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 ...
Happy Humph Day!
That is one OLD computer. Does it still work?
When it’s not being used to warm kittehs, that is.
Thanks. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to it or regretting the fact that I’ll be bringing more boxes into a place that is already crammed full.
But after my shower, I’ll try to get the TV online as well as this laptop, and maybe then I’ll begin to feel like a real person. Even having the stereo up and running would help!
The first thing I’m going to do is find the space heater and put it in the bathroom. It’s 40° out. I still haven’t warmed up since helping FS but a folding Tonneau cover on the bed of his truck last evening. There was a very cold wind and I had to come in and add a layer to what I was wearing. So I had three tops and my jacket but the wind just cut through me.
I guess FS has committed to stopping by every night after work, he says. I don’t know how long it will last but we’ll see.
Good happy Hmpf Day. In spades.
Life is good when we can laugh at the middle of the week!
If it lasts long enough to get your stuff squared away, that will be something.
I’m sure he’ll tire of it before long, but it will be what it is, and I won’t look back. I’ll just do what has to be done and that’s it. The devil can take the hindmost.
If they don’t want to help me in the future, it’s fine. I have access to almost all the places I need to go, but I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m being pressured to get a vehicle because they won’t want to be picking me up for church every week.
But that’s OK, too. I’ll find a way to make it work.
I’ll probably be shutting down, soon because it’s almost 0730 and FS will be getting up soon. PW didn’t go to teach her early morning class this morning, but she does have to be at work at 0800 or 0830, so they will be rousing soon.
What fun!
Some days, it just doesn’t pay to chew through the straps.
I hope you accomplish a lot today! I need to get to work, too.
Accomplishment amount is overrated.
I hope, at the end of the day, you are happy with what you were able to accomplish.
Gloriosky! I’m online! In my own place! I’ve had a shower and set up the TV and put a few things away, then took a Slug Break for two hours, where I did nothing but crochet therapy.
I did put some clothes away, but there are more to go, so I’ll be coming and going today with the business at hand.
It’s tough to be on Facebook, because my late nephew’s siblings have been posting memorial photos of him. I feel his loss very keenly. And I’m concerned for my Real Brother and his wife.
Anyway, little by little, things will be put away and I’ll be dismantling boxes in order to make room for maneuvering.
So I’ll get back to you later!
Happy trails. That is, once you get them created between the boxes.
Down south of here by just a bit some very liberal governors got surprised in yesterday’s election.
I wonder if that will have any impact on the direction our new ultra-liberal governor is heading.
Good question.
Thanks! Live is good!
Congratulations on your relocation! And it’s best not to be on Facebook, anyway.
Thanks!
I try not to spend too much time on Facebook, anyway, just once or twice a day to check on the posts from family members. Lots of family members, lots of posts! A few FReepers as well, so it takes about 30-90 minutes a day.
I know people who never seem to get off of it.
I understand wanting to share memories when you’ve lost a family member.
Patrick was the eldest of my Real Brother’s children, and I’ve known him almost since he entered the world. He and the youngest daughter are the only ones I’ve known since birth, but the rest are around the ages of my own two children, so it’s hard to watch them all suffering so over the loss of their brother.
It’s OK, though, as I’m familiar with grief. I’ll try not to spread my loss over too many days. But I have to tell all of them the memories I have of Patrick.
I’m going to take advantage of the silence and go to bed fairly early and see if I feel rested enough in the morning to give this place heck!
Take care, all of you, and sleep well!
Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday Eve!
The cold seems to have made itself at home up here. I think this apartment is going to be chilly this winter.
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