run the edge of a pocket knife over the slab. If the blade catches, you know there is a fracture or pocket.

Jesse Harris, WGMS

 

-  When transporting or storing polished stone; try leaving some of the plastic beads used in the final polish. This will keep the stones from rubbing and scratching against each other.

                        Ernie Leschner, WGMS

 

-  By using small pieces of Styrofoam plastic, instead of the hard round plastic beads, your polishing agent will do a better and quicker job. Those hundreds of polish-impregnated little Styrofoam pieces will really put a shine on everything in the tumbler and will disappear from sight by the end of the polishing cycle.

 

Via Chips 9/03

via Rockcollector 4/01

via Moroks 9/03

Via Gneiss Times 10/2003

 

Save Trim Saw Scraps

 

Most tumblers produce better results if there are small bits and pieces of rock of the same hardness in with the bigger ones you are trying to polish.

 

Excerpt from THE PEGMATITE a publication of the SAN DIEGO MINERAL & GEM SOCIETY, INC.

via The Rock View, 1/04

Via THE ROCKCOLLECTOR 3/04

 

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40184

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Here comes the U.N. - again!

 

Posted: August 28, 2004

1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Henry Lamb

(c) 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

 

Few people know that back in 1970, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched an ambitious program to establish a global network of "Biosphere Reserves." This program, called "Man and the Biosphere," or MAB, is not the result of a U.N. treaty; it is simply an agreement among participating nations to manage designated land masses according to principles and strategies dictated by a UNESCO committee.

 

In the United States, 47 U.N.

Biosphere Reserves were designated without the approval of Congress or of any state legislature. While UNESCO continues to expand the global network of 440 reserves in 97 countries, the last three areas to be designated in the U.S. were blocked by local opposition. Proponents of this program were disappointed, but not dissuaded. Here they come again.

 

Washington insiders speculate that President Bush rejoined UNESCO in hopes of appeasing his critics, who chastised him for withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court. MAB enthusiasts are ecstatic and are planning a new effort to reinvigorate the MAB program in the United States.

 

A Biosphere Reserve is a massive land area divided into three zones: core wilderness areas, buffer zones and a transitional area. The plan is to continually enlarge each of the zones. For example, the Southern Appalachian MAB (SAMAB) was originally designated to be the Smoky Mountains National Park, an area of 517,000 acres. It has now grown to embrace an area stretching from near Birmingham, Ala., to near Roanoke, Va. program? Because it empowers another layer of non-elected government officials to dictate land-use policy.

 

Eighty-four percent of the land in SAMAB is privately owned. This fact is an obstacle to MAB planners. Much of the SAMAB program is designed to seduce or coerce state and local governments to impose land-use policies that originate with the UNESCO committee in Paris, France. The Strategic Plan - <http://samab.org/About/Docs/SAMABStrPlan.pdf> 2002 is a laundry list of "education and outreach" programs promoting sustainable communities and Agenda 21 initiatives.

 

Each of the 47 Biosphere Reserves has an extensive network of government agencies and environmental groups working to advance strategic plans that conform to the vision of land-use policy established by United Nations agencies.

 

These policies ignore two fundamental principles that distinguish the United States from most other nations. Private-property rights are, or should be, sacred; and public land-use policy should be enacted only by elected officials who are directly accountable to the people governed by it.

 

Both of these principles are anathema to the United Nations and to the agencies, organizations and individuals who work to advance Agenda 21 and Biosphere Reserves. They have been successful because they work quietly, behind the pretext of protecting the environment. Working people rarely know what's happening until after the new policies are in place, when they discover that something they would like to do with their property is already prohibited.

 

The ultimate goal of the Man and the Biosphere Program is described in the U.N.'s Global Biodiversity Assessment (page 993), which cites the Wildlands Project as "central" to the transformation of "at least half" of the United States into interconnected core wilderness areas so wildlife can move, uninterrupted by humans, from Mexico to Canada. Core wilderness areas are surrounded by buffer zones, which are surrounded by transitional areas where people live in "sustainable communities."

 

Since the Wilderness Act originally designated 9 million acres of wilderness in the U.S., the wilderness system has now grown to 106 million acres in 44 states.

 

The U.N. plan seeks to eventually eliminate all private property so government can manage land-use and natural resources to achieve social, economic and environmental equity, which is the essence of "sustainable development." This goal and the plans to achieve it are published throughout U.N. literature, particularly in Agenda 21 .

 

The people who implement these programs at the local level rarely admit, or even know, that the policies they embrace are a part of a global plan. When confronted, their response is often ridicule of the questioner, suggesting "blue-helmet conspiracy" paranoia.

 

But when confronted with the actual U.N. and federal documents that outline the global plans, agencies have no explanation, and, as they did in the last three attempts to designate additional Biosphere Reserves in the United States, they abandon the plan, and withdraw to regroup and form another strategy.

 

Virtually every community in America is under some form of transformation scheme aimed at imposing the principles and recommendations of Agenda 21. Organized, determined, knowledgeable, local opposition is the only way to stop it.

  _____ 

 

Henry Lamb <mailto:henry@freedom.org>  is the executive vice president of the Environmental  <http://www.eco.freedom.org/el/> Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International.

<http://www.sovereignty.net/>

 

Homer’s Corner

Homer has left me with a few items on different rocks to put into the bulletin.

 

Metamorphic Rock, type of rock formed when rocky material experiences intense heat and pressure in the crust of the earth. Metamorphic rocks are one of the three main groups of rocks. The other two groups are igneous rocks, which form magma or molten lava solidifies, and sedimentary rocks, which form when wind or water deposit sediments and the sediments become compacted. Through the metamorphic process, both igneous rocks and sedimentary rocks can change into metamorphic rocks. Heat and pressure do not change the chemical makeup of the parent rocks but they do change the mineral structure and physical properties of those rocks. By studying the composition and texture of metamorphic rocks, geologists can determine from what parent rocks the metamorphic rocks were formed.

 

Gypsum, common mineral consisting of hydrated calcium sulfate. It is a widely distributed form of sedimentary rock, formed by the precipitation of calcium sulfate from saltwater, and is frequently associated with other saline deposits as well as with limestone and shale. Gypsum is produced in volcanic regions by the action of sulfuric acid on calcium-containing minerals; it is also found in most clays as a product of the action of sulfuric acid on limestone. It occurs in all parts of the world; some of the deposits are in California, Ohio, Michigan, and in Utah.

 

Because of it’s property of swelling and filling all interstices upon drying, plaster of Paris is used extensively in making casts for statuary, ceramics, dental plates, fine metal parts for precision instruments, and surgical splints. Uncalcined gypsum is used as a fertilizer in the form of land plaster for arid, alkaline soil. It is also used as a bed for polishing plate glass and as a basis for paint pigments. Large amounts of gypsum are used as a retarder in portland cement.

 

Homer Whitlock

Via News & Views 1/04

 

What Kind Of Rockhound Are You?

 

The Fortune Hunter - this rockhound sees potential wealth in every pebble. You recognize him by his clutch on a new find. He has a greedy glitter in his eye as be asks, “What is this worth?” The beauty of the stone means nothing to him. First and foremost is the monetary value.

 

The Optimist - Called the Happy Hunter, this one is characterized by a cheerful disposition. Any colorful rock excites him. At once he sees in any rock, large or small, a gem of rare beauty. This type of rockhound is fun on a rock hunt. A drenching rain only means that the rocks will show up better. Even when he finds nothing, he has relentless enthusiasm.

 

The Road Runner - No mountain trail or river bed for this roadside seeker. He operates with the rule - never look further than 12 feet from the car. Road runner depends on low cunning for his supply of rocks. By wearing flimsy shoes, he avoids sloshing along stream beds or climbing hills. By forgetting equipment, he plays on the sympathy of others who offer him part of their finds.

 

The Smasher and Basher - this one is recognized by the trail of rubble he makes with his sledge hammer. As he goes into rock areas, he smashes and bashes at everything in sight. By the time he is done, there is nothing but worthless chips. This convinces him that the rock must have been originally unsound, anyway.

 

Scribe via Ft Lewis Rock Club News 6/01

via Golden Spike News 6/01

 

What’s Bone China?

 

Answer: Cattle bones. The bones are heated and dehydrated and the white porous residue that’s left is called bone ash. This material is combined with clay and other materials to produce the china.

 

Bone china is the result of European attempts to produce porcelain. Porcelain, also called china, was invented in China more than 1,000 years ago. Chinese potters refused to reveal the secrets of making porcelain and European potters experimented for years trying to duplicate it. One of these experiments produced bone china.

 

Porcelain was first made in a primitive form in China during the Tang dynasty (AD 618—907). The kind most familiar in the West was not manufactured until the Yuan dynasty (AD 1279—1368). It was made from kaolin (white china clay) and petuntse (a feldspathic rock), the latter being ground to powder and mixed with the clay. During the firing, which took place at a temperature of about 2,6500 F (1,4500 C), the petuntse vitrified, while the refractory clay ensured that the vessel retained its shape.

 

In medieval times, isolated specimens of Chinese porcelain found their way to Europe, where they were much prized, principally because of their translucency. European potters made numerous attempts to imitate them, and, since at that time there was no exact body of chemical and physical knowledge whereby the porcelain could be malyzed and then synthesized, experiments proceeded strictly by analogy.

 

The last 2 paragraphs are from....http://china-n-glass.com/History_Porcelain.htm 7/1/03 from Action Line (San Jose Merxury News) date unknown, via BPECCIA 7/03

via The Glacial Drifter 4/04