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 ...
Pets seem to have an interesting concept of what we can and can’t change.
Pups don’t seem to care if it’s raining, as long as you let them shake once in a while.
At least, that’s how it seems to me when it’s time to go out, it’s raining, and she’s in no hurry to get things done.
w00t!
I dunno where everyone went today, but just in case someone shows up, I’m heading for the boudoir. I hope you have good evenings and that you sleep well, and I’ll be here tomorrow.
Be good to yourselves!
I hope you have a good night!
G’orning, y’all.
I have no idea where I put my Gorn image.
Oh well.
Wear a Mac.
I remember being in 2nd Grade, walking to school in an absolute DOWNPOUR, and LOVING it, ‘cuz I had my mac and my galoshes.
Now they’ve got those plastic rain suits; they’re about half as good as a trusty old mac, but still impervious, and serve the cause if you’ve got good boots. They just don’t withstand wear very well; tend to tear out at the seams.
Gimme a good ol’ school Mackintosh any day.
You’re coming, and I’m going.
Like the changing of the guard.
Be back later...
Unnngh.
Something to be said for steady, heavy downpours, with or without proper gear. Depending on where one lives, of course. Alaska? Not so much.
Is this a littermate to yesterday’s floof?
Good morning. I hope you slept well.
Are you getting everything ready for your vacation? I forgot when you said you were coming back. Not that it matters, except for the kittehs.
Good morning. I slept okay. Got up to use the bathroom about 0400 and turned my alarm off; then I slept until about 5:20. I stepped in a cat spew on the way to the coffee! Maybe nothing worse will befall me the rest of the day.
Kitteh service will be suspended from Sunday to Friday, but I’ll send you snaps of beach scenery.
I don’t think this kitten is related to earlier ones.
I slept about four hours without waking up, but the Fitbit didn’t register it as “sleep.” I could hardly move when I woke up. Which was at 0215. I couldn’t go back to sleep, but I’m seriously thinking of a nap.
I have a bad case of the Wobblies today, and I’m sure it’s because of the Low Front coming in. I turn my head and the room swims. Scary.
Cold cat spew. You’re right: Nothing worse can happen the rest of the day! (Reminding me of my old tagline, below.)
Four hours of sleep is something, even if the Fitbit couldn’t tell.
I suggest you have a nap. I’m thinking about sorting laundry. I’ve told the Youth to make sure they get all their dirty items into the wash so they can pack clean things for the trip, but I’ll bet they won’t.
I have a good rain shell. I don’t have good rain boots - it doesn’t rain like that often enough to be worth storing them. But my feet dry out pretty well.
Good morning, all. Happy Friday Eve!
I sorted pills. It’s becoming an art in itself. How to fit all those capsules and tablets into the small compartments is a little like playing Tetris. But I was the Tetris Queen, so I’ve got this! (I wish I could find a Nintendo with a Tetris game, and maybe Hunt For Red October. *sigh*)
I slept longer than four hours, but the four hours was unbroken. Still it would be nice to know if it was deep sleep and if there were any REM periods. I’d like to try and match up the REM sleep with my behavior the following week, but if I can’t get a consistently accurate reading of my sleep patterns, that’s not possible.
I need to go make the bed and wash off my face and then see how I feel. Today will be library day, after I’ve gone to Walgreen’s. I forgot to get ginger snaps at Walmart, so I need to stop at Lin’s for that. How I missed them, I don’t know. Lists are important to me, these days.
I’m waiting to see just how many of the Yutes follow your instructions about Dirty Clothes In/Clean Clothes Out. If I were a betting man...
We’re in such drought conditions I could walk to the store and back in the rain and not get wet.
Look! It’s ArGee! Good morning, ArGee! Happy Friday Eve!
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