THE SERENDIPITY SAPPHIRE

From the New York Times this morning explaining the death of 84-year old Colin Powell, who had underlying medical conditions and passed away from COVID-19:

Further:

For older people with a medical condition, the vaccines both sharply reduce the dangers of Covid and still leave Covid as a meaningful threat, one that arguably justifies a different approach to day-to-day life. Spending time indoors with an unmasked, untested grandchild or eating a meal inside a restaurant may not be worth the risk, at least until case counts have fallen to low levels.

The question is when will it get safe enough for the elderly to travel, go out to dinner and so on?

The most effective way to reduce caseloads is to continue raising the country’s vaccination rate, through workplace mandates and other measures. Vaccinating children under 12 can also save the lives of older people.

Cases in the U.S. have already fallen 50 percent since Sept 1. If the declines continue — and can be maintained — the risks for older Americans will be much more manageable than they were in the late summer.

The NYT went on to explain that Powell failed to get his booster shot in time.  Hopefully, the FDA will approve the Moderna and J&J boosters real soon.  What to do about children and Thanksgiving?  Arrange for at home rapid tests before contacting grandpa/grandma.

A couple more developments and an undevelopment:

• Only 42 million of 146 million Russians have been fully vaccinated (29%)  Why?  They don't trust the government.  The country is suffering a serious uptick in cases and deaths.  

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  Similarly, in the U.S. while 72% of adults 18 and older have been vaccinated, Republicans apparently don't trust the White House:
• Democrats:  90%
• Republicans:  58%
• Turns out that the same strategy for COVID-19 helps reduce flu cases:  social distancing, washing hands, wearing masks, watchful of indoor conditions and GETTING VACCINATED.

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  Here is a scary development:  North Korea yesterday launched a ballistic missile from a submarine.
• While they have up to 100 submarines, most are of the midget class, and many are the Romeo-equivalent of Russian diesels more than half a century old.  A couple of upgraded China-built variety, but at least 30 years old.  But they should be able to sneak closer to Hawaii and the U.S.
• The U.S. has 66 submarines, 50 nuclear-powered.
• Four years after Hurricane Maria, many Puerto Ricans still do not have reliable electricity.

My topic of the day is the Serendipity Sapphire, a 2.5 million carat sapphire weighing 1,100 pounds and estimated to be worth $100 million.  How was it found?  Well diggers just accidentally dug into it.  Ratnapura is known as Sri Lanka's city of gems.  You won't be so lucky where you live.

Here is this stone after cleaning:

I love sapphires because they are the September birthstone of my month, almost always depicted in blue.   Possibly because of that, shades of blue, from aquamarine to turquoise to cobalt, are my favorite color.

My wife was born in July, and the ruby is her birthstone.  While blue and red, both are corundum, a crystalline form of aluminum oxide.  

Not generally recognized, sapphire is second in hardness only to diamond, and can be found in a wide range of colors from colorless to gray, yellow, pale pink, orange, green, violet, brown and the type most familiar, from pale blue to deep indigo.  The difference is the concentration of titanium, chromium, vanadium, magnesium and iron in the oxide.  These to the right and below are all sapphires:

Most sapphires come from Sri Lanka, of course, but particularly also from New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, and Kashmir, India.  U.S. sapphires can be found in Yogo Gulch, Montana, but only for industrial use.

Not sure how that above cluster will eventually be sorted out, but said to be the second largest sapphire (423 carats) is the Logan Sapphire Brooch, originally found in Sri Lanka, on display at the National Museum of Natural History in D.C.

Discovered only in 2016, the current largest sapphire is the Star of Adam, also from Ratnapura, weighing in at 1404 carats, and worth $300 million.  Large-scale mining is prohibited in the country and foreign nationals will not be granted a permit to search.  Sri Lanka, though, is now considered safe to visit.

The priciest actual sale was of a blue was the 392.5 carat Blue Belle of Asia (from Ceylon) in 2014 for $17.3 million.

Two sapphires sold for a little over $3 million:  the Rockefeller Sapphire (62 carats, from Hyderabad in India) in 2001 and a Kashmir sapphire (22,66 carats) in 2007.

There is the 733 carat Black Star of Queensland (left), which was originally a 1165 carat crystal discovered in 1935 and used as a doorstop by the family until cut in 1948.  Nearly 20 years ago it was put up for sale by the Kazanjian Foundation in Beverly Hills for $100 million.  I don't think anyone bought it.

Many famous sapphires will never be sold.  An example is the 104 carat Stuart Sapphire mounted at the rear of the British crown.

On a carat comparison basis, a natural ruby reached $1 million per carat, where the finest sapphires went up to $11,000.  Both are expensive enough that laboratories have succeeded in synthesizing both, plus emeralds, and decent ones can be found in jewelry stores for between $100 and $500/carat.

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