iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

To be fair, the fossil record is just that. The first record of a hard part usually marks the beginning but it is implicit that it's not the beginning of that lineage. It is perfectly reasonable that there is a lot time for biochemistry & soft tissue before the first actual fossils record things.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm pretty sure some of my ex students would be happy for me to remember them in my will with my estwing g-pick.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#MinCup26 Sad that some feel the need to manipulate the results rather than just having fun playing along.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#MinCup26 Round 5 Match 1 - Finals Cuprite is very pretty but I am now with team Quartz!

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#MinCup26 Semifinal 2: Had to go with quartz, because graphite. Both have lots going for them but qtz is part of my life the way graphite isn't.🧪🪟

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Sadly the system has so much 'momentum' aka stored energy that nothing we do now will stop it. All we can do is reduce the harm for sometime in the future, perhaps millenia away 😓

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The most recent trend has been to just close departments entirely 😓

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Sadly in Australia, when palaeo people retire or the department is downsized it is usually palaeo people who are not replaced or that area is reduced to a rump doing undergraduate teaching only, often just as lip service to geoscience in an amalgamation of things.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Over the years I have observed many polarised geoscience debates. More often than not the reality lies somewhere between the two end members but sometimes both are wrong and sometimes one is maybe kinda right. Perhaps the stem ancestry of jellies and sponges is just so obscure we'll never know?

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Me neither until the cup. Looked it up on mindat.org just to be sure.

monday.org

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Doesn't help that a lot of places have stopped teaching palaeontology or biostratigraphy...

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It's the only place I have been on 'pilgrimage' to. Luckily it was a nice day too.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#MinCup26 Quarterfinal 4: Pyromorphite for all the reasons previously cited, plus graphite and I usually have a falling out when I promise not to smudge but they make me do it anyway.😧

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#MinCup26 Quarterfinal 3: The blue one is pretty and has tragic story to the etymology but the hard core science in me sees a lot more to like, and maybe lick, in NaCl. It ticks all the biogeophyschem boxes plus structure etc. It's good to be salty 😉⚒️🧪🧊

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'm not sure topaz, corundum or a bunch of others would agree with one of your reasons.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

#MinCup26 Quarterfinal 2: Had to go with quartz, Skutterudite just does not do it for me. Curiously, the word 'rudite' is a term once commonly applied to coarse grained sedimentary rocks but Skutterudite's etymology is all about the discovery/type location 'Skutterud' in Norway, not sedimentology!

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#MinCup26 Quarterfinal 1: Sphalerite for all the reasons mentioned last time. Such a great Broken Hill connection too.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 7: I voted for rare earth soup again 😀

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The southern hemisphere has known this bias for a long time, no map needed 😕

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Enjoy. However, bluesky is international so it would be nice if you acknowledged your southern hemisphere friends too. We are enjoying spring 😀

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 7: Despite voting blue previously and also against salt I am going halide this time because I love hopper crystals and the clues to palaeoenvironment when salt crystals are buried in sediment and then leave their marks in the resultant rock.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 6: I like both these for very different reasons but when matched against each other I come down on the side of the phosphate, given its colours, solid solution affinities and the fond Broken Hill memories it invokes.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 4: Despite a purple colour and Australian connection I went with quartz as it has lots more going for it, and it comes in purple too!

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 3: had to go with andalusite. It has some great uses and is a wonderful teaching tool (along with its two siblings).

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

By way of a fun introduction we tell our 'stranger things' generation that foids are from the upside down and we have the diagram to prove it 😎😀

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 2: Volcanic colour wins the day for me.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 1: Tricky one but l think the sulphide offers more teachable moments and gets my vote. Azurite is a great colour but it rarely adds much more to the conversation for me!

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 16: Cassiterite gets my vote. Graphite is wonderfully useful but so is Tin. Also, Cassiterite is a great heavy mineral to use in discussions about placer deposits without have to 'go gold' all the time.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 15: Going for the pretty blue. Australia had a fascinating Gold Telluride story back in the day but the Mexican mineral, while interesting, isn't in the same league.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It is probably possible but would you want to? The tv series Expanse did a good job of trying to imagine life on orbital platforms, moons and asteroids in various parts of the solar system and how people might cope or adapt. They showed how life was fragile and the rich live better until they don't.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 14: The rare earth gold mine gets my vote despite its radioactive potential. Fibrous riebeckite has too much bad press, for good reasons, so despite it being a pretty blue and its odd ball fibrous crystals being a wonder to behold I can't give it a thumbs up.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 13: I'm on a low salt diet and l have always liked the way the death dealing arsenic is so often life-adjacent in the biosphere. Arsenopyrite it is.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 12: I'm not heavily invested in either but cylindrite gets my vote for combining crystallinity and cylindricity!

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

See my artistic and poetic homage to calcite and mineral optics more generally here: www.consilience-journal.com/conciliarte-...

consilience-journal.com

Birefringent thinking in a polarised world — Consilience

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 11: The special optics of calcite win the day against a pretty but ephemeral mineral. It's also a gateway teaching mineral into hardness, cleavage, biomineralisation, sedimentary geology, weathering & erosion. What's not to like?

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 10: Pyromorphite gets my vote, only because it reminds me of some nice times in Broken Hill. Yes, lots of gypsum out that way too but I'm a sucker for the colourful ones!

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 9: I love a good solid solution series but purple wins the day for me (again) plus a neat Australian connection (again).

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Not unlike the Australian Tawney Frogmouth to look at but not to listen to.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

While Stichtite probably won't be contaminated with asbestos I still would not breathe in its powder or lick it. I'm pretty sure the Cr content would not be your friend.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 8: Stichtite it is. Sorry useful talc, I just like purple things. At first glance I thought it might be lepidolite v fuchsite. That would be a harder choice for me...it's a long story!

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I just vote, I don't campaign but I do go public with my vote so I suppose that's kinda campaigning. That said I see no reason why there has to be a correlation between votes and campaigns.

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

So that the pun 'oresome' really works!

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stonegecko.bsky.social @stonegecko.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 match 7: Torn by this one. I love the pretty radioactives but andalusite's power as a teaching tool to help understand so much in igneous/metamorphic geotectonism wins the day. I also love chiastolite's crosses, but not for any metaphysical reason.

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