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 ...
HSTS is that new thing where sites don’t connect as “http:” anymore, but use the secure HTTP prefix “https:” instead.
Attempting to connect to a site using an old “http:” bookmark should trigger any modern browser to automatically upconvert to “https:” but using older software and hardware I’ve found it’s not a bulletproof proposition.
If you try to visit a site and get that HSTS thing, take a look at the web address and make sure your browser isn’t trying to hit “http:...” If so, you might try manually inserting the “s” to make it “https:...” and see if that tweak enables you to get where you were trying to go.
If so, update the relevant Bookmark.
Just for grins I fired up and old XP laptop I have and tried to browse the web using good old IE4 — it’s practically incapable of doing anything useful on today’s internet.
I have a VISTA machine that runs Firefox — the browser cannot be updated any further so Mozilla created a maxxed out version of Firefox that’s as capable as can be under VISTA. It MOSTLY does fine, but still there are sites it can’t understand.
Thanks and welcome.
Thanks!
At least I now know what it is! I don’t use the little laptop except when I travel so it just sits for long periods. I could always try using Firefox on it, as long as I don’t try to access Facebook.
Which is floofiest? The rug or the kitteh?
Good morning. Did you sleep well?
I slept about an hour, then got up and decided to go ahead and pay for the U-Haul, and 90 minutes later, I went back to bed, nothing done.
I kept being routed in circles, and even the person on the Chat Feature was no help. I don’t understand why people think I don’t mean what I say when I explain something.
I’ll try to go by the place today and make sure everything is ready for me. I’ll pick up a couple of book boxes as well, for the heavy stuff in the pantry.
So I slept in until 0440 and will leave for Walmart in a few minutes to get some more Emergen-C and some packing paper. It’s probably cheaper than U-Haul.
No kidding. I feel just like that very often.
I slept until after 7:00. DP and Tom went off early for a race, and I said to myself, "Self, you don't have to get up!" It was weird.
Nobody else is up except cats. I've either lost my daily lectionary for October or I accidentally let the subscription expire. Going through some piles of paper is a project for this weekend! If it doesn't turn up, I'll have to sort it out with the publisher. Meanwhile, I can read it online, but that's not the same.
Sally is supposed to be over later today. We'll go to The Book Lady and Goodwill.
Yeah, like because I’m on the other side of the interwebs, I’m a pre-teen who doesn’t know anything about electronics. GAH!!
Back from my foray at Walmart. I wasn’t going to go and then I realized that what I had to get was directly related to the move and to the current job of finishing up the packing. There was no packing paper, but there were small boxes, so I’m going to call the local U-Haul around 0800 and then go see him and pay for the truck. That will be a relief!
I was also going to get a cooler, but I decided to wait for Kevin and see which size would be the best — something that can also be used for family outings, once I get there, so it will have to have wheels and a handle so the G-Ma can fill it!
Your Lectionary must be like the little “Future As Bright As Your Faith” book. I left a copy out in case Kevin is in the mood for uplifting things to start our travel days with.
It’s good that you could sleep in! And I’m sure it was very weird, for a change.
I usually buy tissues in the 4-box package and in the last week, I’ve gone through and entire package as well as an entire box of Emergen-C. I never knew a body could produce so much in the way of unwanted, unthought-about fluids in such a short space of time.
The Catholic lectionary runs on a three-year cycle, and you can buy a full, “permanent” set. The one I get is a magazine, about 10 issues per year. Sometimes it’s monthly, and sometimes it’s seasonal, like Lent or Advent/Christmas. I’ve subscribed for decades, but you know how magazines are, always telling you your subscription is About To Expire!!!, and I may have ignored the notices until it actually did.
I bought a new cooler for summer camp this year, an Igloo on wheels with a pull-out handle; it’s about a 2-foot cube. It was was quite reasonable and still has ice after 48 hours, if it’s not too desperately hot.
I still have two Missals, (maybe three) and although it’s been a while since I’ve looked it them, it seems to me the Missal has lectures for the seasons of the canon. (My memory isn’t all that good if I don’t refresh it periodically.)
I like the little thoughts and verses for each day, as my mind doesn’t have to work quite so hard.
I was looking a an Igloo cooler, looked like it held about a cubic foot, but I don’t think that will be enough, once the ice is in it, so I’ll talk to Kevin tomorrow and when I go to Walmart on Tuesday, I’ll probably pick up the next size larger — wheels and pull-out handle!
Boy. And I thought the guy on the Chat Feature was dense.
I just called the local U-Haul office to make sure he was aware of my truck rental and to ask if he had any packing paper, and he just could NOT understand that I already had my reservation in and that I wanted to pay for it ahead of time. I don’t know what he had for breakfast but it must have been some really good stuff!
Anyway, I just called the 800 line and they’re backed up almost an hour, so I asked for a call-back. Who knew it was going to be so hard this late in the schedule?
If I had known the guy was so dense, I would have called the 800 number two hours ago, when I got back from Wally’s.
TRUCK! PAID FOR!!! :o])
I put in the U-Haul information on the little laptop and my contract account came right up. Probably because I installed Firefox for my browser and by-passed Microsoft and its garbage.
Anyway, not much packing has been done, though some has. I’ll try to get one more box done. SO close to the end of it!
I hope your outing with Sally was productive and enjoyable! I’m waiting to hear! ;o]
Yes, we founds some used books, some used clothes, and some used paintings of trees ... birches, I think, only in funny colors.
I got Volume I of Stephens and Catherwood’s “Incidents of Travel in Yucatan.” It’s full of Mayan ruins!
Then I put Sally in charge of a baking project with Frank, and I went to lie down with Jake.
The label on my Igloo says 52 Quarts.
I figured you would nap with Jake before you responded, and it’s all good.
“Incidents of Travel in Yucatan” was one of the books that never made it to me. I suppose I should start looking for the missing editions on eBay...
Did you notice, FR has had 4,000,000 thread posted? What an accomplishment!
Thanks! That’s good to know about the capacity of the cooler. That sounds about like the right size, when one is considering the ice as well.
I did an inventory of what’s left to pack. Not very doggone much!! LOL!
I was leaning towards going out between conference sessions but when I got to the two-hour break, the desire left me, so I organized a little more, and felt good about the soon-to-be-accomplishments.
(Now I’m anxious to get settled so I can get some [more] second-hand books!) ;o]
I have both volumes of Incidents of Travel in Central America. “Yucatan” is the sequel. They are action-packed and full of weird culture.
I’ll probably have to go will Sally to the apartment office to square things away next week. The ex is still asking her for money, after having told her that it was really her fault for agreeing to give him money all along. Egad.
Wow. I’ll look for those volumes. But not now. I hate slobbering over the keyboard, looking at used books.
Sally’s ex- needs a good dose of “What goes around, comes around.” I’m sure he’ll get it, eventually, but in the meantime, Sally needs to put her foot down and tell him to find someone else to “help” him out. And that’s about all I’ll say on the subject in public!
Kevin is happy that the truck has been paid for, and the owner of the franchise here doesn’t seem to know as much as he thinks he does, poor guy. But he WILL be open on Columbus Day!
And it’s moving right along! (Pardon the pun. Or not.)
There is another session tonight, but not for another two hours, and I just don’t think I can hang on that long. So I’m taking my silly self to bed.
(I hope Sally doesn’t weaken!!)
I’ll see you in the morning! Have a good night and sleep well!
Thank you, and I hope you have a good night, too.
Sally won’t have the opportunity to weaken now that The Organization is involved.
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