Copperas 051117

All good fun. Follow-up from article "Copper Bottomed" I wrote in July.

• Copperas is ferrous sulphate or iron II sulphate and so nothing to do with the element copper. The etymology appears to be that copper sulphate, which has a gorgeous cyan turquoise colour, was originally known as blue copperas, the iron salt as green copperas, and zinc sulphate as white copperas. Copperas from Latin aqua cuprosa. Copperas will sort you out if you're anaemic but will probably also gum up the bowel.
• Copperas Cove is a town in Texas where one parent uses a drone quadcopter to follow his kids home from school and another citizen shoots at the surveillance toy.
• Tankardstown, Co Waterford has an amazing blue lagoon in the subterranean copper workings. Ordinary folk can't get down there so they've made a 3-D tour.
• Today they have a Book Fair as well to raise funds for the Copper Coast Geopark. Geopark. Visitor Centre, Bonmahon. Sun. 5th. Nov. 1.00pm.   Free entry but you'll have to pay for the books (three boxes of which we donated last year . . . which didn't sell).
• You can buy a copy of Andrew Doherty's Before the Tide Went Out, if he has any left.
• What about a fish-wheel? Salmon scooped from the river while you sit on the sofa.
• Otzi the Iceman had a copper-faced axe. You too could own such a thing . . . if yer made it
• Copperfaced Jack's another place to make it . . . yer wish.

And now for somethings complete diff:

• Neil Henry from Bedford, magician, pulls one off / seven up.
• Easter Island moai and other related matters.
• Snooker: Clipping the red the red the red - not. If John Higgins was trying to do this, it would be a triumph
• Sand-bar dam breach in real time.
• Follow up on Jorge Luis Borges [prev] at Kottke
• Follow-up on Hallowe'en: "Hey kids I ate all your candy"
• Essay: company finds open plan office is noisy and distracting in parts, gathers decibel data and moves work-groups to optimise productivity.
• Follow-up on GRIM, here's a case of overly precise data that has the ring of untruth. In the Emu Wars after WWI, the army claimed "Meredith was recalled on 10 December, and in his report he claimed 986 kills with 9,860 rounds, at a rate of exactly 10 rounds per confirmed kill."  This is one of a long series of attempts by Australian farmers to exterminate or exclude wildlife - Rabbit-proof Fence, Fox bounties etc. etc.