Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with mining

Help me track down this data-scanning monster.

bad grammar — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:56:10 -0800

This drawing or graphic appeared in the print section of either the Washington Post or the New York Times on Saturday or Sunday, May 11-12 (my house gets both papers on Sundays and inevitably mixes them up). All sections were put out for the recycle bin Monday before I could clip the article. The illustration was so striking that it has driven out of my head any memory of the article's correct citation or specific topic (it was about data-mining companies). I have been searching the websites of both papers and could not find it or the illustration.

A large, red, feathered and spiky, four-legged monster stands atop a field of data. Its head is a single enormous eyeball emitting a beam of laser light. A tiny human figure stands atop the eyeball, pulling on reins or levers to guide the beam. The beast has an upright, stove-pipe-like tail with numbers and words streaming out of it into the cloud.

Finding quality events when traveling.

blueyellow — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:28:35 -0800

This is kind of a search question. If you were going somewhere and wanted to know what interesting/fun events might be going on there how would you search for it? What sites would you use? What strategy would you take to figure out what was something significant vs something small and local? How would you assess the quality and what event categories do you think would be useful? If you could use some sort of data mining and could have the computer do some of the work what would you do in addition/ instead? For example, would you mine twitter feeds or facebook pages?

Need help with story set in 1870's Rocky Mountains

trollnystan — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:40:40 -0800

Does anyone know the history of mining towns and/or horse ranching in the Rocky Mountains, or where to go to research it? I have this story in my head that I want to write out of my system; it's set around 10 years after the American Civil War somewhere around or in the Rocky Mountains. (At first I considered the Appalachians but thought that they were perhaps too "civilised" by this time?)

Basically I want my main character to live near a dying/disreputable mining town where her uncle has a small horse ranch. Preferably I want it in the middle of nowhere. I was looking at the area around Sula, Montana to be the inspiration of it; does anyone know if that's a good place? Or does anyone have any tips on where I might go (online) to research a story like this? I don't live in the States - or even North America - so I have no clue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! (metafilter newbie btw ^_^)

What would happen if large-scale lunar mining operations became commonplace?

asnider — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:36:11 -0800

Could mining the moon destroy the oceans? I was talking to a few people about the recent news about mining the moon and someone mentioned that this is a bad idea because it'll decrease the mass of the moon (and increase the mass of the Earth, as the raw ore comes home for processing), thus affecting the tides and potentially destroying some or all ocean habitats.

On a purely theoretical level, I realize that this is true. But how realistic are these concerns?

How much mass would actually need to be removed from the moon in order to significantly affect the tides, especially if the mass isn't just disappearing, but is being transferred to the Earth?

My question is actually three-fold:

How much would the mass of the moon need to decrease in order to have an impact on the tides, assuming that the missing mass is added to the mass of the Earth?

How likely is it that this would ever happen, even assuming large-scale lunar mining operations become commonplace?

Assuming the mass of the moon and/or Earth was changed dramatically enough to alter the tides, what impact would this have on the oceans and on life on Earth more generally?

This question is related, but doesn't quite answer the questions that I'm asking.

Attempt no landings.

hanoixan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:27:58 -0800

Reading about Gingrich's plan to mine the moon, I starting wondering: could the orbital stability of the moon be changed if enough mass was transferred to the Earth? I would expect a heavier Earth, already spinning faster than the moon, would cause an even larger leading force which would accelerate the moon along its trajectory faster than it currently is, causing it to drift away. But I'm definitely no physicist. On what scale would the mass have to change to to have a catastrophic effect, if any?

For the sake of argument, let's define catastrophe as doubling the current speed at which the moon is already moving away from the Earth.

Document taxonomy

benzenedream — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:39:35 -0800

Looking for a document clustering application for a one-off search. Would prefer not to code my own. I have a collection of several thousand documents that, ideally, I would like sorted into hierarchical trees to see which documents are most similar. For the most part I'm looking at documents which may have mutated slightly, e.g. drafts 1-6 may be scattered across a filesystem. I've looked at Carrot2, Rapidminer, and Solr, and it seems like there are some expensive legal discovery packages which do this.

The documents are a mix of typical office formats and pdfs, some of which may be hundreds of pages. Command-line or GUI is fine, as long as it produces a reasonable summary of document nearness. I don't mind coding a bit if there are reasonably simple libraries for this but don't have a whole week to spend on it. tm for R looks promising but I am unsure how to implement the clustering after parsing the docs.

Are there any simple free/trial packages or addons to existing desktop search engines/CMSes that do this?

Men and Dust in the Wind

Atreides — Sat, 21 May 2011 12:19:40 -0800

How or where can I get a hold of a copy of Sheldon Dick's "Men and Dust" short film? Sheldon Dick produced a short film, only 16 1/2 minutes or so long, on the Tri-State Mining District located where Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma meet. It was produced approximately in the late 1930's and covers the mining and miners in the region. So far, I've had no success in locating it online or finding a place to get a copy.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Movie about losing a loved one in a card game in a snowy mining town?

notsnot — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:42:03 -0800

Name-That-Movie-Filter: I saw a movie about ten years ago that had a lot of snow. And a card game where someone may have put his wife and/or child up as collateral. And a mining town, likely in the Eastern Sierra; for some reason, I associate the movie with the approximate location of the folk song "Darcy Farrow". There may have been a plot point that the guy who lost his [daughter/wife] tries to marry the child, later, or maybe his enemy does. Help?

How much less does the earth weigh now?

dantodd — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:18:43 -0800

How much less does the earth weigh now? Many of the resources that are found in the earth are turned into gases as they are consumed. Clearly mining and similar has been going on for ages. How much less does the earth weigh now compared to, say 1000 years ago?

Data mining book recommendation.

therubettes — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:19:14 -0800

Data mining book recommendation. I would like a recommendation for a single book which would give me a comprehensive guide to data mining. Ideally this book would contain plenty of examples of real world applications of data mining techniques in a variety of contexts. Bonus points if it contains exercises which I can do myself in whatever software package they recommend. There is no shortage of resources online but I would value a recommendation from someone on here. About me - I am interested in learning more about a career in this area. I have background in software development and pretty strong SQL skills but but my maths/stats capabilities are underdeveloped.

I have kept the question brief but will be checking in on the thread to see if you need any more information. In a nutshell I am looking for a single, authoritative, practical, introduction to the world of data mining in book form. I have been grazing sites and blogs and amazon and podcasts etc but as a Mefite I value your opinion.

Not a coal mine but...

fluffycreature — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:25:34 -0800

I am looking to compare the cost (monetary AND environmental) of mining/producing 1 pound each of steel, aluminum and titanium. Any resources tracking this type of thing? In a discussion with a bike lover, he was extolling the virtues of steel for bikes because of its features and its low impact on the earth compared to the evil titanium. Aluminum was in the middle and okay.

I am looking to read more about this as I am not sure mining iron ore to produce steel is all that much better than aluminum or titanium. Am curious what resources are available to compare an equal amount of each.

I'd stick it on the wall, if I could.

Smart Dalek — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:12:54 -0800

Does anyone know where I can find a diagram outlining the predicted availability of elements for industrial purposes? I'm looking for something that would predict the number of centuries each substance could be mined before it would only be obtained through recycling.

How to retrieve shares in UK company

Daddysugar — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:55:02 -0800

I recently discovered that I am a shareholder of a UK listed company, Anglo Asian Mining Company. I base this discovery on my recent receipt of proxy materials and notice of the annual shareholders meeting, which was held today. I realize the best way to retrieve or have replaced shares of stock in the United States is to contact the investor relations or financial department. This seems like a daunting challenge. Is this the best/only way for me to retrieve whatever number of shares I have in the UK?

How to find dead parent's Texas mineral rights?

Anonymous — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:29:51 -0800

Finding deceased parent's Texas "mineral rights?" How can I do this cheaply? My pop was married twice. He and his first wife had property in Texas. They sold the land but kept the mineral rights. At least I believe it was called this. My pop told me about it decades ago when I was a kid, so I may have the name wrong. If someone were to find something underground, he would have the rights to it.

Pop and his first wife divorced. He remarried and had me. He passed away decades ago.

I would like to track down any mineral rights he has or had prior to his divorce in the 1950s. The property would be in Texas, possibly Bexar County. How can I do this for cheap / free? Internet methods especially appreciated.

First wife is unavailable & unreliable, so looking for official sources for this information.

Newspaper Clippings 2.0?

[insert clever name here] — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:36:38 -0800

Can I automate archiving/saving news articles on a certain topic I pull from google new's rss feed? For a while, I was manually copying and saving all news articles from google on a certain topic I got in my rss feed. But it became cumbersome so I stopped. Now I've looked back at those articles from a few years ago, and wish I had kept up. Is there a way to automate something like that? A modern day newspaper clipping collection only automated? I don't want to save just the url, but the actual text of the article, where it is from, date, and possibly pictures.

This is for my own personal use, so I doubt it would fall under any copyright issues (I would assume).

I did a search but my google fu is failing me. I keep coming up on the google news archive, but thats not really what I'm looking for. I want my own personal copies. I don't now how google news archive works, but I know that some articles I had gotten from google news originally are not in their archive (I just checked.).

pan. zoom out. repeat.

sponge — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:04:30 -0800

gmaps filter: what am i looking at? seems to be related to mining, there are oil derricks in the area.

i cant imagine how much fun it was to make alllllll those lines...

Python and Data Mining

elationfoundation — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:01:31 -0800

Is Python a logical choice to learn if I want to create Data Mining programs. I have never programmed before but have interest in createing long term data management and mining programs for my research. I heard from many people that python is an easy enough programming language to learn: I dont want to learn the easy but useless language for my interest. I am looking to create a simple data interface for the users to imput data with a strong analitical back end. Think, teh computer screens that starbucks and mcDonalds use but with a few other bells and whistles. Is python capable of doing this (mostly concerned about the analytical part)

shine on your crazy tourmaline (or whatever)

luriete — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:09:47 -0800

When I was a kid living in La Mesa, California, my mother got to poke around in the tailings at local tourmaline and mica mines as part of weekend classes we took at the natural history museum. Are there any kinds of similar gemstone mines anywhere near where I live now - Sacramento, California - that offer similar opportunities?

How does an Aussie geo get to Canada?

twirlypen — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:49:29 -0800

This time next year I'll be a freshly graduated Australian geolgist. I'd like to work overseas, and I'm tempted by Canada or the US. What should I be aware of while trying to arrange all this, and how easy would it be to work as close to New York as possible? This November, I'll be graduating with honours in Geology from a university in Australia. I've done some vacation work along the way, I've got good grades and references, and I usually interview well.

Any advice about what to expect, what the job market's like, what the job conditions are like, what the life's like etc. would be really appreciated.

I'd love to be as close to NYC as possible, but I'm aware that it probably isnt' the easiest thing.

I'm not interested in working for a company with a poor environmental record.

Thanks in advance.

Politics and environmental issues in the US Southwest: good sources for news and gossip?

salvia — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:55:14 -0800

Anyone follow environmental issues or general politics in the US Southwest (AZ, NM, UT, CO)? I'm trying to get a crash course about what's happening in the region and then stay up to speed. What are the best sources for political gossip? For environmental news about the region? All I've got so far are the major newspapers, High Country News, and a couple (rarely updated) blogs.

I'm most curious about the key environmental and regional planning issues in the southwest now. Who are the big players (nonprofits, state agencies, cities, others), and what are they working on?

I realize this is a broad question, but anything will be much appreciated. I work on these sorts of issues in the Bay Area, and since I love the US Southwest, I wish I had a better understanding of what is going on down there.

Anything electronics components/etc worth harvesting from an old desktop image scanner?

Quarter Pincher — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:19:31 -0800

Is there anything worth mining/harvesting out of a random old desktop scanner? I was about to throw this heap away, when I decided to take it apart. There's a few long narrow mirrors, a mototech motor, what appear to be a few rings made of lead (?), the little tank-tread band, and the long narrow bulb. I could probably use the glass with a picture frame. Would there be any hidden treasures native to desktop image scanners that'd be worth trying to sell, like a specialty lens or something? A rare kind of capacitor? There seems to be a number of hunks of lead in this sucker.

Seeing the industrial and political landscape of the southwest

salvia — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:25:55 -0800

I'm taking a road trip through the southwest, and I'd like to see places with an interesting backstory or that show you "behind the scenes." I'm interested in places with political, economic, environmental, or industrial significance. Can you recommend some? Here's the route: Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Moab, Phoenix. I have 11 days. I've done most of this as a tourist before, so I'm interested in seeing some of the more hidden sights.

As I said, I'm interested in the politics, economics, history, environmental, and industrial factors behind the landscape. I'm still modifying the route so I can check out interesting places. Here are the kind of places I'm talking about:

- power infrastructure (Black Mesa, the Glen Canyon Dam)
- water infrastructure (aqueducts, river diversions?)
- the nuclear program (I'm missing the Trinity Test Site visitor day by a week! Should I still go to Alamogordo? Where to go near Los Alamos?)
- mining booms and busts, related pollution (Moab's uranium tailings pile; oil, gas, and coalbed methane development)
- industrial-scale production of anything from cattle to computer chips
- Native American history (the Cochise stronghold)
- prisons, military bases, and other nearly-blank spaces on the map (obviously, I can't enter, but I would like to know they're there)
- anything else related to political, economic, or cultural geographies (I really like Jake Kosek's stuff)
- wildlife protection or environmental restoration areas, current environmental disputes

I'm interested in current or upcoming issues, not just history, and I have just started trying to get up to speed about some of the work going on now. If you have anything interesting you'd like to share but would need kept fairly quiet, my email is in my profile. (I work for an environmental nonprofit, so I understand that certain information is sensitive and needs to stay fairly confidential to keep sites from being defaced or overrun with visitors, or to protect ongoing acquisitions, negotiations, or investigations.) Thank you!

What is a good (free or low-cost) program to mine text from large numbers of patents?

underdetermined — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:52:55 -0800

What is a good (free or low-cost) program to mine text from large numbers of patents? I'm looking for a text analysis tool to help me organize information from large numbers of patents into categories or clusters. There are commercial applications that do this, but they are exceedingly expensive. Ideally, I would like to be able to dump the results of my database query into the program and let it go to work to identify relationships between things that are non-intuitive and/or obscured due to huge amounts of information.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Books on the 19th century South African diamond industry

stammer — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:36:39 -0800

What are the best books about the South African diamond industry during the mid-to-late 19th century? I am distantly related to Barney Barnato and would like to find out whether he was particularly evil, but I'm also just interested in the period generally.

What to do with rough sapphires?

Phyltre — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:55:06 -0800

I'm no lapidary but I need to separate some sapphires from the surrounding rock and polish them (slightly, I want them to stay rough, no shaping/mounting.) How can I do this without spending multiple paychecks on professional lapidary stuffs? After unexpectedly befriending the owner of the Old Pressley Sapphire Mine in NC, I got some (delicious) personal time with a chisel, hammer, and bountiful cliff side. As a result I've got several pounds of specimen sapphires still in their gleaming white surroundings...and, in a month, will probably have twice as much. They're not quite ring quality but they're beautiful grays, the sort that become cabochons. Because they're useless locked in the rock, I need to extract them. I also want to polish them slightly so they're more appreciable.

The problem is, I can't afford professional lapidary equipment. As a corollary, though, I don't need professional results--so what can I do? I've done some preliminary research online but I can't find any good resources with the obvious keywords. And I know firsthand that commonly available diamond Dremel tips grind down/disintegrate(!) when faced with rock, but maybe I need special tips? Rockhounds, unite!