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 ...
Good morning.
Cold here, but pretty. I was going to walk to Hallmark, but there seems to be too much going on at the moment.
Tomorrow promises to be just as pretty so I’ll do it then!
Having the ducts or vents cleaned doesn’t always help, but it can’t hurt! Have them check the filters, too!
Speaking of sons, Tom threw his back out moving Christmas trees on Saturday. He was in a lot of pain yesterday.
Oh, dear. Poor Tom. I empathize!
I don’t know how much good cleaning the ducts will do, but the new carpet helped, and I’m sure that washing the walls will help as well, but I think the ozone machine and the two HEPA filters will be my friends for a long time. I’m trying to get the manager to buy new filters for me so we’ll see what happens there.
*tagline*
w00t!
Pass along my condolences. That really, really hurts.
Sounds like a good plan!
HUGS and Thank You
HVAC guys are here and have been for almost two hours. They set off the smoke alarm in the bedroom. But he took it off.
In the meantime, FS came to get the mattress with his contractor, and I proceeded to set up the bedstead. HAH! It used to be a simple straight-forward task to set up the frame for a queen bed, but this thing came with an Allen wrench and two small wrenches of different sizes along with a gizmo that is intended (I think) to provide more stability under the bed. Why? It’s only going to have one occupant, and it’s been a lot of years since I jumped on a bed!
I’m not sure its together properly, but it looks like the diagram, so it must be. now all I have to do is wait for the mattress and box spring to be delivered. Then I can try to manhandle the box spring into place. I may wait for FS to get off work, though. Just in case, since I’ve already out-worked my pain pill.
No thanks necessary! It’s what FRiends do! <3
Thanks!
Everything has to be made safer all the time. That’s the rule.
Otherwise those safety departments in the government could just, you know, stop spending our money. And THAT’s never gonna happen.
Well, that’s something. I hope they put the smoke alarm back on!
I’m going to Walmart with Vlad.
Yeah, well, I think they expect everything that they regulate to be bought by men, to be assembled by men and used by men because they definitely don’t make it easy for wimmins to do that stuff, these days.
But don’t get me started. I was putting man-things together long before some of these law-makers were even a twinkle in their mother’s eyes. They might slow me down but they won’t stop me.
No, they didn’t put the smoke alarm back up. I asked them not to. The darn things are battery operated and the battery always begins to fail in the middle of the night on a weekend. So no. No smoke alarms.
This day has been long.
(singing)
If you ask, I’d be thinkin’
I’d be back in bed a-sleepin’
If I only had a brain.
I sing that song quite frequently!
No mattress and box springs, yet...
(To be continued...)
I got under the blankets for a while, but my feet and ankles are still spasming from the cold. I’m not looking forward to the rest of this winter.
I’m sorry about your cold feet!
I just got a call from the bed delivery people. The truck broke down, so my bed won’t be delivered until tomorrow between 1000 and 1400. I have no idea where I’ll find room to sleep tonight.
As I’ve been saying since Day 1 of packing, this is the hardest move I’ve ever made. Not, by any means, lacking in surprises!
Well, rats!
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