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 ...
Look at that precious face!
Good morning.
The Other Folks will be driving in rain to and from Memphis, but they’re both good drivers and know the road quite well, so I’ll try not to worry too much. I’ll just try to keep busy.
It’s kind of rainy here, too. DP is experienced at driving around the university, so I’ll just sit back and pray.
When we headed out on this move, I was asked to say the prayer of safety, and I asked that we be alert and aware and that we were mindful of the people around us. FS didn’t forget what I asked, and he repeated it several times on that trip. I don’t think he’ll forget it today.
But I keep forgetting the Dog Rule #6: Always stretch before getting out of bed, so I end up stretching when I get out here.
It’s almost time for me to leave and it looks as if the rain has stopped for a bit. :o])
That is very good news!!
That works well!
For me, the less attention I pay to the world outside of our little slice of God's Grandeur, the better off I am.
The more I focus on getting chores done, the better I feel...
Thanks!
I’ve never been faced with this kind of situation and it’s stressful beyond what I thought I could endure. But I’m seeing progress and that’s good.
In a few minutes, I’ll put the shelves in the little bookcase that is going to double as my small appliance holder and then I can begin to work on the boxes in the kitchen area. What doesn’t fit goes out the door!
I know that feeling!
I’m in more of a city setting than what I moved from (high desert in the mountains) but at least here, I can walk to Kroger and Walgreen’s. This town is about twice the size of the one I left, though it was much smaller than Las Vegas Valley, where I lived for over 30 years.
Eventually, I’ll have a vehicle and can get to Walmart in the early AM and not be “luggage” in someone else’s car at someone else’s convenience.
It will all work out. And there is beauty all around us!
We’re back from the Big Event. Actually, we’ve been back for a while, but I wasn’t feeling well when we got home and went to bed with Jake. I’m feeling better now. I’ll send a couple of snaps after I have a diet cola.
I got busy with several things (it took the Other Folks four hours to make a two-hour drive from Memphis) as about the time you sent your text messages, I was being bombarded by each of them in turn, either by the driver while stopped in traffic or the passenger while on the road, and I still don’t know which was whom!
The day was productive but very rainy, and I just decided to quit because the pain said I couldn’t do any more. So I sat and worked on the last of the Christmas presents. I’ll get back to it in a minute, for a while, but I’ll be here off and on until I fall over.
ALL my small appliances are out and the messy boxes that cluttered the kitchen area are in the dumpster. The little bookcase worked out great! (With a couple of minor adjustments.)
I’ll try very hard to sleep tonight, but it would seem the four-to-five-hour nights are going to be a thing for the duration.
I may try to get the roast ready in the crockpot to turn on when I wake up. That will give the meal about seven hours to cook. I hope I can stand up long enough to get it ready tonight. Otherwise, it will be Monday or Tuesday before it gets cooked.
Don’t give up on having a better night’s sleep. You just never know! Things could change after the soltice!
Thanks!
I haven’t given up because this is just another cyclical thing with me. Sometimes, it lasts longer than others, but it will come and go. I hate it because I love my sleep!
Yesterday, I managed to hook up the DVD player and found the wall socket to be really wonky, and I was going to write a letter to management but got side-tracked with all my unpacking. As long as it’s in her mail drop by Wednesday, I think it will be OK.
I’ll also remind her about the screen/storm door and the inner door, because they both need to be replaced ASAP. I’m also going to ask about the vent cleaning date.
(The guy with the Honda just PM’d me on Facebook about 10 minutes ago. We’ll see what happens.)
Sunday floof is very easy to look at!
Good morning.
Did you sleep well after the festivities?
I think it’s wonderful that you had two young people graduate on the same day! I’m very happy for them. (And you, of course! You and DP must be very proud parents!)
I actually slept moslty. I knew it would catch up with me, but I don’t know how long it will last.
Before I slept, though, I managed to get up and cut the roast in half, then put the little crockpot to work. I just turned it on, so it might start to give off some aromas before I leave.
It will be a long day. I got a text at 10:20 PM from the bishop about a meeting after the two meetings and was told it would be in another Ward. He said if FS couldn’t take me, he would. In other words, it’s too important to miss.
I’m waiting for the water to heat completely and then I’ll go take a shower. It “feels like” 26° out! I may change my mind about what I was going to wear today.
I wish you the best with the very long day! Is a mandatory meeting with the Bishop to which he will drive you across town like a threat? Can we expect you to come back with all your limbs?
I slept okay. After going to bed, I had an Idea, and I got up and wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget, and a good thing, too, because I don’t remember it now. I haven’t looked at my notebook yet ;-). Then I dreamed of being on dirt roads with giant RVs like battleships.
There’s a frog croaking out back.
The meeting isn’t with the bishop, actually. It’s with the stake president who is the next level up, so it’s Very Important, and a meeting I’ve waiting almost a year for. So I will Not Miss It. ;o]
I should come back with good news, but after the last year, I can’t help but wonder. Still, I’ll go and accept whatever I’m told, as it concerns my future.
The BP supplements came so I hope they do their jobs soon. I’ll probably have to give them at least a week to start to work.
I wanted to wash the rest of the walls yesterday, but it was too rainy, and even indoors, I had trouble breathing. After 30+ years in the desert, this is a massive adjustment.
It’s time for the shower, now. The bathroom should be warm and the water should be hot enough to stay that way long enough for me to finish what I start! See ya in a bit.
And yes, I’ll come back with all my limbs and they’ll be working about as well as they can for a cold sunny day!
Okay, good news about the limbs. I hope everything turns out just the way you want it to!
I forgot to add that I might come back with a major attitude readjustment!
The shower has been had, and I’m about half-dressed, since I’m getting up later these days. I don’t like it, but it is what it is. In two weeks, we’ll be going 2-1/2 hours later, and THAT is something I really don’t like. It’s the usual rotation as the church grows. Wards split and new meetinghouses are built, then wards split again to fill them, sparsely, at first, and then the cycle starts all over again.
As the wards grow, the meeting times shift each year so that not one ward always has the same time slot. It’s a good idea, but there are those who always want the early meeting and others who always want the later ones. I want the early meetings because of my pain threshold.
Anyway, life is good. I should never complain because I’ve been so blessed with so many good things (material and spiritual) and so many good people.
I watched the “ending” (movie length) of “The Miss Fisher Mysteries” and she and Jack finally kissed and made it official. The ‘20s were simpler days, I think.
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