mole day

IT SEEMS LIKE JUST A YEAR AGO THAT WE WERE CELEBRATING THE MUCH-MALIGNED 'CAPS-LOCK' KEY. NOW, JUST 365 DAYS AND ONE KEYBOARD LATER, IT'S ONCE AGAIN INTERNATIONAL CAPS-LOCK DAY.

Instead of yelling throughout this posting, we'll digress from the all-caps part of the story to pose a question: Who decided that we would celebrate the "Caps-Lock" key in the first place? The folks at engadget -- whose lower-case name suggests a bias in favor of e.e. cummings -- claim: "Invented by greeting card companies to fill the void between Trafalgar Day and Mole Day, Caps Lock Day is the one occasion when lovers of capitalization can come together with the haters from CAPSoff and hack-a-day and pay homage to the little key that habitually blows up your spot when trying to type a lower-case 'a.'"

And why would USA TODAY choose to celebrate such a ridiculous holiday? (Hint: Have you noticed the style we use when writing the newspaper's name? Other papers are italicized. Ours is written in capital letters without italicization. So, as an institution, we seem to favor upper-case letters.)

ALRIGHT, BACK TO THE PSEUDO-YELLING. THERE'S ACTUALLY A DISPUTE BETWEEN THOSE WHO CELEBRATE THE KEY ON OCT. 22 AND THOSE WHO CELEBRATE IT ON AUG. 19.

FOR NON-CELEBRANTS, HERE'S A PAGE DEVOTED TO DISABLING THAT PART OF THE KEYBOARD.
WE WISH YOU HAVE A HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAPS-LOCK DAYUSA Today
- Oct 23, 2007
- 7 hours ago
... name suggests a bias in favor of ee cummings -- claim: "Invented by greeting card companies to fill the void between Trafalgar Day and Mole Day, ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
Monday MedleyPueblo Chieftain, USA
- Oct 22, 2007
- 17 hours ago
Tuesday is National Mole Day. No need to search for one of those small, burrowing creatures; this is a different mole entirely - "a way of counting the ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
Weekend Note: E for Some, Disneyland for othersKotaku.com, USA
- Oct 22, 2007
- 19 hours ago
BY GOTHICDEATHVR2 AT 10/21/07 10:34 PM On another completely unrelated note, Tuesday is also Mole Day(!!!!) for y'all chemistry junkies BY TAFTSEARLOBE23 AT ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
Students wake up early to fete chemistryChicago Suburban News, USA
- Oct 19, 2007
- Oct 19, 2007
About 14 percent of the student body will be running laps and decorating windows with homemade periodic tables for Mole Day, a national celebration of ... Mole Day
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Mole Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists in North America on October 23, between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM[1], making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates. The time and date are derived from the Avogadro constant, which is approximately 6.022×1023, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in a mole, one of the seven base SI units.

Mole Day originated in an article in The Science Teacher in the early 1980s.[2] Inspired by this article, Maurice Oehler, now a retired high school chemistry teacher from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, founded the National Mole Day Foundation (NMDF) on May 15, 1991.[2]

Contents
1 How to celebrate
2 Alternate observances[citation needed]
3 See also
4 References
5 External links



[edit] How to celebrate
Many high schools around the United States and in Canada celebrate Mole Day as a way to get their students interested in chemistry. Paula Lundin, a chemistry teacher at Gladstone High School in Gladstone, Michigan, has provided a number of sample activities for her students[citation needed]. Examples include "Scavenger Hunt - Create a list of household items but use chemistry terms for the items you want. Such as: Something that contains NaHCO3," or "Write a Mole Day poem, story, or cartoon." Some teachers also have the class make mole themed craft projects.


[edit] Alternate observances[citation needed]
Some schools celebrate Mole Day on June 2 (6/02), rather than October 23 (10/23), presumably from 10:23 AM to 10:23 PM.
Some schools celebrate "Mole Week" around October 23.
The American Chemical Society sponsors National Chemistry Week, which occurs from the Sunday through Saturday during October in which the 23rd falls. This makes Mole Day an integral part of National Chemistry Week

[edit] See also
Pi Day
Grav-mass
Other Unofficial Holidays

[edit] References

Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since October 2007 | Geek holidays | October observances