Enough of us being just upset about SB-624, it is just time to call them out for the lies.

With all of the evidence being put forth, the sheer amount of Geologists, Botanists and Learned men and women speaking out against this issue and the crazy amount of negative press and public comment, they STILL hold fast to this bill.

So, now let me tear it apart!

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) Serpentine was designated the official State Rock in 1965 and
is found in 49 counties in California.
(b) Serpentine contains the deadly mineral chrysotile asbestos, a
known carcinogen, exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer
mesothelioma.
(c) California has the highest rate of mesothelioma deaths in the
nation.
(d) California should not designate a rock known to be toxic to
the health of its residents as the state’s official rock.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature to remove serpentine as
the State Rock

Ok, step by step…

(A) Nothing to see here, just mentioning that Serpentine is found all over California.

(B) Makes the mineral family Serpentine guilty of ALWAYS containing Chrysotile. This is flat wrong. The wording is tricky. If it said “Serpentine sometimes contains Chrysotile” it would be right. Next wrong statement is that “Chrysotile asbestos” is a mineral. It is not. Chrysotile can also form in solid state, worthless and useless as an asbestos product. In addition, Chrysotile is often found as just small tiny veins in serpentine, not suitable for mining. There were only a handful of Chrysotile mines in California and this will combat the next line, “exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer mesothelioma.” which has been proven to be false. Here is why. Sometimes Chrysotile mines have impurities in the ore, in the form of tiny bits of Amphiboles. So, at those locations, small amounts of mesothelioma are found. However, at PURE Chrysotile mines, mesothelioma is absent. So, take your idea of “exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer mesothelioma.” and cram it, please.

(C) One of the biggest lies is right here on line C. California does not have the highest RATE of death from mesothelioma, we have the largest population and the largest QUANTITY of cases, but NOT the highest RATE, which is claimed by 25 MORE states. Lies…that are constantly pushed and published by ADAO and the other LAWYER funded asbestos/mesothelioma activists push. Like here…http://www.mesotheliomanews.com/2010/07/24/adao-supports-removal-of-serpentine-as-california-state-rock/
Lies Lies Lies!

(D) The only thing TOXIC about this rock is nothing that will affect the population of California. Yes, we have all kinds of poisonous minerals in Serpentine. That isn’t something to be worried about! Are YOU going to go blindly into a mine dump, break open a rock and drink the liquid mercury inside? I don’t think so. If you do, you shouldn’t be alive anyway, no big loss. But, by putting this into law we have just declared that Serpentine ALWAYS has Chrysotile in it and that Chysotile causes mesothelioma and is a hazardous waste item. Who does that serve? Asbestos litigation lawyers and hazmat cleanup crews! Who does it hurt? Not some big evil corporation, just towns, cities, schools, libraries, private citizens, etc.

(E) And it is the intent of the science and mineral enthusiasts to drag the supporters of this bill names though the dirt. Yes, the lovely dirt we collect rocks in, that same dirt. Serpentine soil. You will get dirty, but you will not get cancer.

So, there are your lies and the lying liars that tell them! Gloria Romero, ADAO, these are your liars. They will keep on lying and they will NEVER, EVER, listen to reason, facts or science. They are chicken little and they are getting the sheep to bleat, but the sky is still intact.

You can tweet about it, join the facebook group.

Here is a sample tweet, a rearranged quote from “The Lorax”…

#CASerpentine said “Please! I object in the name of the rocks!” The Romero replied “All complaints will be unread and filed in this box!”

So, work with us, defeat this bill and let’s never forgive or forget this midnight attack on our state rock! The only option is defeat and dismissing these organizations and politicians as hacks bought and paid for by people trying to take money from our public coffers!

On July 2nd I received an email from the office of Senator Romero, instructing me to call Linda Reinstein – bill sponsor and CEO of ADAO, the non-profit awareness group dedicated to stamping out Asbestos. I was being instructed to discuss this issue with someone who has all the information available, but cherry picks to prove her undeniable fact; Inhaled fibers can cause cancer. This is the fact I knew I was going to hear and indeed, while Mrs. Reinstein is a very nice lady, any scientific inquiry I gave her would be met with the reply, inhaled fibers can cause cancer.

I have a very simple theory that can be dis proven with an example. We have a list of “Asbestos Death” cases and we can trace these back to one thing in common…Amphibole Minerals.

Penge South Africa – Amosite – now a ghost town – thousands killed
Whittnoom Australia – Riebeckite – now a ghost town – hundreds killed
Libby Montana – Winchite or Sodic Tremolite – mines closed – hundreds killed
Armley Asbestos Mill – Processing Riebeckiete – Mill cleaned up – dozens killed, hundreds contaminated

In all of these cases you find blatant disregard for death. The miners and the people living in the community all talk about how the streets were filled with asbestos fibers, or how the kids used it in the sand boxes. The lack of understanding that amphibole fibers will kill, coupled with the breathing of almost unimaginable amounts of amphiboles, it shouldn’t be hard to understand why these are such well known asbestos tragedies.

So, just give me examples of mass deaths from Chysotile mining.

Simple. Science! Observations and theory! Here is my theory, Chrysotile is a safe mineral. Prove me wrong with the scores of dead chrysotile miners at the Atlas Mine! Should be simple! They just do not exist in any numbers higher than any other comparable occupation. Prove me wrong, show me all the dead people from walking around the clear creek management area.

Much like I can’t berate my mother for believing in angels, I didn’t even want to try to convince Linda of the science behind the issue. If you can picture someone with enough dedication to be an activist, you can almost be certain there will be almost nothing short of a life changing moment to make them drop their stead fast opinions. There was nothing I could say that would win Linda over to the side of reason. There was nothing to work with. It was one thing to lose the Clear Creek Management area outside of Coalinga California. My wife and I love to visit that area, collect rocks, hike and enjoy nature. The flowers and landscape are like nothing else I can describe, it is so beautiful. But when I made a motion to express my joy of that area, Linda hit me with the “I don’t care what you ATV riders want to do”. I’ve never been “ATVing” anywhere in California, but when we succeed in reopening that area I’m going to get a dirt bike and make it to those mineral deposits that were tucked away on the slick serpentine bike paths I could never get to in the car. The Ford Impala was always my favorite ride for navagating those roads.

So, yes, it was not a hostile conversation, but it was rather pointless.

I have asked for an actual meeting with Senator Romero, here is hoping she talks to me or someone else who opposes this bill, just for the sake of hearing from the opposition.

Let me say goodbye to this update with the note…when I first heard about this bill I flipped out, quite literally. I just couldn’t believe this could even happen and I wanted to know what I could do to fight it. There were just a couple of editorial pieces about the bill, mostly saying it was foolish to pass a bill like this while the budget was well overdue. But when I read the actual bill, I saw through the “humorous” notion and right to the heart of the evil behind this bill. I kept seeing scientific inaccuracy and then decided that I needed to drop everything and fight the bill. I wrote from the heart, a bit heated, a bit wild, but what I felt about the situation. It is my JOY that the bill can be stopped. I do feel like the bill is near unstoppable. The facts behind the actual science are enough to make most citizens fall into a deep slumber. Indifference.

If I can do just one thing, it will be bring attention to this bill in hopes that all of our voices can work together to extinguish this bill. I like Linda. Don’t get me wrong. I just wish she would accept the truth, if she can’t produce the chrysotile deaths.

PS – The representatives being contacted are calling this a “Non-Issue”. It is going to be a sad day when they understand they passed a time bomb into law. The extra costs just on construction alone are going to sky rocket in areas with serpentine rocks. The costs that will be handed down to the state of california because of the lawsuits and “cleanup” fees will make this little “non-issue” something that will come back to bite them. They keep acting like they already won. That there was no opposition to this bill. Well, since the bill was made 2 years ago and just waiting to be sprung on us, since we had no time to MOUNT an opposition, of course there was none! But, now that we see what ADAO and asbestos litigators were doing, we have to stop them. It is bad science and bad for our government! If you want to just take away Serpentine as the state rock and nothing else, it is a non-issue, but by adding all of the “findings” about mesothelioma and asbestos, you’ve made an issue worth fighting over!

I don’t want to live in an “Idiocracy”.

Azeztulite. One of the most foolish scams on the mineral world. Not only are people buying shards of the most common mineral on earth for several dollars per carat, the scam just keeps getting bigger!

One of the reasons I even bother to bring this point up is that I’m seeing all of these variations (all trademarked) whenever the scamsters find enough of a supply to warrant new names.

I was viewing an eBay seller’s account and I saw this nugget, mixed into an account full of interesting minerals…

When this shameful scam will end, nobody can know. We certainly hope it is sooner than later. Azeztulite is broken quartz shards, devoid of worth.

We originally heard about these at the Munich show, however, by the time we went to the booth they were gone. So, I’m both bothered they would bring them to Tucson, yet, happy that John Veevaert got a lovely photograph of one to share with you at home.

Let’s all thank John for showing us this photo!

Stay away from these specimens, fake fluorites from China

Still just beginning, but I foresee great things coming from MinDat.org’s Auctions.

I want to tell you this here on FakeMinerals.com because MinDat.org’s Auctions. are guided by the community of mineral enthusiasts, pretty much making it impossible for fraudsters to operate in the auction forum.

So, if you want a safe alternative to eBay, check out MinDat.org’s Auctions.

Embrace the power of the Lemurian Quartz Crystals, from the frosty mountaintops of Mount Shasta. Learn the true secrets of crystal power in this video!

“Article” on meteorite find in the UK

Is this a meteorite?

Check out this article…the meteorite is described as
“black with a shiny crystal-like gleam”
“thought it was a lump of coal”

Are we sure it is not just a piece of slag or maybe a tektite. Hey, good for the kid for finding a rock in the back yard, but did they verify the specimen with ANYONE else besides the parents and eBay? It doesn’t say so in the article. Sloppy reporting for sure!

Stuff tends to spread like wildfire on the internet, and anything that drags you away from Twitter or foxy bingo online (www.foxybingo.com) will usually be either something completely amazing or, as more commonly experienced, a complete and utter hoax. I genuinely worry about the people that fall for this stuff – if you’re buying meteories off the internet, then chances are you’re probably being scammed. I could go outside and buy some red sandstone, take a welder to it, and claim it was from Mars. Would I make a ton of money? Probably.

Mike, thanks for the e-mail.

I don’t pay much attention to fossils, I’m just not into them. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the way they look, I love to dig them up, but I just don’t get INTO them.

So, I stay away from proclaiming how fake the fakes are.
A readed named Mike sent me an e-mail showing me a real Mosasaur jaw (see below)

Versus, these things that look like fakes from 100 yards away…

I’ve sent out e-mails and phone calls to the dealers selling fake ones on eBay and if they don’t take them down by this weekend I’ll out them for you.

Just simply put…stay away from bulk fossils from Morocco. Buy from a quality dealer. Understand, good fossils are expensive, there is a lot of time and preperation put into real fossils. If you want something good, it isn’t cheap. If you want something cheap, it isn’t good. (unless that is the advertising price on The-Vug.com! =)

A year ago I posted that the Wikipedia article on Azeztulite had the best information. Unfortunatly during that time there have been dozens of edits, drawing the attention of others who wanted the entry removed to stop the fighting between the scammers and the mineral community.

Now the link for Azeztulite redirect to Charmstone. What is a Charmstone? I’ve delt with metaphysical believers for over 10 years, I’ve NEVER heard the word Charmstone. The idea of using the word “Charmstone” in this field is rather foolish, ill advised move when describing Azeztulite. Many of the e-mails from Metaphysical users who have thanked me for calling out this obvious scam. It isn’t a scam that is harming the mineral collecting community, it is targeting the metaphysical crowd. If you are metaphysical you have two options, understand the direct parallels from minerals and nature or be part of the group that believes whatever flash in the pan cure all comes out.

The crux of the matter is that we have a scam being used to seperate money from the uneducated. Wikipedia will no longer be a sounding off point for us as a mineralogical community to educate the public.

Oh well, it worked for awhile and the popularity of Azeztulite has been falling off the radar…

Here is the Charmstone page, now the redirect page from Azeztulite

This is what it USED to look like. It should have remained this way

Wikipedia is a great source of information, but they have failed the public on this one.

PS, looks like this is happening at an alarming pace in general, check out this article in New ScienceAfter the Wikipedia Boom