Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/30/behold-the-glowing-yooperlite.html
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If you think those things look cool now, just wait until they hatch.
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Not sure if thrilled or scared shitless to see these things popping up in relation to my alma mater.
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Do ya Huskies have a nuclear program up there?
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I don’t remember there being one in the late 90s when I was there, but there was a whole subset of electrical engineers studying all that, so I wouldn’t be surprised.
There’s a super cool rock/gemstone museum on campus, so this may be hosted there now.
Or these things are hosting the angry spirits of the Edmund Fitzgerald and will be unleashed upon a bunch of unknowing drunken engineering students any day now.
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My money’s on this possibility. 
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In case it’s not clear, they mention in the video that the Yooperlite is named after the slang term for the people of the region-- Yoopers --but the term is derived thusly: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is abbreviated “the U.P.” which, when spoken, sounds like “youpee”, hence the populace becomes “Yoopers.”
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Oh yah, dah you pee
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Yeah, yeah. We get it, you don’t like it when the tr0lls come up in the summer.
Escanaba in da moonlight
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Its squid poop.
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Because they live under the bridge
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I got a handful of fluorescent minerals. Two are high end - wowsa - quality. I have several more decent ones. And some stuff I have in my collection with a weak fluorescence. And I finally got a cheap, but it works, Short/Long UV lamp.
Anyway - if anyone has a line on getting an affordable sample, PM me.
I was able to recently purchase a couple of Yooperlites via eBay auction for a really decent price. That definitely won’t always be the case though. One just needs to keep an active eye on what’s being listed.
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This just goes to show that when you’re dealing with rocks you shoudn’t just take anything for granite.
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I would call this “obligatory” for every title containing the letters “yooper”, except I think it might be the first one ever.
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Typo in the first paragraph. No one calls them Yoopalites. Available at a number of places in Marquette, including the Marquette Regional History Center. There’s been some nastiness over the right to use the name.
Supporting “things” going on in the high desert south of the Mojave awhile back, one rock-hound in our group whipped out his UV lamp (always has one in his pickup) and walked us around for a bit. He identified several fluorescent stones for us. ‘Ripe’ (and free) for the picking.
We’re not talking about The Philosophers’ Stone here, people. Ebay is lousy with fluorescent stones, and cheaper than this Lake Superior batch. Either way, one would have to purchase a UV lamp to get things glowing.
And please, please, please use proper eyewear. UV protective glasses cost under $5. Seeing that video with people shining their high-power 365 nm lights all around on the beach with no glasses on makes me do this:
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