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 ...
Yep. That happens. It’s called “overload.” Go stand in front of the A/C and help dry it out. ;o]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6s3q2pbYYk
Oh the future we see, does it hold something for me?
And I’m weightless again, just before the shadows fall like a leaf in the wind on the ocean of blue like your eyes in the twilight theater..
Survived a James Driving Adventure. The first near-disaster was not his fault ...
There was no money, so don’t worry. How annoying about the shoe thing!
I had to check on the context for that.
Why does that sound like something out of “Serenity”?
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar. - Wash
“You are seein’ a near James experience!”
Lol!
Parking is not James’s strong point. I’ll have to mention to Tom that the bros need more parking practice.
I hated parallel parking.
During my driving test the lady kept putting her head in the way and turning off the defroster that was keeping the windows from fogging.
She also initially wouldn’t put her seatbelt on so I sat still until she did.
On the test here, they just have to park in a normal parking lot. James and Vlad seem to be flummoxed by too many choices of spots, then they make a decision at the last minute and get crooked.
No impacts yet, so I consider it a win.
I was pulling a humvee into a parking space and a kid in a civic hatchback decided to try and argue it out.
I had already completed half of the turn when he decided to try and cut me off.
All he succeeded in doing was getting my sergeant to swear a blue streak at him.
Which seemed to work.
James was changing lanes, after signaling, when a black Mustang with dark window went whizzing, loudly, by him on the right, causing him to want to move left, in which lane there was a stopped car waiting to turn into the Exxon station. “Stay in this lane!!!”
The Mustang pulled over into the left lane and then ran the light.
This is why I tell the student drivers to slow down, stay alert, always be ready for someone to do something stupid. His parking issues will be worked out.
No, I know there was no money, I just stated it for the general audience. It’s disconcerting, because once in a while, someone will send me money, and if this is a fishing thing, and not just being caught on machinery, then the USPS needs to be notified.
Yes, but it was when Pinochet was in power during the shoe thing, and his mission was only 18 months. I don’t know if the parents ever had to send shoes, but the mission was only 18 months, due to the bad economy here — 80-something.
What a pretty little tuxedo! I want to bring him home!
Good morning.
I’m going to take my shower. I tried to stay in bed and now I have to get rolling so I can write to Charlie. I have to change my library day. Fridays won’t work.
It’s just a surprise, sometimes, to learn about these unusual challenges people have faced in other countries. I admit to having the easiest life in the history of the world!
Good luck with the shower. We’re moving slowly today. It’s supposed to 100 degrees or more today and tomorrow.
Yes, and the missionary met a Sister Missionary while he was there, they wrote after their missions were over, (no fraternizing while proslytizing!) she came to the states and they got married. Sadly, they got divorced a couple of years ago.
We got more rain during the night. It looks like a good soaking, too. Still we need more so I’ll just keep praying!
Congratulations on the rain!
Still not much happening here. I could probably go back to bed without anyone’s noticing.
Up in NYC there is a tale told of a woman who was looking for street parking (a very long job sometimes) and had finally found a spot. This meant parallel parking so she pulled her Cadillac sedan forward and lined it up, put her car in reverse, and put on her signal.
In the rearview mirror she saw someone in a Mini zip into the spot and straighten it out. She got out of the car and yelled at the other driver. “What do you think you’re doing? Can’t you see I was about to park in that spot?”
The smug young man said, “That’s what you get for driving such a dinosaur. This is what you can do when you’re small and fast.”
Furious, she got back into her car, slammed it into reverse, and proceeded to pummel his Mini into scrap metal. The other driver ran up to her window and shouted, “What do you think you’re doing?”
She rolled down her window and said, “This is what you can do when you’re big an rich.” And she drove away.
Good morning! Happy Friday!
I hope it’s drier where you are than it is here. Apparently the storms we’ve been having spawned some tornados in PA last night.
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