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 ...
I hope for all the same for everyone.
I wonder if anyone ever thought of making a zombie movie about Thanksgiving. They could call it Grateful Dead.
BWAHAHAHA!
Yeah. I think I’ve seen “Night Of The Living Dead” twice in the last year, one version was cut and the other not so much. I don’t know why I don’t have that movie... The original, of course.
The carpet guys are here!!
Hi, I’m back. I took Frank and Kathleen to the library, and then we stopped by the hospital to look at the Christmas decorations. It was nice.
The carpet is in! It’s really quite pretty and lighter-colored than what was in here before, so I think I’m going to like it. (About 40 minutes from when they started to rip out the old to when they vacuumed the new.)
I just got off the phone with the doctor’s office, and the two-day delay in being able to call them made all the difference in the world. Out for the holiday. I may have to go to an urgent care to see about getting a prescription for morphine. If they even do that.
So now, I need to put back the important things that I took from the bedroom. I’m not sure I can do that as quickly as I took them out. The pain is already coming back.
It’s nice some progress has been made, at least.
Thanks! It’s been a hard move all the way around, but it’s my last move, so things are in an upheaval. They have to be new things to last me! ;o])
The painting is going to be something else again. :o|
Congratulations on the carpet. No more dog hair!
I had a nap with Jake. He’s still there.
Unfortunately, because I had bedding on the floor, the bedding still has dog hair. I’ll probably be vacuuming it up for the next six months. At least I won’t have my nose in dog dander.
I don’t know when the painters will come, but probably not until Wednesday, and it will be a very slow process to get this place painted.
The under-bed storage bins came but they were delivered to the office. I don’t understand how Walmart can deliver my groceries to my door but not a package as large and awkward as this.
I’m waiting for the mail, but I don’t know why. LOL! What I want to do is go in and lie down, but there will be time, later. The stress is beginning to get to me, and I’m eating because I want to. Nothing good for me, either. I need to change that.
I was doing so good on my weight loss, too, and I’ve put on three pounds since moving in. GAH!
Well, every little bit helps.
Tom is supposed to come over tomorrow to discuss what he’ll cook for Thanksgiving. He’s at school all day today.
Yes, it does help. And the place smells much better! The paint will also help, but in the meantime, the ozone machine will still be working as will the HEPA filters.
The ozone machine will be running for at least four hours tonight, if not longer, so it should smell much better by morning.
I’m glad for every little thing that has been put in place to ease the work my lungs have to do to try and process the air I breathe.
In the meantime, my left shoulder is not reacting well to the workout I put it through the last couple of days. My joints all hate me, I think!! I have no OTC pain relievers, so there won’t be much relief for me tonight. Hopefully, tomorrow morning will find them much more willing to cooperate.
A totally useless mask arrived today. By useless, I mean that it’s not designed to stop anything from getting in, including air. My friend at Walmart in Happy Valley had one — black and covered in sparkly stones, but only a webbing between them. Chuck forwarded it. I thought I’d never see it, but here it is! It will meet the “cover your mouth and nose requirements,” but that’s about all! LOL!
I’m sure Tom the Cooking Son will plan and serve a delightful Thanksgiving dinner!
I’ve cooked and mashed some sweet potatoes and cleaned and snapped some green beans. Something will be made of them.
I would love to have some yams, but they’re not at the menu at the Other Place. If I want any, I’ll have to hoof it to Kroger in the morning and cook up a little batch just for me.
There is a resident here who uses a leaf-blower every day. I hate the sound of those things, as they hurt my ears. I saw FS’s neighbor using one on Sunday, as I was being taken home, and I posed the rhetorical question, why does he bother? Of course, the answer was stupifyingly simple...he wants to beat the wind to it or he doesn’t want to wait until they’re all off the trees.
I’m beginning to feel my day, so I think I’m going to watch some David Attenborough and chill until bedtime. Netflix has been reminding me to finish the series, and I’m tired of being nagged, so...
Anyway, I’ll see you in the morning. I hope you have an excellent night!
Even if you aren’t a cat person that is an adorable one.
Thank you. My calico has that superior expression, too.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Twosday. For those of us working for a living it’s also a weird Humph day.
25 fs this morning. We had a little bit of snow last night. Just enough to make scraping the car windows fun this morning for those who have to do that.
Kitteh sez, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful!”
Good morning. I hope you slept well.
I died. I didn’t want to get up when I did but I saw it was getting light out. It’s going to be a nice day, they say.
Don’t know why I slept so hard. I really do have things to do but not at this moment. I’m still trying to wake up.
It’s 30° as we speak, here, and if I had someplace to go, I’d have to scrape the windshield, if I had a car.
It even looks cold out, but the trees are very beautiful. Of course, this is the time of year I always came to Dogpatch for my grandson’s birthday, it looks “normal.” ;o]
It’s cold here, too. I was cold all night and disturbed several times. I’m thinking of an air mattress and a sleeping bag for tonight.
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