Let's take a closer look at those copper atoms

How small can we see? Pretty small, it turns out. We can see atoms (see above)--not with light but with electrons (light is too crude of a yardstick and can't "measure-down" to the job). In Scanning Electron Tunneling Microscopy (STM), a tiny metal wand just an atom or two thick approaches a surface. Electrons, dripping from the tip of the sweeping probe, jump to a surface below, feeding signal back and mapping the atomic topography:

original

Successive traces of electronic signals become a "photo" of the surface. The way STM works reminds me of the spark of life implied so long ago here. The technique is more fully explained here.

Suppose we could zoom a microscope down onto a pure copper surface to find out what's really there. I mean really there there. We'd find, even for ultra pure copper--heterogeneity. What looks the same is really different. No matter where we look, about one in three copper atoms has two "extra" neutrons because native copper comes in two isotopic flavors: ⁶³Cu and ⁶⁵Cu.

A while back, Michael Haz mentioned that pure copper native to Upper Michigan was distinguishable from pure copper native to South America. It's true. Copper sources have isotopic signatures. The natural ratio of the two copper isotopes varies slightly from place to place for various reasons. The reason(s) why they vary are complex and altogether unimportant here. The point is that they differ and they do so in a way that can be reliably measured--like fingerprints. A similar isotopic method has been used to trace the influx of South American silver into European coinage: link

Old World Wisconsin: Deutschtum Über Allis-(Chalmers)

Blatz-Milwaukee's Finest Beer

Many German "Forty-Eighters" settled in Milwaukee, helping establish that city's progressive politics and decades-long flirtation with Sewer Socialism. Milwaukee's tradition is distinct from Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette, Sr.'s Wisconsin Idea, which for the most part was a wholly Madison-based idea.

Holmes observed:

Meantime, among the German immigrants, leaders arose to found new industries that were to make Wisconsin known through the nation. Every German community had its Braumeister. The names of Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz and Rahr became synonymous for malt beverages; Kohler for plumbing fixtures; Vollrath for porcelain enamel ware; Vits for aluminum products; Pritzlaff for wholesale hardware; Heil for oil burners; Reiss for Great Lakes coal shipments; Pfister, Vogel and Rueping for leather; Harnischfeger for heavy machinery; Lauson for tractor engines; Stoppenbach for sausage. The list might be extended indefinitely. Perhaps it is the German example of thrift that has resulted in Wisconsin attaining the second highest percentage of homeownership in the United States.

-Fred L. Holmes, "Freiheit ist meine" Old World Wisconsin (1944)

The President chose to speak from Milwaukee last Labor Day and I suppose he was hoping to resonate with the crowds there. I was secretly hoping that he would run into Ron Weisflog of Pewaukee or Michael_Haz (from an undisclosed location) when he was there.  You remember Ron Weisflog:



I salute Ron Weisflog and Michael_Haz and hope that their legacy is not fading anytime soon.
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The title is a pun on Deutschland Über Alles. Allis-Chalmers is a huge manufacturing firm in Milwaukee. The word Deutschtum literally translates as "Germandom" but the word is more germane to "German-ness" and is typically applied outside of Germany to designate a region with predominantly German culture.