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 ...
As someone that still discovers boxes packed near 20 years ago, I think that you are doing a great job getting unpacked!
I don’t have much, after so many moves, but I need to know where things are, and I don’t like clutter. Unpacked boxes are cluttering up my space. I want to get my books unpacked so I can start to read again.
The kichen, bedroom and bathroom for the most part are as they should be. The bedroom just needs a few more efforts, but as the saying goes, I’ll be here for a long time. I want it to look nice, as well as being comfortable.
Gloriosky.
I changed out one color cartridge, ran a couple of diagnostics on the printer, and it is now printing in color once again! Whatever was clogging up the system before the move seems to have been jarred loose on the road. We hit a couple of very hard bumps on the 1600-mile trek, so I’m guessing that was enough to clear the print jets.
Now I can actually write letters without my hands killing me for an hour afterwards! WOO-HOO!
Congratulations and a raucous round of applause. I survived a James Driving Adventure. We doodled around the farms a little, circumnavigating several traffic circles, and then went to the grocery store.
Congratulations on surviving a James Driving Adventure!
The living room is about halfway to being the way I want it, in that I’ve moved things to opposite sides of the room. My back tells me I’ve done enough for one day, so tomorrow, I’ll try to schlepp the rest of the things where I want them. At least a bookcase needs to be moved, as it won’t be holding books. It will be holding breakables.
So much has to be done to make this place habitable. And no help on the horizon. But that’s OK. I’m a tough ol’ broad!
Yes, you are tough. As tough as the Pioneers!
You’re coming right along. It hasn’t even been a whole week, right?
Some poetic wag put it thusly, “We don’t fight because we hate what is front of us... But because we love what is behind us.”
About 10 days, actually, I think. I’m still fighting the smell, but each night, I turn on the ozone machine, and each morning, I turn on the HEPA filters, so little by little, it’s dissipating. Lots of Air-Wick sprays in between!
I’m frustrated because I have no room for things like the vacuum or the rug shampooer until I can get the closet in shape and I can’t do that until the rails are on the bed, so I try not to let it bother me, and try to just remember to take one step at a time. I have to learn to walk before I can run.
But crikey! It’s frustrating!
Yes, and that’s the God’s truth. I think it would be easier to save this country if we were using guns rather than watered-down laws. But don’t get me started!
AR is a lot milder than I remembered this part of the country being. Summer will be the real test, I think.
I hope your day is a good one, DC.
The wag was very perceptive!
Step by step!
The ozone machine came! YAY! Now I can return the one that we borrowed. I’ll put this one to work tonight and see how it does. It even came with a door-hanger card in red-and-white that says “No Entry” so I’ll be sure to put it...somewhere. ;o]
Good news!
We had some bananas that had grown mushy, so I made banana bread with Frank. We’ll see how it turns out when it’s baked ...
I haven’t found my mixing bowls, yet, but there may be a chance they’ll turn up this next week.
I’m going to settle down for a movie of “Doc Martin” and how he ended up in Cornwall as a curmudgeonly, no-nonsense doctor. Then I may begin to watch a marathon of his shows. How much fun can one gal have? ;o]
I have a church meeting. Enjoy the Doc!
Fluffy kitteh sez, “Why you not sleepin’?”
Good morning. I hope you slept well. The heater in the bathroom is warming the place up so I can shower. It’s nothing like a heat lamp, for sure.
I don’t want to Friday. I don’t even want to Morning. I just want to Bed. But I don’t have one, yet. Once I get the rails in, I can order a mattress and box spring. (I don’t like “mattresses” that can’t be flipped.)
I just put my order in to Walmart Delivery, and it’s scheduled for between 0800 and 0900 tomorrow. I didn’t want to pay extra for it to be delivered today, thanks.
So I’ll take my pills and see if the bathroom is warm so I can take a shower. I need to change the HEPA filter in the bedroom so I can wash the one that’s in there. After not quite two weeks, the cigarette smell is becoming obvious again.
Oh. Yes. It’s a chilly 30° outside.
I haven’t been in NYC for a while, so I’m not able to give a personal report. It’s probably localized. The Dept of Sanitation is as political as any other agency. VIP neighborhoods get cleaned up first.
Good morning. Happy Friday.
After I got my car’s oil changed and found out there’s some code in the transmission that the guy said the dealer should resolve, my F-I-L called to say his car had failed inspection and he asked if I’d drive him to the shop. So I made a few more trips there. They said his car shouldn’t have failed and they’d put a sticker on it. He decided for as little as they drive it he wouldn’t do a “perfection” repair and let them.
So the day was pretty much taken up with driving back and forth to the shop and waiting.
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