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 ...
Thanks. It was. I think.
I hope you had a good night as well!
Now, its morning. Unngh. I wanted to sleep in but I think I would have felt worse if I had. I’m getting a taste of what life in Dogpatch is going to be like.
Time for pills and then to get dressed.
Kitteh is sorry you’re feeling unnngh. We’ll buy you a dehumidifier.
Pensive kitteh.
Good morning.
I’m putting everything on hold until I time the talk. I have a week to put it in the time frame. So any tweaking will have to be done between now and Saturday next week. I hope I don’t have to trim too much out.
I have to change the sheets and then the rest of the day is mine.
I’m good. I clocked the talk at eleven minutes, so if I wanted to bore folks, I could!
It allows me to add a few words here and there, though, so this is good. I’ll send you the finished document later today.
Sounds good. I didn’t think it was over 15 minutes, just based on the typescript lengths. You don’t want to rush your presentation, either.
My biggest fear was having to cut something. Then there was the added fear of being the second speaker, having them ramble on and leave me with five minutes. Some people just ramble when they get to the podium, and tell anecdote after anecdote without once looking at the clock which is on the wall, large enough for them to see. If that happened, I would be frozen.
I got this!
Yes, you do. It’s a good presentation with useful organization and relevant personal detail, closing with a very meaningful anecdote!
It couldn’t have happened without your help!
What are friends for?
Some friends are more like family than family! *hint-hint*
There is another letter from you today! YAY!!!
You can have some teenbro student drivers if you want family, hint hint ...
I was just talking to Steve, my nature spiritual director, or as he puts it, “Co-Seeker,” and I told him about your talk next week, and he said he would pray for you, and you can say a prayer for him, and as your prayers pass in the ether between here and Utah, they can high-five.
I mentioned your talk because he had said, “We’re all walking each other Home,” and that reminded me of Elder Teixeira’s nice talk and darling little accent.
The teenbro drivers would be useless behind the wheel of my five-speed manual transmissioned SUV!
Thank Steve, and yes, I will pray for him.
I think I have three parts of Elder Teixeira’s talk, but there was no way I could include his darling little accent. Some General Authorities have more darling accents that others, including a Frenchman.
You should watch the Conference, sometime. It comes in two-hour segments and no talk is longer than 20 minutes, usually lasting about 10. We did have a Brother from Africa speak last conference and his accent was rather difficult to listen to.
True, also the teenbros are quite tall. James had his knee against the dashboard yesterday.
Kevin has been in the BB SUV and he had plenty of leg and head room. So height is not really a thing. But they might kill the engine a few times before they get the hang of the “clutch-gas” equation! ;o]
I’m sure they would. They are not the world’s most coordinated brothers.
The Two Driving Stooges and Their Adventures Behind The Wheel?
Yeah, I get it!
Steve said he thinks I have a sense of adventure. Maybe it’s just different from other people’s. “Jaaaaaames! Your OTHER left!”
Your sense of adventure is closely related to my own! “Don’t turn left through oncoming traffic when I’m the passenger!!”
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