Thread by @mikamckinnon

Literally nothing about the debate tonight could possibly change how I vote, and I don’t want to deal with either rage or despair from hearing his horrid voice and cruel ideals.

So I’m focusing elsewhere.

On geologic glitter, specifically.

Today’s #MinCup2020 battle is a showdown between glitter vs magnetics.

I am forever & always #TeamShiny.
Which is losing.

https://twitter.com/mineralcup/status/1310854538253856769

#Magnetite is a pretty cool mineral. It’s key to a lot of geophysics, I like collecting it with a fridge magnet on beaches, and it makes for a cool high-impact low-effort geo demo.

But then there’s #Muscovite, a subset of mica & the essence of #TeamSparkle. It’s SO SHINY.

Glittery eyeshadow? Probably has mica.

Picked up a random rock because it glinted at you? Most likely mica.

Shake hands with a geoscientist and confused why you suddenly have small shiny flakes of rock? Totally mica.

There’s a lot of good scientific reasons to vote for #Muscovite (or, sigh, #Magnetite) that you can find browsing those tags or #MinCup2020.

But I’m tired & worn down & this year has been so, so, so long. I just like the pretty rock that’s fun to play with. It’s that simple.

#Muscovite grows in sheets you can peel apart with your fingers. If you peel it thin enough, it makes glitterific flakes you can gently flex between your fingers.

It’s honestly the best (& safest) fidget toy you’ll find in a geology department.

#Muscovite is not as rock-like as your intuition suggests.

It’s soft, just Moh’s hardness 2.5 so you can scrape it with your fingernails even if you’re not peeling apart its perfect cleavage.

And its low specific gravity makes it weirdly light.

Soft & friendly.

Both tonight’s contenders are on the Safe But a Boring list when it comes to licking.

You could nibble on #muscovite, but as a potassium aluminum silicate with traces of misplaced chromium or manganese, it tastes like licking a glass. The texture is the fun bit.

And the glitter

#Muscovite handles heat REALLY WELL.

It’s actually an insulator, which along with the transparency & cleavage into tidy sheets made it ideal as a Ye Olde Times oven window.

And ordinary window.

https://twitter.com/palaeokatie/status/1311037453411717121

Along with a fondness for fire, #Muscovite is a cute lil weirdo when it comes to water.

Have a chunk of mica? Don’t wash it. It’ll absorb the water into its structure.

Instead, mica wants to be cleaned with a dry electric toothbrush. Yeah: give it a vibrating massage!

Continuing the theme of strange reactions to external forces, #muscovite is also has decent electrical resistivity.

Building a semiconductor from coconuts on that deserted island where you’re hiding from the ongoing apocalypse? Find shiny mica as your electrical insulator.

You have mica somewhere in your home right now. It’s a super-useful, super-common mineral.

#Muscovite gets incorporated into everything from the non-stick dust on moulding car tires to household capacitors to cement joins to pearlescent paints.

I love mica because it’s dead common, EVERYWHERE, incredibly useful, yet also casually gorgeous.

I’m a totally sucker for the ultra-competent ultra-femme aesthetic of wielding a wrench in delicate high heels. That’s #Muscovite.

#Muscovite has been losing by 6% to #Magnetite all day. It’d need to close a 140-vote gap over the next few hours to make it to the finals.

It’s small. It’s silly. It probably won’t happen. But my heart is with shiny & sparkle & glitter as the mineral I want to win #MinCup2020.

https://twitter.com/mineralcup/status/1310854538253856769