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 ...
Whatever you decided, I hope it works out well!
I had another long phone call about church stuff: we have two weddings next Saturday that need music and Scriptures and everything sorted out. Hopefully it will all be arranged by the end of the day today, so we know what to practice.
I decided to go, but getting dressed, I had second thoughts, as the chills began again. I’m going, anyway, and will be a slug the rest of the day.
I need to make sure I get the scripture study done early this evening so I can sleep quick!
You’re good at organizing stuff, so I suspect if it isn’t all sorted out by the end of the day, it will be so close to it that it you could put “Fini” to it!
Sorry you got to feeling poorly. I talked to one of the wedding couples after Mass, and I’ll phone the other later, after I’ve had a lie-down.
Church.
Fiasco.
Later.
Oy. I’ll say a prayer!
Gotta call the other novio now. I hope he speaks some English!
Your tag line made me think.
ALOT.
Certainly there is Truth beyond what any man believes, and it remains Truth even so, and that is Herr. Uchtdorf’s point.
But it may not be likewise true that there is Truth beyond all belief, for the extent of belief seems to include God, Himself, and He — as The Author of Truth — would be One to believes all that is True; there being no True thing to which He does not give assent.
But here we enter very deep water, for we stand at the brink of this question:
“Does God believe? CAN He, in fact, believe?”
Does He believe, or is everything KNOWING to Him?
Asked differently, must not the one who would believe also be capable of not believing? Isn’t the overcoming of doubt inherent in what we call belief?
But God has no capacity for doubt; He simply knows without question whether any given thing is true or not.
It seems odd to state it, but in the presence of Divine certainty, with all doubt obviated, belief would seem also to be obviated. There would, then, be nothing God believes; He would simply know everything. And this seems consistent with Biblical commentary touching on the point.
Circling all the way back to the beginning, then.
The idea that the extents of belief include God may be false.
If God is not included in the ranks of those capable of belief, then belief does have limits, and True things God knows do, in fact, exist and are True beyond the limits of belief.
Truth exists beyond belief. It is truth even if no one believes it; if only God knows.
Having stated that much. Do we — CAN we — KNOW anything? Do we fallible beings have the capacity to KNOW, or does our capacity for doubt limit us to levels of increasing belief?
In contrast to the absolute surety of God’s KNOWING, dare we say of anything, “I know”?
Another time, perhaps...
I hate when you play Devil’s Advocate!
“Take THAT Monday morning!”
Good morning. Did you sleep well?
The laundry is done and I’m trying to decide what to do the rest of the day. My best bet is probably nothing so I can get on top of this kidney thing.
Maybe I’ll look at “wish books.” I used to fill out the order blanks and leave them sit out for a while, going back over the items I’d “ordered” and run the thing through the shredder. It was oddly satisfying. ;o]
Good morning. I slept pretty well. I dreamed about weird vacations with unexpected Boy Scouts and church staff turning up.
I suggest you do nothing!
Vlad’s looking for the newspaper, but he only found Shannon. Not the same.
Good morning. Happy Monday!
I trust Ida didn’t bother anyone here too much.
We have clouds.
Good morning. Nothing here. I’ll get gas in the van today lest there be a panic.
Yes, it seems reasonable to prepare for panic.
Human beings are such silly creatures.
We are.
I don’t read the newspapers or watch the news on TV. It would seem I’m missing out of so much! I just know know what...
Bill Mahr, with whom I see eye-to-eye on very little, nonetheless said some very sane, intelligible, and very salty things about American silliness.
When a guy that far left gets that frustrated at the gridlock of big government turned stupid...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DH4v6FnbvM
“I trust Ida didn’t bother anyone here too much.”
Ida, no.
[Ahem]
We have...smoke.
May I interest YOU in some...smoke?
It’s a Divine Irony coming from a State with a Capital filled with policymakers who specialize in smoke-and-mirrors.
Some of the mirrors, BTW, have been fobbed off on Nevada, to the desert near Las Vegas where they sit torching interloping birds as they superheat the atmosphere concentrating the blazing desert sunlight on a concrete tower to boil water to make steam to turn turbines to turn generators (pant, pant, pant) to make electricity.
At least some of the time.
Ahhhhhhh - waka-WAka!
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