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 ...
It’s kind of windy even down in this holler.
We’re going to Linville Caverns once we’re all dressed.
I’m looking at two-bedroom places for our vacation, because each of deserves space!
Yes, a one bedroom place will never do when folks are not going to be sleeping in close proximity with each other!
Now I need to go in and dismantle the bedstead and then see what I can do to get stuff off the floor in there. The upside is that I’ll warm up. The downside is, it will make me wish I had more pain pills. Not to mention stir up the dander and the dog hair.
The sun is over the yardarm and will soon be hitting my window full tilt, so the living room should warm up, shortly.
I need to run (walk really fast) out to the mailbox to drop off Charlie’s late BD cod. I told him not to buy himself anything practical! He can use his own money for that!
Hi from Boone. We’re having lunch, then we’ll try to find a place to park near the quirky shopping area.
I’m still waiting for the carpet guy. I hate when folks don’t show up on “time.” So I’ll text the manager and let her know.
Have fun shopping in quirky Boone!
According to the manager, he’s “just late but on the way.” I’m glad I didn’t have anything planned for today...
I’ve done whatever “work” I had set out for myself, and written to Charlie, as well as had a shower and purged some files, so time is what I seem to have a lot of.
Good morning. Elen is still asleep. We’re going to get our nails done later.
The stereo may be a casualty in all this. It fell this morning as I was moving it out of the bedroom. The cover for the turntable broke but I hope that’s the only real damage. It can be repaired. Otherwise, I’ll need to get a new stereo. I need the music! Since I have LP albums, it’s really rather essential.
Have fun getting your nails done! You’ll have to show me! I got my nails done every other week when I worked. Until I got sick.
And when the stereo fell, it hit the TV screen, so now I have a big mark on it — in the middle...
Good morning. We have to get on the road by 0800.
Safe travels! I’m dying to hear about your trip!
Off to the shower!
*tagline*
We were on the road about 7:15, didn’t stop, and now we’re home. I’m told that Jake missed me a lot!
Welcome home! It was a strange day here, but all is well that ends.
The weather’s cranky and I’m overcast, and I need to get up early to get the laundry done and then make last minute adjustments in the bedroom. Unngh. Everything needs to be done by 0900, when the carpet layers get here. I’ll be writing another letter about my doors. I want it in before the 30-day deadline.
If I don’t make much sense it’s because I’m tired and overwhelmed and I want this all to be over with so I can hang things on my walls, hang my curtains, and put my books and other things away.
I understand. You are not expected to make sense. I’ve been working on laundry but had a little personal time with Jake, too. He needs his claws trimmed!
The son just took off, leaving behind a bunkbed mattress for me to sleep on for the next two weeks. I’m sure it will go out the same way it came in and head for the Goodwill donation door.
It will be odd to be on something “different,” up off the floor. So maybe my sleep will be good tonight. I have some schlepping to do in the morning after the laundry but before the carpet guys get here, but I’m going to have to run the ozone machine tonight again.
The time I spent away from home this morning breathing clean air made me realize how terribly this place stinks.
1. Carpet.
2. Paint.
3. Duct cleaning.
Too bad it can’t all be done by Christmas. I can’t recall a harder move!
Smoking can be such a menace. It’s not just a private choice. If I take a drink of wine, or even a lot of drinks of wine, it doesn’t permeate the walls, ducting, and carpets!
OK. I’ve been in denial about it all, but...
... that’s TOTALLY me.
Find me a warm place to be snuggly and I’m gone.
To be warm. Asleep. Undisturbed. With a low fire crackling in the grate, and the sound of rain on the rooftop.
UTTER BLISS!!
Steam heat on one’s underside ... not so sure about that location.
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