1745 Pains & Platinum

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself: "If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire is not to write."

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I did something to my left foot, maybe I slept with it twisted or something. It's got a constant ache in the instep, hurts a little when I walk on it, and hurts like hell when I hold it out in front of me and tip the sole out to the right or left. I don't understand why the instep should hurt so badly when I bend the ankle. I can't wear a shoe that goes over the instep. All very annoying.


Later: Now my right shoulder aches, too, in the front of the joint. When I woke this morning, the bedlight was still on, and I had crossword puzzle imprinted on my face and a pencil dent in my chest, so I guess I did sleep wrong. Sigh. Maybe I should go back to bed and start over.

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There was a program about platinum on PBS this morning. I learned some interesting things. Platinum was unknown to Eurasians until it was discovered by the conquistadors in the gold mines of Central America. But platinum wasn't useful because there was no way to melt it. The technology didn't exist to create the ultra-high temperatures necessary until 1751.

It takes 10 tons of ore to produce 1 ounce of platinum.

If all the platinum in the world were put into a standard olympic swimming pool, it wouldn't cover your ankles.

The above doesn't seem reasonable given that catalytic converters all contain platinum, that 1 of 5 electronic consumer products contain it, that it's the metal of choice for setting precious gems because it's stronger when thin than any other metal - most engagement rings are platinum - and there's a LOT of platinum jewelry out there. The British crown jewels are set in platinum. Tiffany jewelry is mostly pure platinum, because it can be worked very finely and still hold its shape. Most of my good rings are platinum.

Seems like that pool should be deeper.

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There's a problem with posting several times a day, and publishing once. Every time Blogger saves an entry, it adds blank lines. If I add thoughts four times in a day, there will be five blank lines inserted between paragraphs. I have to go through and delete them before the final publish. Also, I always put two spaces between sentences, but Blogger removes one. I find that annoying. Also incorrect.
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