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 ...
Once I start the wind-up scenes of notifying people of the move, the excitement sets in and life takes on a whole new aura.
I want to change all the addresses online, including banking, but it’s a week too early for that. Still, there is Progress. And Accomplishments!
Now time will either rush by or creep by, depending on which way you’re looking, until suddenly you’re out the door.
I suspect it will do both! But you’re right. It’s at that point in the moving preparations when it’s all downhill. Whether the slope is gradual or steep will depend on where my focus is. ;o]
The Kitteh looks like I feel!
Good morning. Did you sleep well?
I woke up about 0140 with a pain in my right calf, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get comfortable. After fighting with it for 20 minutes, I just got up, thinking maybe if I walked on it, the pain would dissipate. So far, no good.
One of the gals from church is coming by this morning to pick up the last of the donations. Anything else will go to the community room. Someone will be able to use it, for sure.
The sleep shirts are folded and put away, the trash has been taken out, and I’m just waiting for the woman to show up. About 45 minutes more, I think.
Tolerably well, thank you. Jake was in, but he didn’t sleep with me. The last thing I saw was a ball on the sofa.
I’ve called the youths, but nothing happened yet. I guess I’ll need to get loud.
Today, I’ll catch up on the stuff that didn’t get done yesterday because we were helping Sally move.
Maybe the Yutes helping to get Sally moved just wore them plumb out. Life is good when one has no responsibility. I don’t know why I said that because I don’t know what it’s like!
It’s going to be strange to say goodbye to the BB SUV. (Did you ever get a Yute to put that up?) I have eight years worth of memories in that little vehicle, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. But it’s time for something else, somewhere else.
I did. (It was Vlad.) It’s the most vivid license plate in the laundry room.
I hope you’ll find a nice little vehicle in your new place.
Ok, so now I need a photo, please, if for no other reason than because you have the plate and I will have neither the car, nor the plate!
The son and DiL are “looking” for a vehicle for me, and they know what I want. Something will show up at the right time, so it will all work out.
* *
The gal took the stuff so now I can get into that storage closet and either get the stuff packed or get it to the community room.
It will soon be time to leave for Walmart, and I dread it. I hate shopping. Let me do it from home! (That’s because of the pain factor.)
For me, the worst thing about shopping is all the people who tag along ;-).
Good morning. Happy Twosday!
Lol!
When I was a military dependent, unless they child was small enough to sit in the booster seat of the cart, they weren’t allowed in the commissary or BX until they were 14, and were given their own ID card. Saved a lot of bickering. ;o]
I’m in too much of a hurry to shop with other people. I want to get my stuff, get done and get out before the pain sets in.
BWAHAHAHA!
Happy Tewesday!
Yes, that was a thing when I was a kid, too.
Hoping that it will be a very good day for all!
It is all in how one sees things... two sides of one coin...
Good morning.
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