Posted on 06/11/2021 11:51:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
At 563 carats, the Star of India is the world’s largest gem-quality blue star sapphire, and is approximately 2 billion years old. (Image credit: D. Finnin/Copyright AMNH)
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What does the legendary Star of India — a 563-carat star sapphire the size of a golf ball — have in common with a 35-million-year-old petrified redwood slab; a massive cluster of sword-like crystals that looks like it came from "Game of Thrones;" and a 5-ton (4.5-metric ton) stone pillar that can "sing?"
You can see all of them, along with 5,000 other amazing stones, in the newly renovated Mignone Hall of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, which is reopening after a four-year closure on Saturday (June 12). There, one-of-a-kind precious gems appear alongside odd-looking rocks — some of which date to billions of years ago — that have been uniquely warped and twisted by extreme temperatures and pressures.
Individually and together, these objects tell a story of the diverse geologic processes that shape minerals on Earth's surface and deep inside our planet, beginning when the world was young and continuing to this day, museum representatives told Live Science.
Related: 13 mysterious and cursed gemstones
The Star of India, which formed about a billion years ago, was discovered in Sri Lanka in the 18th century. It is one of the best-known gems in the world, in part because it was famously and brazenly stolen from AMNH in 1964, along with several more of the museum's prized stones, by a pair of thieves named Jack "Murf the Surf" Murphy and Allan Kuhn, Smithsonian reported in 2014, on the heist's 50th anniversary. (The one-of-a-kind sapphire was recovered and went back on display in 1965).
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Got any 9s?
W00t!
Good on ya!
I’m a little on the tired side so I’ll be heading for the blanket show in just a few minutes.
I’m about to put a casserole in the oven. Then I’ll do something else.
See tomorrow-day!
I may report in tomorrow. I have to drive down to NYC at an incredibly early hour, then drive back in the evening. If I don’t see you tomorrow, I’ll see you on Humph day.
Best wishes for your success!
Good luck.
Good luck!
Looks like a bleached marmalade!
Good morning.
Unngh.
The kids called last night, but it was later than I would have liked. I was wired by the time I hung up so it was almost another hour before I could sleep. That’s OK. I’ll sleep tonight. Soon, they won’t call so late because I’ll be there.
They could call EARLY on Sunday, and not subject me to this, but that would imply that they cared. Maybe they do, but they just don’t understand the nature of the disease.
So, now I have to make the bed and then fold the sleep shirts and by then, I’ll be getting my cute little self ready for Walmart.
Good morning. I hope your cute little self has a successful Walmart visit. Enjoy the view!
It’s not clear, yet, whether it will be rainy again today. I’d like to have Tom take his brothers on driving adventures, but we’ll see.
I sometimes think I make too much of the little things I ask people to do, which they then can’t be bothered to do - things on the scale of calling at a convenient time although that’s not my specific one. People will say they love you and would do anything, and then you say, “Okay, here’s one little thing,” but no, that’s too much to ask.
It’s an entropic universe, after all. That could be a song.
I always enjoy the view!
I’m always relieved when someone helps you with the Driving Adventures.
I don’t ask my kids for a lot, and I’ve often told them I don’t call them while they’re working out of respect for their jobs. Why they can’t see that as a two-way street is beyond me.
The sleep shirts are folded, the face is as clean as it will be for the next hour or two, and I’m almost ready for Walmart. Whether Walmart is ready for me is a question for another day.
I spent a few minutes tweaking the talk and will let it simmer. There is still some time before it needs to be perfect, but if I can get it done by the end of the week, I’ll feel a lot better about giving it.
It’s raining again. I’ll give indoor tasks a little longer, maybe an hour, and then decide whether I feel up to excursions, whether driven by me or teenbros.
It’s not raining here but the humidity is 59%.
Walmart didn’t have any water I could lift or wanted to bring home, and Lin’s didn’t have any at all. I got some water last week at Walmart and the label said it was “spring water.” If it is, it came from a spring with flouride in it. That stuff is nasty and I was going to donate what’s left when I got new cases today. Didn’t happen.
Now, I have to wait for Sharon to come.
Another Day. Wasted.
Maybe you can pack a small box. I’m going to get a box from the garage to put clothing donations into. Items are piling up near my closet, where I tell the kids to put things that don’t fit.
I decided it was time to clean up the closet after all these camps, so I can find my things when I need them again.
Yeah, that’s probably what I’ll do, is pack a small box. I was looking at the pantry again and thinking there are things that can be packed because I don’t need them. I won’t do too much because I suddenly got very tired.
If I over-do it, I’ll get sick and I don’t want to do that.
Well, that was fun.
I went to rebuild the lamp in the bedroom that I blew up three or four months ago, and struggled with the underwriter’s knot, but got it done and was so proud of my work. Until I realized, I forgot to put the harp on.
This is way too funny for words!
Well, booger.
I went to Goodwill and found two blouses for camp wear. I also got several sets of 3-for-$4 new baby outfits for the Colombia mission.
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