How the polarizing politician has successfully reinvented herself. Again. Whatever you think about Hillary Clinton, you no doubt think something. Whether you want to pat her on the back or turn your back to her, the woman elicits powerful reactions. She also elicits respect on the world stage, and when she doesn't get it, she demands it. That is one of the things that make her best suited for her job. (But we'll get to that.)Modern America loves its female secretaries of state-maybe the "softer sex" is seen as better suited to issues of diplomacy. And while Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright both brought tremendous experience to the job, neither packed a house like Hillary Clinton. She just brings a bigger microphone to the job, commanding the attention and respect of people and world leaders due in part to her high profile, sure, but also because of her resume. She was the first former First Lady to run for public office, the first female senator from New York, and the first woman to have a real shot at the presidency. She's also been to more countries (80) and met with more heads of state (exact number unclear, but it's a big one) than we have space to list. And that was all before she became our chief diplomat.Clinton took over the State Department at a moment when entire continents seemed to hate the U.S. government. It was also a time when the world had any number of wars that needed ending, peace agreements that needed negotiating, and deals that needed brokering. Her to-do list includes stopping nuclear proliferation in Iran, halting the Islamic insurgency in Pakistan, promoting civilian projects in Afghanistan, getting us out of the quagmire that is Iraq, and alerting the world to the humanitarian crisis in Congo-to name only a few.She has worked overtime on those relationships that are either tense or outright disastrous. She made nice with Russia, spoke publicly about Kim Jong Il's successor, told India that climate change is its problem, too, and she quietly and successfully led 33 countries to set binding conditions for Cuba's re-entry into the Organization of American States. To get all those jobs done, she persuaded the Obama administration to increase the foreign-affairs budget by 10 percent, boosting aid and bringing aboard more diplomats. And it's only been nine months.Here's a theory: All the things about Clinton that rub people the wrong way-her candor, her outspokenness, her gumption, her ambition-are the very things that now make her so good at her job. To put it bluntly, she's not full of shit. This could not have been made clearer than in that incident in Congo, when a young man asked the secretary of state, "What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton?" Hillary was pure Hillary. "My husband is not the Secretary of State. I am. If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I'm not going to be channeling my husband." And in one brilliant and honest moment, the point of her entire trip promoting women's rights was made manifest. It's not a slogan or a policy speech, it's the necessity for men and women to be treated equally.Finally, Clinton is a patriot. Not in that my-patriotism-is-bigger-than-your-patriotism sort of way. She's the kind of patriot who believes America is an exciting, inspiring country that can be and has been a force for good in the world.For decades it was as easy to argue against Hillary as it was to argue for her. But in her brief tenure as Secretary of State, a new Hillary Clinton has emerged-a highly intelligent, uncommonly thoughtful, and profoundly erudite leader who grasps the complexities of foreign affairs in a way that honors the job description."There is a hunger for the United States to be present again," Clinton has said. And that's the best thing about Hillary Clinton-she has a way of making sure everyone knows she's there.
When sifting through old boxes or stacks of vintage papers, one often uncovers nostalgic relics from the past. But occasionally, these discoveries are far more valuable. Such was the case at the Bavarian Environment Agency (LfU) in Germany. While employees were digitizing their historic mineral collection of 130,000 exhibits, they stumbled upon one of the "rarest minerals on Earth." A handwritten letter in a drawer revealed the name of the mineral—Humboldtine. The LfU shared the details in a January 2024 press release, noting that more information would be published in Geologica Bavarica.
According to Mindat, an online mineral and rock database, humboldtine is “a rare authigenic mineral from the mineral class of organic compounds with the chemical composition Fe2+(C2O4)·2H2O.” It is a water-containing iron salt of oxalic acid, with color ranging in shades of yellow, mostly amber-yellow or lemon-yellow. With crystals small and prismatic, humboldtine forms when carbon compounds and iron-oxide react with water.
Representative Image Source: This Photo is a postcard sent home by a German soldier. (Photo by History & Art Images via Getty Images)
The mineral is typically found in the fracture surfaces in coal deposits and rarely in granitic pegmatites and hydrothermal mineral deposits. It was first discovered by German mineralogist August Breithaupt in a brown coal deposit near the municipality of Korozluky in Okres Most, according to Forbes. In the 1820s, Peruvian geologist Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz, named the mineral after the German 19th-century naturalist and explorer Freidrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. Von Humboldt was a former mining engineer and mineral collector.
Representative Image Source: Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)
The 75-year-old letter that the employees found was written by a coal mine owner and sent in 1949 to the agency. The letter mentions the presence of Humboldtine in the coal seams of the Matthiaszeche near the town of Schwandorf, a town on the river Naab in the Upper Palatinate. The agency asked for some samples to investigate and verify whether the mineral was humboldtine. Led by Roland Eichhorn, head of the geological department at the LfU, X-ray diffractometer, and chemical analysis were carried out of the chunk of mineral found in the archive’s drawer. They described that the mineral was “almost the size of a hazelnut.”
Representative Image Source: Pexels | The Gusstavo
“Skepticism was appropriate. Until now, Humboldtin has only been found as tiny crystals in a few places around the world. It was only through in-house laboratory analysis that we were able to provide certainty,” said Eichhorn in the press release. He further added that "together, these would turn into about a snowball that fits in one hand. And we have now found a second snowball," according to an Instagram post by The Munich Show (@the_munich_show).
The rare find is set up to be exhibited at the LfU stand at the Munich Show (Mineralientage Munchen), which will be held in October 2024. The Munich Show is Europe’s top show for minerals, fossils, gemstones & jewelry.
However, the researchers say that further information about these yellow crystals will probably remain a mystery forever because the mine in Schwandorf, mentioned in the letter, was closed in 1966, and was subsequently flooded.