Exploring American History, Wednesday, September 25, 2024

[imafuturist]

Tony and Steve had paid extra for a portal to a New York City where it wasn't pouring today. "Welcome to the greatest city in the world," said Steve, a completely unbiased source on this.

"With the best food too," Tony added. Also completely unbiased. "Today we'll be checking out the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom and a gift from the people of France in the 19th century."

Steve nodded. "Lady Liberty was a gift to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the United States. She was built in France, shipped over in crates and assembled right here on this island. She's 151 feet tall to the torch, not counting the pedestal. With that, she's 305 feet tall. She's been in this harbor since 1886, welcoming immigrants from around the world before they landed at Ellis Island over there." He smiled. "We'll go to that historical site on a different day."

"In 1903, a poem was placed on a plaque at the pedestal of the statue that we highly suggest you all check out before you get distracted by anything else," Tony said. "Tempting as it is to check out the city instead of sticking with the group."

"But if you do head out, remember that thanks to our amazingly diverse population, the food you can find here comes from just about every nation on Earth," Steve said. "I recommend all of it, but pizza's probably the fastest choice if you don't want to miss the portal back."

Morality of Action, Wednesday Afternoon

[despisestheforce]

The class had been summoned to the Danger Shop, but no teacher awaited them. Instead, as they stepped through, they would find themselves in a room with blasters and sticks on one side, and what appeared to be a small amount of currency on the other.

The door at the far end of the room was open. It allowed a peek onto what appeared to be some kind of large platform, with tall buildings in the distance, and people walking around going about their lives.

Well, then.

Introduction to Fossils - Wednesday Period 1

[itsananomaly]

It was just Cutter standing in front of the class today, “sorry for missing last week, we had an emergency back home, Mr. Temple sends his apologies for not being here this week and he’ll back as soon as he can,” he told them as he began that week’s luggage, “this week we’re going to be looking at how fossils are formed and there are many ways that they are formed but they are commonly formed when a living organism dies and is buried by sediment that can include mud, sand or volcanic ash,” he explained, “this is turn causes the soft tissue to decompose and this leaves only the hard bone or shells behind and then once the organism has been buried, more sediment will will continue to fall until all the layers harden into rock, it is only through the process of erosion when the layers of sediment wash away that we can learn about these organisms and what they can reveal to us,” he continued.

“There are five common ways that a fossil can form these are through Permineralisation occurs when dissolved minerals, carried by ground water fill up space inside the cells of plants and animals. The dissolved minerals crystalise in these cellular spaces and eventually form rocks in the shape of the animal or plant, this is the most common preservation and examples include teeth, bones, shells and wood. Impression fossils form when the organisms original bone or tissue is removed by processes that occur after burial, such as ground water flow. If the organisms remains are decomposed entirely, leaving an empty space in the shape of the organism, it is referred to as a cast. If minerals fill in this empty space and form a mineralised 3D shape of the organism it is referred to as a mould. Marine invertebrates like shells form in fossils this way,”

“Amber can preserve organisms if they become trapped in tree resin. The resin will eventually harden to form a golden amber that has been shown to preserve fossils up to 100 million years old, Trace fossils record the activity of an organism. They include nests, burrows, footprints and coprolites and finally Soft tissues can also be preserved. These include the intact remains of organisms and often include preserved skin, muscle, bone, hair and internal organs. Soft tissue fossils form in special circumstances that often need rapid burial and low oxygen environments that stop the organism from decomposing or being scavenged by other organisms. These circumstances can occur when the entire organism becomes rapidly encased in material such as ice or volcanic ash or buried in peat bogs or trapped in amber. This is a rare form of preservation, when it does happen the fossils are exceptionally well-preserved and provide a lot of information about these past forms of life. When fossil sites are found with this kind of exceptional soft tissue preservation they are often referred to as Lagerstätte An example of this kind of soft tissue preservation comes from the worlds best-preserved woolly mammoth (a baby mammoth named Lyuba) discovered from within ice that formed 40,000 yeas ago,”

“For the rest of today’s lecture I would like you to complete this make a fossil activity with the moddable supplies that have been provided for you,” Cutter finished, “and if you need any help or have any questions I’ll be happy to answer them for you,”