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)
==================================================================
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 ...
I took a hint from “Harry Potter” and hid them under the floors.
Good for you!
The signing is done, and on the walk through, I have pointed out several things that need to be fixed, including the front door and the screen needing to be replaced. The rest of the stuff is minor, but it I have 30 days to find anything else.
So I have the keys, and will get the key for the clubhouse by Monday, she said. I guess it’s a good thing I washed clothes this morning.
PW and I will be going to Walmart in about an hour when she’s done with her meeting, and maybe it will be a good thing.
Now I’m trying to relax a little. I have the addresses for the places we need to go to get the furniture, so this is good, and now all I have to do is find a place that will deliver pizza when we’re done. Normally, I wouldn’t do this, but they are not only loading but unloading as well. So it would seem pizza is in order.
My Walmart groceries are supposed to be delivered between 3:00 and 4:00 tomorrow afternoon, so I’ll have stuff for bedtime. All but ice cream for second breakfast... :o|
Pizza for a move is a good deal.
As long as it isn’t Little Caesar’s.
Clown, grenades good; beans and eyeballs, yucky.
I woke up at 0300 and finally got up at 0400. That’s barely four hours of sleep. I was going to change my phone into a mobile hot spot so I could have the internet this weekend, but Cricket CS won’t be open until 0900, and of course, we’ll be loading the truck up at that time.
Maybe I can come back this afternoon and do it, but it will depend on how I feel. I’m at the ragged end of the bush right now, trying to function on five or six hours of sleep a night because they have such horribly skewed hours. Dinner isn’t until 8:00 PM or so, and then they want to watch a three-hour movie, and I’m feeling fragile. Like Frodo, all stretched thin and vulnerable.
There is no shower curtain rod over there, and the furnace filter needs to be replaced. Kevin is going to get me a shower rod for me, but the filter has to wait. If the HEPA filters haven’t worked, I’ll shut the A/C off and just let them filter. Thankfully, they were not only on sale at $34 off, but have extra filters, so I can do some serious filtering.
I hope your day goes well. I have a few things left to take out to the car, but can’t do anything until the Other Folks wake up.
What about underwater volcanic eruption?
Good morning. One more very hard day, and then you’ll be there. Hang in!
Ah, the serenity of a cat!
Thanks. The days will be very hard for a while. I need to get my medical in place so I can get to a pain clinic. Unpacking is going to be a bear until that takes place.
I would like to will these folks up and out of bed, but they’re getting much more sleep than I am, so they’re rested. I’m running on empty and I need to quit complaining about it.
You can complain to me! And tomorrow, you can sleep when you decide to sleep!
Thanks!
I’ve gathered up everything I could and stacked everything else but I can’t do any more until the Other Folks get up. The car is locked and I don’t know where the key is to unlock it and open the hatch.
I don’t know what they decided last night about the sequence of today’s events so for at least the next hour, I’m in Limbo.
I need to get the youths up and take shower and get dressed.
I’m hungry but I just packed all my food. GAH!!
Oops. Can you unpack something? Would you get in trouble if you got something out of the refrigerator or pantry?
I found the little bag with the refrigerated stuff and got a bottle of instant breakfast out of it.
Also, I just ordered the pizza for delivery at 1100, and will contact the gal with the dining set about a time to get the stuff. I contacted the guy with the chest of drawers yesterday, so that’s taken care of.
Gotta sign off for now.
Busy busy! Take as good care of yourself as you can!
This was a day to beat all days and it’s not over with, yet.
I’m so tired I don’t know if I’m foot or horseback.
We got the truck at 0830, and no one showed up until 0900, but Mari and I began to work on taking the little stuff out so the guys could get to the boxes. It took just under an hour to load, and then a trip to the apartment and about 45 minutes to unload.
The pizza came but no one was there to eat it. At one point we had probably a dozen people including five or six kids. Then we had to go get the chest of drawers, then drop off the truck, then go back and meet Mari, then we went to Walmart and I had already ordered delivery from them, and we got back to the apartment just in time for the deliver person.
Everyone was tired, cranky and disagreeable. I’m so tired I can hardly walk but I have to go back to get my undies and some casual clothes, because Mari suggested I take stuff over there while we were out yesterday.
So Kevin was on my case about moving stuff over and needing it, and I wasn’t going to tell him it was at her suggestion.
I’m too exhausted to mess with it. I’ve been averaging five hours of sleep a night and last night it was four.
There’s not even a shower curtain rod in there, so I had to buy one. Kevin picked it out and it was the wrong kind. After tomorrow, I won’t shower again until Tuesday or Wednesday, so it’s OK.
Oh, golly. Maybe nothing else will go blooey in the next day or so.
Awww...
I need this kitteh!
Good morning. Did you sleep well?
I need to go shower but I wanted to check in, first. The Sleep Gods allowed me to get eight hours, with only one disturbance during the night, but I could have done with another two hours in the arms of Morpheus.
I’m so discombobulated it isn’t funny, trying to live in two places at once. I didn’t want to stay here last night, but the cigarette smoke smell was still too strong. Hopefully, it will be better today, because I want my own floor!
And we watched another Tom Cruise movie — the 4th Mission Impossible. They are so impressed with him because he does his own stunts, but no thanks. He also seems to be one of those people who can cry at will. What a talent. </sarc
Anyway, I’m off to the shower.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.