Welcome to FrOg On-Line #2001-05, Friday, June 15, 2001 Contents ======== 1. Introduction 2. FrOg On-Line Possibilities 3. Collecting Report 4. April 2001 Trotter Dig 5. Misc. 6. "Subscriber" List 1. Introduction =============== Greetings. I need for someone to take over FrOg On-Line. If you are willing, please e-mail me as soon as possible. See Section 2 below for more information. The Franklin-Ogdensburg mineral list articles Gary Grenier submitted will not appear here; I just do not have the time to convert several hundred lines of html to simple ASCII. One of those articles includes an html table over 350 rows long. Technically, I can handle it. But I have too many higher priority things pleading for my time. A collecting report from Mark Boyer comprises section 3. See section 4 for url's to pictures of the 2001 Trotter Dig and the NJESA Show, complements of Herb Yeates. As far as I know, there are no new activities or events to be added to what was in FrOg On-Line #2001-03, so see that issue for the schedule of events. All past FrOg On-Line issues may be viewed in the FrOg On-Line Archive at url "http://www.njminerals.org/FOINDEX.HTM". I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Independence Day. 2. FrOg On-Line Possibilities ============================= I am swamped, and I am starting to burn out. The five year contract that employs me, that my employer has with the U.S. government, expires in under nine months; and I have a vast collection of mineral specimens to re-organize, high grade, and pack in anticipation of possible re-location. I was nearly re-located by my employer just over two years ago, and it took me over half a year to get ready for that, and I never did finish. So I must start now. I also have been trying to finish analysis of hardystonite fluorescence spectra for over a year now. I'm losing too much control over my time. I must cut something; my decision is to cease as FrOg On-Line moderator/editor. Three primary possibilities come to my mind regarding the future of FrOg On-Line: * Someone can take it over and continue it in its current format. Issues will be all ASCII; no html, no images, no word processor or desktop publisher files. Issues are automatically e-mailed to subscribers; the only effort required of subscribers is to read issues. Contents would likely be filtered, moderated, and possibly edited. (Hopefully, the new person would do a better job than I did with the filtering and moderating!) * One subscriber last year was thinking of putting together an "eFrOg". There would be images; text would not be limited to simple ASCII. I do not know whether contents would be filtered, moderated, or edited. I and a few other current FrOg On-Line subscribers cannot handle "Word", "Powerpoint", or "Presentation" at all. "Word Perfect" is a lot of hassle for me; I don't know about anyone else. Several current FrOg On-Line subscribers preferred no attachments at all. * Schedule and event information is available on the Franklin Mineral Museum web site, the Sterling Hill Mining Museum web site, and Herb Yeates' web site. The Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society snail-mails schedules to all Society members at least once a year, usually twice. So FrOg On-Line is not really needed for this. Herb Yeates' web site contains an on-line discussion forum. This can replace basically all other FrOg On-Line functionality. Here, nothing is automatically e-mailed to anyone, so it is left to each interested individual to connect to the on-line discussion forum and read what interests him, but this should take little more than clicking a link or selecting a bookmark. Any "articles" (collecting reports, home lab reports, featured specimen write-ups, questions, announcements, opinions, mineralogical/geological discussions, etc.) submitted to the forum are posted and thus become available to everyone essentially immediately. Likewise answers, counterpoints, follow-ups, etc. But currently, postings cannot include images. Well, as you can see, there are pros and cons to each option. And there are other possibilities; I leave that to your imagination. It's up to the FrOg community: you. If you are willing to take over as FrOg On-Line moderator/editor, e-mail me as soon as possible. I must hear from you by noon eastern time, Thursday, July 05. If no-one volunteers, FrOg On-Line will croak. I will publish one last issue to announce the results and to tie up any loose ends. 3. Collecting Report ==================== From: "mark boyer" <mboyer@pace2001.com> To: "William Mattison" <mattison@thunder.nws.noaa.gov> Subject: Re: this weekend. Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 13:35:38 -0400 Bill: Greetings. I bought much less than I hoped to at the NJESA show! Actually, some things that I hoped would be there never materialized. Trotter was pretty much a bust for me, but I do have a sad "one that got away" story. Underneath a concrete pad excavated at Trotter, I found an approximately 2-inch-diameter (!) rhodonite crystal with a second, smaller crystal in calcite matrix. The rock was firmly embedded in the concrete and I did not have a pry bar to pop it out. Later in the day when I had access to a friend's pry bar, the rock was gone! Oh well, I'm a fluorescent collector...what do I need a $500.00 rhodonite crystal for anyway? I just hope whoever got it didn't hammer it to oblivion. This past weekend I collected at the Noble Pit at Sterling Hill. John Kolic had taken apart that outcrop at the saddle area that contained the white-fluorescing mineral that I thought at first was cerrusite. Not much more of this material was found, but there was lots of chunky galena as well as calcite crystals and vug coatings. This calcite fluoresced SW the standard orange-red as well as cream and bright purple. The purple-fluorescing calcite was a clump or ball-shaped crystally tuft that broke into 2 pieces when I popped apart a vug. I need to examine these specimens more closely...this is a preliminary observation. Also found some apatite crystals in calcite with meionite. Limecrest the following day yielded massive SW-fluorescing albite and several boulders with 6-inch-thick veins of norbergite. The norbergite was of the "sugary" fluorescent pattern type...tightly packed grains with a moderately strong fluorescence, but not quite as bright as the construction site stuff off of Sterling Hill Road. (That site, by the way, is pretty well exhausted or buried now.) The best stuff I found at Limecrest was the inch-thick meionite pods in calcite. Not much of this was collected, but it was easily the highlight of my day. It fluoresces pale to moderate yellow SW, but midrange, it fluoresces bright orange, similar to wernerite. Hope to see you next time you're up this way. By the way, if you have any trading material, let me know. Mark P.S. If you want to adapt any of this info as a "field report" for FrOg Online, that's OK. 4. April 2001 Trotter Dig ========================= Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 12:36:59 -0400 From: "herb" <HERB@simpleTHINKING.com> To: William Mattison <mattison@thunder.nws.noaa.gov> Subject: Re: FrOg On-Line #2001-04. Hi Bill - Thanks for the latest issue and nice to meet you -- even if it was rushed -- last month. Some pix of the NJESA show are here: http://simplethinking.com/franklinminerals/2001%20spring%20mineral%20show.shtml Some pix from the Trotter event are here: http://simplethinking.com/franklinminerals/trotter_2001.shtml Enjoy! Best, Herb PS: [...] 5. Misc. ======== Herb Yeates found on the web a movie that might be of interest to the FrOg community: From: "Herb Yeates" <herb@simpleTHINKING.com> To: "William Mattison" <mattison@thunder.nws.noaa.gov> Subject: Re: preview: next FrOg On-Line. Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 16:40:18 -0400 Hi Bill - [...] Best, Herb BTW: One more URL -- you can include it or not -- your choice. It is only for subscribers with high-speed Internet access, a PC with sound card/speakers, and a browser that can show 'AVI' multimedia video clips (most newer MS browsers). It's a short film, with fabulous sound, of a promotional film entitled "zinc oxide and you". It's 3.9 Mb in size but worth every minute of download time. A real hoot! See: http://xy3.com/zno.stm ------------------------- John Cianciulli forwarded to me the following: Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 22:14:01 -0400 From: John Cianciulli <u1008042@warwick.net> To: herb <herb@simpleTHINKING.com>, "Earl R. Verbeek" <everbeek@nac.net>, Mark Boyer <mboyer@pace2001.com>, Mark Leger <MRAGATES@aol.com>, michin <michin@erols.com>, Paul <S1153FAM@aol.com>, steven kuitems <skuitems@eclipse.net>, "William C. Mattison" <mattison@thunder.nws.noaa.gov> Subject: [Fwd: Fw: SAD NEWS ;-( ZCA IS CLOSED DOWN] [... chain of forwards ...] From: SPEEDYJAKE@aol.com To: [...] Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 17:17:48 EDT Subject: SAD NEWS ;-( ZCA IS CLOSED DOWN I AM VERY SORRY TO SAY THAT ZINC CORP. of AMERICA CLOSED THE DOORS TODAY ;-(====== A MAJOR BLOW TO GOUVERNEUR NY. SGT. JAKE D. KRAMER 6. "Subscriber" List ==================== NJ Larry Berger lberger1@mindspring.com NC Alan Borg aborg@brinet.com NY Dick Bostwick rbostwick@worldnet.att.net NJ Mark Boyer mboyer@pace2001.com CA Kevin Brady ktbrady@temvalley.com PA Bob Carnein ccarnein@eagle.lhup.edu VA Peter Chin Peter.Chin@USPTO.GOV NJ John Cianciulli rockman@warwick.net NJ John Corsello corsello@bellatlantic.net CT Denis De Angelis rockden@mindspring.com CA Fred Devito devito@sierratel.com FL Sandra Downs SdownsFLA@aol.com VA Steve Gordon ssdtgordon@aol.com NY Howie Green Royal53@worldnet.att.net MD Gary Grenier william.grenier@mercantile.net MN Tim Hanson tim@ens.net NY Tema Hecht thecht@worldnet.att.net CA Andy Honig andym@lightspeed.net CA Mark Isaacs isaacsmark@hotmail.com MI John Jaszczak jaszczak@mtu.edu NY Carl Kanoff MCDKan@clarityconnect.com NJ Steve Kuitems skuitems@eclipse.net FL Roy Lambert rlambert@ufl.edu NY Donald Lapham donald_lapham@fmc.com NY Greg Lesinski Gslrocks@aol.com PA Jay Lininger matrix@redrose.net PA Mike Logan mikelogan@sprintmail.com Gavin Malcolm GavinMalcolm@netscape.net England CO Peter Marikle peter.a.marikle@lmco.com MD Bill Mattison mattison@thunder.nws.noaa.gov CA Dan McHugh dmchugh@eee.org NJ Dan McHugh Sr. dansart1@aol.com VA Curt Michanczyk CurtMich@aol.com CA Doug Mitchell DMitchell@compuserve.com CO Pete Modreski pmodresk@usgs.gov WA Don Newsome uvsystems@aol.com NJ Jeff Osowski jvotmo@blast.net AZ George Polman polmans@compuserve.com NJ Nathan Schachtman nschacht@voicenet.com NY Paul Shizume s1153fam@aol.com MD Steve Shramko steven@cyberocks.com NJ Dave Slaymaker dh10000@yahoo.com CT Charles Sloan csloan@snet.net CA Jane Grover-Smith ANGLESEA@webtv.net CA Kent Smith kentnorwood@email.msn.com NJ Chris Thorsten chris@atomic-pc.com NJ Jim Tozour jtozour@home.com NJ Earl Verbeek everbeek@nac.net PA John Vidumsky john.e.vidumsky@usa.dupont.com PA Eric Weis weis@pnpa.net NM Dru Wilbur dwilbur@nmt.edu VA David Woolley DAVEWOOL@webtv.net FL Herb Yeates herb@simplethinking.com CA Wayne Young Wayney@us.ibm.com