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)
==================================================================
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 ...
I keep looking at baby things, especially girl baby things, so I’m thinking someone close to me is preggers. Neither of my oldest grandsons will be new daddies again, so it’s either James’ wife, or a newly married niece in ID.
I’ll know, soon, I think.
Sharon looked at my boxes all stacked up and asked (again) “You takin’ all that with ya?” “Yes, well, I brought it with me to here, but you only saw it when it was all unpacked!”
I gave her a copy of my “Rules of Life,” just because. I posted them here, once, but if you want one, I’ll send it in my next letter.
It’s not me, I’ve just put on weight.
I think I’ve seen the Rules of Life.
I’m trying to find out if the podiatrist sent my prescription.
LOL!
Yes, I posted the RoL at least once on the UT, but I have it hanging on my corkboard as a reminder. “There are no mistakes, only lessons,” and “Lessons will be repeated until they are learned.” Sometimes, I need reminding.
I hope your podiatrist did send your prescription. I need to get moved soon and find a podiatrist as I have a bone spur on my big toe, between joints. My sneaker hits it when I walk. I also need to get my right eye lasered. It’s hard to see to drive and harder to see to put make-up on. I hope the co-pay has gone down from the last time I checked, because I need to be able to see. I need to get moved!!
My smoking neighbor ticked me off. Chuck asked me yesterday if I had smelled smoke over the weekend, and I told him no because the neighbor was gone. He’s back, now.
I’m sure he put Chuck up to asking me, like I’m too stupid to know when someone smokes and my old A/C sucks in the exhaust of his old A/C. I need to move. I’m starting to get angry with a few of my neighbors and that’s no good.
No, they didn’t call in the prescription. I will phone them again tomorrow. It’s not urgent.
Back from nap with Jake.
I went to get my mail and there was a card from you! Maybe tomorrow I can quit messing around with personal stuff and get your letters answered!
Also, one of my neighbors had a stroke while she was at her son’s place a few days ago, so she’ll be moving to SD with one of her daughters soon. Chuck seems to be a little upset by it. Poor guy. His wife gave this gal a monstrous chunk of amethyst crystal.
I have a mail from you, too. Sorry about your neighbor.
I don’t remember a mail going that way, unless...
Has two stamps on it.
After supper, Vlad wants to go to Walmart. I was thinking we needed cat food anyway.
Ah! I was afraid it wouldn’t get there on time! :o])
Good luck at Walmart!
I’m tired. I think it’s time I got ready to head down the hall. Not yet, but soon.
Now it’s time, so I’ll se ya tomorrow!
Sweet floof.
Good morning.
I’ve got the Slows this morning. Maybe I’ll feel better after my shower.
Good morning. Best wishes for the shower. I believe James and his hair are showering here.
I think I spent longer in the shower today than I have in a lot of years. Forty-five minutes. Everything seemed to go wrong in there. The contents of a new bottle of hair product wouldn’t come out. I forgot to take the inner seal off. Then it only came out if I squeezed very hard. So I had to make the hole bigger. I had to get out of the shower to do this, of course, and put my readers on to see what I was doing, then get back in.
Then I had the same problem with a bottle of body lotion. Only I wasn’t in the shower this time. I took the inner seal off and lotion squirted out. Unngh.
I want to erase the last 90+ minutes and go back to bed and start over.
Now BYU.com is down so I can’t listen to an uplifting talk about Jesus.
I wasn’t going to go anywhere today, but I have to get some bottled water, so I’ll head for Lin’s first, and if they don’t have any I’ll have to go to Walmart and struggle with a couple of 40-bottle cases.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jf07sMxUVA&list=PL4E784EC0770935C0
Here’s a Youtube playlist of uplifting Latter-Day Saints messages.
I’m going to do some laundry.
Can you phone Lin’s and ask if they have it?
I just checked their website (for delivery/pick-up service) and there is no water. Same with Walmart. I also checked Walgreen’s and they have it, so I’ll go at 0800 and get that plus some potassium, since Walmart was out of that yesterday.
*sigh*
It comes in threes with me. ;o]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.