Micro Climate in O'Fallon

[ocelotl]

Even when the Appalachians are not very tall, at least from my perspective, they are quite extensive... It seems like it could take three hours driving either to the northwest or to the southeast to cross them from Knox country for what it seems on the map... and they seem longer than the Baja Península...

As far as Google shows, there's reason on the Tail of the Dragon affirmation... No shoulders, lots of turns and mountainous terrain... Made me remember the Federal 134 Toluca-Altamirano, specially on the stretch from Los Cuervos, municipality of Tejupilco, up to Toluca... Also the Federal 105 between Higueras and Huejutla, or the descent of the Cumbres de Maltrata, between Esperanza and Orizaba, or the Federal 131 between Altotonga and Tlapacoyan...

[yogi]

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is 2193.1 miles long and goes through 14 state. We talked about that elsewhere, and it gives some idea about how long the entire range could be. I might be tempted to visit that trail some day, but riding the Dragon's Tail would be unlikely for me. My wife has a fear of heights and closes her eyes every time we drive over a bridge. She would not survive the Tail trip. Doing it solo wouldn't work either. My wife of many years doesn't allow me to go out alone to such places. LOL

[ocelotl]

I wasn't aware of the trail route, and just let google measure the road path between Birmingham, Alabama, and Albany, New York, since that seemed to be the most apparent length stretch of the Appalachians, and the width across at about the position of Knox County, It seems to be between Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Somerset, Kentucky. That gave an extension of roughly 1750 by 470 km... Quite large, if you ask me.

[yogi]

The Appalachian Mountains are indeed large but the Rockies on the opposite side of this country are even bigger. Geology has always been interesting to me and I often wonder exactly how those mountains got to be where there are. Apparently it's no mystery to people who study such things. Looking at a world map it seems as if NA and SA broke away from Africa and Europe at some point in the past. If we were all one land mass at some time, what possible force of nature could have cause it to split? It's mind boggling. Whatever the explanation is, the situation today is a very dramatic and beautiful landscape.

[Kellemora]

The Smoky Mountains are like large rolling hills with sloping sides, compared to the Rockies with all their jagged cliffs and tall rock faces. Two totally different types of mountains I suppose.

[ocelotl]

I tend to think about the Earth's crust as if it were a boiling pot of rice pudding... The crust that forms tend to form crumples that move, split, fuse and sink while the milk keeps boiling... Maybe not the best analogy, but one that helped me understand a bit of it.

Mainly the differences between both ranges are due to their age, The Appalachians formed when Laurentia fused with Baltica, some 450 - 500 million years ago... Erosion and the creation of the Atlantic Ocean has softened and cut most of their original majesty...

Now, the Rockies are still growing, and I think we mentioned them as part of the Continental Divide some time ago in another thread. As part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, they are still very active, and that's why they are still jagged.

As with the Appalachians up to Terranova along with the Baltic mountains in Europe (Iceland and Scandinavia), there are people that consider the whole Pacific Ring of fire as a single range, but being more strict, we can divide it according to the main ranges within the full ring, thus, the Rockies can be comprised of the part between the tip of Alaska to the Gagsden purchase territory in Arizona and New Mexico, although the both Sierras Madre down to the Mexican Transvolcanic Belt can be taken as part of the full Rockies Range, or not, depending on who are we asking to.

[yogi]

It's my impression that I am living at the bottom of an ancient sea bed. The water that was here eventually flowed off into the other oceans, and I'm guessing a good part of it went through the Appalachian mountains causing them to erode. I'd also guess the erosion is still happening in that snow appears at some peaks, which means there is water that can seep into the rocks, freeze, and break things up.

Your analogy to bubbling pudding is fair. The crust on which we live is not all that stable in that it is divided into moving plates. Those plates butt up against each other and create mountains along with earth quakes. Word on the street is that the state of California is tagged to drift out to sea some day and possibly sink into the Pacific because it is at the edge of two massive tectonic plates which are about to break at the edges. Given what else is going on in California, perhaps being sent out to sea would be a good thing. LOL

[Kellemora]

Sorta on topic, in a way I suppose:

We had this crazy chemistry teacher in High School who loved to make things that blow up, so we all called him PYRO, hi hi.

In any case, he was a good buddy with the Geology teacher, and together they made this totally awesome Flat World in the Science building lobby. Basically a huge tank of water, with oceans and land masses floating on the water. The land masses could grow and shrink, a new island could form and stay as an island or get gobbled up by a land mass. The land masses could also split apart and become two, or run into each other and cause a mountain to form. Also due to the fine mist that sprayed over everything about once every two hours, it could actually erode away the peaks of the land mass mountains and form small rivers around the land masses. The whole system was sealed but the geological activity that took place was enough you could see changes every day, sometimes some minor changes every few hours.
I forget all the chemicals they used to make this thing, but it was much more than saltwater and corn starch and whatever else it was made from. It was there a couple of years before I started school there, and was still there a few years after I graduated. I assume for as long as Pyro was still a teacher there. It was interesting reading all the little signs and name plates they had around the lower frame, sitting on top, and hanging on the wall behind it.
The amazing thing about it was how it was always changing, even if ever so slowly. Just like our continents move around.

I don't think California would be missed if it fell into the ocean, hi hi.

[yogi]

Oh WOW. That geological exhibit sounds as if it were totally amazing. That's the kind of teacher I wish I had more of when I was being educated. I had a chemistry teacher in high school that occasionally got the local fire department to visit after an experiment. She didn't mind explosions from what we could tell, but she claims that she never plans on them happening. She never managed to kill any of the students and always made sure we had our PPE in place. Nothing like that happened in any of my classes, but there were lots of other stories.

We all can joke about California, but the fact is that state alone accounts for about 15% of the US economy. Then there are the avocados that would go missing if something happened to them.

[Kellemora]

FWIW: I didn't pass the chemistry class, didn't even come close, my math was too poor, hi hi.
And all those chemical combinations that are not at all what you think they would be.

Here is a simple one anyone can understand.

H2O is Water, fairly common knowledge.
O2 is the Air we breathe, also common knowledge.

Now if Water is good for us, and Oxygen in the form of O2 is good for us.

And we know we have carbonated drinks which are made using CO2 and safe to drink.

So logically if you made Oxygenated water by adding another O to H2O, it should be good for us right?

Unfortunately, Oxygenated water or H2O2 is poisonous. It is actually Hydrogen Peroxide!

It was these kinds of formula's I could not get my head wrapped around, so failed the course, both semesters, hi hi.

[Kellemora]

I wouldn't miss avocado's either, can't stand the taste of them, in anything.

[ocelotl]

Michoacán and Jalisco would not be enough to supply the avocado demand, or Sinaloa covering the tomato demand... And we'll miss the salt mines in Guerrero Negro, the Ensenada vineyards, Tecate, the San Pedro Martir Observatory and the Whale cradles at Mulegé and La Paz bay... Maybe we can make a cut just south of Tijuana and anchor the Baja so the rest can go to Alaska...

[ocelotl]

FWIW: I didn't pass the chemistry class, didn't even come close, my math was too poor, hi hi.
And all those chemical combinations that are not at all what you think they would be.

Here is a simple one anyone can understand.

H2O is Water, fairly common knowledge.
O2 is the Air we breathe, also common knowledge.

Now if Water is good for us, and Oxygen in the form of O2 is good for us.

And we know we have carbonated drinks which are made using CO2 and safe to drink.

So logically if you made Oxygenated water by adding another O to H2O, it should be good for us right?

Unfortunately, Oxygenated water or H2O2 is poisonous. It is actually Hydrogen Peroxide!

It was these kinds of formula's I could not get my head wrapped around, so failed the course, both semesters, hi hi.

The way I understood it was that the Hydrogen Peroxide is more reactive than water since the atom link within the molecule is weaker, so it tends to release one of the oxygen atoms transforming to natural water... The loose oxygen atom will instantly try to adhere to another molecule, oxidizing it instantly. For organic molecules that could be disastrous, since it could break DNA or damage cellular walls, leading to the death of cells... It seems to be that the teaching of chemistry should base more on the way that the atom links within molecules work, and build the understanding from there.

And well, about avocados, ¿What can I say? I inherited the taste for that... specially for the thin shink creole variety. Oh. Street taqueros secret. When preparing green salsa (fresh green tomato, garlic, onion, coriander, salt, serrano or cuaresmeño peppers), add squash. That's the cheap thinner version of guacamole.

[yogi]

My chem classes were taught by a teacher who emphasized element valence, or it's ability to bind electrons. All the formulas she tried to get us to learn were based on that one concept: valence. It kind of stuck with me but I almost failed the class due to my inability to see any logic of chemical reactions based on their valence. It was like trying to factor quadratic equations in algebra. It just was not intuitively obvious to the most casual observer. LOL

[Kellemora]

I actually learned more about chemistry when I took my classes in horticulture, where I needed to know what I could about plant nutrients and how they are formulated. It is also the kind of chemistry I used most often being in the greenhouse business, and later hydroponics and hydroculture.

The one and only time I actually understood something about chemistry, was after one of my epilepsy attacks, and I used what I knew to develop a product that I put on the market over 25 years ago now, and it is still sold worldwide, in very small amounts due to technology changing how folks keep reef aquaria.
One interesting note though, is one of the largest aquarium pharmaceutical companies tried to copy my product and ended up with snake oil they pawned off on their clients. Who soon realized it was snake oil and only fooled the test kits. Because they were such a big company with widespread distribution and high sales, it actually hurt my business because those who got burned with their product, figured mine was probably the same.
But I hung in there and little by little folks realized mine worked as promised, and sales grew and grew until technology started knocking those sales back down again. Nevertheless, my product is still on several retailers store shelves.

[yogi]

It's got to be a rare bird that keeps a reef aquaria, which I presume is what they also call a salt water aquarium. I've known a few enthusiasts but only one comes to mind who tinkered with salt water. Apparently it's way more difficult to maintain, and the mistakes end up be quite costly. You explained some of the details about your product in some other thread. Obviously your understanding of the chemistry was more than average at that time. I recall not understanding how you came to some conclusions about the ionization, but I am not well versed enough to give you an argument. LOL The proof of the pudding is that you are indeed still selling this product. The formula and the process obviously is an old family secret and will go to the next life with you. However, that formula sounds like just the thing that would work as an NFT we discussed in yet some other thread. There may be three or four people in this world who would be willing to pay to own the formulation process if it were documented. It might be worth considering just to save all those reef aquaria which will miss your product once you stop producing it.

[Kellemora]

The problem with my denitrifier formula is, I've been able to simplify it down to almost all common household ingredients. And if the formula ever got out, anyone with a reef aquaria could make their own, and duplicate a couple of the ingredients by buying existing products that happen to have them in it already.
A few people think they figured it out, except for one thing. The versions they come up with always leave some undissolved or dissolved organic carbons behind in the aquarium, while mine does not have that bad side affect. It also causes a different type of enzyme to flourish.

As I said, a big company tried to reverse engineer my product, and ended up selling snake oil that didn't work, and only fooled the test kits.

Now the formula for separating and recharging mixed bed DI columns I have posted on my website. Easy to make, but could be dangerous to some to do so. It was problems with shipping why I finally just released the formula for it for free. And to spite the company who made those columns and claimed they could not be recharged. When in fact, it is quite easy to do so.

[yogi]

I realize how specialized the AZ-NO3 product is, and that you may possibly be the only person on earth who can concoct the formula. To be able to come to that point is a huge feather in your cap. I don't know how many people in the wild actually use and depend on it, but once you stop making it nobody will have it and a lot of aquariums might ... sink. Perhaps an NFT is not the right approach, but maybe you would want to put the formulation in your will, or some such thing, where it can only be accessed after you don't need it anymore. Plus, if anybody can make it, then all your competition would receive a fitting revenge. LOL

I'm sure your business is no different than anybody else's business as far as competition is concerned. It's what makes this economy as great as it is. In theory the competition allows the best of the best to float to the top of the supply chain. It sure looks like that is what happened in your case.

[Kellemora]

I'm almost to the point physically I won't be able to make it much longer.
Over the early years I've been able to simplify the product from my original formula, and in the process make it work better.
And have not changed from it, since the 4th generation as one of my distributors called it and it stuck, hi hi.

Being able to boast about it being on the market internationally for 25 years truly is a feather in my cap.
But since the product is for such a small niche market, there's no real money to be made from it.
If there was, then I could probably sell it to someone to carry on making it.
But once the two main secrets are given to someone, I doubt they would be smart enough to not mention it somewhere.

I almost did a few times myself when explaining why some of the home-brew concoctions folks came up with, although they appeared to work for a short time, in the long run they actually made problems worse, mainly due to the organic carbon buildup in their system which then causes bad things like hair algae to flourish.
Some folks used my product to get rid of hair algae and talked about it on-line, which did help sales some, although I don't recommend using it for that purpose. Although using it won't hurt the delicate reef animals, even if used continually.

I only had one competitor, and as I said, his product was snake oil, hi hi.
But, modern technology is also a competitor as improved husbandry means my product should never be needed.
The cost of keeping a reef aquarium has grown so much, that the once expensive high tech equipment, although their price has gone up a little to, is now not such a huge jump from the cost of a reef to the cost of the equipment.

[yogi]

There is a high degree of satisfaction in being able to do something that is rarely done. This certainly must apply to aquariums. I think it can safely be said that many of those highly specialized aquariums in the wild exist only because of your contribution to the hobbyist's ecology. If progress has not put you out of business for twenty-five years making the same product, I'd say you accomplished something truly significant. Nothing stands still for that long, usually. Sadly all good things do come to an end. There is no need to regret completing a long successful run because it means a new phase is beginning. I fully understand that it may not be a phase you planned on, but based on your past successes I have no doubt that any new phase of life will continue the trend.