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 ...
We’re back from the Quinceanera. The next thing is a pumpkin-carving party to which Kathleen is invited. I think I’ll lie down with a cat.
How did the pumpkin carving party go?
And most important, how was your nap with a cat? I feel so discombobulated since I left!
Nap was fine. Jake was in his own bed. The pumpkin party starts at 5:00 EDT.
I’m freezing in this air conditioned environment, so I’m going to go take a shower in a bit.
I have to find the TV remote which I forgot to pack in with the router and set-top box, and put it in there. We were going to drop it off in St George, but in their zeal to make a hasty retreat away from the job at hand, the loaders grabbed a box that clearly had an address label on it and was sealed. Just one more frustration!
In the meantime, TDS will probably charge me another month.
But ohwell!
The folks are leaving after church to go to TN to pick up his new work truck, so I will have two days of almost normal life. They’ll be back tomorrow night.
Good morning. Maybe you can get to a USPS drop off tomorrow. And enjoy the peace! It turned cooler over night here. The house is 69 degrees! I need to find my slippers. I know they’re in my closet, but I’ve been putting things on top of them.
Pretty Mom Cat!
Good morning! I slept well, thanks, but would like to have had your dreams! Almost eight hours of sleep.
Now, though, I need to go shower. Unngh. I’m so not liking the set-up here. I’ll try to not complain. It only makes things worse.
Back in a bit!
You can complain to me!
Thanks!
Shower done! But now I can’t find the one and only clip I had for my hair, and since I wasn’t able to get it cut before this trip, it’s all wild and straggly.
I’m waiting for the Other Folks to get done with their primping and I’ll politely ask for a scrunchi or hair clip, telling her the former can go into the laundry and the latter can be washed in the sink, just in case she’s disinclined to acquiesce to my request or just plain balky about shopping on Sunday for a necessity.
Maybe she has some mousse or hairspray. I totally don’t get not lending someone a hair clip or band.
I hope you have a really nice time at church!
Kevin let me use one of her clips, so it was pulled back. There is a Great Clips store, here, so I can get it cut this week.
The Other Folks are going to be gone two days longer than they thought because they will be going to a hockey game in Nashville, since it will take place Tuesday night. They won’t be home until Wednesday.
I realized how out of my elephant I really am when I went to take my shower and didn’t have a place to put everything. I had to buy shampoo and conditioner. I also bought hair goop, but it was body wash I needed, so I still need it.
SO off my schedule and out of sync with myself!
In a way, it’s as providential eventuation, eh? A couple of days in peace will help to recombobulate you.
They disguised their desire to see the game as an opportunity to help me relax. OK. I’ll buy that. for now. I just told them I would hate to think they were so close in time and distance and would miss it, and I’m happy that they get to see the game.
But I will move into the VW Room before they get back!
For now, I’m watching Sir David narrate another of his wonderful series. On Roku!
Tomorrow I get phone calls! And if I have someplace to go, I have the VW to take me!
Excellent news. It’s a good opportunity for you to relax and an opportunity for them to see the game, so a win every which way.
Sally has been over carving pumpkins today. We’ve set up a trip to the mountains for her, Elen, and me in mid-November.
Sally is good at finding places to say. When I come visit you, she can find us a rental!
That will be fun for the three of you to get away together!
And I need all the help I can get at finding places!!
I need to get driving directions to several places...like Great Clips! I hope the VW starts.
;o]
The pumpkins are lit up out in the yard, and I’m going to the shower.
What a pretty cat.
Hey, y’all.
Good morning. I was asleep, more or less.
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