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 ...
That wasn't GPS, that was Google.
Exactly. I don’t know why my phone company thinks they have to do business with Goober, but all I can do is disable their apps wherever possible.
I can’t afford any other phone company and maybe Goober supporting them is how they keep their costs low. I may have to check into other alternatives, once I get moved.
Hi, I’m home. Hot. Going to shower.
Jake didn’t drive me nuts last night. I got up to let him in when the rain started.
My theory is that cats like babies because they smell like milk. Jake used to get in the crib with Frank. Once Frank could talk, he would call, “Jake in my bed!”
That was my theory on cats and babies as well, but I had one old woman tell me (before I had even got old enough to think about babies) that if I cat got around a baby it was to suck the breath out of it.
It was all I could do to keep from laughing.
It was a cute video, anyway!
I was going to be up when you were this morning, but it didn’t work out that way, so I’m sorry I wasn’t there to see you off!
I hope you got a nap!
No nap, but Jake is looking forward to bedtime, he says.
I go back tomorrow around 11 to open the range for the youth staff. If James and Vlad want to come home as soon as they’re released, I’ll get Pat or Tom to drive them.
Hallo.
A balmy 81 this sunny day.
Wonderful reprieve from the 100+ weekend.
Making money.
Spending money.
Glad I won’t have to do that for eternity...
Sounds fun!
I think it got kind of wahm-ish today. There’s less making and spending than there was a few years ago.
>
Da kitteh is looking for rain.
Good morning.
It smells like rain for a change, and the humidity is in the 70s, which means it will be hard to dry off after my shower. If it did rain, and I think it did, a little, it filtered some of the cigarette smoke from next door.
So I’ll go take a shower in a bit and try to start my day.
One oil change coming up.
Good luck!
It did not rain here. I have a few hours before going back to the range. One activity will be to arrange a ride for James and Vlad, so they can get home and take showers and start doing their laundry.
Good morning. Happy humph day!
There are amazing things to see if you only look up.
I felt fairly good yesterday for having slept in and all, and I feel kinda crummy this morning. Still the oil change has to be done.
How often in the summer months do they have camps?
Щаслива середа
I hope you have a good one!
How’s the job search?
In normal years, there are three weeks in June and two weeks in July of large-group camps locally. The Boy Scouts camp season, in the mountains or at the shore, would be 8 or 9 weeks.
This year, it was one week of day camp, 12 days of WAC. I don’t know what the schedule is for Boy Scout camp. Tom was considering working up at Grimes for the summer - he could have run the dining hall - but they were making the staff stay on the property the whole time, with not even a trip to Dysartville for ice cream, because of “safety.”
Today’s special animal friend is the Shetland pony, Equus ferus caballus (like all domesticated horses/ponies). These small equines are native to the Shetland Islands, which are due north of Scotland and have a really great website, https://www.shetland.org/ which makes want to go there. (You can also see puffins.) The ponies have been in the islands since the Bronze Age, at least two thousand years ago. The native stock has been augmented by interbreeding with horses from Scandinavia and elsewhere, reminding us that people and animals moved around a lot long before modern transportation.
The Shetland pony is 28 inches to 42 inches high at the withers, which is the back at the shoulder. Its build is very stout, with a short back and neck, thick chest, and short legs. It has small ears, a long mane and tail, and a thick, shaggy coat. This conformation reflects centuries of unmanaged breeding in a habitat featuring sparse, tough greenery; rocky, hilly terrain; and almost constant strong, cold winds. The surviving Shetland ponies can walk many miles over rocks to find food, including seaweed on the shore, while maximizing the production and conservation of heat in their bodies. Females convert food to milk for their foals with high efficiency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZdsf_uyWnA
Because of their small size, Shetland ponies were not used for riding during much of their history. Their popular use as a children’s pony began in the 19th century. The primary use of the ponies in the islands was as a beast of burden, carrying cut peat, the main fuel source, from the bogs to the crofts (small farm plots) where the people lived. When not carrying loads, the animals ran free on the common lands or scattalds. They were not used for pulling carts or wagons until late in their history, because the Shetlands had no roads or wheeled vehicles. Their hair was essential to the manufacture of fishing nets and fishing lines.
Beginning in the mid-19th century, thousands of Shetland ponies were “sold South” to England, where they replaced child laborers hauling ore in mines. Long days underground were miserable, but the miners often formed strong bonds with their ponies and gave them the best care possible. The island breed degraded during this period because many of the strongest stallions were sold South as breeding stock or gelded and sold for mine work. In the late 19th century, scientific breeding and stud management practices rebuilt the breed in its native habitat, as well as establishing strong stock and record-keeping in England and the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JffmdDYdvfc
It’s worth watching these videos just for the darling little accents, even if you’re not interested in ponies.
The Shetland pony is now one of the most popular small equine breeds in the world. Breeding, training, and showing them is a flourishing, if cyclical, industry. Child and adult riders, drivers, and handlers compete in shows around the world. This year’s American championship will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in September.
https://www.shetlandminiature.com/shows-awards/amhr-nationals#!Silva294_004_MINI18
Maybe I should get my oil changed. I don’t know much about it. I’ve only gotten my car’s oil changed in the past. But the way my brain feels when I wake up in the morning it could be the problem.
And now I know how Happy Wednesday looks in Russian. Of course, I don’t know how to write it or how to pronounce it, but one thing at a time.
I suspect that Russian has only one vowel as when I hear Russians speaking English they don’t have any concern for how to pronounce ours. Mahther and Fahther have the same second letter, etc.
I have a job pending the outcome of a drug screen and background check. It will require trekking back to NYC during the week. I will need to brush up on my Jedi arts, although I’m not going to enter the subways for a while.
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