Sam’s chunk of cobalt

Sam brings in a chunk of cobalt.

When prompted to explain himself, he shares a story which it turns out has nothing to do with his prize submission. He explains that he used to live in Tempe, Australia, which was directly underneath a flight path. He says that the locals were so fed up with the noise that they had commissioned a statue of children holding their ears in pain, which had resulted in the flight path being changed to avoid the town.

When Greg questions how this story is related to cobalt, Sam replies that he had just purchased the mineral online, but since everyone else had shared a story with their prize submissions, he’d wanted to share one as well.

Greg awards Sam fourth place.

Note: Australia is the actually third-largest cobalt mining country in the world. Also, while there are some elements of truth in Sam’s story, the monument he is referring to is called The Big Sofa, and is located in Sydenham. While it does depict one child holding their ears, among many other images, the reason for the monument’s construction was actually as a memorial to the many houses which had been bulldozed to make way for Sydney Airport runway extensions, and it had no effect on the flight path or altitude of aircraft flying overhead.

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by David Fuller)