Mineral Identification Workshop: Follow-Up and Bibliography

While we're on the subject, thanks to everyone who came out for the mineral identification workshop on Saturday, 8 August. We had a lively time and I hope that everyone got something out of it. If you missed it, and are interested in attending a future session, let us know in the comments or by emailing me. I felt that we could have covered more experimentation and less discussion, but as this was the first time out, I wasn't sure how time would ultimately play out. Future sessions will have more direct work of identification, and a lot more discussion of reactions and the chemistry that governs them. It will give me an excuse to do more reading and practising, after all...

In the meantime, here's the bibliography from the workshop. This is by no means every book out there; rather, it is just a selection of what I used in putting together some of the tests and gathering the necessary background material.

Bibliography

• Audubon Society. Audubon Society Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.


• Landauer, J. Blowpipe Analysis. Second, Revised Edition. Translated by James Taylor. Bradley, IL: Lindsay Publications, 1984.


• Lewis, J. Volney and Hawkins, A.C. A Manual of Determinative Mineralogy with Tables, 4th Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1931.


• Peck, Donald B. Mineral Identification: A Practical Guide for the Amateur Mineralogist. Tucson, AZ: The Mineralogical Record, 2007.


• Pellant, Chris. Rocks and Minerals (Smithsonian Handbooks). New York: Dorling Kindersley, Inc., 2002.


• Pough, Frederick B. A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals, Fifth Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.


• Sinkankas, John. Gemstone and Mineral Data Book. New York: Collier Books, 1972.


• Vanders, Iris and Kerr, Paul. Mineral Recognition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1967.

Useful Websites and Journals

• Mindat.org


• Mineralogical Record Magazine


• Rock & Gem Magazine


• Rocks and Minerals Magazine


• WebMineral.com

Thanks again, and happy rock hunting!

Philosophy of Science Presentation: Bibliography

Thanks again to everyone who came out last night for Ginger Nedblake's presentation on the Philosophy of Science. Mystery noises aside, it seems as though a good time was had by all.

As promised, the rest of this entry is part of Ginger's bibliography from the presentation. Email us if you have questions, or post them in the comments. Thanks!

Free Resources

• Mid-Continent Public Library has a link for cardholders to online back copies of Philosophy of Science journal


• The Linda Hall Library of Science and Technology - Peirce Studies


• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - the site includes an RSS feed for new/updated entries

Partial Bibliography

• An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science by Rudolf Carnap


• Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder - The Introduction to Philosophy course you wish you had.


• Godel, Escher, Bach: and Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
  


• Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction by Samir Okasha (part of the Oxford Very Short Introductions series - watch for them in the store!)


• A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell - a classic


• Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by Edward O. Wilson

Finally: Challenge Your Own Assumptions: Examples

• Animal Liberation by Peter Singer


• The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer

Thanks again to everyone, and we'll see you next time!

Meet the Beagle All Over Again

Let's take a moment for a quick entry now, to tell you about what's going on at the Beagle.

First, 2009 is a big year for science. In the event that you've somehow missed it, it is not only the International Year of Science, but the International Year of Astronomy. There are a lot of important anniversaries that fall in 2009, and we're hoping to add our efforts to those of the friends of science around the world.

Secondly, if you're already a Facebook user, you can now join the Beagle Society group on Facebook. We're posting upcoming events to the group, and trying to get everything in place there so that you can be updated on all the latest happenings with the Beagle as you would be with your long-lost high school friends. You can also comment on our Wall, upload photos, and do all of those Facebook things that you enjoy the most. The Facebook updates will not replace the regular email updates, but we're hoping to extend our reach with a little bit of additional publicity in a different medium.

John and Carol will be at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in the next few weeks, looking for what's best and brightest, or at least, what's interesting and affordable, from the world of minerals, rocks, fossils, beads and the like. The trip to Tucson is something of a busman's holiday, but it allows them to get out of town for a bit, and, as the colloquial wisdom has it, a change is as good as a rest...

Our online store is growing rapidly, and will eventually include everything that you will find in our physical store. You can visit it here at HMS Beagle Online. We're adding descriptions to items as rapidly as possible, but unfortunately there's no easy way to describe 10,000 items (give or take) from the two-line truncated descriptions in our point-of-sale system. Our goal is for the site to be an effective surrogate for an in-store visit. For those of you wondering, we chose to use PayPal as our primary payment means in the interests of everyone's security. PayPal has a proven track record in conjunction with eBay, and we're sure that a lot of you already have PayPal accounts. Of course, if you're still cautious about paying in this way, we'll also accept your payments through the post or in person, and you can select the Walk-In delivery option if you want to shop online and then come to collect your purchases, or the site will automatically quote you rates for UPS or US Postal Service shipping. If you haven't already taken a look, please do, and let us know what else you might like to see there.

And finally (though we're somewhat late in expressing this), we want to extend our warmest thanks to everyone who has supported the Beagle in 2008. Thanks to you, we have had what could in these economic climes be considered a good year, and January has also shaped up thus far to be on a par with our expectations. We have a lot of exciting things planned for 2009, and hope that we can continue to rely on your patronage and support. As always, if you have any questions, please drop us a line or post in the comments.

Best wishes to everyone for an educational and enrichment-filled 2009!

Beagle Society meeting; a friend passes.

Parkville, MO: Monday evening, 15 September, 2008, the evening was beautiful, the presenter, Gene Nowaczyk was gracious and informative but the turn out was sparse. Gene had a computer presentation of his work with civilian rocketry, his company Payload Specialties, and his launches at Black Rock, Nevada. Mr. Nowaczyk did state that his seven consecutive world altitude records were unconfirmed, but no one doubted his veracity and all were suitably impressed.

Mr. Nowaczyk will have his rocket on display at the Beagle's 3rd annual Rocket Science Day on October 4th. That even will be in the west parking lot from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm and is free to all. Bring your rockets and the local amateur rocketry society, KCAR, will be running the range and will handle safety and rocket inspections. There will be tents set up for repairing and building rockets and the Beagle will be open for anyone needing engines or other supplies. All rockets will be limited to B size engines or smaller. The event has some new participants and there will be displays and exhibits. At the launch pad there will be contests and challenges.

On a very sad note, one of our first Beagle Society members and a proud owner of one of the Beagle's custom chemistry sets, Dennis Bingham, has passed away. Dennis died this past Sunday. He is survived by his wife Ann and their children and grandchildren. Dennis will be missed and mourned by his friends in science.