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 ...
Cold here, too. Pat is working today, but Walmart is closed tomorrow. DP is mumbling about work or the gym or whatever, but whatever.
Sorry about the cold fs. It hasn’t gotten down that far, here, yet, but I’m waiting. I tried to keep an eye on it when I was in Happy Valley, but I didn’t check every day, so it could have been very cold. I DO know it snows here!
Happy Hmpf-Friday! And in case you don’t check in tomorrow (why would you?) have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
I’m glad Walmart has decided to close on Thanksgiving, even though they’re probably trying to capitalize on Black Friday. I’ll be there on Saturday, but I hate it.
I want to get back to going at 0600 because as it is, I sit in the lobby and wait for an hour for the Other Folks to get done, and I’m usually so tired be the time we even get there that I can’t read my list properly and can’t find the items I need, even if I’m looking at them.
Shopping has never been “fun” for me, and I absolutely hate having to sit in pain and wait.
I can certainly understand that!
I can’t even get a haircut because no one is available until noonish, and on weekends, they aren’t even out of bed by 0800 when I like to go because then I don’t have to wait.
So yeah. Somehow, I need to get a vehicle asap.
Anyway, I’m finally out the door! See ya in about an hour.
That (19 degrees F) is cold... after a couple of overnights that dipped into the upper 30s, we are warmed up for a couple of nights (50s)... some rain expected from midnight to early AM hours...
That is fine if it holds to that schedule... just prefer it to not be raining all day on Thanksgiving... even though we don't have any outdoor plans...
Well, since we’re expecting rain all day tomorrow in Dogpatch, I suspect Tejas will get a goodly amount of it, too. But that just means staying in and savoring all the aromas of the day.
I do hope your entire holiday weekend will be pleasant and filled with love! :o])
Walmart had most of what was on Tom’s list. I’ll have to go to Harris Teeter or Publix for a couple of items.
That must be a record. I think I walked to the bank, then to Kroger and was back home within 30 minutes. About a mile, altogether.
Now I’m sitting here wondering what’s next. Will the maintenance man even show up?
I’m getting used to the sounds of Dogpatch: Quite a few trains a day, and lots of planes, though I think the nearby base is a training base, as the plane are rather slow and low-flying.
But I like it! Not like being in Vegas with the Thunderbirds to practice or seeing the sorties overhead for whatever training exercises were going on, or the roar of the jet engines, but still... The sound of Freedom is varied.
I’m arranging music for Sunday. After lunch, I’ll try the remainder of the shopping.
Kroger was out of everything I wanted, so I had to substitute. But that’s OK. It’s a great life if you don’t weaken! I’m sure I would have had better luck at Walmart, but...
The great thing is, that with the carpet out of here, there was almost no smell of tobacco when I opened the door. I’ll still run the ozone machine a couple of nights a week until the ducts are cleaned, but for now, I’m relieved.
I need to begin to sort through stuff in the bedroom. I contacted Sterlite yesterday, and they “don’t usually have replacement parts,” but the guy just happened to find a set of four and sent them out yesterday. I need to get busy, but the pain is my friend today. Some days are like that.
I’m waiting on a call from the doctor’s office, but it probably won’t be until next week. Unngh.
I’m glad to hear the smell is much better! After the paint and the ducts, it will be great!
I don’t really want them to paint. I want to unpack my things so I can begin to feel settled. I’m getting closer and closer to tears, and little things make my eyes water, ready for a full-blown cry. This is in no way what I expected. By the time I had been in my apartment in Hurricane for this long, the unpacking was mostly done, and I could actually invite people in. I can’t do that here. There is nothing but boxes stacked to the ceiling, and no place to sit or even eat. I don’t want to do this any more. I want a car so I can at least go get a haircut, or go to Walmart at 0600 if I need groceries. I don’t want to depend on crabby people and I want to get to church BEFORE the first meeting starts. I’m too old to be so stinkin’ unsettled for so long. It’s wearing thin and making me wish I had stayed where I was.
You could ask them not to paint.
I wish things could get sorted out for you more quickly!
Back from Harris Teeter, where we got the last ingredients for Tom’s cooking. We substituted Jarlsberg cheese for Gruyere, because it was about 1/3 the price.
Our heater suddenly started making a buzzing noise when the burner turned on. I had visions of it going out of service around 6pm the night before Thanksgiving.
Fortunately, Maintenance was able to get right over and he did something magical with WD-40. I expect we will be good now. WD-40 is amazing stuff.
Thanks!
I just did that. She was set to have him come in today and start, and all I could think of was once a week for the next four weeks or more, I have to put up with a total wreck for an apartment. I couldn’t face it. It was just too much.
She’s young and inexperienced, but she’s learning fast. I’m helping her do that.
So I’ll see what kind of flat mops are available when I go to Walmart on Saturday, and when I begin to move stuff around to their final places, I’ll wash down the walls. I’ll start in the bedroom, before the bed gets here, and then work my way through. A little bit at a time...a 3-foot swath a day, floor to ceiling. Now I need to find a cleaner that won’t leave a residue but will clean and deodorize.
I just can’t face my place being so torn up for so long. I need to be able to clean the floors and put my rug down and try to find a sofa-sleeper that will fit and match the day-core. This is where I’ll be for a lot of years and I want it to be “home.”
I keep WD-40 on hand, both in the house and a small can in the vehicle. (The crate with Vehicle Things is waiting to go into the cargo area of the next vehicle.)
Somewhere, I have a list of “2000 uses for WD-40” but I never actually counted. I think some are repeated. But the base for it is fish oil. Series.
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