Friday, November 30, 2007

Fulgurite

Have you ever tried to find information about a specific thing on the Internet and couldn’t? Yeah, me neither...

Ha! Not true. I recently tried to find out a few things, and I came up with nothing.

For example, on the TV show, CSI, when they go into a house or building of any kind to search it, they all take their flashlights in with them, and they use the flashlights instead of turning on the lights. Why do they do this? I’m pretty sure the answer can be found somewhere out there on the Internet, but I couldn’t find it. Gotta ask the right questions, y’know. Meanwhile, my family is getting tired of me telling the TV to just turn on the lightswitch, dumbass.

Also, on the new sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, which I think is totally hilarious, I know that the guy who plays Leonard, actor Johnny Galecki, was on the show Roseanne years ago. (Also, Sara Gilbert is on this show, & she was Darlene on Roseanne.) On one episode on The Big Bang Theory, Leonard is wearing a robe that looks so familiar to me... I think it’s a robe like one he wore on Roseanne. I’ve searched the Great and Wonderful Internet, but nada.

So, yeah, sometimes I search for useless crap information on the Internet and am disappointed. But probably not as disappointed entertained as I am at the useless crap information I do find.

So anyway...

After watching the movie, Sweet Home Alabama, for the fifth or twenty-first time or so (we likes us that movie - if you haven't seen it yet, get out from under your rock and rent it, heck, just buy it!), I got wondering about those gorgeous glass sculptures made from lightning hitting the sand... aka, fulgerites. So I did an Interent search for them...

Google: Results 1 - 10 of about 39,900 for fulgurite
Yahoo!: 1-10 of 44,800 for fulgurite

Lots and lots of info on fulgerite. Whoever wrote that bit about fulgurites in the movie must have known diddley-squat about fulgurites, because I believe there is no way to romanticize these:





Not attractive. Very, very interesting. But not attractive. Well, not attractive in the way this is...



This is a photo I took of the scene in the Sweet Home Alabama movie, where Melanie discovers Jake’s glass business... and wouldn’t you just love to own every piece of glass featured in that showroom... So I wondered who made all those beautiful glass pieces? I asked the Internet and found Simon Pearce. I love this. And these, too. Oh, and these, and these. If I win the lottery...

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:33 PM

    If you look up Fulgurites on Google pictures, then you will see some beautiful pictures of some Fulgurites. I saw a very nice pink one.

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  2. Thank you for your comment. I did a Google image search for "pink fulgurites" and saw one called "desert rose" though it didn't look very pink... it was pretty though. I found a lot of information on tourmaline, including pink tourmaline, which is a very pretty crystal (but as far as I could tell, not a fulgurite). I also found some web sites featuring jewelry made from fulgurites, which was cool!

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  3. Anonymous5:29 PM

    I was doing a search on "Lightning Glass" and found a site that mentioned other types of natural glass, such as: Volcanic/Lava Glass; Meteoritic Glass (Tektite); & glass as a result of Nuclear Explosions.

    The webpage is:

    http://plaza.ufl.edu/rakov/Gas.html

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  4. ChelSierra - thanks for the link; I read the page & it was very interesting. I remember seeing the Allan McCollum project photo before... but because of your link, I looked more closely at his work. Here is a link to his "projects" web page: http://home.att.net/~AllanMcNYC/projects.html
    On the exhibit he did, "Petrified Lightning from Camp Blanding," the accompanying 66 booklets he produced about fulgurites and lightning are very interesting! Link to those (as pdf files) here: http://home.att.net/~amcimages/pdffiles.html.
    Thanks for your comment!
    ~Julie

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  5. I took a forensics class in school. They do not turn the lights on because they need to record the crime scene exactly as the crime took place, including the way the lights were. Also so as not to disturb things like fibers, blood or fingerprints.

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  6. Thanks for your comment, Shannon. I also had an ex-cop send me an email explaining that when you're looking at a crime scene with a flashlight, using the flashlight tends to concentrate your observations, allowing one to perhaps see something one might have missed otherwise. All very interesting. Also saw a CSI episode where the light was set up as a bomb, triggered to explode when the lightswitch was turned on... that there is reason enough for me! And why I would never be a crime scene investigator... kudos to those with the balls to do it!
    ~Julie

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  7. i am so with you on the disapointment with fulgurites! i ran off to the internet, ready and eager to figure out how to play with lightning and make pretty glass sculptures with the help of those heavenly energies - but i can not find a single REAL picture of something as beautiful as the sweet home alabama sculptures. even if he polished and burnished forever, i doubt he could have made them...
    (yes, i love ellipses too...)

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  8. Anonymous1:20 AM

    I noticed Jonny Galecki's robe also, but your blog is the only thing I found about it on the web. Amy has the couch afgan from Roseanne too. I need a hobby! n

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  9. Leonard is wearing a vintage robe made by Beacon.

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