Common Minerals for Dummies

fluorite (purple) on calcite (yellow)

There isn't anyone on staff at the Antisocial Network we consider a "bird person"¹ (most are dog people and a couple are cat fanciers), but that doesn't mean we don't understand the concept of parroting information. Although parrots can repeat words, and some have large "vocabularies," in reality the birds have no idea whatsoever they're saying.² Such parrot-like behavior by a freelancer is one reason we nominate them for DotD. We're thinking of behavior like that of Alicia Prince; who diligently copied, reworded, and pasted "The Differences Between Fluorite and Calcite" for Sciencing.com.

We spotted Prince parroting information in a number of passages, and we recognized what she was up to. How? First, her statement that,

"The mineral calcite forms in a trigonal hexagonal calenohedral crystal system, making calcite specimens resemble a double-ended pyramid."

Well, that's what MinDat says, anyway, except that Alicia did a sloppy copy-paste job: the crystal class (not system) isn't "calenohedral," it's scalenohedral. Second, Prince has a BFA in film; not exactly a degree that involves a lot of mineralogy. Third, she said that, "Fluorite is a type of mineral in an isometric formation" which, frankly, means squat. She was apparently trying to say that fluorite's crystal class is isometric hexoctahedral.

We'll give Alicia her due, however. She was able to get across that calcite is number three on the Mohs hardness scale and fluorite is number four; and she managed to parrot their melting points and babble something about thermoluminescence. On the other hand, she thought that color was an important difference (it isn't) and blithely stated that fluorite is "a semiprecious mineral." We aren't certain where she came by that misinformation, or where Prince came up with the notion that calcite "often forms large slabs in limestone and marble." Some things are unknowable, we guess...
None of that seems particularly damning – indicative of ignorance, perhaps, but not damning – so why is Prince our Dumbass of the Day? Oh, it's pretty simple: the very first thing Alicia should have mentioned, something she never even bothered to approach, is chemical composition. Calcite is calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) and Fluorite is calcium fluoride (CaF₂). Need we say more? Naaah....

Oh, well, at least she didn't say either of them had healing properties.

¹ A couple might be considered birdbrains...
² Now who's the birdbrain?

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