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 ...
Puppy had another seizure this morning. The complex put pesticide on the ground on Tuesday and Mrs. ArGee walked her while they were spraying. We’re thinking (hoping) that something in the air got into her system and triggered this event.
LOL!
Thanks, ArGee! Happy Friday to you, too!
Oh, no...
I was going to ask in my last post to you a minute ago, (’cuz I only read one at a time!) but thought she was doing fine, so no need to ask.
I’m sorry to hear about that, and I hope it’s just a one-time thing. She may have seized, even if they weren’t spraying if she had gone into the areas that were recently sprayed. I’ll keep her in my prayers. God loves dogs, too, or he wouldn’t have made them so forgiving, loyal and loving.
We’re having a thunderstorm. 17 people hanging out at the archery range. A guy with a weather app says it will be over soon.
With any luck at all, the storms should cool things off a few degrees!
From what I can see, it’s pretty fast-moving!
It’s not over yet, but the rain almost stopped long enough to get all the equipment squared away.
And it’s cooler.
We’ve had rain on and off for the past couple of days. What’s left of Elsa appears to be up in eastern Mass somewhere.
I think this is ordinary afternoon thunderstorm. Still raining but not much. I’m going to leave some stuff in the dining hall and see how things are at the campsite.
No Caturday morning floof to oooh and aaah over so I’ll just surf some of the kitteh places!
I got home in time to shower, start laundry, spread gear to dry before church. Now I’ll do more laundry and then lie down.
I thought for sure you would lie down first, or I would have posted sooner!
Welcome home! I’m glad you got to shower before church! I didn’t make it today, but there’s always next week. *sigh*
I’ll hang around for a bit!
I’m back. I think I was asleep a little.
Last night, there was a big Mexican party somewhere near the camp; there are a lot of farms around there. At our campsite we only heard the Tejano Conjunto music - everybody polka! - occasionally until midnight or so. At the west end, they heard it much longer.
A youth-staff girl was complaining this morning that the adult campers were telling youth staff, whose cabins are that end, to “Turn that music down!” and the staff kept saying, “It’s not us!”
We also had owls.
At least they didn’t have second-hand smoke. I’ve decided David-the-New-Neighbor is exempt from all the rules. He and his girlfriend can smoke with impunity, her dog doesn’t need to be on a leash, and she can wash her filthy clothes without having to clean the lint traps on the dryers. But don’t get me started.
Give me some loud Tejano Conjunto to deal with for a change. Sooner or later, they’ll all get tired and fall asleep.
So I’m going to take myself to bed. The 24-hour Claritin-wannnabe is wearing off and I need to add more drops to my eyes. I’m going through inhalers like they were going out of style.
Tomorrow is wash day, so I’ll be up early and outta here, but since it’s not linens, I won’t be there long. I don’t know how long Chuck is going to put up with this guy, but I’m hoping it isn’t too much longer.
I hope you have a good night and get some very good sleep! (How are your blisters?)
I have to leave the house at 7:00 tomorrow, and I think I’ll be home by 4:30.
After my shower, I took the bandages off my feet, said, “Yuck!” and put new ones on. After church, I stuck a pin in each of the blisters, squeezed them out, doused them with rubbing alcohol, and replaced the bandages. I’ll check them again before bedtime and add Gold Bond powder and socks.
An early night should help with everything, and I get Wednesday and Thursday off.
Foot blisters are always ugly. I worry about infection (CFIDS does that infection thing quite often) but you’re taking very good care of you!
It’s good that you get a couple of days’ rest!
Have a good night!
Vlad missed the staff laundry pickup, so DP is going to get some of his dirty clothes, and we’ll wash them, and I’ll take them back tomorrow morning. Teenbros!
The feet should be okay. I’m on my feet a lot at the range, but not walking very far, mostly back and forth over fifteen yards of the range area, and hunting arrows in the field. I might even take sneakers. My boots need to be re-waterproofed.
Teenbros are often as addlepated as Teengirls.
I used to have boots, back when I walked a lot. No car, in Vegas, no bus fare! LOL! THOSE were the days! I survived on Kellog’s breakfast bars.
I hope you slept well.
Now to sort clothes.
I slept pretty well, except for Jake’s being very needy and slobbering on my pillow, among other expressions. What a guy.
Vlad’s wash is done. I took my cooler outside to drain. Guess I’ll start making my lunch. I have a little chicken salad left, and some apples.
I bet when the morning floof is full-grown, it’s going to be a beauty!
Good morning.
The laundry is done, but this is the second week in a row that I’ve been met with a mess. This week, it was lint, debris and dryer sheets on the floor. Last week it was little black and gray hairs in all the lint traps in the dryers. Unngh.
Poor needy, slobbery Jake! Just like an old man! LOL!
Chicken salad with apples sounds good! Maybe I’ll have chicken salad today. I don’t have much of an appetite, these days, for some reason.
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