December 8, 2000

"Amateur Night"
A Night at the Round Table
Silent Auctions
Door Prize

SMSI Round Table Minutes 8 Dec. 2000

Every presentation should have taken a whole evening. Notes with handouts would run into 5-10 pages; therefore, these minutes will be reduced to minimal highlights.

Bill Mikuska showed how to extract cocaine from dollar bills. The inventor of Vin Mariani (which contained a stable form of cocaine and was of great value to Pope Pius IX's meditation) was made a Papal Knight ( http://cocaine.org/cocawine.htm ). A Knighthood for Bill.

John Shane showed pollen and spore slides and covered the field of stratigraphic palynology. The book, How to Know Pollen and Spores by Ronald O. Kapp, Wm C. Brown Co., 1969, is being reprinted by the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologist ( http://opal.geology.utoronto.ca/AASP/).

Anna Teetsov showed slides and gave out two extraordinary handouts on microscope slide boxes. Stereo microscopes were set up for actual viewing.

Stan Schmidt showed slides of an historically impugned violin varnish formula which contained large amounts of ground glass which works if the correct glass is used.

Walter McCrone showed the film, "Fusion Techniques" staring his "son" in 1952. Talk about eutectic melt!!!

Joe Barabe presented a protocol for art authentication.

Art Struss talked about position tagged spectroscopy as a valuable aid to analyzing unknowns -Lime Pops on this occasion (yum or gypsum?).

Cindy Baumeister and Bill Mikuska gave handouts and a presentation on polarized light which could make a great topic for a workshop at Inter/Micro 2001 ( http://www.polarization.com ).

Respectfully submitted, Stan Schmidt, Recording Secretary