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 ...
Well, kids, since I’m still struggling with this thing that has me wishing I were young and healthy again, I’m going to head for bed.
I’ve turned the mattress pad on ahead of time, and will have a good supply of comfort things, though no chocolate. With any luck at all, I’ll feel well enough tomorrow to get crackin’ on the packin’! Again.
So I’ll see all y’all tomorrow, and hope you have a good and restful night!
I hope you have a good night! I’m back from the stable and had a shower. I think I’ll go sit out on the lawn with cats now.
Getting lost can be a great deal of fun as long as you’re not on the wrong side of the tracks.
w00t!
Thanks!
;o])
Sometimes, it’s easy for me to forget that other people have real lives but maybe I’ll learn again when I get to Dogpatch.
Maybe you can get a lawn chair, and if you sit in it, cats will show up.
If there’s any place to put it. That door you saw is THE door.
I’ll figure something out. It’s a darn shame that I can’t have a cat because my DiL is “allergic.” Cats are good for my blood pressure.
I slept until I couldn’t sleep any more, and here I am, up shortly past midnight. I’ve had my shower and will write to Charlie. After that, it’s anyone’s guess!
Such a precious little floof! I want it!
Good morning. I hope you slept well last night.
I located my Watkins ointment and applied it several times during the night. It did a good job loosening up the gunk in my lungs, so at least I was able to cough. I used the throat spray but the cough drops I bought made me sick, so I don’t know if I’ll use them again. All in all, it was a fairly good night, but then, I think using the Emergen-C helped a lot, too.
This is the day I call Dogpatch and get my address! :o]
Sounds like a plan!
I had a pretty good night, slept until my alarm. I can hear Jake eating, and Shannon is lying on the mat by the sink.
Oh, to be a cat!!
Good morning. Happy Friday!
I’m not sure I would ever have the patience to try to pose a kitteh for a portrait, but whoever took this one did a great job.
Some kittehs naturally pose themselves, but I have a feeling there’s a dead fishy or something else tasty just inches out of the frame, in this case.
And happy Friday. Leaving for a campout, noonish, and various young parties are asking what they need to pack. “Three sets of clothes: pants, shirt, socks, underwear.” “Do I need pajamas?”
GAH! “I don’t care: I’m not sleeping with you!”
I think we need to do a packing drill. Several times.
Poor T-c! Yes, packing drill!
I had a list of things to pack, and I think I need to get it out.
I feel slightly discombublated!
Happy Friday!
I’ve often thought the same thing about cat photos: Who has the patience to do THAT? ;o]
I’m sorry about your discombobulation. DP is annoyed that I’m making sure all the food goes in the van, but the chance that he’ll arrive before dinner time is slight. I know it’s not his fault that work things drag on and on, even when he believes they won’t. However, I don’t think that requires me to pretend I don’t know they’re going to drag on and on.
I suppose that when he says, “I’ll have a meeting for an hour,” and I plan based on the assumption that he’ll have a meeting for three hours and then hit rush hour traffic, I’m saying that he’s *wrong* about something, the duration of the meeting, in this case.
He’ll often say things like, “I have a ‘change’ at 10:00 p.m., but it will only take a few minutes.” Once, having drink taken, I forgot myself and said, “It’s adorable, in a way, that you believe that.”
Oh dear.
Why are some men so post-menopausal? *flashback to Igor*
But I really LOL’d at your drink response!
I took a morphine (followed by Second Breakfast of small cup of ice cream) and forgot that I had JUST taken it and got up to go work on the closet. So now, I have several piles of clothes on the bed (most of which will be stored for warmer weather) and in a few minutes, I’ll get back up and try again to get it done.
In the meantime, I’m going to print out my list for packing for a trip.
Happy journey! And hang in there! I’m just a pen and paper away!
Yes, that’s exactly what Friday needed! Thank you, Sir!!
BWAHAHAHA!
In other news, I just called the place in AR that was so rude before and told them thanks for calling, I’ve accepted an apartment at another property, and I didn’t want them to hold that one forever, waiting.
I think she was surprised. She was quiet for a minute and then said “thanks.”
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