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 ...
Julie Andrews makes everything better.
OK, maybe Carol Burnett couldn’t have been outdone as Princess Winnefred, but it would have been awfully close.
“You can call me by my nickname.”
“Winnie?”
“Fred.”
Yeah, that does make it a little difficult to adjust, but you’ll figure it out, I’m sure. You ain’t no dummy!
I was referred to as a dummy once and a bunch of ventriloquist side-kicks protested. It got so intense that a few ventriloquists moved their lips.
Julie Andrews could do great comedy, but I think Carol Burnett was the right choice for Winifred the Woebegone. I sat through rehearsals of “Once Upon a Mattress” one year because I was driving my friend who was playing the Queen.
I am not quite certain that Julie Andrew’s laugh would have carried the day quite like Carol Burnett’s in “Song of Love” after her 3rd “raise the goblet high.”
No, not the same vibe.
It’s a good thing I’m not in the office. It’s not a good idea to laugh out loud at the office. I can still remember reading that bit about the guy who volunteered to be a judge in a chili cookoff at the office and trying to hide the tears streaming down my face.
Reminds me a bit of the fact that Lucille Ball started her career attempting to be a Femme Fatale (and actually looked quite good) but couldn’t make it stick. Most comedians and comediennes are multi-talented.
Some of those slapstick characters were downright gymnastic.
Lucille Ball starred with Maureen O’Hara in “Dance, Girl, Dance!” She was very accomplished and quite a classic beauty when she wasn’t making comic faces.
The storms started early and lasted a very, very long time. Lots of rain and this morning, it’s a chilly 70°.
Now, to get dressed and start the day!
I wish it was 70 here. When I let Jake in at the front door a few minutes ago, there was another cat with him, a black and white one. I told the guest cat it couldn’t come inside.
And Jake was saying, as you shut the door, “Aw, MA! Can’t I keep him? He don’t eat much!”
We had a guest orange cat out in back the other day. We don’t put food out, so I suppose they’re coming by to check out the birds.
Looks like a cross between Jake and Shannon.
Good morning.
I am so fed up with my neighbor. And fed up with Chuck for not doing something. The guy has a big ol’ RV — he can move into it, pull it to Vegas and smoke too his heart’s content because it won’t be a federal law he’s breaking. They don’t care in the RV parks.
First thing in the morning, I get a blast of his smoke, then periodically all day.
The doc won’t increase my inhalers. I think he wants to put me back on the nebulizer, but I’m not willing to do that. He wants me to come in to “discuss the situation,” but there’s nothing to discuss.
When we were young we had to ask permission first, and if our parents thought we had told the other child we were going to go ask they would automatically say, ‘no’. If we were going to make them the bad guys they were going to be the bad guys. So we had to find a way to let our friends know we were going to ask if they could come in without actually telling them.
Good morning. Happy Twosday!
Starting a new job remotely is a bit tricky. I’m having to figure out how people like to work without just catching them at their desks.
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