Last week I had the honor and privilege of giving a presentation to our local Kiwanis club on the topic of collecting fluorescent minerals. The person who takes minutes takes very detailed minutes, including the names of the rocks I presented and so on. Given the slightly technical nature of the talk, I was given an opportunity to review the minutes before publication, to ensure that the rock names were spelled correctly and so on.
As it turns out, the last few paragraphs of the article as published in the paper were from an older, uncorrected version of the minutes. (I know how this happens because almost every entry I post needs a correction moments after it’s published, no matter how carefully I proofed it before publishing.) Unlike a dead-tree publication, I can fix my errors immmediately and no one’s the wiser; hard to do with printed material.
And so, here’s the correct final paragraphs from the article in today’s News-Record (the full article is in the extended entry area):
Mike works for HP via the internet and works on web services and consulting for HP labs. At HP Labs they create technologies for future HP products and his group is known as Research IT (information technology).
He acquired one of his websites, Little Sweden USA, from Marc Anderson who was no longer using it. He occasionally posts things about Lindsborg on it. He also does the Lindsborg Update for KSAL. He also now does podcasts, an easy way to listen to multi-media over the internet. He doesn’t usually put upcoming events on Little Sweden, but does mention some after they have occurred. He said he doesn’t want it to become just a calendar of future events.
On a personal note he said growing up in Lindsborg was one of the best things that ever happened to him, and gave him the background needed to cope with the California culture. Hewlett Packard dates back to 1939 when Bill and Dave started it in their garage, now a California Historical Site. They started with the philosophy “we can do well by doing good” involving beneficial things like community involvement. He said this is still important to HP. With that he stopped, received the Kiwanis pen of gratitude for the program. President John then thanked the guests for coming, said you are always welcome and appreciated, and come back. He then gave the bell another bang and said we could leave.
KIWANIS
January 26, 2006
President John Nelson addressed the brass bell with the gavel and opened another Kiwanis meeting in Lindsborg at the Senior Center, January 26th, with a crammed house, 33 members. President John remarked that is great attendance and to keep it up, we might set a new record. A. John Pearson sang the first note of America so the Kiwanis chorus could follow along before we pledged the flag and Bill Carlson prayed for all of us and that we could continue to do good works for the community, especially the children. Three plates did not make it off the tables before the bell rang.
Pres. John called for guests and Bill Carlson introduced his guest, Ron Stam formerly from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He said just one “m” in his name, since he was a Swede, not a German. One way to remember he said was Swedish tennis player, Anna Stam. Ken Sjogren followed by introducing his guest, Ken Forsberg, former elementary school principal here in Lindsborg. Ken Carmichael introduced his guest, wife Dorothy, who reminded us of the music concert series coming up at the Methodist Church. Brad Howe introduced his guest, Mike Rodriquez, who was on for the program a bit later. Birthdays were next up with Agnes Jennings and she said she was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Brad Howe followed with a birthplace of Tampa, Florida, on the Air Force base. A. John started us on the birthday song, and there was a bit of confusion as we wrestled with what to sing when the celebrants were mixed company.
Bill Carlson put in the first Happy Dollar for his new friend Ron Stam, remarking it was well to make new friends and then welcomed Ron in Swedish to which Ron replied in Swedish. Ron did say, in English, Bill
should change one Swedish word so Ron would be male, not female. Ken Sjogren put in the next dollar for his old friend Ken Forsberg. Mike Rodriquez said he read in the newspaper about so many Happy Dollars put in he felt he should follow suit. Brad Howe put in his dollar for his guest, Mike and A. John Pearson put in a dollar for all the guests. From someone in the room came the comment that Paul Dahlberg has a pen collection with 17,000 pens but didn’t have one here to loan him.
Agnes Jennings put in a dollar to celebrate a granddaughter’s first birthday. Bud Rothgeb put in a dollar because he said we are never too old to learn. He said he had breakfast in a friend’s house and one of
the children who had some problem with his letters said if they had alphabet cereal instead of Cheerios things would work out better. Earl Ahlstedt put in a dollar because he said he saw some more moths
come out of Paul Dahlberg’s purse, but was corrected that it was a wallet. Ken Carmichael put in his dollar for his wife Dorothy and Ron Stam. With Happy Dollars over Pres John was reminded of a story of a grandmother who took her grandson to the mall, and of course he had to go to the restroom. After he returned she asked him did it go alright, and he replied no. There were two older men there, and he said one couldn’t start and the other couldn’t stop, so he didn’t know what to do. John said “I used to think that was funny.”
Bill Roth announced the four other helpers loading up the Red Cross stuff after the blood drive, Lee Spellman, Gary Neuschafer, Bobby Peterson and Leon Burch. Keith Kandt said a group including John,
Kathy, Bill and Jim from our club had attended the district convention in Emporia. At that meeting the Lindsborg Club received an honorable mention for outstanding club, and Treasurer Jim Harrison was recognized as Outstanding Secretary. Kathi Patterson gave the figures on the income from Hyllningsfest, $2,609 total collected for a net of $1,540 after expenses, and from the Spaghetti
Supper, $1,965 taken in with a net income of $1,296 after expenses. Barry McMillan said if anyone needed a future program, Susan Sandbo could provide on about parents and teachers.
It was time to move on to the program and Brad Howe introduced Mike Rodriquez. He said Mike had agreed at the last minute to give a program and wiped the sweat from his brow. Mike grew up in Lindsborg and then spent many years in California working for Hewlett Packard (HP) before moving back to Lindsborg about a year and a half ago. Mike said he still works for HP and does the same work, but works at home commuting by computer, doing the work from 1,550 miles away instead of yards away as it had been in California. He manages computer operations and does web work here just as he did there.
But he said today he would talk about his hobby, collecting florescent minerals and not his job. He has a lot of information about them on the web at glowrocks.com. His interest in rock collecting began back in the early 1960s when an uncle took him to a rock club pot luck dinner. He also had seen a program about them at Old Main in Lindsborg. However he didn’t get seriously interested until 1994 when a friend of his showed him his collection, which he found boring, until his friend turned the room lights out and turned on the special lights, known as ultraviolet lights. These special rocks are generally in two categories, fluorescents which are “excited” by the special lights for so long as the light stays on, and phosphorus rocks which continue to glow for a while after the lights go out. The light comes in two wavelengths, long and short, and the rocks will only become excited when the proper wave length light is shone on them. He told us about a laundry detergent ad, claiming whiter than white. The detergent contains an ingredient that is excited by sunlight which gives it the very white appearance. The US
Postal service incorporates this same substance in stamps to help sort the mail. Then the questions started. Ken Sjogren wanted to know about stains in the carpet. Mike said the spot where a pet has “stained” the carpet will show up in special light. The old paint that was used for watch dials was a radium based paint that was discontinued because of the adverse health effect of the radium.
Then he got out rock specimens to demonstrate their special characteristics. He started with two from Sweden, barthocalcite showing an orange color and Svabite showing a red color. Most of his specimens
he said he obtained at rock shows where they sell from a couple of dollars and up depending on their scarcity. Next he showed Tugtuptite from Iceland. He paid $15 for it because it is so bright under the
special light. The colored light shows up in these rocks because of impurities in the rock. He said similar substances are found in dried lichen on rocks. Scorpions glow white on Coronado heights. Next he brought out Strontium from Italy that glows red in the special light. Then he showed us the color green from Adamite from Mexico produced under the special light. Next was the Halite, which is a salt-like substance that dried around sage brush that will also glow. He then showed us some of his brightest fluorites, one from Tennessee glowing green and one from Ohio which showed off a cream color. Then he displayed some from England. Then he pulled out his favorite, a rock
from New Jersey, Calcite and Willemite found in tailings piles from mine operations. The mines are no longer operating but once a year people are able to dig through the tailings piles to find specimens of these rocks. When asked what calcite was used for, Mike said he didn’t know, and no one else in the room did. Since these tailings have been used in some of the roads in New Jersey, these roads would glow in the right kind of light. The Barite he showed us glowed a creamy white color and Wollestonite glowed orange. He got out a couple more of his favorites and one was a smooth sphere that displayed various colors when rotated. The sphere was made in a kind of grinder that spun the rough rock
around while being washed by water until it became round. Another glowing rock was made into the shape of the California Bear. Mike had never seen mercury under the special light to know if it would glow.
Mike works for HP via the internet and works on web services and consulting for HP labs. At HP Labs they create technologies for future HP products and his group is known as Research IT (information
technology).
He acquired one of his websites, Little Sweden USA, from Marc Anderson who was no longer using it. He occasionally posts things about Lindsborg on it. He also does the Lindsborg Update for KSAL. He
also now does podcasts, an easy way to listen to multi-media over the internet. He doesn’t usually put upcoming events on Little Sweden, but does mention some after they have occurred. He said he doesn’t want it to become just a calendar of future events.
On a personal note he said growing up in Lindsborg was one of the best things that ever happened to
him, and gave him the background needed to cope with the California culture. Hewlett Packard dates back to 1939 when Bill and Dave started it in their garage, now a California Historical Site. They started with the philosophy “we can do well by doing good” involving beneficial things like community involvement. He said this is still important to HP. With that he stopped, received the Kiwanis pen of gratitude for the program. President John then thanked the guests for coming, said you are always welcome and appreciated, and come back. He then gave the bell another bang and said we could leave.