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 ...
Thank you. Elen, USMC, phoned him. I wasn’t up. We had rain, but all the cats were in, and Pat has a car, so I didn’t see any reason to move.
What a perfectly beautiful kitteh face!
Good morning.
Another hot day coming, but I’ll only be out in it for as long as it takes to drive to church and back, darnit.
Happy First Day Of Summer!
I’m glad you got a good rest. I was hoping the week’s activities wouldn’t be so difficult for you, but at least you have been able to rest.
How is Shannon this morning?
Another one of my box fans is dying. It’s 78° out and I don’t think it’s going to get any cooler. I normally turn the heater on in the bathroom for about 10 minutes before I take my shower, but this morning, I didn’t turn it on until I was actually in there, and had to turn it off as soon as I was dry and turn on the vent. Otherwise, I never would have dried off!
My calendar says, “Summer Begins.” It rained a whole lot here.
I need to go to Walmart after I get dressed and then review the music for Mass.
I have to make my bed. I may have to get up an hour earlier on Sundays until we change meeting times in January. I don’t seem to have enough time to do everything I want to before it’s time to get ready for church.
We’re in such a drought it’s not funny.
Now. The bed!
Still haven’t seen a couple of teenbros. I’ll have to see if they’re alive.
https://weather.com/photos/news/2021-06-15-lake-mead-before-and-after-photos
This is what happened when I left!!
It’s pouring again here. Jake got wet.
Back from church. It was interesting in a lot of ways I wasn’t expecting.
Maybe I’ll add it to the letter...
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers, the soon to be and the late fathers! You’re all amazing and necessary!
‘Face
;o])
<*Elvis>thank you, thank you very much...<*/Elvis> 8^)
LOL!
I love it! I hope your day was amazing!
‘Face
;o]
Well, that sounds either good or bad!
Heavy rain has fallen, with intervals for it to run off so that we are not entirely surrounded by water. Good thing we didn’t have plans.
And here, we’re praying for rain.
I hope DP’s Day was a good one. Lots of fathers to wish happy things to and all it did was remind me of my own. Of course.
Now, to sort clothes, then off to the laundry room!
The morning floof says laundry just wears him plumb owt!
Good morning!
Done with the laundry except for hanging the shirts and I’ll do that when the back settles down a bit.
I still have to make the bed, but that can wait, as well. Then maybe, if I feel up to it, I’ll tackle the pantry. There isn’t much in there after the last purge, but it’s one of those things I don’t want to wait for the last minute for.
The son and his wife called. That was weird, but acceptable. I sent him a Father’s Day Bitmoji, and he texted a response, and I asked when would be a good time to call... it morphed into, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you!” and they did.
He’s not taking any more handyman jobs until after I get moved, which I think is a good idea. I’m going to call Enterprise to see if they can pick up up at the shuttle station. The cost for a car one way on his plane ticket is more than the plane ticket, so he thought he’d by-pass that.
The BB SUV will probably be sold by then, so the rental car will be needed. (Speaking of the BB SUV... any photos, yet?)
No, not yet. We’ve all been tired. We’re going to the library later, when it opens, and other than that, the big thing is James and Vlad’s studying for their Learners Permit test. They will be in a world of hurt if they don’t pass!
Good morning. Happy Monday.
As any kitteh can attest, Mondays are best approached sideways.
One of the advantages my F-I-L’s students have when they go to take their road test, he possibly taught the examiners. He certainly knows what they look for and how to pass the test.
It will be quite a while before they have to take a “live” driving test. The test for learner’s permit is a multiple-choice computer test.
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