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 ...
Cheated death again. And crickets!
James says they’ll drive me to my hair appointment later, as well, so they can spend their Epic Fail Lawn Service money at the Dollar Tree.
There are worse places to spend their Epic Fail Lawn Service money than at the Dollar Tree!
I haven’t been just “shopping” at the Dollar Tree for a while now. They keep changing their inventory and I miss a lot of good stuff, I’m told!
Patrick is going to get a haircut. If he’s not back by 11:30, I won’t have to take a Student Driver.
You’re so quiet when you come to work, if I hadn’t been looking for you I would never have known you were here!
Happy Tuesday!
Hopefully, this is the week I’ll get a haircut!
Dangit.
The tape from my last effort of sealing off the vent started to come off, so I grabbed all the tacks from my corkboard that weren’t otherwise occupied. The third tack I pushed in broke and the blunt end went into my thumb. Cusswords, that hurts. I didn’t put tacks on my list, so I didn’t get any today. Maybe I should make a run to Dollar Tree and see what they have.
SO glad I have iodine!
Gah! You shouldn’t have to tape up holes in the wall.
Off to the haircut, hope we don’t die.
You can’t die! Who would I have to tell me about Driving Adventures??
I shouldn’t have to do a lot of things I’ve had to do since moving into this place, but there it is.
It seems that Chuck will only be on property “by appointment,” so I’m going to email him and hope the head office is monitoring his emails. I need to have the mulberry suckers cut, and it needs to be done soon. Otherwise, I’ll see if someone from the ward has a Sawz-All and can do a 15 minute job for me.
I was putting notes in Chuck’s mail drop but if he isn’t here, he’s not going to read them.
We did not die. It wasn’t even as scary as the earlier one. And my hair is shorter. Now we’re going to Walmart, and I’m driving!
Well, everything you said is a relief! LOL!
Such a hanging curve. How hard to hit it? How hard?
I'll just let it pass for now.
Get it?
I absolutely HATE blunt-force trauma. I usually get that from trying to drag a comb through the poodle’s hair. Sometimes it jumps clear and BAM.
Yeah, well, it was the blunt end of the metal part of the tack that went into my thumb, so it may as well have been the sharp end. It bled a lot and it’s very painful. ;o]
Took me a while, but yes. Some people in the state are reporting gas lines or shortages, but I just went to the QT at a busy time because I couldn’t get dressed until 7:00. I have clothes and stuff out for tomorrow.
I will put gas in the Tracker tomorrow or Thursday, but all I’ve seen is higher prices.
The price at the QT was a little lower than it was last week. That’s probably one reason it was so busy this morning. It gets lots of big vans and trucks with trailers: construction and landscaping businesses. And people drive like fools. It was scary in the Avalon!
One reason I couldn’t retire to The Villages, where my mom lives, is that I would be afraid to drive.
Yes, I know that feeling! I want something solid around me when I’m behind the wheel! The Tracker is small but it’s heavy, and has roll bars built in, so I feel quite safe in it.
The van is big and gives me confidence!
It would me, too!
I think The kids in Dogpatch are going to look for an SUV for me because I think they want me to be safe. “With A/C, of course,” someone said...
Yes, you do need AC! Around here, there are quite a few smaller SUVs in the resale market, things like the Nissan Rogue and similar models from other companies. We looked at some when Tom was car-shopping.
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