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 ...
w00t! and thank you.
Have a happy Thanksgiving if I don't see you before.
Good morning, and happy Thanksgiving! It’s raining here.
It rained like crazy a couple of times yesterday. Love the rain—so life-giving.
Things were dry here, so it’s good to have rain. I hope it stops by evening, though, so a Student Driver can take us to Cub Scouts. They need night driving hours.
w00t!
Happy Monday, all.
I walked the dog in 46 fs, which is the high for today. We’re heading for a low of 25.
Good morning, ArGee and dog. I don’t know how many fs it is here. We got the Monday Wall Street Journal for the first time in months!
W00t!
A morning kitteh on a double-ought! Double WIN for Monday!
Good morning. I hope you are well rested after your outing with the Girls, and that your first night home was restful as well.
The laundry is sort of done. I have to hang it, but my back was hurting too much to do it at once when I came home. I forgot how that was, having not had regular wash days since Oct 4.
And of course, I came back in to find my place reeking once more. The bedroom closet seems to be the worst offender at the moment, so when the new carpet is laid, I’ll set the ozone machine in there for 20 - 40 minutes and let it take care of the clothes.
I had it on in here last night, but only for two hours and it wasn’t long enough.
I’m glad I didn’t toss my allergy meds and that they were so easy to locate. This place would truly be unbearable if I had.
Not a bad night, thanks for asking. I’ve got a bit of sciatica, and Jake was around. He really needs his claws trimmed!
I think I’ll give that a try while he’s sleeping. If I don’t come back ...
Happy Thanksgiving!
We’ve had rain off and on for a few days, so this must be the rain you’ve been having, SG.
My Favorite Son and his Perfect Wife celebrate on Family Day because #3 Favorite Grandson and his Sweet Wife, celebrate with his mother on Thanksgiving, and #4 Favorite Grandson celebrates with his dad and grandparents.
So we will all be eating something good, though I wasn’t clear just exactly what was being fixed. She asked me if I liked certain things, then said they were having this other stuff instead. She was also surprised when I told her I didn’t like green bean casserole, and preferred yams to mashed potatoes. So why ask me if she isn’t prepared for a negative answer?
(MS’s new “upgrade” is going to drive me up a wall. It keeps underlining my bad grammar in double blue lines. This includes screen names with semi-colons.)
I'll send out Animal Control and the militia -- the first to find Jake and the murder weapons and the second to find your shredded remains. ;o]
I survived. James helped. Jake is in a snit now.
I hope you have some good meals! That reminds me, I need to text Tom the Cooking Son and find out what he wants to cook.
Excellent!
I just took my first supplements, two hours late, but still...
and as soon as I’m done with “breakfast” I’ll get busy hanging clothes and then remove the rest of the stuff from the bedroom.
The salesman for the carpet company warned me that the carpet layers didn’t speak much English. I’m hoping this means that I can use my rusty Espanich instead of trying to communicate in hand signals. Anyway, I want to get most things out. I may not be able to move the “chester draws” (as seen on FB Marketplace!) by myself, but they still have to come out of there.
The underbed storage bins are arriving today, so I can sort a lot of stuff before taking it back to the bedroom. Only two more weeks before the bed comes and I’ll be almost human.
I hope the painters come soon so I can begin to hang the things that make me feel settled.
If you smile at the workers and say “por favor,” they will probably move the things for you. Latino gentlemen respect old ladies!
Please don’t try to do it yourself!
I hope Tom the Cooking Son fixes something yummy. But then, I know he will!
Someone else will be cooking so it will be good. PW asked me how I made my stuffing and I told her I would have to look at the recipe (crock pot) because it’s been over 30 years since I’ve cooked a Thanksgiving meal. Most Thanksgivings have been spent alone, some with TV dinners (recent) and some working (not-so-recent) so someone else could spend time with their families.
For some reason, this surprised her. What, pray, tell, does she think I’ve done on holidays with no family around? The same family that doesn’t call with any regularity, holidays or not?
Well, now they know.
And it’s time to get busy!
Hope that the short week is good to all, and that the Thanksgiving preparations go well...
And, that a very Happy and Grateful Thanksgiving will be had by all!
Good morning. I hope you’re having a great day!
Too late!! It's done!! But yes, I do remember "por favor" and "aqui" and "alla" and "mucho gusto," as well as "una cerveza, por favor" so I think I can converse OK. ;o]
Other news: The painters will be here on Wednesday to start with the bedroom. When they're done in there, I can move stuff from in here away from the walls. I don't know how long it will take them, but working one day a week? Unngh...
Also, the Duct Guys are coming to do something to the ducts (today?), but the complete cleaning, which I think involves all four apartments, will be done the end of December.
Also (deep breath) the front screen/storm door will be replaced ASAP because it's a "safety issue."
I’m going to be doing the twenty-five days of #GiveThanks on social media, beginning November 30th, so it should be fun! I’m pretty sure I can think of 25 things/people/experiences to be grateful for! ;o]
The Church has made it a church-wide project in view of their #LightTheWorld effort again this year. Bigger cities will have vending machines, where, if you put in a couple of dollars, you can get a goat or two or even a milk cow to someone in a Third World country. What an awesome idea! A few cents can buy enough rice to feed a small village for a week or a family for six months. I don’t know who thought of it, but it’s truly an inspired project.
So yes, zzeeman, there is a lot to be thankful for. The events since October 10 are enough to remind me of gratitude I owe every day.
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.