Free Republic

One of the key turning points in the investigation happened in Italy. It is no coincidence that US Senator Lindsay Graham, one of Trump's closest allies and one of the leading critics of Mueller's investigation, has been visiting Rome over the last few days. There are many unanswered questions, one of the most important being: where is Joseph Mifsud? Il Foglio does not know, but it can reveal where he hid for seven months after disappearing: in Rome, in a rented flat paid by Link Campus University. Mifsud taught there, and Il Foglio understands that he owns 35 per cent...

A picture from the Lucara Diamond Corporation of the 1,111 carat gem quality, Type IIa diamond ============================================================================================================================================ A 1,111 carat "high quality diamond" has been discovered at a mine in Botswana, said to be the biggest find in more than a century, according to the mine company. The gem, only second in size to the Cullinan diamond which was unearthered in South Africa in 1905, was mined by Lucara Diamond Corp. "The magnificent stone, which originated from the south lobe of Lucara's Karowe Mine, is the world second largest gem quality diamond ever recovered and largest ever to be recovered...

Several people claim to own one of the world's largest gemstones The latest in the saga of the Bahia Emerald, an 840-pound gemstone is set to take place in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday to decide its fate. Several people have laid claim to the stone in the nine years since it was dug up in Brazil in 2001. Multitudes of lawyers are expected to fill the courtroom where Judge John Kronstadt will review the case of Tony Thomas, a claimant who says he bought the emerald from Brazilian miners for $60,000. The emerald, one of the largest gems...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week proposed a series of programs, totaling $1.5 trillion, to bail out the U.S. banking system. Of course, Geithner hasn’t told us precisely how he plans to spend the money, or identified which banks require such an enormous outlay. So I thought it was worth looking at the United States’ 12 largest banks to see where the problems might be and identify which banks might need big infusions of government cash. I perused the financial statements of all 12 banks, and also looked at their market valuations. Unlike when the Troubled Assets Relief Program...

A huge gem stone which could become the largest polished round diamond in history has been discovered. Miners in Lesotho have discovered a huge gem stone which could become the largest polished round diamond in history Photo: PA The massive stone is the 20th largest rough diamond ever found, weighs 478 carats and is of outstanding clarity, said Gem Diamonds. It was recovered at the Letseng Mine, owned by the company, in Lesotho earlier this week. Another similar sized rough stone from the same mine was recently valued at 12 million US dollars. But the clarity and round shape of...

ESA's orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has re-discovered an ignored celestial gem. The object in question is one of the youngest and brightest supernova remnants in the Milky Way, the corpse of a star that exploded around 1000 years ago. Its shape, age and chemical composition will allow astronomers to better understand the violent ways in which stars end their lives. Exploding stars seed the Universe with heavy chemical elements necessary to build planets and create life. The expanding cloud of debris that each explosion leaves behind, known as a supernova remnant (SNR), is a bright source of X-rays and radio...

OK, labradorite isn't really luminescent, but it's famous for it's optical effects. The image below is reduced in size; click for a full-size look.

I've been meaning to do this for a long time. Below is a fine specimen of banded tourmaline. Tourmalines like this are generated in pegmatites; see diagram below the picture, with description and link to more information. (The diagram is not from the same place as the description.) The Pegmatite Zone, from whence cometh this text: "A pegmatite is a coarse grained igneous rock (formed deep within the earth) having a grain size of 3cm or more. Mostly pegmatites are granitic in origin, that is they are composed of granite and its constituents like quartz, feldspar and mica. In addition...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997. Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

Nasa finds red planet is rich in green gem (Filed: 24/10/2003) Large outcrops of a gemstone mineral commonly used in jewellery have been found on Mars, scientists said yesterday. On Earth the mineral, olivine, takes the form of the brilliant green gemstone peridot. An instrument aboard a Nasa spacecraft spotted an area of nearly 19,000 square miles rich in olivine in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The mineral, detected by the Mars Global Surveyor, was on the surface of the planet. Scientists believe it may have been thrust up from below the ground by faults and fractures. It is...