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 ...
Good morning. Happy Friday Eve!
Hopefully all is well in your world.
Many happy returns of the day.
Many happy tax returns, too, but that’s beside the point.
Hopefully the weedeater doesn't get any ideas about the hair, although I can see a good skit in there somewhere.
Good morning.
Is it Friday Eve already??? Golly! So it is!
55, and I earned it!
Back from the Vlad Driving Adventure, where we got a cake, some other foods, and a new-to-me chair at whatever Consignment First is calling itself now.
Tom has taken James on his adventure. When they get back, I’ll send Tom in the truck up to Consignment First for the chair. It wouldn’t fit in the Avalon.
I’m 2.5 years behind you... You win. :-)
I truly hope you have a fantastic day.
Thank you. I have wine!
Vlad and I are going to make a casserole.
Try two with the lamp. I used to be good at this. I wanted to fix it as it’s cheaper than buying a new lamp for the other side of the bed, since I blew this one up. I’ve done this on several lamps since I was in my 20’s and now, I can’t seem to recall how to take something apart and put it back together.
I won’t have the money for a lamp this pay day, and I need to change sides of the bed because the mattress is memory foam, and I can only rotate it, not flip it, and I need to sleep on the other side. Anyway, I’m discouraged. I need two lamps!
Consignment First had lamps. Vlad liked one, but it was $80, so no.
No. I bought this one for 50¢ at a white elephant sale way back when, and if I have to pay more that $20 for a new one, it’s no sale. Which is why I wanted to fix this one. But I don’t know if it’s going to work. I’ll give it one more try and then it will be set out by the dumpster, which I hate to do. In order to change sides of the bed, now, without the lamp, I have to move furniture around so I can unplug the lamp I’m using and move it to the other side. Unngh.
Unnngh.
Unngh.
Beware of spiders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=budmX5jCGns
Not bad at all.
I found a base at Walmart that sorta matches the lamp that’s in there for $25. I’ll try once more and see what happens, but not today.
Who knew they sold the bases separately?
Weird. That’s probably why we keep having the same old lamps.
.
I hope your birthday proves to be very pleasant, indeed!
See you tomorrow!
!
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