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 ...
They probably smell fish.
I understand what you mean, actually. Just, my frame of mind at the moment with certain people is beyond my ability to handle politely. Another horrible symptom.
Yes, and so am I. Some days, it’s all I can do to keep from chewing through the straps.
I still haven’t made the pages for choir. I guess I’d better do that.
I need to go over the talk once more for timing and a last edit and then put it aside until Sunday morning. I hope the package arrives by tomorrow, as it’s scheduled to do.
But Plan B is in the closet so all is well. ;o]
Gloriosky! I just checked and it’s “out for delivery!”
*happy dance*
It’s like Christmas in Jul ... er .. August.
If you believe “Surepost.” I see it SAYS “out for delivery,” but is it really? Especially since the mail has come and there was nothing large enough in the mailbox to qualify as “Delivered.”
Interesting.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/02/lilium-electric-jet-start-up-signs-1-billion-deal-with-azul.html
Maybe it’s just me, but if the range is 155 miles how can they say it does 175 mph?
I wasn’t going to rain on your happy dance but we had one delivery that was “out for delivery” that was out in the wrong zip code and had to be sent back to the processing center and out to us again. The processing center was in MA.
However, one other time it came after the other mail had already been delivered. So today could go either way for you.
Go ahead, rain on it. Since I’ve been here, I’ve had more trouble with deliveries than at any other address, and it started almost as soon as I moved in.
I normally check the progress of an order from the time I get the notification that it has been sent, and check it every day or so. Some will say, “Expected delivery by xx/xx/xxxx,” but that’s no guarantee it will be delivered on that day, or even within a week of that day.
Some packages have obviously been tampered with when they arrive, and some don’t arrive at all. So I just do a “happy dance” when it says “out for delivery” and then sit back and wait.
Then if it DOES show up, I do the real *HAPPY DANCE* and call it good. If it doesn’t show up, I notify the seller. Sometimes, I’ll get a replacement but most often it’s a refund. The refund is NOT what I wanted.
It’s here!!
It’s very nice fabric!
*HAPPY DANCE*
Happy dance! It rained here a little. I bought Tom gas and we went to the library.
The prescription is probably going to be ready, I’ll get that then go to the library again. I don’t really want to do either one, but.
I will look at the catalog that came with the item and drool over several things, I’m sure. ;o]
There are quite a few things I would like to have.
Just glancing through, I only see one that I would like, but only because it is so versatile and would go with so many things in my closet.
I may have been swindled out of $1.74. Oh well...
More cats...
If you got any coffee for $1.74, that’s not bad.
Yeah, cats.
Kitteh must have had some of that coffee...
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