Fibonacci on the beach

Discover Magazine just published a beautiful gallery of photos of super-duper closeups of grains of sand. See the spiral? Tell me that's not math. There are several gorgeous sand pictures here. I'm sure I'll never look at the beach the same way again.

I can't decide

This is a specimen of black wulframite with a fluorite growth on it. I really like it. However, it costs about $31. I really really want it, but I can't decide if I should buy it or not. It's relatively small, at 1.75"X1.5"X1". The whole specimen.

Grr.

What should I do? Is it worth it?

Update:You know what? I looked at the pic on my blog, and figured, screw it. I want it. I just got a raise. Here's my present to myself.

Happy raise day to me.

Getting my rock on

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the latest addition to my nerd collection: a specimen of cinnabar on dolomite. Cinnabar is the red crystal and the dolomite is the white rock. Cinnabar's chemical composition is HgS - Mercury Sulfide - which means it's poisonous. This means that despite the fact that the specimen looks like strawberries and cream does NOT mean that it is edible.

Do you like it?