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 know how that works! I think all the meetings are in person, now, but if so, it’s recent. We’re having a get-together on the 17th to celebrate Statehood Day (the 24th) and I’m thinking it’s the first without masks. I could be wrong, though!
I’ll be going to the celebration because it’s in the daytime, but I won’t stay long. Just to let them know I’m alive.
I think it’s great to celebrate Statehood Day.
I’m working on chicken salad to take to camp. I’m not interested in eating what they offer to Webelos.
I like chicken salad, but these days, I have no idea what to put in it besides chicken and mayo. What else goes in yours? I still have some chicken left.
I think I’d take my own, as well. How long will you be gone? I forgot...
These days when I watch a baseball game with my F-I-L he points to the full stands and how nobody’s wearing a mask. I keep asking him if he thought the changes would be forever.
But he asks again, every time.
Sounds like me... ;o]
Chicken, onion, red and orange bell pepper, garlic, and salad dressing. I might add some cucumber.
I’ll leave my cooler in the dining hall when we get there Thursday afternoon. I’ll pull it out to the archery range on Friday, since I’ll be there from 8:30 to 3:30, but on Saturday, I’ll be at the dining hall for lunch.
We’ll be there until sometime Sunday morning. Depends on how quickly we pack up and do our cleaning assignment. Then I’ll take Kathleen’s friend home, and we’ll either go straight to church or stop off home to shower and change.
As the tropical storm progresses, the likelihood it will be raining when we get there tomorrow (4:20 p.m.) keeps declining. It’s down to about 40% now.
Oh. That sounds SO much better than mine! LOL! I can do the onion and the garlic and maybe come celery, but the pepper will have to wait until I get to Dogpatch. No one to eat them here before they go bad.
I don’t know whether to pray for rain or not rain! LOL! Whatever is best for you and the group then that’s what I’ll pray for.
Not rain would be best. Get going and divert that hurricane 100 miles east!
Just kidding. We’ve all been rained on before.
Yes, and most of us won't shrink!
Where do you get the morning kittehs?
Now, I need to go to Walmart.
Is it a “Copy Link” thing?
Good luck at Walmart!
Right click on the picture to “copy image address,” then right click in the FR window to “paste image address.”
Use the html < img src=”address”>, only without the space between the less-than symbol and img. If it’s too big when you preview, add width=550 between the close-quote and the greater-than:
< img src=”address”width=550>
I had to go back for the ice after I loaded the other stuff in the van, because I forgot while I was chatting with Miss Sheila, the front-end manager, about going camping in the rain.
Speaking of rain, it’s about to get here. I hope the Youth Staffs are all squared away! James has a cabin with another boy, but Vlad is in a tent.
To do really correct html you should close your tag by putting a backslash (/) before that last greater-than sign. Also the number 500 should be in quotes as in width=”550”
The browser will be OK if you don’t do these things, but it is more correct to do them.
Huh, who knew? I’ll have to try that in the morning.
The Stewardship Committee got slightly spiffled and didn’t really resolve anything. The church is in a bit of disarray after the Covid interval and other issues. However, we have a couple of things to plan and execute in the next couple of months, so that’s something.
One indicator of the disarray is that the new parish council chairwoman was not even aware of the existence of the Spanish Volunteers Committee, which organizes about 1/3 of the parish.
Ay de mi! I’ll miss a Spanish Volunteers Meeting tomorrow night because of camp, so I need to call someone with decent English to discuss some issues they need to be aware of before I leave.
Also, after a few sprinkles, the rain hasn’t done anything, which I think bodes well for tomorrow. I figured we’d be under a downpour by now.
Thanks! I’ll try a test meme today, then do the ping tomorrow using your ping list, if today’s works out.
Good morning.
I’m thinking I’m just not going to be able to function on less than 10 hours of sleep a night. *sigh*
I hope your camp goes well and that it doesn’t rain!
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