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 ...
The suggestion didn’t generate much enthusiasm from the other adult. However, if I really wanted to, I wouldn’t let that bother me. Maybe after the first of the year, if I’m still hearing about school-delivery difficulties locally.
Well, you’ll know what to do when the time comes.
Meanwhile, I’m all worn out. I have an appointment at the pain clinic tomorrow and will go to Walgreen’s from there, where I should have three prescriptions. Well, maybe two, because of last month’s snafu with the prescription order not being sent. That may delay it a week. I hate when that happens.
Well, you got all the 2s!
There would be a business license and extra insurance and self-employed taxation and all that. Might be worth it, though. We’ll see.
Some things are worth the hassle for the enjoyment of it all. I would love to have a job driving. Just because I enjoy it, and I like people. ;o]
I like driving, too, although not as much since everyone out there went loo-loo.
*snif* *sob*
I squished a snail and he got bleed all over my sidewalk. It’s terrible! I’ll never get that poor broken little shell out of my mind!
*waaaaaaah*
So, have a good night and I’ll see you tomorrow!
O nooooes. Maybe it will rain and you won’t see it tomorrow.
I hope you have a really good night. You deserve it!
Singing:
We are the worms
Out on the sidewalk
We make the squishy sound beneath your feet
So watch where you walk
(To the tune of “We Are the World”)
Thanks for the commiseration. That’s such an awful feeling. It sounded just like a dry leaf underfoot.
Kitteh’s gonna lik you to DEF!
God morning. I hope you slept better than I did. Unngh. I want to stay home today, but I can’t. The pain clinic calls.
Now I need to get dressed and pretend I’m happy to be in Hurricane with a mulberry tree that wants to eat me and snails that rule the sidewalks.
Be very careful! Maybe you could take a broom and sweep off the sidewalk?
I slept okay. Bizarre dreams.
I have to do something. That little broken shell is such a painful reminder of my inattention. And I have no clue why it bothers me so much!
I went to check the feeds on Facebook (the son is making progress on the restoration and posts at least once a day) and two total strangers decided I was their worst enemy. The disgust is real.
I slept, about eight hours, but the Fitbit says I only slept two. Stupid thing. I’m sure I dreamed a little, but my REM stages are almost non-existent with CFIDS. Ditto deep sleep.
Good morning, everbuddy! Happy Friday Eve!
If you can lick your nose, you can consider this day siezed.
Kathleen can lick her nose. I try not to look.
I’m getting the stitches out of my back this afternoon.
“two total strangers decided I was their worst enemy”
Weird. It would be nice if you could see your son’s car pictures without that.
New York City in a nutshell. The Fox News website has a link to a video someone took of water gushing out of the stairwell into a subway platform. The person is just standing there videoing. On the other side of the pouring water are other people standing there looking. Nobody fazed.
The world has gone mad.
I’m on there less and less so in a while, it won’t matter. I can “ig” them along with the rest of the peeps that are “in my aura,” as my mother said. I’ll be witnessing the restoration up close and personal and maybe even taking part in some of it. Just another reason to get to Dogpatch.
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