Miscellaneous

This page is just for the weird or interesting stuff that really doesn't fit into my other pages' themes.

This is a photo I took of the last white tiger at the National Zoo in Washington, DC (9/98). Zoo officials finally realized that the in-breeding of tigers for the white coloration brought out bad genetic defects (crossed eyes, poor health, etc.). There is now a national zoo program to let this sub-species "die" out, barring the occassional one that shows up due to the correct set of genes or albinoism. Go and see one while you still can.

Gibeon meteorite/Widenstätten pattern:

On a recent expedition to the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History, I stumbled upon a great exhibit, the Gem & Mineral room. I found lots of cool and unusual things to look at while visiting there, such as the Hope Diamond (it's a lot smaller than you'd think it would be), the Star of India and numerous other goodies. One exhibit that really caught my attention was the Gibeon meteorite showcase. The Gibeon meteorite is a fragment of a dead planet that was broken off by a heavenly body crashing into the planet and a few of these fragments ended up on Earth. Now meteorites landing on Earth happens quite a lot, but what I find so intriguing about this is that many meteorites are made of materials that can be found or duplicated here on this planet, except for Gibeon. The molten core of the planet cooled off at such a slow rate (roughly a degree every million years) that the atoms of the core (nickel and iron) actually seperated and formed intricate crystaline structures called a Widenstätten pattern. I took a few photographs of the Gibeon fragments, scanned them in, and cut a small section out. While this is cosmically intense and makes you feel sort of small in the whole sceme of the universe once you think about it, I find it stunning nonetheless.

Paua Shell:

	Okay, so I'm a sucker for neat, pretty or shiny things. While cruising the Internet, I stumbled across a neat sort of stone, Paua from New Zealand. Paua (pronounced Pa-wa), while also known as "Sea Opal" isn't even a stone, it's a shell from the Paua abolone.
	The interior shell lining is similar to mother-of-pearl, but thanks to all of the volcanic activity in the waters near New Zealand, the Paua picks up the minute minerals in the water and creates an "opalesce" effect on it's inner shell lining.
	Paua is not an opal. Opals are a very rare type of silicate that is mostly water (yes, it really is). True opals have a "shimmer" or "sheen" to them that has been termed "opalescent," especially the fire variety. But they are very delicate and and expensive. Part of the expense is the transportation costs as the best jewelery specimens come from Austrialia, although some gems come from the western part of the U.S., too.
	The paua stone offers a great alternative to the opals and can be "dyed" to bring out the different hues (purple, red, blue, yellow and green) that's a whole lot cheaper and more durable than opals.
	One company in New Zealand offers paua laminates in lieu of stones or cut-outs for jewelry. Some things that they have laminated are: pens; woodwork accents (guitars, flooring, etc.); and even a dress (for a local musician). I've posted some laminate examples as graphics so to show off what Paua looks like.

For my birthday, I received not one, but TWO paua shell specimens. One of my supervisors went to New Zealand for a month and brought me back an unpolished paua shell (which is sort of rare, the NZ govt. doesn't allow many unpolished shells out of the country) and a bone hei-matau (fishhook pendant). My wife got sneaky on me and had one of the doctors in her office (she's at NIH/NIAID) bring a hand-polished paua shell that he found on one of New Zealand's beaches. One of these days, I will visit there and also Australia. The only danger I would be in is "going native" and never coming back. My modus operandi has always been, "When in doubt, side with the natives and/or go native."

Mesquite I get easily distracted, or maybe I'm starting to get some "manly" interests as I approach middle age (joke). While doing some surfing on the Web, I discovered the world of woods. Hardwoods (oak, pine, cherry, etc.) are harvested and generally used for two purposes: woodworking and cooking. For example, Oak wood is used for flooring, furniture, hard liquor barrells, charcoal flavoring, and so forth. After doing a bit of research, I also discovered Mesquite. This is really neat hardwood (well, as neat as wood can be), that is really starting to be utilized in lots of ways. Mesquite wood chips are used in charcoal to add a, "smoky-sweet" flavor that normally isn't found in the foods themselves. If you've never had Mesquite-flavored foods, the taste is incredible and highly recommended. What picqued my interest are the all the varieties of furniture that is made from the Mesquite tree. Until recently, Mesquite was known as the "trash tree" in Texas (Mesquite trees grow in warm, dry conditions like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico and parts of South America). The trees are abundant as many animals eat the sweet-tasting seed pods and deposit the seeds while migrating. What I find so facinating is the fact that Mesquite is considered the "mother of all hardwoods" as it has a very dense grain structure (meaning it is a very stable wood that does not shrink in the curing process), can take a lot of abuse, is about twice as heavy as most woods, and looks great with it's grain pattern, and natural imperfections that give the finished products character and style. I recently won a bid on eBay for two hand-turned (i.e. a lathe) Mesquite lamps. They are heavy as all get out (I needed heavy lamps as my cats go crazy every night and would knock over anything light-weight). They are very striking, smell nice, and have received many complements.

< As I said earlier, I'm a sucker for neat things. More things to come...