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 ...
Once he’s 18, he can be invited to find another source of nurture if he isn’t nice around here!
Definitely!
I still need the spray paint, but Pat has gone to work in the Avalon, so I’ll just have to drive myself.
Oh, golly! A Solo Driving Adventure! What a novel idea!
Chuck came and got the table and said he’s going to put it in the clubhouse. I don’t think that’s a good idea with the swamp cooler going 24/7 in the summer. That split is 6” at the moment, and will get very large before long. It’s stamped on the underside so it is pre-1978, if I’m not mistaken. A good table if it had been taken care of to begin with.
Tomorrow I can begin to move some stuff out of here and into the kitchen so I can navigate without coming up with bruises.
I don’t know what I did today that wore me out, but worn out, I am. So I’m going to call it a day.
The lunch didn’t agree with me, either, so I’ll be taking something for that, too, along with my last dose of herb-things.
See all y’all tomorrow day!
I hope you have a good night!
Thank you.
Hey, y’all—Happy Eiday Freve, and have a great weekend.
You’re welcome, and we are planning on a great weekend. Hope you are the same!
Expecting visitors here—yay!
I hope you all have a good time.
w00t!
Happy Friday!
That’s what I wish I were doing.
Good morning.
The alarm rang and I couldn’t figure out what that stupid noise was.
I’ve got T h e . S L O W S this morning.
It was nice walking into a kitchen I had some room in. Maybe all the schlepping later in the day is what tweaked the button on the fatigue. I usually do that in the mornings!
Now I’m going to go take a shower.
Good morning. I get it.
Happy Friday, everyone. Try not to sleep through it.
Puppy has been 3 months without a seizure.
Thanks!
It’s nice to be got! The shower felt good but the humidity is up to 37% (monsoon season?) so it was hard to dry off. I need to get used to it!
Anyway, I’ll write to Charlie, then if I feel up to it, I’ll start moving some things from in here to the kitchen, stack them neatly and call it a done deal.
The Space Bags came yesterday, so I can start with the clothes. I think I’ll buy another set. They are one of the handiest inventions I’ve ever seen, outside of a bread slicer!
I’m wearing a Kermit shirt this morning that I haven’t been able to wear since I got it last year! I love losing that weight. The total weight loss since I’ve been here is now at 60 pounds! Ten to go! :o])
Happy Friday!
Congratulations to puppy!! And to puppy’s human parents! That really is wonderful news, ArGee!
Thank you. If she goes to 4 months it will be the longest stretch since the seizures started. Actually, if she gets to 5 days shy she’ll be in record territory.
In other news our daughter arrived yesterday for a visit. This was her first solo interstate driving adventure so I’m relieved it went well.
Congratulations to your daughter! Those Interstate Driving Adventures can be extremely harrowing, especially for someone who has never attempted it alone. Good for her! :o]
My first solo interstate driving adventure was taking a pickup to college so I could move things up and, eventually, move them back home. I was pulled over and the authority asked me to open the top of the pickup bed. He said he thought it smelled like marijuana. Eventually he let me head on to school.
In those days the 18-wheelers were few and far between. Now they own the roads with all the just-in-time logistics. And with all the huge camper trailers and RVs it can feel really small to be in a sedan.
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