Holy shit. Shark Week's been around for 25 years? That's news to me. Of course, about the only reason I watch the Discovery Channel nowadays is for Mythbusters, How It's Made, the occasional special presentation (Preferably something to do with astronomy or paleontology), or, if I'm really bored, Cash Cab.
I don't even know when MythBusters airs anymore, as it seems to be constantly preempted by "Where are the Gold Diggers boys off to this week?" and retrospectives on Deadliest Catch. Of course, it's been running for nine years itself now (holy shit indeed), and it only seems to be in-schedule at all when there's new episodes a couple times a year.
I was recently reintroduced to cable TV after several years away from it... and am a bit shocked at how much worse the programming has gotten. I tune into the History Channel and see hour upon hour of shows about aliens and ghosts. I tune into the Discovery Channel and find a 3 hour special on Mermaids some fictional specialists from a fake branch of NOAA discovered. Surprised by this, I bounce over to the "SyFy" channel, wondering what programming was left for them to show and ... wait, what is WWF Smackdown doing here?
There's a reason the entertainment industry is losing its money and viewership to the Internet, and it isn't piracy.
Anyway, back on topic; my Dad and I went out this afternoon to some old glacial mineral deposits in a big, wild area near his house. There, I got a crash course in metal ore prospecting, and the unique glacially-sculpted geology of Michigan. We nerded out about such topics as how plants growing in different areas can indicate information about the history of a region, and what minerals are in the soil; for instance,
horsetail reed grows where there are high concentrations of silicate minerals in the soil, and iron ores and gold can often be found with such formations. We even found a bit of gold in an awesome sedimentary projection left over from an ancient riverbed. It was a pretty fun afternoon.
...also yes, I'm one of those people who had a rock collection growing up, and knew what Schist, Gneiss, and Microcline were long before I played Dwarf Fortress.