2007: Gemological competence requires more than reading textbooks, and the writer is right. I can imagine what was it like in the 1940s and 1950s. Despite the technological advances in gem identification, we still make mistakes. Again, he states that human senses are not always capable of analyzing their observations. Absolutely true. Here is what he has to say.
(via The Journal of Gemmology, No.1, Vol.1, January 1947) Norman A Harper writes:
Informed experience is a faculty of considerable value in any walk of life and knowledge gained by experience remains more firmly embedded in the minds of most people, than does knowledge culled from books or acquired at lectures.
Unfortunately, the human senses are not always capable of analyzing their observations, with the result that experience is frequently ill-informed, and thus of little value.
For countless centuries men experienced the diurnal journey of the sun round the world, and having a prejudice in favor of a geocentric universe, never suspected that in reality the roles were reversed, it being the earth which was the wanderer. By means of the scientific method, the measuring, analyzing and indexing of experienced observation, it was possible, however, to arrive eventually at this now almost universally known truth.
In every branch of knowledge the scientific method has proved its indispensability, and scientific instruments which measure and analyze human observations have become so numerous that a book of some three hundred pages is required to describe briefly the forms and uses of the more important of them.
There is still, however, a remarkable disinclination or reluctance among many to use such instruments, or rather to acquire the technique enabling them to be used. This may be due to a mistaken idea that these instruments require a technique that can only be achieve by long and painful practice and study. If this is so, it had better now be stated that while such study is necessary to grasp thoroughly the scientific principles underlying the use, say, of the telescope, much valuable and accurate knowledge can be gained by anyone, completely unversed in the science of optics, who knows which end to place next to the eye.
Few advances in knowledge have had such beneficent effects upon humanity as those associated with medical science, and few sciences can equal it in the number of the instruments to which its practitioners have recourse. The instruments of physics, of optics, of chemistry, of electricity—to all these the physician turns for aid.
It is hard to imagine a doctor without a thermometer, a stethoscope, and a hypodermic syringe, yet it is possible for him purely by experience and the use of his hands to tell whether or not a patient is feverish, or by his unaided ear to hear the rhonchi or rales which mark successive stages of bronchitis; it is also possible for him to introduce drugs into the body without hypodermic syringe, but who will deny that the use of such instruments makes these operations so much accurate and certain, besides their having other uses and a much wider application.
What, one may ask, is the object of this long preamble? The answer is contained in another question. Does the jewelry trade make sufficient use, in the hands of its numerous practitioners, of the scientific instruments which are available for the determination of the nature of the materials in which it deals?
The writer has within the past few weeks encountered three pieces of jewelry in which there were green stones which experience told him were emeralds, and not only his own experience, but the experience of three other jewelers of no mean capabilities, to whom they were shown. By the use of scientific methods and scientific instruments, however, these stones were proved to be extremely good imitations. As they were mounted in association with diamonds of considerable value, they might have escaped suspicion had not three very simple scientific tests been utilized to determine their true nature. Needless to say, the results of the investigations were a grave disappointment to their owners, who had vigorously asserted their genuineness.
In such cases the empirical method is generally employed, with the result that the truth is never discovered.
There are few trades where such mistakes can be more costly and few trades where accurate diagnosis is so often necessary. Every purchase from the public (and sometimes even from the trade) and every valuation, for whatever purpose, pre-supposes an exact knowledge on the part of the buyer or appraiser of the true nature of the constituent materials of the object to be bought or valued. Yet, in spite of the growing number of competent gemologists, a census of the jewelry establishments in which a bottle of dilute nitric acid and a smooth faced file were the only instruments available (and in a few enlightened cases, one Chelsea color filter), might engage a large number of enumerators.
In such establishments it is not possible to differentiate between unmarked platinum and unmarked white gold, or, for that matter, between either of those metals and stainless steel, and even an approximation of the quality of unmarked yellow gold would be with difficulty arrived at.
But when it comes to the determination of gemstones, the difficulties which beset such establishments would cause shivers of apprehension in a gemologist.
Of course, jewelers in that position can always say that it is possible to ‘play safe’, ‘when in doubt, don’t buy’, or ‘sell?’, ‘when not sure, allow nothing for the colored stone’, ‘buy it as 9 carat (or even when is obvious better than that….15 carat). But surely that is unethical and dishonest. What would be thought of a doctor who said ‘I can’t be sure whether it is colic or appendicitis, so we had better operate?’
A knowledge of gemology and the purchase of a little equipment would resolve most, if not all these doubts. In the case of precious metals, the expenditure of a few shillings and an hour of time with Selwyn’s ‘Retail Jeweler’s Handbook’ are all that is necessary to banish them for ever. Precious stones require a little more attention, but the possession of a few scientific instruments and an easily acquired knowledge of the technique of their use constitutes all that is necessary to transform an empiricist into a scientist, or one who guesses into one who knows.
The cost of these instruments might deter the individual, as it is in the region of thirty to forty pounds, but it should not, under any circumstances, deter a business, or an individual if he happens to be the proprietor of a small business, as this equipment will in a few years pay handsome dividends if used with knowledge and imagination. In any case, the increased confidence to be gained from their use will manifest itself inevitably in more and more successful sales talk.
‘I don’t want to turn my showrooms into a laboratory’ is a remark occasionally heard, but a consultation in Harley Street will be conducted in the atmosphere of a cultured 18th century salon, with gastroscopes, cystoscopes, and even such a pleasant instrument as the microscope, kept well in the background. No one doubts their existence and possible proximity, however, and the certainty that the consultant will take every advantage in diagnosis they offer, makes his advice invaluable as compared with the advice of the greatest physician of medieval times.
What equipment will benefit the jeweler? Here is a list of instruments in the order in which they should be purchased, in the opinion of the writer:
- The refractometer (Tully, Herbert Smith, or Rayner)
- Heavy liquids (Bromoform, methylene iodide, clerici solution)
- Petrological microscope
- The dichroscope
- The spectroscope
The method of their use is fully explained in textbooks written specially for the jeweler, but the first essential is a competent knowledge of gemology.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Staurolite
Chemistry: Hydrated aluminum silicate.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; cross-shaped, interpenetrant twins at 60º or 90º;crystals display pseudo-hexagonal cross section.
Color: Transparent to opaque: reddish brown.
Hardness: 7 – 7.5
Cleavage: Poor: 1 direction; fracture: brittle, conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 3.65 – 3.78
Refractive index: 1.739 – 1.762; Biaxial positive; 0.011-0.015
Luster: Vitreous to resinous.
Dispersion: Moderate.
Dichroism: Colorless, yellow/red, golden yellow; varies.
Occurrence: Metamorphic; Switzerland, France, Brazil, Russia, Scotland, USA.
Notes
Most specimens are opaque and valued for its cross-shaped twins; also known as cross stones, fairy stones; faceted.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; cross-shaped, interpenetrant twins at 60º or 90º;crystals display pseudo-hexagonal cross section.
Color: Transparent to opaque: reddish brown.
Hardness: 7 – 7.5
Cleavage: Poor: 1 direction; fracture: brittle, conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 3.65 – 3.78
Refractive index: 1.739 – 1.762; Biaxial positive; 0.011-0.015
Luster: Vitreous to resinous.
Dispersion: Moderate.
Dichroism: Colorless, yellow/red, golden yellow; varies.
Occurrence: Metamorphic; Switzerland, France, Brazil, Russia, Scotland, USA.
Notes
Most specimens are opaque and valued for its cross-shaped twins; also known as cross stones, fairy stones; faceted.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Tanzanite And Some Imitations
Zoisite: Blue to violet
Tanzanite (trade name)
R.I=1.688 – 1.696 (1.691 – 1.700); Birefringence=0.008 – 0.009; S.G=3.35
Heavy Pb-Glass
U.M Tanzanic (trade name)
R.I=1.600 – 1.605; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G=3.36 – 3.48
YAG
Purple Coranite (trade name)
R.I= >1.80; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G=4.58
Synthetic Corundum
Blue Coranite (trade name)
R.I=1.764 – 1.771; Birefringence= 0.007; S.G=4.02
YAG
Russian YAG (trade name)
R.I=>1.80; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G= 4.56
Ca-Phosphate Glass
R.I=1.537; Birefringence=Isotropic (SR); S.G=2.64
Tanzanite (trade name)
R.I=1.688 – 1.696 (1.691 – 1.700); Birefringence=0.008 – 0.009; S.G=3.35
Heavy Pb-Glass
U.M Tanzanic (trade name)
R.I=1.600 – 1.605; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G=3.36 – 3.48
YAG
Purple Coranite (trade name)
R.I= >1.80; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G=4.58
Synthetic Corundum
Blue Coranite (trade name)
R.I=1.764 – 1.771; Birefringence= 0.007; S.G=4.02
YAG
Russian YAG (trade name)
R.I=>1.80; Birefringence= Isotropic (SR); S.G= 4.56
Ca-Phosphate Glass
R.I=1.537; Birefringence=Isotropic (SR); S.G=2.64
The House Of Mondavi: The Rise And Fall Of An American Wine Dynasty
Good Books: Here is what the description of the book The House Of Mondavi: The Rise And Fall Of An American Wine Dynasty says: (via Amazon)
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family—and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
Here is a review from Penguin (via Amazon):
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire.
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family—and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
It's a must-read book + blood feuds + (business) split-personalities are common traits in any business + when it happens in a family, it becomes a classic thriller.
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family—and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
Here is a review from Penguin (via Amazon):
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire.
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family—and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
It's a must-read book + blood feuds + (business) split-personalities are common traits in any business + when it happens in a family, it becomes a classic thriller.
The Change Function
Good Books: (via Emergic) The Change Function is about why some technologies succeed -- and others fail. The short answer: The Change Function = f (user crisis vs. total perceived pain of adoption).
From the book’s description:
After years of studying countless winners and losers, Coburn has come up with a simple idea that explains why some technologies become huge hits (iPods, DVD players, Netflix), but others never reach more than a tiny audience (Segways, video phones, tablet PCs). He says that people are only willing to change when the pain of their current situation outweighs the perceived pain of trying something new.
In other words, technology demands a change in habits, and that’s the leading cause of failure for countless cool inventions. Too many tech companies believe in build it and they will come -- build something better and people will beat a path to your door. But, as Coburn shows, most potential users are afraid of new technologies, and they need a really great reason to change.
Here is an excerpt from the book (from Fast Company):
Technologists think we'll gladly adopt an innovation when it's manifestly smarter. But change is an emotion-laden process; disrupting, game-changing technologies. No way. Most of us despise being disrupted and don't wish to be game-changed.
The technologies that stand the best chance of winning us over are enhanced editions of products we already understand. Flat-panel televisions, for example, are much better televisions with low perceived pain of adoption. Everyone "gets" what a basic television is all about. There's nothing to learn. At the same time, flat-panel TVs address a powerful need. True, it's both subtle and self-fulfilling: It's the psychic pain we feel for not having one. Since 19% of televisions sold in 2005 were flat panels, the technology appears set to hit a societal tipping point. Anyone who doesn't have one will feel deeply embarrassed about it. If that's not a crisis, I don't know what is.
A technology's success or failure is not merely fated. Instead, it demands action of one of two varieties. Technologists can identify and intensify a customer crisis. Or they can reduce the perceived pain of adoption.
Tom Evslin wrote about the book: It’s important, says Pip, not to confuse a perceived crisis on the part of the would-be vendor with a crisis on the part of the prospect. The oft-failed Picturephone (not be confused with cell phones that take pictures) was an answer to a crisis felt by telcos, not their customers. They needed new high-margin products. TPPA (Total Perceived Pain of Adoption) for this product/service has always been high both because we aren’t used to being seen when we talk remotely and because the first users (and someone has to be the first user) can’t find anyone else to talk to?
I think it's an interesting book because it aggregates many concepts, its unique chemistry + why sometimes there is chemical mismatch between perceptions and realities.
From the book’s description:
After years of studying countless winners and losers, Coburn has come up with a simple idea that explains why some technologies become huge hits (iPods, DVD players, Netflix), but others never reach more than a tiny audience (Segways, video phones, tablet PCs). He says that people are only willing to change when the pain of their current situation outweighs the perceived pain of trying something new.
In other words, technology demands a change in habits, and that’s the leading cause of failure for countless cool inventions. Too many tech companies believe in build it and they will come -- build something better and people will beat a path to your door. But, as Coburn shows, most potential users are afraid of new technologies, and they need a really great reason to change.
Here is an excerpt from the book (from Fast Company):
Technologists think we'll gladly adopt an innovation when it's manifestly smarter. But change is an emotion-laden process; disrupting, game-changing technologies. No way. Most of us despise being disrupted and don't wish to be game-changed.
The technologies that stand the best chance of winning us over are enhanced editions of products we already understand. Flat-panel televisions, for example, are much better televisions with low perceived pain of adoption. Everyone "gets" what a basic television is all about. There's nothing to learn. At the same time, flat-panel TVs address a powerful need. True, it's both subtle and self-fulfilling: It's the psychic pain we feel for not having one. Since 19% of televisions sold in 2005 were flat panels, the technology appears set to hit a societal tipping point. Anyone who doesn't have one will feel deeply embarrassed about it. If that's not a crisis, I don't know what is.
A technology's success or failure is not merely fated. Instead, it demands action of one of two varieties. Technologists can identify and intensify a customer crisis. Or they can reduce the perceived pain of adoption.
Tom Evslin wrote about the book: It’s important, says Pip, not to confuse a perceived crisis on the part of the would-be vendor with a crisis on the part of the prospect. The oft-failed Picturephone (not be confused with cell phones that take pictures) was an answer to a crisis felt by telcos, not their customers. They needed new high-margin products. TPPA (Total Perceived Pain of Adoption) for this product/service has always been high both because we aren’t used to being seen when we talk remotely and because the first users (and someone has to be the first user) can’t find anyone else to talk to?
I think it's an interesting book because it aggregates many concepts, its unique chemistry + why sometimes there is chemical mismatch between perceptions and realities.
Descendant Of The Pharaohs
Sylvia Hochfield writes about Egypt’s antiquities council's campaign to repatriate artistic icons from museums around the world + Zahi Hawass, the passionate secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2039
Dubai Topped $10 Billion In Diamond Transit Trade In 2005
Chaim Even-Zohar profiles Dubai, the tougher policies of Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC), the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), the Kimberley Authorities + the business angle @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25483
Synthetic Or Artificial
2007: Even today many don't know/understand the difference (s) between synthetic and artificial gemstones. The minute you mention synthetic they will ask if it's glass or plastic; to my surprise even gemologists, jewelers and traders ask the same. I call it momentary autism. They go blank/inert. I think gemological education should be perceived as a life long learning endeavor.
(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.VII, No.6, April, 1960) A E Farn writes:
Most gem enthusiasts have at some time or other either attended a gemological exhibition, or proudly shown their own collection of gems to friends and relations—always to be asked the inevitable question, ‘how much are they worth?’ To the keen collector, this is an irritating question, since it indicates clearly where the interest lies and how the average person reacts to such terms as gemstones or jewelry. Seldom does one meet the true appreciation of beauty or rarity, but always the eternal ‘how much?’
Unfortunately certain elements in our society readily apply their criminal psychology to this materialistic interest in valuables so quickly evinced by the more greedy or gullible section of the public. Thus, when a new material came on to the market and displayed tremendous fire and attraction for a price low in comparison to diamond it afforded possibilities which the unscrupulous were not slow to realize. The new material’s trade name of fabulite seemed coined specially for word play—fabulous for the credulous! It was not until some fairly recent occasion that I was asked by a gem dealer, who wanted to satisfy a customer’s enquiry, whether it was intended to simulate diamond and if it was a synthetic stone.
Answering rather quickly without very serious thought, I replied that it certainly was not intended to simulate diamond but doubtless it could be so used. It was not synthetic diamond, since its formula was SrTiO3, strontium titanate, but it could be described as a synthetic stone. Since then I have had second thoughts. I began to wonder if it was correct to describe this product as synthetic, and without going into the various aspects and methods of manufacture of synthetics generally I wondered whether it was correct so to describe strontium titanate.
Being weak on etymology I could only have recourse to what I had been taught, and as far as I could remember a synthetic stone is a stone which has the same chemical composition, refractive indices and specific gravity as its natural counterpart.
If a synthetic ruby be analyzed it would correspond with natural ruby and similarly in the case of sapphire. With synthetic spinel this is not quite the same, as here there is an excess of alumina in the composition and the properties are slightly higher in R.I and S.G than those of natural spinel. It would seem to be hair-splitting, but even synthetic spinel is not a true synthesis of natural spinel. It did not intend to propound this particular case, but it slipped in as a natural sequence.
What I really wanted to focus on is: strontium titanate, is it a synthetic, since so far as is known there is no naturally occurring mineral? Certainly it is an artifact as indeed are all synthetics, whether corundum, spinel, rutile or emerald. The Concise Oxford dictionary gives synthesis as ‘combination, composition, putting together. Chemically: artificial production of compounds from their constituents.’ Jarrold’s dictionary of difficult words gives synthesis as ‘combination of parts into a uniform whole. Synthetic—pertaining to synthesis and adjectivally as artificial.’ Webster’s Compendium carefully states, ‘synthetic gems having similar chemical composition to natural corundum and spinel and which in physical and optical properties approximate to these gems are made in an oxy-coal gas furnace (Verneuil process)’. Anderson’s Gem Testing gives: ‘synthetic stones, manufactured stones which have essentially the same composition, crystal structure and properties as the natural mineral they represent.’
It would seem, therefore, that a consensus of opinion is against terming an artifact of no known natural counterpart as a synthetic from a gemological view. Incidentally, most so called synthetics which have a counterpart in nature are all certainly harder than fabulite, which has a softness too low to admit of normal jewelry usage. It would seem therefore that strontium titanate is in fact an artificial stone and should be so described.
(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.VII, No.6, April, 1960) A E Farn writes:
Most gem enthusiasts have at some time or other either attended a gemological exhibition, or proudly shown their own collection of gems to friends and relations—always to be asked the inevitable question, ‘how much are they worth?’ To the keen collector, this is an irritating question, since it indicates clearly where the interest lies and how the average person reacts to such terms as gemstones or jewelry. Seldom does one meet the true appreciation of beauty or rarity, but always the eternal ‘how much?’
Unfortunately certain elements in our society readily apply their criminal psychology to this materialistic interest in valuables so quickly evinced by the more greedy or gullible section of the public. Thus, when a new material came on to the market and displayed tremendous fire and attraction for a price low in comparison to diamond it afforded possibilities which the unscrupulous were not slow to realize. The new material’s trade name of fabulite seemed coined specially for word play—fabulous for the credulous! It was not until some fairly recent occasion that I was asked by a gem dealer, who wanted to satisfy a customer’s enquiry, whether it was intended to simulate diamond and if it was a synthetic stone.
Answering rather quickly without very serious thought, I replied that it certainly was not intended to simulate diamond but doubtless it could be so used. It was not synthetic diamond, since its formula was SrTiO3, strontium titanate, but it could be described as a synthetic stone. Since then I have had second thoughts. I began to wonder if it was correct to describe this product as synthetic, and without going into the various aspects and methods of manufacture of synthetics generally I wondered whether it was correct so to describe strontium titanate.
Being weak on etymology I could only have recourse to what I had been taught, and as far as I could remember a synthetic stone is a stone which has the same chemical composition, refractive indices and specific gravity as its natural counterpart.
If a synthetic ruby be analyzed it would correspond with natural ruby and similarly in the case of sapphire. With synthetic spinel this is not quite the same, as here there is an excess of alumina in the composition and the properties are slightly higher in R.I and S.G than those of natural spinel. It would seem to be hair-splitting, but even synthetic spinel is not a true synthesis of natural spinel. It did not intend to propound this particular case, but it slipped in as a natural sequence.
What I really wanted to focus on is: strontium titanate, is it a synthetic, since so far as is known there is no naturally occurring mineral? Certainly it is an artifact as indeed are all synthetics, whether corundum, spinel, rutile or emerald. The Concise Oxford dictionary gives synthesis as ‘combination, composition, putting together. Chemically: artificial production of compounds from their constituents.’ Jarrold’s dictionary of difficult words gives synthesis as ‘combination of parts into a uniform whole. Synthetic—pertaining to synthesis and adjectivally as artificial.’ Webster’s Compendium carefully states, ‘synthetic gems having similar chemical composition to natural corundum and spinel and which in physical and optical properties approximate to these gems are made in an oxy-coal gas furnace (Verneuil process)’. Anderson’s Gem Testing gives: ‘synthetic stones, manufactured stones which have essentially the same composition, crystal structure and properties as the natural mineral they represent.’
It would seem, therefore, that a consensus of opinion is against terming an artifact of no known natural counterpart as a synthetic from a gemological view. Incidentally, most so called synthetics which have a counterpart in nature are all certainly harder than fabulite, which has a softness too low to admit of normal jewelry usage. It would seem therefore that strontium titanate is in fact an artificial stone and should be so described.
Sphalerite
(Blende or Zinc Blende)
Chemistry: Zinc sulphide
Crystal system: Cubic; generally in tetrahedral but also cube, octahedral, dodecahedral and trisoctahedral; twins common; massive.
Color: Transparent to translucent; yellow, green, colorless; non-gem nearly black in color.
Hardness: 3.5 - 4
Cleavage: Perfect: dodecahedral (6 directions); fracture: brittle, uneven.
Specific gravity: 4.09
Refractive index: 2.37; SR
Luster: Resinous to adamantine
Dispersion: Very high
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Chief ore of zinc; Central Africa; Mexico; Spain.
Notes
Collector’s stone; difficult to cut due to cleavage; soft; scratches easily; has been used as prism in high R.I refractometers; may look like zircon; spectrum: 3 bands in red-690,667,651nm; faceted.
Chemistry: Zinc sulphide
Crystal system: Cubic; generally in tetrahedral but also cube, octahedral, dodecahedral and trisoctahedral; twins common; massive.
Color: Transparent to translucent; yellow, green, colorless; non-gem nearly black in color.
Hardness: 3.5 - 4
Cleavage: Perfect: dodecahedral (6 directions); fracture: brittle, uneven.
Specific gravity: 4.09
Refractive index: 2.37; SR
Luster: Resinous to adamantine
Dispersion: Very high
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Chief ore of zinc; Central Africa; Mexico; Spain.
Notes
Collector’s stone; difficult to cut due to cleavage; soft; scratches easily; has been used as prism in high R.I refractometers; may look like zircon; spectrum: 3 bands in red-690,667,651nm; faceted.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
How To Separate Natural Pink Diamonds From Their Treated Counterparts
- Body color
- Color evenness
- Strain patterns
- Ultraviolet luminescence
- Spectrum
Ultraviolet luminescence + spectrum analysis are the two important tests.
- Color evenness
- Strain patterns
- Ultraviolet luminescence
- Spectrum
Ultraviolet luminescence + spectrum analysis are the two important tests.
Judgment Of Paris: California vs. France And The Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine
Good Books: George M. Taber writes about the inside tale of the dramatic tasting session that transformed the wine industry. It's a trip down the memory lane. You can feel the contagious passion for his subject + he has an eye for telling detail. The book is a must-read.
This reminds me of diamond grading. Someone should do the same to transform the diamond grading tale. There is a petty war going between different diamond grading laboratories and institutes who are perceived as the gold standards of the industry. I believe it will be an interested trip down the memory lane.
Book Description:
Told for the first time by the only reporter present, this is the true story of the legendary Paris Tasting of 1976 -- a blind tasting where French judges shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France's best -- and its revolutionary impact on the world of wine.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History houses, amid its illustrious artifacts, two bottles of wine: a 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. These are the wines that won at the now-famous Paris Tasting in 1976, where a panel of top French wine experts compared some of France's most famous wines with a new generation of California wines. Little did they know the wine industry would be completely transformed as a result, sparking a golden age for viticulture that extends beyond France's hallowed borders -- to Australia, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, and across the globe.
Then Paris correspondent for Time magazine, George M. Taber recounts this seminal contest and its far-reaching effects, focusing on the three gifted unknowns behind the winning wines: a college lecturer, a real estate lawyer, and a Yugoslavian immigrant. At a time when California was best known for cheap jug wine, these pioneers used radical new techniques alongside time-honored winemaking traditions to craft premium American wines that could stand up to France's finest.
With unique access to the main players and a contagious passion for his subject, Taber renders this historic event and its tremendous aftershocks in captivating prose, bringing to life an eclectic cast and magnificent settings. For lovers of wine and anyone who enjoys a story of the entrepreneurial spirit of the new world conquering the old, this is an illuminating and deeply satisfying tale.
Here is what Publisher's Weekly has to say about the book:
In 1976, a Paris wine shop arranged a tasting as a gimmick to introduce some California wines; the judges, of course, were all French and militantly chauvinistic. Only one journalist bothered to attend, a Time correspondent, looking for a possible American angle. The story he got turned out to be a sensation. In both red and white blind tastings, an American wine won handily: a 1973 Stag's Leap cabernet and a 1973 Chateau Montelena chardonnay. When the story was published the following week, it stunned both the complacent French and fledgling American wine industries—and things have never been the same since. Taber, the Time man, has fashioned an entertaining, informative book around this event. Following a brisk history of the French-dominated European wine trade with a more detailed look at the less familiar American effort, he focuses on the two winning wineries, both of which provide him with lively tales of colorful amateurs and immigrants making good, partly through willingness to experiment with new techniques. While the outrage of some of the judges is funny, this is a serious business book, too, sure to be required reading for American vintners and oenophiles.
Christian Vannequé, former chief sommelier at the Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris and one of the judges at the Paris Tasting writes:
"Nearly thirty years later, Taber's book outlines an historic event that is relevant, captivating and compelling -- even for non-wine aficionados. The petty wine war that the Paris Tasting set off had one big winner: good wine. And one big loser: good wine...from France."
This reminds me of diamond grading. Someone should do the same to transform the diamond grading tale. There is a petty war going between different diamond grading laboratories and institutes who are perceived as the gold standards of the industry. I believe it will be an interested trip down the memory lane.
Book Description:
Told for the first time by the only reporter present, this is the true story of the legendary Paris Tasting of 1976 -- a blind tasting where French judges shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France's best -- and its revolutionary impact on the world of wine.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History houses, amid its illustrious artifacts, two bottles of wine: a 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. These are the wines that won at the now-famous Paris Tasting in 1976, where a panel of top French wine experts compared some of France's most famous wines with a new generation of California wines. Little did they know the wine industry would be completely transformed as a result, sparking a golden age for viticulture that extends beyond France's hallowed borders -- to Australia, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, and across the globe.
Then Paris correspondent for Time magazine, George M. Taber recounts this seminal contest and its far-reaching effects, focusing on the three gifted unknowns behind the winning wines: a college lecturer, a real estate lawyer, and a Yugoslavian immigrant. At a time when California was best known for cheap jug wine, these pioneers used radical new techniques alongside time-honored winemaking traditions to craft premium American wines that could stand up to France's finest.
With unique access to the main players and a contagious passion for his subject, Taber renders this historic event and its tremendous aftershocks in captivating prose, bringing to life an eclectic cast and magnificent settings. For lovers of wine and anyone who enjoys a story of the entrepreneurial spirit of the new world conquering the old, this is an illuminating and deeply satisfying tale.
Here is what Publisher's Weekly has to say about the book:
In 1976, a Paris wine shop arranged a tasting as a gimmick to introduce some California wines; the judges, of course, were all French and militantly chauvinistic. Only one journalist bothered to attend, a Time correspondent, looking for a possible American angle. The story he got turned out to be a sensation. In both red and white blind tastings, an American wine won handily: a 1973 Stag's Leap cabernet and a 1973 Chateau Montelena chardonnay. When the story was published the following week, it stunned both the complacent French and fledgling American wine industries—and things have never been the same since. Taber, the Time man, has fashioned an entertaining, informative book around this event. Following a brisk history of the French-dominated European wine trade with a more detailed look at the less familiar American effort, he focuses on the two winning wineries, both of which provide him with lively tales of colorful amateurs and immigrants making good, partly through willingness to experiment with new techniques. While the outrage of some of the judges is funny, this is a serious business book, too, sure to be required reading for American vintners and oenophiles.
Christian Vannequé, former chief sommelier at the Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris and one of the judges at the Paris Tasting writes:
"Nearly thirty years later, Taber's book outlines an historic event that is relevant, captivating and compelling -- even for non-wine aficionados. The petty wine war that the Paris Tasting set off had one big winner: good wine. And one big loser: good wine...from France."
Industrial Strength
Peter Schjeldahl writes about Richard Serra’s work as art + its otherness @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/06/11/070611craw_artworld_schjeldahl
Plonk Testing
2007: I like the the term plonk testing. Today the concept may be tricky because of the proliferation of sophisticated colored stones, treated, synthetic and assembled stones of all qualities. For the practising gemologists, gem dealers + jewelers the basic tenets are still the same: visual observation + the right approach. This requires knowledge, interpretation skills, Zen-like patience, discipline, analytical skills + hawk's eye to spot the unknown gemstone (s).
(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.VII, No.5, January, 1960) A F Farn writes:
My fellow gemologist and friend, Dr E H Rutland, delights in, and is an expert at ‘Plonk Testing’. To ‘plonk’ (an unusual gemological term meaning ‘to go off the deep end’) is to view a gemstone, usually not one of the better known gemstones, which has recently come to hand and to state categorically what the stone is—usually to the delight of the possessor since he is usually armed with details in advance.
A rule of thumb approach and a keen eye backed by knowledge of gemology are the essentials to expertise. Possibly the hardest school is that which backs its judgment by placing not the stone upon the refractometer but its hand in its pocket.
Having attended many lectures and listened to much theory on the subject of gem testing and the rival and relative merits of certain instruments, I am reminded of certain examination questions phrased in the following style:
- What do you consider the equipment necessary to furnish a model laboratory? or
- What are the most important or imperative instruments a gemologist’s needs?
To answer such questions one usually has or shows a marked preference for certain instruments or gives obvious indications of techniques favored by an instructor. Some people are keen on refractometer work, others specific gravity or the spectroscope, and some of course combine the use of each. There are some tests so rudimentary and positive that is needless to go further, which of course admits knowledge of gemology.
Whilst testing by sight is not necessarily accurate, it is usually applied with a background of knowledge and reasoning. I should have stated earlier that perhaps a lens is permitted, but no more. An instance of such testing could be a completely colorless (or white) stone, whichever term is preferred, with one or two minute bubbles, no double refraction discernible but perhaps a slight ‘chatter-marking’—a sure sign of heating of corundum. Therefore the stone would a synthetic corundum. This, of course, is a very obvious instance. There are, doubtless, countless others which will spring to mind. Most gemologists, of course, test stones for enjoyment at leisure; professionals test against the clock and seldom have much time to browse amongst the undoubted beauties of inclusions in Burma or Siam rubies. The latter, though less expensive commercially, are amongst the most beautiful stones from an inclusion point of view. Having tested some tens of thousands of stones I am afraid I do not linger too long in throes of delight on seeing either a Ceylon zircon spectrum or hessonite garnet inclusions. These are merely speedy recognition signs for testing.
Quite recently a parcel of 284 cts of mixed round stones of various colors, and approximately 3500 stones came into my possession. My first reaction was to glance swiftly through the stones spread out on the table on a sheet of white paper and pick out any likely stones, i.e those which looked interesting. Most seemed to me to be the product of Ceylon—later proved correct. Two stones only proved to be of a likely hue and appearance. The remainder I sorted by color into piles of brown hessonite garnets, red/pink Ceylon garnets, pale blue, green and yellow Ceylon sapphires, and an intriguing assorted colored section of zircons of every hue. The colorless portion, thank goodness, was very small—these are always a headache except in this instance.
Having decided the piles on color, the next step was to check by spectroscope. Every pink/red garnet was swiftly pushed into a spot of light from an intensity lamp focused onto the table, and the garnets fed from left to right. With the spectroscope held in the right hand some 600 stones were accurately observed and dealt with in about two hours (having all the same spectrum helped a lot). The zircons came next and the same procedure took place, except that here some had a full Ceylon spectrum and some just a hint of the 6535 Å line, some metamicts. Again this was a speedy test of approximately similar quantities and time. A point of interest here is that the quick focus spot method of scattered light will give a sharp absorption spectrum from a stone of less than one-tenth of a carat whereas by transmitted light through a microscope it would be flooded out and eye would quickly become fatigued. The next parcel, possibly the largest in number, were those ‘plonked’ as hessonites. Here there could be (I hoped) a spessartite or two and the spectroscope came into play once again. None of the stones showed a spectrum, my eye being focused on the blue section end looking for a sign of manganese in the make-up of the stone. There was no need to take the R.I of any of these stones since a quick check of samples by lens and use of corn tongs showed all had the familiar diopside crystal inclusions—the characteristic sign of hessonite. After a time, when one has concentrated solely on one color of gemstone, the eye becomes attuned and exceedingly quick to distinguish any unusual stone. These three groups had reduced the bulk by about 85%.
The next lots were the potential Ceylon sapphires. Knowledge of color shades indicated no synthetics being present, since these latter stones are usually a finer color than their natural counterparts.
Although the spectroscope was speedy in picking out green-blue sapphires, it only gave a hint of chromium being present in the pale shades of blue sapphires. This was interesting to note, since the evidence was also proved by the slight change from pale blue to pale lavender or pink when being transferred from daylight on the table to the artificial light on the focus from the intensity lamp. Although these stones were small, quite a fine bright fluorescent line could be picked up by eye on tilting the spectroscope to the left. This is a useful tip when ‘searching’ for a spectrum, e.g commercial quality Ceylon sapphires do not readily or easily show a 4500 Å line, but tilting the spectroscope will often bring it into view. (In the latter case the spectroscope is tilted to the right). Having hinted perhaps that my intuition was carried out in an atmosphere partial to absorption spectroscopy, I must state the obvious and point out that for a gemologist it is red on the left, blue on the right, when looking through a spectroscope. The pale blue and yellow sapphires together were checked by lens and tongs for chatter-marking and feathers, of which fortunately there was an abundance. Ceylon liquid feathers and two-phase inclusions are a joy in speedy establishment of origin.
The hard core of ‘seeded’ stones now came to be tested. Several mauve/brown stones proved to have the refractive index of natural spinel, two other deep golden brown stones were chrysoberyl, whilst the remainder of colorless stones, were quartz and topaz respectively. Considering its travels and origins I was lucky not to find a single paste or synthetic stone in the parcel.
(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.VII, No.5, January, 1960) A F Farn writes:
My fellow gemologist and friend, Dr E H Rutland, delights in, and is an expert at ‘Plonk Testing’. To ‘plonk’ (an unusual gemological term meaning ‘to go off the deep end’) is to view a gemstone, usually not one of the better known gemstones, which has recently come to hand and to state categorically what the stone is—usually to the delight of the possessor since he is usually armed with details in advance.
A rule of thumb approach and a keen eye backed by knowledge of gemology are the essentials to expertise. Possibly the hardest school is that which backs its judgment by placing not the stone upon the refractometer but its hand in its pocket.
Having attended many lectures and listened to much theory on the subject of gem testing and the rival and relative merits of certain instruments, I am reminded of certain examination questions phrased in the following style:
- What do you consider the equipment necessary to furnish a model laboratory? or
- What are the most important or imperative instruments a gemologist’s needs?
To answer such questions one usually has or shows a marked preference for certain instruments or gives obvious indications of techniques favored by an instructor. Some people are keen on refractometer work, others specific gravity or the spectroscope, and some of course combine the use of each. There are some tests so rudimentary and positive that is needless to go further, which of course admits knowledge of gemology.
Whilst testing by sight is not necessarily accurate, it is usually applied with a background of knowledge and reasoning. I should have stated earlier that perhaps a lens is permitted, but no more. An instance of such testing could be a completely colorless (or white) stone, whichever term is preferred, with one or two minute bubbles, no double refraction discernible but perhaps a slight ‘chatter-marking’—a sure sign of heating of corundum. Therefore the stone would a synthetic corundum. This, of course, is a very obvious instance. There are, doubtless, countless others which will spring to mind. Most gemologists, of course, test stones for enjoyment at leisure; professionals test against the clock and seldom have much time to browse amongst the undoubted beauties of inclusions in Burma or Siam rubies. The latter, though less expensive commercially, are amongst the most beautiful stones from an inclusion point of view. Having tested some tens of thousands of stones I am afraid I do not linger too long in throes of delight on seeing either a Ceylon zircon spectrum or hessonite garnet inclusions. These are merely speedy recognition signs for testing.
Quite recently a parcel of 284 cts of mixed round stones of various colors, and approximately 3500 stones came into my possession. My first reaction was to glance swiftly through the stones spread out on the table on a sheet of white paper and pick out any likely stones, i.e those which looked interesting. Most seemed to me to be the product of Ceylon—later proved correct. Two stones only proved to be of a likely hue and appearance. The remainder I sorted by color into piles of brown hessonite garnets, red/pink Ceylon garnets, pale blue, green and yellow Ceylon sapphires, and an intriguing assorted colored section of zircons of every hue. The colorless portion, thank goodness, was very small—these are always a headache except in this instance.
Having decided the piles on color, the next step was to check by spectroscope. Every pink/red garnet was swiftly pushed into a spot of light from an intensity lamp focused onto the table, and the garnets fed from left to right. With the spectroscope held in the right hand some 600 stones were accurately observed and dealt with in about two hours (having all the same spectrum helped a lot). The zircons came next and the same procedure took place, except that here some had a full Ceylon spectrum and some just a hint of the 6535 Å line, some metamicts. Again this was a speedy test of approximately similar quantities and time. A point of interest here is that the quick focus spot method of scattered light will give a sharp absorption spectrum from a stone of less than one-tenth of a carat whereas by transmitted light through a microscope it would be flooded out and eye would quickly become fatigued. The next parcel, possibly the largest in number, were those ‘plonked’ as hessonites. Here there could be (I hoped) a spessartite or two and the spectroscope came into play once again. None of the stones showed a spectrum, my eye being focused on the blue section end looking for a sign of manganese in the make-up of the stone. There was no need to take the R.I of any of these stones since a quick check of samples by lens and use of corn tongs showed all had the familiar diopside crystal inclusions—the characteristic sign of hessonite. After a time, when one has concentrated solely on one color of gemstone, the eye becomes attuned and exceedingly quick to distinguish any unusual stone. These three groups had reduced the bulk by about 85%.
The next lots were the potential Ceylon sapphires. Knowledge of color shades indicated no synthetics being present, since these latter stones are usually a finer color than their natural counterparts.
Although the spectroscope was speedy in picking out green-blue sapphires, it only gave a hint of chromium being present in the pale shades of blue sapphires. This was interesting to note, since the evidence was also proved by the slight change from pale blue to pale lavender or pink when being transferred from daylight on the table to the artificial light on the focus from the intensity lamp. Although these stones were small, quite a fine bright fluorescent line could be picked up by eye on tilting the spectroscope to the left. This is a useful tip when ‘searching’ for a spectrum, e.g commercial quality Ceylon sapphires do not readily or easily show a 4500 Å line, but tilting the spectroscope will often bring it into view. (In the latter case the spectroscope is tilted to the right). Having hinted perhaps that my intuition was carried out in an atmosphere partial to absorption spectroscopy, I must state the obvious and point out that for a gemologist it is red on the left, blue on the right, when looking through a spectroscope. The pale blue and yellow sapphires together were checked by lens and tongs for chatter-marking and feathers, of which fortunately there was an abundance. Ceylon liquid feathers and two-phase inclusions are a joy in speedy establishment of origin.
The hard core of ‘seeded’ stones now came to be tested. Several mauve/brown stones proved to have the refractive index of natural spinel, two other deep golden brown stones were chrysoberyl, whilst the remainder of colorless stones, were quartz and topaz respectively. Considering its travels and origins I was lucky not to find a single paste or synthetic stone in the parcel.
Smithsonite
(Bonamite)
Chemistry: Zinc carbonate
Crystal system: Trigonal; mostly massive and stalactitic, botryoidal, granular or as encrustations; rare rhombohedral crystals are known.
Color: Translucent to opaque; light green, blue, pink, yellow, purple, rarely colorless.
Hardness: 4.5 - 5
Cleavage: Perfect: in rhombohedral; fracture: brittle, uneven.
Specific gravity: 4.3 – 4.5
Refractive index: 1.621 – 1.849; Uniaxial negative; 0.228; 1.72 mean.
Luster: Pearly-dull; rarely vitreous
Dispersion: High
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: As a secondary mineral in oxidized zone ore deposits; Greece, Mexico, USA, Spain, Namibia.
Notes
Softness makes it unsuitable for jewelry; faceted stones are collectors items; carbonate will efferverse with acid; may look like chrysoprase or turquoise; alternate name bonamite derived from name of New York jeweler who first marketed smithsonite jewelry; faceted, cabochon.
Chemistry: Zinc carbonate
Crystal system: Trigonal; mostly massive and stalactitic, botryoidal, granular or as encrustations; rare rhombohedral crystals are known.
Color: Translucent to opaque; light green, blue, pink, yellow, purple, rarely colorless.
Hardness: 4.5 - 5
Cleavage: Perfect: in rhombohedral; fracture: brittle, uneven.
Specific gravity: 4.3 – 4.5
Refractive index: 1.621 – 1.849; Uniaxial negative; 0.228; 1.72 mean.
Luster: Pearly-dull; rarely vitreous
Dispersion: High
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: As a secondary mineral in oxidized zone ore deposits; Greece, Mexico, USA, Spain, Namibia.
Notes
Softness makes it unsuitable for jewelry; faceted stones are collectors items; carbonate will efferverse with acid; may look like chrysoprase or turquoise; alternate name bonamite derived from name of New York jeweler who first marketed smithsonite jewelry; faceted, cabochon.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Beryl Triplets Imitating Paraiba Tourmaline
Top and bottom pieces of near colorless beryl fused together and colored by a layer of blue green glue is perceived as good imitation for Paraiba/Paraibla-like tourmaline.
The Long Tail
Good Books: (via Emergic) Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail is about: Why the future of business is selling less of more?
From the book’s description:
The Long Tail is a powerful new force in our economy: the rise of the niche. As the cost of reaching consumers drops dramatically, our markets are shifting from a one-size-fits-all model of mass appeal to one of unlimited variety for unique tastes. From supermarket shelves to advertising agencies, the ability to offer vast choice is changing everything, and causing us to rethink where our markets lie and how to get to them. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it, from DVDs at Netflix to songs on iTunes to advertising on Google.
However, this is not just a virtue of online marketplaces; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for business, one that is just beginning to show its power. After a century of obsessing over the few products at the head of the demand curve, the new economics of distribution allow us to turn our focus to the many more products in the tail, which collectively can create a new market as big as the one we already know.
The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance. New efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing are essentially resetting the definition of what’s commercially viable across the board. If the 20th century was about hits, the 21st will be equally about niches.
The Economist wrote: The niche, the obscure and the specialist, Mr Anderson argues, will gain ground at the expense of the hit. As evidence, he points to a drop in the number of companies that traditionally calculate their revenue/sales ratio according to the 80/20 rule -- where the top fifth of products contribute four-fifths of revenues. Ecast, a San Francisco digital jukebox company, found that 98% of its 10,000 albums sold at least one track every three months. Expressed in the language of statistics, the experiences of Ecast and other companies such as Amazon, an online bookseller, suggest that products down in the long tail of a statistical distribution, added together, can be highly profitable. The internet helps people find their way to relatively obscure material with recommendations and reviews by other people (and for those willing to have their artistic tastes predicted by a piece of software) computer programs which analyse past selections.
The Wall Street Journal wrote in a review:
In a traditional graph of sales and demand, there is a stratospheric swoop upward where hot products and services are tracked, and a long descending line tracing the less spectacular performance of low-volume also-rans. For years, these outliers fell off the edge of the market or held only a marginal position, with minimal profits. These days, though, technology has allowed such niche interests to thrive, finding steady customers and rising levels of interest.
The long tail has lifted into prominence troupes like the Lonely Island, or bands like the Arctic Monkeys (popularized by MySpace, the user-generated site aimed at young people), or art-house movies like "Capturing the Friedmans" (made popular through Netflix, the online-based movie-rental outfit). Thanks to technology's power to target pockets of consumers, niche forms of cultural expression are reaching otherwise fractional audiences, and the fractions are adding up in ways they never have before. In the process, the economy is reshaped, and our tastes are too.
Blockbuster may have to devote its (limited) shelf space to 50 copies of the latest action blockbuster; Netflix can (theoretically) offer every movie ever made. Through sophisticated filtering, Netflix and Amazon and iTunes can make a deep inventory pay off by matching niches with consumers. Technology has shattered an aggregate popular culture -- the icon-producing kind. But it has also come to its rescue.
Steven Johnson wrote about the book: It occurred to me reading The Long Tail that the general trend from mass to niche can explain some of this increased complexity: niches can speak to each other in shorthand; they don't have to spell everything out. But at the same time, the niche itself doesn't have to become any more aesthetically or intellectually rich compared to what came before. If there's a pro wrestling niche, the creators don't have to condescend to the non-wrestling fans who might be tuning in, which means that they can make more references and in general convey more information about wrestling -- precisely because they know their audience is made up of hard core fans. But it's still pro wrestling. The content isn't anything to write home about, but the form grows more complex. In a mass society, it's harder to pull that off. But out on the tail, it comes naturally.An example from the book: What’s extraordinary is that virtually every single one of those tracks [on Rhapsody] will sell. From the perspective of a store like Wal-Mart, the music industry stops at less than 60,000 tracks. However, for online retailers like Rhapsody the market is seemingly never-ending. Not only is every one of Rhapsody’s top 60,000 tracks streamed at least once each month, but the same is true for its top 100,000, top 200,000, and top 400,000 -- even its top 600,000, top 900,000, and beyond. As fast as Rhapsody adds tracks to its library, those songs find an audience, even if it’s just a handful of people every month, somewhere in the world. This is the Long Tail?
The New Yorker wrote:
Both eBay and Google turn out, in Anderson’s account, to be long-tail businesses, too. On any given day, about thirty million individual items are bought and sold on eBay, many of them cheap and obscure. Barely a decade after Pierre Omidyar founded eBay, more than seven hundred thousand Americans report it as their primary or secondary source of income, according to a study by the market-research firm AC Nielsen. For Google, the long tail is populated by small advertisers. Major corporations pay to get their ads placed next to the results of popular search terms, such as luxury S.U.V.s and flat-screen televisions. But much of Google’s annual revenue, which now exceeds five billion dollars, comes from tiny companies whose ads appear next to queries like Victorian jewelry and Hudson Valley inns....The forces behind the long tail are largely technological: cheap computer hardware, which reduces the cost of making and storing information products; ubiquitous broadband, which cuts the cost of distribution; and elaborate filters, such as search engines, blogs, and online reviews, which help to match supply and demand. Think of each of these three forces as representing a new set of opportunities in the emerging Long Tail marketplace, Anderson suggests. The democratized tools of production are leading to a huge increase in the number of producers. Hyper-efficient digital economies are leading to new markets and marketplaces. And finally, the ability to tap the distributed intelligence of millions of consumers to match people with the stuff that suits them best is leading to the rise of all sorts of new recommendation and marketing methods, essentially serving as the new tastemakers.
The Long Tail is a must-read book. The book aggregates a variety of concepts + how technology links niche interests to thrive in a natural way + reshaping economy and tastes.
From the book’s description:
The Long Tail is a powerful new force in our economy: the rise of the niche. As the cost of reaching consumers drops dramatically, our markets are shifting from a one-size-fits-all model of mass appeal to one of unlimited variety for unique tastes. From supermarket shelves to advertising agencies, the ability to offer vast choice is changing everything, and causing us to rethink where our markets lie and how to get to them. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it, from DVDs at Netflix to songs on iTunes to advertising on Google.
However, this is not just a virtue of online marketplaces; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for business, one that is just beginning to show its power. After a century of obsessing over the few products at the head of the demand curve, the new economics of distribution allow us to turn our focus to the many more products in the tail, which collectively can create a new market as big as the one we already know.
The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance. New efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing are essentially resetting the definition of what’s commercially viable across the board. If the 20th century was about hits, the 21st will be equally about niches.
The Economist wrote: The niche, the obscure and the specialist, Mr Anderson argues, will gain ground at the expense of the hit. As evidence, he points to a drop in the number of companies that traditionally calculate their revenue/sales ratio according to the 80/20 rule -- where the top fifth of products contribute four-fifths of revenues. Ecast, a San Francisco digital jukebox company, found that 98% of its 10,000 albums sold at least one track every three months. Expressed in the language of statistics, the experiences of Ecast and other companies such as Amazon, an online bookseller, suggest that products down in the long tail of a statistical distribution, added together, can be highly profitable. The internet helps people find their way to relatively obscure material with recommendations and reviews by other people (and for those willing to have their artistic tastes predicted by a piece of software) computer programs which analyse past selections.
The Wall Street Journal wrote in a review:
In a traditional graph of sales and demand, there is a stratospheric swoop upward where hot products and services are tracked, and a long descending line tracing the less spectacular performance of low-volume also-rans. For years, these outliers fell off the edge of the market or held only a marginal position, with minimal profits. These days, though, technology has allowed such niche interests to thrive, finding steady customers and rising levels of interest.
The long tail has lifted into prominence troupes like the Lonely Island, or bands like the Arctic Monkeys (popularized by MySpace, the user-generated site aimed at young people), or art-house movies like "Capturing the Friedmans" (made popular through Netflix, the online-based movie-rental outfit). Thanks to technology's power to target pockets of consumers, niche forms of cultural expression are reaching otherwise fractional audiences, and the fractions are adding up in ways they never have before. In the process, the economy is reshaped, and our tastes are too.
Blockbuster may have to devote its (limited) shelf space to 50 copies of the latest action blockbuster; Netflix can (theoretically) offer every movie ever made. Through sophisticated filtering, Netflix and Amazon and iTunes can make a deep inventory pay off by matching niches with consumers. Technology has shattered an aggregate popular culture -- the icon-producing kind. But it has also come to its rescue.
Steven Johnson wrote about the book: It occurred to me reading The Long Tail that the general trend from mass to niche can explain some of this increased complexity: niches can speak to each other in shorthand; they don't have to spell everything out. But at the same time, the niche itself doesn't have to become any more aesthetically or intellectually rich compared to what came before. If there's a pro wrestling niche, the creators don't have to condescend to the non-wrestling fans who might be tuning in, which means that they can make more references and in general convey more information about wrestling -- precisely because they know their audience is made up of hard core fans. But it's still pro wrestling. The content isn't anything to write home about, but the form grows more complex. In a mass society, it's harder to pull that off. But out on the tail, it comes naturally.An example from the book: What’s extraordinary is that virtually every single one of those tracks [on Rhapsody] will sell. From the perspective of a store like Wal-Mart, the music industry stops at less than 60,000 tracks. However, for online retailers like Rhapsody the market is seemingly never-ending. Not only is every one of Rhapsody’s top 60,000 tracks streamed at least once each month, but the same is true for its top 100,000, top 200,000, and top 400,000 -- even its top 600,000, top 900,000, and beyond. As fast as Rhapsody adds tracks to its library, those songs find an audience, even if it’s just a handful of people every month, somewhere in the world. This is the Long Tail?
The New Yorker wrote:
Both eBay and Google turn out, in Anderson’s account, to be long-tail businesses, too. On any given day, about thirty million individual items are bought and sold on eBay, many of them cheap and obscure. Barely a decade after Pierre Omidyar founded eBay, more than seven hundred thousand Americans report it as their primary or secondary source of income, according to a study by the market-research firm AC Nielsen. For Google, the long tail is populated by small advertisers. Major corporations pay to get their ads placed next to the results of popular search terms, such as luxury S.U.V.s and flat-screen televisions. But much of Google’s annual revenue, which now exceeds five billion dollars, comes from tiny companies whose ads appear next to queries like Victorian jewelry and Hudson Valley inns....The forces behind the long tail are largely technological: cheap computer hardware, which reduces the cost of making and storing information products; ubiquitous broadband, which cuts the cost of distribution; and elaborate filters, such as search engines, blogs, and online reviews, which help to match supply and demand. Think of each of these three forces as representing a new set of opportunities in the emerging Long Tail marketplace, Anderson suggests. The democratized tools of production are leading to a huge increase in the number of producers. Hyper-efficient digital economies are leading to new markets and marketplaces. And finally, the ability to tap the distributed intelligence of millions of consumers to match people with the stuff that suits them best is leading to the rise of all sorts of new recommendation and marketing methods, essentially serving as the new tastemakers.
The Long Tail is a must-read book. The book aggregates a variety of concepts + how technology links niche interests to thrive in a natural way + reshaping economy and tastes.
Big Ideas
Peter Schjeldahl writes about the Venice Biennale—the most venerable of international art shows—directed by the American curator, critic, and teacher Robert Storr + other viewpoints @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/06/25/070625craw_artworld_schjeldahl
Rough Diamonds’ Fatigue
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about worldwide rough diamond (2005) production (s) + the London connection + the South Africa connection + Dubai / Swiss connection (s) + Australia / London / Belgium connection (s) + the rough diamonds that never made it to London + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25508
Black Opaque Gem Materials
Hematite
RI: 2.94-3.22; SG: 4.95-5.16; Luster: Metallic; Comments: Sometimes magnetic
Uraninite
SG: 5.2-10.0; Luster: Submetallic, resinous; Comments: Radioactive
Diamond
RI: 2.417; SG: 3.52; Luster: Adamantine
Irradiated Black Diamond
RI: 2.417; SG: 3.52; Luster: Adamantine; Comments: Sometimes radioactive
Cassiterite
RI: 2.006-2.097; SG: 6.99; Luster: Adamantine to vitreous
Hausmannite
RI: >1.81; SG: 4.84; Luster: Adamantine
Psilomelane (Mn oxides)
RI: > 1.81; SG: 4.35; Luster: Metallic to submetallic
Spinel Group
Magnetite
RI: 2.42; SG: 5.20; Luster: Metallic; Comments: Magnetic
Hercynite
RI: >1.81; 1.835; SG: 4.40; Luster: Subadamantine; Comments: Sometimes magnetic
Spinel
RI: 1.77; SG: 3.83; Luster: Vitreous
Intermediate spinel-hercynite
RI: 1.765; SG: 3.93; Luster: Subadamantine to vitreous
Garnet Group
Andradite garnet (melanite)
RI: 1.885; SG: 3.84; Luster: Subadamantine to vitreous
Pyrope
RI: 1.740; SG: about 3.72; Luster: Vitreous
Corundum (star sapphire)
RI: 1.760-1.78; SG: 3.989-4.0; Luster: Subadamantine to vitreous
Pyroxene Group
Augite
RI: 1.702-1.728; SG: 3.20-3.35; Luster: High vitreous
Diopside (star)
RI: 1.675-1.701; SG: 3.33; Luster: Vitreous
Jadite jade
RI: 1.65-1.67; SG: 3.20-3.34; Luster: Vitreous
Tourmaline
RI: 1.622-1.655; SG: 3.15-3.20; Luster: Vitreous
Amphibole Group
Ferrohornblende
RI: 1.60-1.70; SG: 3.36; Luster: Vitreous
Nephrite jade
RI: 1.600-1.641; SG: 2.90-3.02; Luster: Vitreous
Cummingtonite-grunerite
RI: 1.54-1.65
Jet
RI: 1.59-1.66; SG: 1.20-1.30; Luster: Resinous
Ekanite
RI: 1.593-1.595; SG: about 3.30; Luster: Vitreous: Comments: Radioactive
Labradorite Feldspar
RI: 1.560-1.568; SG: 2.69; Luster: Vitreous; Comments: Colored by inclusions
Dyed Chalcedony (black onyx)
RI: 1.530-1.539; SG: 2.57-2.64; Luster: Vitreous
Chalcedony with Psilomelane
RI: 1.535-1.539; SG: 3.0-3.1; Luster: Metallic to submetallic; Comments: Banded
Coated Quartz
RI: 1.54; Luster: Vitreous to dull
Dolomite
RI: 1.51-1.67; SG: 2.8-2.9; Luster: Vitreous
Black Coral
RI: 1.56; SG: 1.34; Luster: Resinous
Obsidian
RI: 1.48-1.52; SG: 2.30-2.50; Luster: Vitreous
Opal (black opaque)
RI: 1.44; SG: 2.02; Luster: Vitreous
Rocks (aggregates)
Dolomite/quartzite rock
RI: 1.66 spot; SG: 2.74; Luster: Vitreous
Simulants
Cubic zirconia
RI: 2.14; SG: 6.14-6.16; Luster: Adamantine
Silicon
RI: >1.81; SG: 2.34; Luster: Metallic: Comments Gray
Hematine
RI: >1.81; SG: 4.00-7.00; Luster: Metallic; Comments: Magnetic
YIG (ytrrium iron garnet)
SG: about 6; Luster: Vitreous to submetallic; Comments: Magnetic
Barrium sulfate/polymer
RI: mid-1.50s; SG: 2.26-2.33
Plastics
RI: 1.5-1.6; SG: 1.05-1.55; Luster: Vitreous to resinous
Glass
RI: 1.35-1.70; SG: 2.51-3.21; Luster: Submetallic to vitreous
RI: 2.94-3.22; SG: 4.95-5.16; Luster: Metallic; Comments: Sometimes magnetic
Uraninite
SG: 5.2-10.0; Luster: Submetallic, resinous; Comments: Radioactive
Diamond
RI: 2.417; SG: 3.52; Luster: Adamantine
Irradiated Black Diamond
RI: 2.417; SG: 3.52; Luster: Adamantine; Comments: Sometimes radioactive
Cassiterite
RI: 2.006-2.097; SG: 6.99; Luster: Adamantine to vitreous
Hausmannite
RI: >1.81; SG: 4.84; Luster: Adamantine
Psilomelane (Mn oxides)
RI: > 1.81; SG: 4.35; Luster: Metallic to submetallic
Spinel Group
Magnetite
RI: 2.42; SG: 5.20; Luster: Metallic; Comments: Magnetic
Hercynite
RI: >1.81; 1.835; SG: 4.40; Luster: Subadamantine; Comments: Sometimes magnetic
Spinel
RI: 1.77; SG: 3.83; Luster: Vitreous
Intermediate spinel-hercynite
RI: 1.765; SG: 3.93; Luster: Subadamantine to vitreous
Garnet Group
Andradite garnet (melanite)
RI: 1.885; SG: 3.84; Luster: Subadamantine to vitreous
Pyrope
RI: 1.740; SG: about 3.72; Luster: Vitreous
Corundum (star sapphire)
RI: 1.760-1.78; SG: 3.989-4.0; Luster: Subadamantine to vitreous
Pyroxene Group
Augite
RI: 1.702-1.728; SG: 3.20-3.35; Luster: High vitreous
Diopside (star)
RI: 1.675-1.701; SG: 3.33; Luster: Vitreous
Jadite jade
RI: 1.65-1.67; SG: 3.20-3.34; Luster: Vitreous
Tourmaline
RI: 1.622-1.655; SG: 3.15-3.20; Luster: Vitreous
Amphibole Group
Ferrohornblende
RI: 1.60-1.70; SG: 3.36; Luster: Vitreous
Nephrite jade
RI: 1.600-1.641; SG: 2.90-3.02; Luster: Vitreous
Cummingtonite-grunerite
RI: 1.54-1.65
Jet
RI: 1.59-1.66; SG: 1.20-1.30; Luster: Resinous
Ekanite
RI: 1.593-1.595; SG: about 3.30; Luster: Vitreous: Comments: Radioactive
Labradorite Feldspar
RI: 1.560-1.568; SG: 2.69; Luster: Vitreous; Comments: Colored by inclusions
Dyed Chalcedony (black onyx)
RI: 1.530-1.539; SG: 2.57-2.64; Luster: Vitreous
Chalcedony with Psilomelane
RI: 1.535-1.539; SG: 3.0-3.1; Luster: Metallic to submetallic; Comments: Banded
Coated Quartz
RI: 1.54; Luster: Vitreous to dull
Dolomite
RI: 1.51-1.67; SG: 2.8-2.9; Luster: Vitreous
Black Coral
RI: 1.56; SG: 1.34; Luster: Resinous
Obsidian
RI: 1.48-1.52; SG: 2.30-2.50; Luster: Vitreous
Opal (black opaque)
RI: 1.44; SG: 2.02; Luster: Vitreous
Rocks (aggregates)
Dolomite/quartzite rock
RI: 1.66 spot; SG: 2.74; Luster: Vitreous
Simulants
Cubic zirconia
RI: 2.14; SG: 6.14-6.16; Luster: Adamantine
Silicon
RI: >1.81; SG: 2.34; Luster: Metallic: Comments Gray
Hematine
RI: >1.81; SG: 4.00-7.00; Luster: Metallic; Comments: Magnetic
YIG (ytrrium iron garnet)
SG: about 6; Luster: Vitreous to submetallic; Comments: Magnetic
Barrium sulfate/polymer
RI: mid-1.50s; SG: 2.26-2.33
Plastics
RI: 1.5-1.6; SG: 1.05-1.55; Luster: Vitreous to resinous
Glass
RI: 1.35-1.70; SG: 2.51-3.21; Luster: Submetallic to vitreous
Smaragdite
(variety of Actinolite)
Crystal system: Monoclinic; massive.
Color: Translucent to opaque: yellowish green to bluish green.
Hardness: 6.5
Cleavage: -
Specific gravity: 3.25
Refractive index: 1.608 – 1.630; Biaxial negative; 0.022; 1.62 mean.
Luster: Vitreous
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Austria, France, Italy, USA, Philippines
Notes
Chloromelanite may be a variety; part of the amphibole group of minerals; difficult to distinguish from jadeite to which it is closely related; carvings.
Crystal system: Monoclinic; massive.
Color: Translucent to opaque: yellowish green to bluish green.
Hardness: 6.5
Cleavage: -
Specific gravity: 3.25
Refractive index: 1.608 – 1.630; Biaxial negative; 0.022; 1.62 mean.
Luster: Vitreous
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Austria, France, Italy, USA, Philippines
Notes
Chloromelanite may be a variety; part of the amphibole group of minerals; difficult to distinguish from jadeite to which it is closely related; carvings.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Buying Gold? Getting Cheated!
Ronojoy Banerjee writes about the survey (I wasn't surprised) conducted by The Bureau of Indian Standards on the purity of gold in India @ http://www.outlookmoney.com/scripts/ptifile.asp?pti_news_id=738
More Than You Know
Good Books: (via Emergic) Michael Mauboussin is chief investment strategist at Legg Mason Capital. His book More Than You Know is a collection of his essays written over the past few years.
Here is what Publisher’s Weekly has to say (via Amazon.com):
Mauboussin is not your average Wall Street equity analyst, writing investment recommendations whose topical interest wanes a few days after the report is issued. His strategy reports begin with scientific findings from diverse fields, then show why an investor should care. This book is a collection of 30 short reports, revised and updated, covering animal behavior ("Guppy Love: The Role of Imitation in Markets"), psychology ("Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers"), philosophy of science ("The Janitor's Dream: Why Listening to Individuals Can be Hazardous to Your Wealth") and other fields. Each essay describes a fascinating scientific finding, then develops and applies it to personal investing. "Survival of the Fittest," for example, begins by discussing how Tiger Woods improved his golf swing, introduces the concept of fitness landscapes from evolutionary biology, then explains why investors in commodity-producing companies should like strong centralized management, while technology-stock buyers should prefer flexible organizations with lots of disruptive new ideas. The book is breezy and well written, but not dumbed down, and provides extensive references. It can be read for entertainment as popular science or to broaden your investment thinking.
You can find some of Mauboussin’s recent essays here.
This is a fascinating book + gem and jewelry professionals + entrepreneurs must read the book for insights because you will meet the same type of characters in the (any) industry.
Here is what Publisher’s Weekly has to say (via Amazon.com):
Mauboussin is not your average Wall Street equity analyst, writing investment recommendations whose topical interest wanes a few days after the report is issued. His strategy reports begin with scientific findings from diverse fields, then show why an investor should care. This book is a collection of 30 short reports, revised and updated, covering animal behavior ("Guppy Love: The Role of Imitation in Markets"), psychology ("Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers"), philosophy of science ("The Janitor's Dream: Why Listening to Individuals Can be Hazardous to Your Wealth") and other fields. Each essay describes a fascinating scientific finding, then develops and applies it to personal investing. "Survival of the Fittest," for example, begins by discussing how Tiger Woods improved his golf swing, introduces the concept of fitness landscapes from evolutionary biology, then explains why investors in commodity-producing companies should like strong centralized management, while technology-stock buyers should prefer flexible organizations with lots of disruptive new ideas. The book is breezy and well written, but not dumbed down, and provides extensive references. It can be read for entertainment as popular science or to broaden your investment thinking.
You can find some of Mauboussin’s recent essays here.
This is a fascinating book + gem and jewelry professionals + entrepreneurs must read the book for insights because you will meet the same type of characters in the (any) industry.
Modern Love
Peter Schjeldahl writes about the art and style of Sara & Gerald Murphy@ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/08/06/070806craw_artworld_schjeldahl
Canadian Diamond Anti-Money Laundering Rules In-The-Making
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about Canadian government's overstated concerns posed by the diamond industry + BHP Billiton's suggestions on the methodology of reporting transactions + client identification difficulties + AML/CFT compliance agenda (s) + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25527
Thermal Conductivity
With the rapid advancements in the field of crystal growth in the past several years, materials produced for the purpose of simulating diamond have become more and more difficult to detect. Because the R.I’s (refractive index) of diamond and most simulants are over the limit of the conventional refracatometer, identification is more difficult.
In 1978, the Ceres Corporation, which is a large manufacturer of synthetic cubic zirconia, came out with completely new type of instrument for the separation of diamond from the various simulants. The instrument is termed a ‘thermal conductivity probe’ and operates on the principle of thermal (heat) conductivity. Diamond is unique in this property and even the most impure Type I stones still conduct heat many times quicker than the next best material.
Since the Ceres probe was developed many other companies have also developed similar instruments. They usually consist of a small box with a meter or lights to indicate whether or not the stone is diamond. A pen-like probe is attached to the box by a wire. The conductivity of the stone is tested by pressing the copper tip of the probe against the stone. An electrical current is passed through a thermister in contact with the stone which heats it up slightly. Then the current is cut off and sensors measure the speed with which it cools. Diamond, having the highest thermal conductivity, cools tip faster than any other material.
The advantages of the thermal conductivity probe are many. Any size stone from 0.03 carat up can be tested, mounted or unmounted. The quality of the polish or thin surface coatings does not affect the accuracy.
Advantages
- Stones down to 0.03 carat can be tested.
- Mounted or unmounted stones can be tested.
- Faceted or rough stones can be tested.
- Doublets can be tested if several parts of the stone are checked.
- Thin surface coatings on the stone do not affect the accuracy.
- Each stone takes only about 3 seconds to test.
- The test is extremely accurate, especially for materials which closely resemble diamond in appearance.
Disadvantages
- The probe only indicates whether or not a stone is diamond. It does not distinguish between various simulants.
- As with any instrument, there is chance for error if it is not used properly or if it was manufactured poorly.
The thermal conductivity probes offer the gemologist an accurate and quick means of distinguishing between diamond and its simulants. If used properly by a trained gemologist, the results are both accurate and repeatable.
In 1978, the Ceres Corporation, which is a large manufacturer of synthetic cubic zirconia, came out with completely new type of instrument for the separation of diamond from the various simulants. The instrument is termed a ‘thermal conductivity probe’ and operates on the principle of thermal (heat) conductivity. Diamond is unique in this property and even the most impure Type I stones still conduct heat many times quicker than the next best material.
Since the Ceres probe was developed many other companies have also developed similar instruments. They usually consist of a small box with a meter or lights to indicate whether or not the stone is diamond. A pen-like probe is attached to the box by a wire. The conductivity of the stone is tested by pressing the copper tip of the probe against the stone. An electrical current is passed through a thermister in contact with the stone which heats it up slightly. Then the current is cut off and sensors measure the speed with which it cools. Diamond, having the highest thermal conductivity, cools tip faster than any other material.
The advantages of the thermal conductivity probe are many. Any size stone from 0.03 carat up can be tested, mounted or unmounted. The quality of the polish or thin surface coatings does not affect the accuracy.
Advantages
- Stones down to 0.03 carat can be tested.
- Mounted or unmounted stones can be tested.
- Faceted or rough stones can be tested.
- Doublets can be tested if several parts of the stone are checked.
- Thin surface coatings on the stone do not affect the accuracy.
- Each stone takes only about 3 seconds to test.
- The test is extremely accurate, especially for materials which closely resemble diamond in appearance.
Disadvantages
- The probe only indicates whether or not a stone is diamond. It does not distinguish between various simulants.
- As with any instrument, there is chance for error if it is not used properly or if it was manufactured poorly.
The thermal conductivity probes offer the gemologist an accurate and quick means of distinguishing between diamond and its simulants. If used properly by a trained gemologist, the results are both accurate and repeatable.
Scheelite
Chemistry: Calcium tungstate.
Crystal system: Tetragonal; dipyramids (may look like octahedral) or tabular crystals, also granular masses.
Color: Transparent to translucent; colorless, brown, orange, yellow, purple.
Hardness: 4.5 - 5
Cleavage: Perfect: 1 direction: fracture: splintery, sub-conchoidal to uneven.
Specific gravity: 5.9 – 6.1
Refractive index: 1.918 – 1.934; Uniaxial positive; 0.016
Luster: Vitreous to adamantine.
Dispersion: Medium
Dichroism: Strong.
Occurrence: Metamorphic, hydrothermal and pegmatites; Mexico, USA, Italy, UK.
Notes
May be dyed to look like many other stones; fine yellow may look like fancy diamond, but DR; also made synthetically; fluorescence: strong blue in short wave, but no reaction in long wave; may show didymium spectral lines in yellow and green; faceted for collectors.
Crystal system: Tetragonal; dipyramids (may look like octahedral) or tabular crystals, also granular masses.
Color: Transparent to translucent; colorless, brown, orange, yellow, purple.
Hardness: 4.5 - 5
Cleavage: Perfect: 1 direction: fracture: splintery, sub-conchoidal to uneven.
Specific gravity: 5.9 – 6.1
Refractive index: 1.918 – 1.934; Uniaxial positive; 0.016
Luster: Vitreous to adamantine.
Dispersion: Medium
Dichroism: Strong.
Occurrence: Metamorphic, hydrothermal and pegmatites; Mexico, USA, Italy, UK.
Notes
May be dyed to look like many other stones; fine yellow may look like fancy diamond, but DR; also made synthetically; fluorescence: strong blue in short wave, but no reaction in long wave; may show didymium spectral lines in yellow and green; faceted for collectors.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Other People's Money
Memorable quotes from the movie:
Lawrence Garfield (Danny DeVito): This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle occurred, and the yen did this and the dollar did that and the infrastructure did the other thing, we would still be dead. You know why? Fiber optics. New technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead, all right. We're just not broke. And do you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes, slow but sure.
Lawrence Garfield (Danny DeVito): This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle occurred, and the yen did this and the dollar did that and the infrastructure did the other thing, we would still be dead. You know why? Fiber optics. New technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead, all right. We're just not broke. And do you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes, slow but sure.
How To Grade Tea
Grading tea is an art than science + it owes its special effect to its caffeine, tannins, amino acid, protein content (s) + trace element (s): fluoride, potassium, calcium, manganese, vitamins: niacin, vitamin B1 and B2 + it acts directly on the brain and central nervous system (s) + it increases concentration.
Look how similar the concept is to diamond grading (old + new terms) + colored stone grading: it's either the color (due color causing trace elements), saturation or tone (based on percentage of elements + other modifiers) + other factors (like clarity + size, shape, proportion, symmetry, finish) that creates a unique gradation.
- Whole Leaf
- Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP)
- Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (GFOP)
- FOP with golden tips
- Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (TGFOP)
- FOP with lots of golden tips
- Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP)
- Exceptional quality FOP
- Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (SFTGFOP)
- The very best FOP
- Orange Pekoe (OP)
- Pekoe (P)
- Flowery Pekoe (FP)
- Pekoe Souchong (PS)
- Souchong (S)
Experts may also add 1 to decribe top quality after leaf designation (s): like FTGFOP1, OP1, S1 and so on.
- Broken Leaf
- Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP), Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (GBOP), Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (FBOP), Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (TGBOP), Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (GFBOP), Tippy Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (TGFBOP)
- Fannings
- Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings (BOPF)
- Dust
- Broken Orange Pekoe Dust (BPOD), Pekoe Dust (PD), Red Dust (RD), Super Red Dust (SRD), Fine Dust (FD), Super Fine Dust (SFD), Golden Dust (GD)
The grades of tea are represented by initials or a series of initials. Here are the grades of leaf sizes from largest to smallest:
- Whole Leaf
- Souchon
- FOP: Flowery Orange Pekoe
- OP: Orange Pekoe
- Broken Leaf
- P: Pekoe
- BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe
- Fannings and Dust
- F: Fannings
- D: Dust
- Additional Modifiers
- T: Tippy
- G: Golden
Usually they start at the lowest grade PS (Pekoe Souchong) to FOP (higher quality). They may also add modifiers such as GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) + even more modifiers such FTGFOP (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) + SFTGFOP (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) to improve the overall quality.
Look how similar the concept is to diamond grading (old + new terms) + colored stone grading: it's either the color (due color causing trace elements), saturation or tone (based on percentage of elements + other modifiers) + other factors (like clarity + size, shape, proportion, symmetry, finish) that creates a unique gradation.
- Whole Leaf
- Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP)
- Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (GFOP)
- FOP with golden tips
- Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (TGFOP)
- FOP with lots of golden tips
- Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP)
- Exceptional quality FOP
- Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (SFTGFOP)
- The very best FOP
- Orange Pekoe (OP)
- Pekoe (P)
- Flowery Pekoe (FP)
- Pekoe Souchong (PS)
- Souchong (S)
Experts may also add 1 to decribe top quality after leaf designation (s): like FTGFOP1, OP1, S1 and so on.
- Broken Leaf
- Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP), Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (GBOP), Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (FBOP), Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (TGBOP), Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (GFBOP), Tippy Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (TGFBOP)
- Fannings
- Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings (BOPF)
- Dust
- Broken Orange Pekoe Dust (BPOD), Pekoe Dust (PD), Red Dust (RD), Super Red Dust (SRD), Fine Dust (FD), Super Fine Dust (SFD), Golden Dust (GD)
The grades of tea are represented by initials or a series of initials. Here are the grades of leaf sizes from largest to smallest:
- Whole Leaf
- Souchon
- FOP: Flowery Orange Pekoe
- OP: Orange Pekoe
- Broken Leaf
- P: Pekoe
- BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe
- Fannings and Dust
- F: Fannings
- D: Dust
- Additional Modifiers
- T: Tippy
- G: Golden
Usually they start at the lowest grade PS (Pekoe Souchong) to FOP (higher quality). They may also add modifiers such as GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) + even more modifiers such FTGFOP (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) + SFTGFOP (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) to improve the overall quality.
Beautiful Evidence
Good Books: (via Emergic) Beautiful Evidence is Edward Tufte's latest book. Tufte’s forte is information visualisation.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Edward Tufte:
Tufte's work is important in such fields as information design and visual literacy, which deal with the visual communication of information. He coined the term chartjunk to refer to useless, non-informative, or information-obscuring elements of information displays. Tufte's work argues strongly against the inclusion of any decoration in visual presentations of information and claims that ink should only be used to convey significant data and aid its interpretation.
The focus in this book is on evidence presentation. As Tufte writes in the introduction: (The book) is about how seeing turns into showing, how empirical observations turn into explanations and evidence, suggests new designs, and provides analytical tools for assessing the credibility of evidence presentations.
I believe the book makes you think about the meaning of words and images + the ability to interpret truth in simple language (s).
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Edward Tufte:
Tufte's work is important in such fields as information design and visual literacy, which deal with the visual communication of information. He coined the term chartjunk to refer to useless, non-informative, or information-obscuring elements of information displays. Tufte's work argues strongly against the inclusion of any decoration in visual presentations of information and claims that ink should only be used to convey significant data and aid its interpretation.
The focus in this book is on evidence presentation. As Tufte writes in the introduction: (The book) is about how seeing turns into showing, how empirical observations turn into explanations and evidence, suggests new designs, and provides analytical tools for assessing the credibility of evidence presentations.
I believe the book makes you think about the meaning of words and images + the ability to interpret truth in simple language (s).
Multiple Personalities
Ann Landi writes about painter's experimentation in a variety of genres creating their own artistic personality + morphing narrative style (s) + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2021
Nicky Oppenheimer Calls For African Mitigation Policies To Close Labor Cost Gap With India
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about the consequences of subsidies and/or two-tier pricing policies in diamond rough + De Beer's policy shift + journalist's dilema of reporting genuine news + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
Indicator Stones (Heavy Liquids)
In order to check the SG of the liquid, indicator stones are used. Indicator stones are small stones of a known SG that are kept in the bottles.
Heavy liquids and indicator stones
- 3.32: Methylene iodide: 100% = corundum (SG=4.00); jadeite (SG=3.34)
- 3.05: Methylene iodide: 68%; benzyl benzoate: 32% = tourmaline (SG=3.04-3.06)
- 2.85: Methylene iodide: 64%; benzyl benzoate: 36% = nephrite (SG=2.95)
- 2.67: Methylene iodide: 60%; benzyl benzoate: 40% = calcite (SG=2.71); syn.emerald flux (SG=2.66)
- 2.62: Methylene iodide: 59%; benzyl benzoate: 41% = crystalline quartz (SG=2.66); cryptocrystalline quartz (SG=2.60) Chalcedony
- 2.57: Methylene iodide: 58% benzyl benzoate: 42% = cryptocrystalline quartz (SG=2.60) Chalcedony; microcline feldspar (SG=2.56) Amazonite
These indicator stones are extremely valuable because they allow one to quickly estimate the density of the liquid. The number printed on the bottle is only a guideline regarding the liquid’s SG, and many factors such as evaporation or contamination can alter its SG. So it is of great importance that the tester checks the densities of the liquid daily. For instance, if you are using a 2.67 liquid and you find that calcite (2.71) floats very slowly, then the liquid must be slightly above 2.71. When a liquid’s SG does not exactly match the number of the bottle, it does not mean that the liquid needs to be adjusted. So long as you can find the SG of the liquid it can be used. This is the purpose of the indicator stones.
SG range of gemstones
When determining the specific gravity (SG) of a gem, one should always keep in mind that each gem has a plus or minus range of SG and not just a single figure. There are many factors which can affect the SG of a specimen, such as the clarity, inclusions, impurities, etc and a tester’s degree of error must be taken into account as well. So one can see that the final figure obtained is usually much less reliable than an R.I reading for instance. For this reason, it is usually not possible to separate one stone from another on the basis of SG alone unless their SG’s are apart from each other. You must always consider the plus or minus of a property. Although specific gravity is an important diagnostic property, in most cases, additional tests must be used to positively identity a particular stone.
Heavy liquids and indicator stones
- 3.32: Methylene iodide: 100% = corundum (SG=4.00); jadeite (SG=3.34)
- 3.05: Methylene iodide: 68%; benzyl benzoate: 32% = tourmaline (SG=3.04-3.06)
- 2.85: Methylene iodide: 64%; benzyl benzoate: 36% = nephrite (SG=2.95)
- 2.67: Methylene iodide: 60%; benzyl benzoate: 40% = calcite (SG=2.71); syn.emerald flux (SG=2.66)
- 2.62: Methylene iodide: 59%; benzyl benzoate: 41% = crystalline quartz (SG=2.66); cryptocrystalline quartz (SG=2.60) Chalcedony
- 2.57: Methylene iodide: 58% benzyl benzoate: 42% = cryptocrystalline quartz (SG=2.60) Chalcedony; microcline feldspar (SG=2.56) Amazonite
These indicator stones are extremely valuable because they allow one to quickly estimate the density of the liquid. The number printed on the bottle is only a guideline regarding the liquid’s SG, and many factors such as evaporation or contamination can alter its SG. So it is of great importance that the tester checks the densities of the liquid daily. For instance, if you are using a 2.67 liquid and you find that calcite (2.71) floats very slowly, then the liquid must be slightly above 2.71. When a liquid’s SG does not exactly match the number of the bottle, it does not mean that the liquid needs to be adjusted. So long as you can find the SG of the liquid it can be used. This is the purpose of the indicator stones.
SG range of gemstones
When determining the specific gravity (SG) of a gem, one should always keep in mind that each gem has a plus or minus range of SG and not just a single figure. There are many factors which can affect the SG of a specimen, such as the clarity, inclusions, impurities, etc and a tester’s degree of error must be taken into account as well. So one can see that the final figure obtained is usually much less reliable than an R.I reading for instance. For this reason, it is usually not possible to separate one stone from another on the basis of SG alone unless their SG’s are apart from each other. You must always consider the plus or minus of a property. Although specific gravity is an important diagnostic property, in most cases, additional tests must be used to positively identity a particular stone.
Saussurite
Chemistry: Decomposition product of plagioclase feldspar (mainly albite and zoisite).
Crystal system: Rock; massive.
Color: Opaque; often green variegated; whitish, grey green, yellow green, bluish green.
Hardness: 6.5
Cleavage: -
Specific gravity: 3.0 – 3.4 (may be as low as 2.8 if little zoisite present)
Refractive index: 1.70 (to as low as 1.57; variable; mean reading)
Luster: -
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Mineral aggregate formed as hydrothermal alteration product of plagioclase feldspar; named after the Swiss explorer Horace Benedict de Saussure, who discovered it on the slopes of Mont Blanc.
Notes
May look like jadeite, nephrite or zoisite; cabochon, carvings.
Crystal system: Rock; massive.
Color: Opaque; often green variegated; whitish, grey green, yellow green, bluish green.
Hardness: 6.5
Cleavage: -
Specific gravity: 3.0 – 3.4 (may be as low as 2.8 if little zoisite present)
Refractive index: 1.70 (to as low as 1.57; variable; mean reading)
Luster: -
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Mineral aggregate formed as hydrothermal alteration product of plagioclase feldspar; named after the Swiss explorer Horace Benedict de Saussure, who discovered it on the slopes of Mont Blanc.
Notes
May look like jadeite, nephrite or zoisite; cabochon, carvings.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Stock Market vs Gem Market
Here is what Warren Buffet says about stock market (s):
We do not have an opinion about where the stock market, interest rates, or business activity will be a year from now. We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasts is to make fortune tellers look good. We believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.
True. Stock markets, like gem markets are always prone to extremes of elation and panic attacks. They are interpenetrant twins of the real world. As Warren Buffett put it wisely, it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. Not always. A friend of mine in the gem industry would tell me this: I love money + gemstones more than the things it can buy, but what I love more is other people's gemstones + money + he would say, I'm not your best friend. I'm your only friend. How do you like that?
We do not have an opinion about where the stock market, interest rates, or business activity will be a year from now. We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasts is to make fortune tellers look good. We believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.
True. Stock markets, like gem markets are always prone to extremes of elation and panic attacks. They are interpenetrant twins of the real world. As Warren Buffett put it wisely, it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. Not always. A friend of mine in the gem industry would tell me this: I love money + gemstones more than the things it can buy, but what I love more is other people's gemstones + money + he would say, I'm not your best friend. I'm your only friend. How do you like that?
To Kill A Mocking Bird
Memorable quotes from the movie:
Atticus Finch (Greogry Peck): If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.
Atticus Finch (Greogry Peck): If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.
Winning Decisions
Good Books: (via Emergic) J. Edward Russo and Paul Schoemaker’s Winning Decisions book focusses on getting it right the first time.
From the book’s description:
Decision-making is a business skill which managers often take for granted in themselves and others but it's not as easy as some might think. The authors, whose expertise has been sought out by over a hundred companies, including Arthur Andersen, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Unilever, contend that decision-making, like any other skill, must be developed and honed if it is to be used effectively. Winning Decisions offers step-by-step analyses of how people typically make decisions, and provides invaluable advice on how to improve your chances of getting your next big decision right the first time. The book is packed with worksheets, tools, questionnaires, case studies, and anecdotes analyzing major decisions made by organizations like British Airways, NASA, Shell Oil, and Pepsi. Some of the proven, straightforward techniques covered in Winning Decisions include how to:
- Reframe issues to ensure that the real problem is being addressed
- Improve the quality and quantity of your options
- Convert expert yet conflicting opinions into useful insights
- Make diversity of views and conflict work to your advantage
- Foster efficient and effective group decision-making
- Learn from past decisions--your own and those of others
Here is what Publisher’s Weekly wrote about Winning Decisions (published in 2001):
The coauthors of 1989's Decision Traps offer a clear, straightforward explanation of how managers should perform one of their most basic tasks: making a decision. Russo, professor of marketing and behavior science at Cornell, and Shoemaker, research director of Wharton's Mack Center for Technology and Innovation, break their method into four steps: framing decisions, i.e., factoring in difficulties like information overload and the "galloping rate of change," and thereby determining which choices need to be addressed and which ones don't; gathering real intelligence, not just information that will support internal biases; coming to conclusions, i.e., assessing how one's company acts on the intelligence gathered; and learning from experience. The authors walk readers through each of the steps. Unlike many business books, this one is akin to a workbook, providing how-tos, case studies and worksheets so readers can put their ideas into play immediately. The authors highlight key concepts, and they even show an occasional humorous side. However, they stress that even improving the way one goes about making decisions won't guarantee that they'll be the right ones. Decisions still have to be executed successfully, and luck is always a factor. Still, with better decision-making skills, the odds are bound to go up.
I think the book highlights traits of cognitively swift entrepreneurs of tomorrow. It's a must-read book.
From the book’s description:
Decision-making is a business skill which managers often take for granted in themselves and others but it's not as easy as some might think. The authors, whose expertise has been sought out by over a hundred companies, including Arthur Andersen, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Unilever, contend that decision-making, like any other skill, must be developed and honed if it is to be used effectively. Winning Decisions offers step-by-step analyses of how people typically make decisions, and provides invaluable advice on how to improve your chances of getting your next big decision right the first time. The book is packed with worksheets, tools, questionnaires, case studies, and anecdotes analyzing major decisions made by organizations like British Airways, NASA, Shell Oil, and Pepsi. Some of the proven, straightforward techniques covered in Winning Decisions include how to:
- Reframe issues to ensure that the real problem is being addressed
- Improve the quality and quantity of your options
- Convert expert yet conflicting opinions into useful insights
- Make diversity of views and conflict work to your advantage
- Foster efficient and effective group decision-making
- Learn from past decisions--your own and those of others
Here is what Publisher’s Weekly wrote about Winning Decisions (published in 2001):
The coauthors of 1989's Decision Traps offer a clear, straightforward explanation of how managers should perform one of their most basic tasks: making a decision. Russo, professor of marketing and behavior science at Cornell, and Shoemaker, research director of Wharton's Mack Center for Technology and Innovation, break their method into four steps: framing decisions, i.e., factoring in difficulties like information overload and the "galloping rate of change," and thereby determining which choices need to be addressed and which ones don't; gathering real intelligence, not just information that will support internal biases; coming to conclusions, i.e., assessing how one's company acts on the intelligence gathered; and learning from experience. The authors walk readers through each of the steps. Unlike many business books, this one is akin to a workbook, providing how-tos, case studies and worksheets so readers can put their ideas into play immediately. The authors highlight key concepts, and they even show an occasional humorous side. However, they stress that even improving the way one goes about making decisions won't guarantee that they'll be the right ones. Decisions still have to be executed successfully, and luck is always a factor. Still, with better decision-making skills, the odds are bound to go up.
I think the book highlights traits of cognitively swift entrepreneurs of tomorrow. It's a must-read book.
Painting By Numbers
Peter Schjeldahl profiles Gustave Courbet @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/07/30/070730crbo_books_schjeldahl
Slides And Prejudice
Linda Yablonsky writes about new generation artist's concept (s) based on photo-based painting (s) + the new technology + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2020
De Beers At The Mall Of The Emirates
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about Dubai and the Mall the Emirates + wholesale vs retail market sector + De Beers and DTC supported brands + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25546
Heavy Liquids
For the purpose (s) of identifying gems it is not usually so important to obtain an exact SG determination because most gems have a plus or minus range of SG. An approximate value is just useful as an exact value. For this reason, heavy liquids offer the gemologist what is considered by most to be the best overall method of SG determination available.
When a gem is put into a liquid of lower density than its own, it will sink. If the stone’s density is less than that of the liquid, it will float. Or if the stone’s density is exactly equal to that of the liquid, it will suspended, neither sinking nor floating. So it can be seen that by using a range of liquids with known densities it is possible to estimate the specific gravity of a gem. By noticing the speed with which a gem sinks or floats in a liquid, an accurate estimate can be made regarding the difference between the specific gravity of the liquid and the stone.
Types Of Heavy Liquids
The heavy liquids today consist of methylene iodide (pure SG=3.32) diluted with varying amounts of benzyl benzoate (pure SG=1.12) to obtain values below 3.32. The main advantage of using benzyl benzoate to dilute the methylene iodide instead of xylene (toluene), which was used in the past, is that the evaporation rates for methylene iodide and benzyl benzoate are nearly equal and so the density of the mixture is fairly constant and does not need to be adjusted as often as mixtures using xylene.
Methylene iodide: 3.32
Bromoform: 2.89
Benzyl benzoate: 1.12
Xylene (toluene): 0.87
Clerici’s solution: 4.15
Clerici’s solution is a concentrated solution in water of thallium formate and thallium malonate. It is expensive, poisonous and rather dangerous to handle compared with other liquids, but with a density of about 4.15 it is easy to forget about these shortcomings. Many find it useful to dilute Clerici’s solution (with water) to about 4.00 which is the SG of corundum.
Of all the heavy liquids, methylene iodide is undoubtedly the most useful. With a pure SG of 3.32 and of equal importance, an R.I (refractive index) of 1.74, it can serve two purposes: testing SG and immersion. Upon exposure to light, methylene iodide has a tendency to turn brown or black, but if a small piece of copper is kept in the bottle this darkening process can be reversed.
When a gem is put into a liquid of lower density than its own, it will sink. If the stone’s density is less than that of the liquid, it will float. Or if the stone’s density is exactly equal to that of the liquid, it will suspended, neither sinking nor floating. So it can be seen that by using a range of liquids with known densities it is possible to estimate the specific gravity of a gem. By noticing the speed with which a gem sinks or floats in a liquid, an accurate estimate can be made regarding the difference between the specific gravity of the liquid and the stone.
Types Of Heavy Liquids
The heavy liquids today consist of methylene iodide (pure SG=3.32) diluted with varying amounts of benzyl benzoate (pure SG=1.12) to obtain values below 3.32. The main advantage of using benzyl benzoate to dilute the methylene iodide instead of xylene (toluene), which was used in the past, is that the evaporation rates for methylene iodide and benzyl benzoate are nearly equal and so the density of the mixture is fairly constant and does not need to be adjusted as often as mixtures using xylene.
Methylene iodide: 3.32
Bromoform: 2.89
Benzyl benzoate: 1.12
Xylene (toluene): 0.87
Clerici’s solution: 4.15
Clerici’s solution is a concentrated solution in water of thallium formate and thallium malonate. It is expensive, poisonous and rather dangerous to handle compared with other liquids, but with a density of about 4.15 it is easy to forget about these shortcomings. Many find it useful to dilute Clerici’s solution (with water) to about 4.00 which is the SG of corundum.
Of all the heavy liquids, methylene iodide is undoubtedly the most useful. With a pure SG of 3.32 and of equal importance, an R.I (refractive index) of 1.74, it can serve two purposes: testing SG and immersion. Upon exposure to light, methylene iodide has a tendency to turn brown or black, but if a small piece of copper is kept in the bottle this darkening process can be reversed.
Sapphirine
Chemistry: Silicate containing magnesium and aluminum.
Crystal system: Monoclinic; small tabular pseudo-hexagonal.
Color: Transparent; dark blue to intense blue, blue, brownish green, purplish pink.
Hardness: 7.5
Cleavage: Indistinct: 3 directions.
Specific gravity: 3.51 (3.4 – 3.58)
Refractive index: 1.705 – 1.718; biaxial positive; 0.006-0.007
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: Strong.
Occurrence: In metamorphic rocks; gem quality: Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, Madagascar.
Notes
Rare metamorphic mineral; named after its sapphire blue color; faceted.
Crystal system: Monoclinic; small tabular pseudo-hexagonal.
Color: Transparent; dark blue to intense blue, blue, brownish green, purplish pink.
Hardness: 7.5
Cleavage: Indistinct: 3 directions.
Specific gravity: 3.51 (3.4 – 3.58)
Refractive index: 1.705 – 1.718; biaxial positive; 0.006-0.007
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: Strong.
Occurrence: In metamorphic rocks; gem quality: Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, Madagascar.
Notes
Rare metamorphic mineral; named after its sapphire blue color; faceted.
Friday, August 03, 2007
How To Grade Wine
Grading wine requires unique insight + knowledge + interpretation skills. It's a gift. You start with:
1. Appearance
2. Color
3. Aroma
4. Bouquet
5. Volatile Acidity
6. Total Acidity
7. Sugar
8. Flavor
9. Body
10. Astringency
11. General Quality
It's amazing to note the similarities to colored stone + diamond grading. I mean the concept. I think it's fun experimenting with the idea (s) because to me there is a link + I like to synthesize different concepts, especially when they are subjective because you create a unique language to communicate with people.
1. Appearance
2. Color
3. Aroma
4. Bouquet
5. Volatile Acidity
6. Total Acidity
7. Sugar
8. Flavor
9. Body
10. Astringency
11. General Quality
It's amazing to note the similarities to colored stone + diamond grading. I mean the concept. I think it's fun experimenting with the idea (s) because to me there is a link + I like to synthesize different concepts, especially when they are subjective because you create a unique language to communicate with people.
The Go Point
Good Books: (via Emergic) Here is how the book, The Go Point is described [via Amazon.com]:
The Go Point: the moment of truth when you have to say yes or no when it’s time to get off the fence.
Michael Useem through dramatic storytelling shows how to master the art and science of being decisive. He places you smack in the middle of people facing their go point, where actions or lack of them determined the fates of individuals, companies, and countries.
- Why on earth did Robert E. Lee send General George Pickett on an almost suicidal charge against the Union lines at Gettysburg?
- How does the leader of a firefighting crew make life-or-death decisions, directing his people with little information about weather patterns to guide him to go up or down the mountain? One direction means safety, the other danger.
- You’ve just assumed responsibility for a scandal-wracked corporation, a company teetering on the brink of disaster. What you decide over the course of the next several days will have consequences for thousands of employees and investors. How do you fulfill your responsibilities?
Michael Useem makes you feel as if you are there, right in the center of the action. He was there: tramping up and down the mountain where firefighters made their momentous decisions; walking the battlefield at Gettysburg to see for himself just what General Pickett faced before making his ill-fated charge; going into a trading pit where million-dollar buy-and-sell decisions are made that affect fortunes of both the firm and the person making the call.
You’ll discover why some decisions were flawless, perfectly on target, and others utterly disastrous. Most of all, you’ll learn how to make the right calls yourself, whether you’re changing your career, hiring an assistant, launching a product, or deciding on a potential acquisition or merger.
Smartly written and offering unusual insights into the minds of decision makers such as General Lee, The Go Point will provide the guidance for you to move with confidence when it’s your turn to get off the fence.
800-CEO-Read writes:
[Useem] is the author of some of the best books ever written on leading, particularly Leadership Moment from the late 90s, a book which uses examples of people leading while confronted with real world situations. Yes, his credentials are impressive, and his view on leadership above par, but what also sets him apart from the pack of business book authors is his storytelling ability. Michael Useem is a damn fine writer.
The Go Point continues his look at leadership, but focuses on that crucial decision-making point where we have to go and move forward.
I found the story about the Colorado forest fire to be intense and riveting. To understand what the firefighters went through and to understand the decisions that were made, Useem walked the landscape with one of the survivors. He tells the tale and then points out the decisions and the errors that were made with too little information. He describes the tremendous stress of battling a raging forest fire and how that affects decision-making.
Knowledge@Wharton interviewed Michael Useem, the author of The Go Point. Here are some excerpts:
We all make decisions all the time and most of them are highly personal -- [such as] what we put on this morning when we got up and got out of the house. A small subset of our decisions, though, has ramifications for people around us, and sometimes those are people we are responsible for. They work for us, we command them, and they may be in our community in some way.
There is a strain of thinking that is probably summed up with the psychologists' clinical term "decidophobia"; some people, [in considering] even what color clothing to put on in the morning, just simply balk at that decision. If it's highly personal, that's OK. The consequence is you don't get out of the house on time. But when it affects other people, you cannot suffer from that particular clinical syndrome, because you are going to ultimately cause others around you distress, maybe even harm.
Decision making and leadership can be difficult, but it can be learned. And I think the basic premise that underlies the book -- I think it just underlies reality -- is that decision making as a skill is learned really by making decisions. Critically though, [it means] looking back on those decisions, to make certain we don't make the same mistake twice, that you have some sense for what went right as well.
By way of example: I interviewed the chief executive of Lenovo -- which is of course China's big PC maker -- on this very topic for a couple of hours recently, and I put the question in summary this way (his name is Liu): "Mr. Liu, you came out of a state owned and operated research center. The government of China funded you, that was where your budget was from, but 22 years back you broke off with a couple of friends to create what is now the world's third-largest PC maker. How did you learn to make decisions along the way -- the decisions being how to market, how to brand, how to price, how to hire -- when you were doing none of those, making none of those decisions before?"
The answer really has stuck with me. At the end of every week, going back now more than 20 years, on Friday afternoon, he sits down with his direct reports, his top team, the five or six people he's closest to. They take time to review everything they've done that week -- what decisions were good, which ones were terrible. He has no MBA degree, no formal training in decision making, leadership, or management.
I say all that by way of coming back to the main point, which is decision making is a learned skill. You've got to make decisions and look back on them.
But in addition to that, becoming more self-conscious about getting the right data, having the right timing, talking to people who you know will not provide a biased read or filter through which they're going to pass their advice -- these are among what I would end up calling in the book the tools of leadership. So on the one hand, intuition is very important.
On the other hand, a set of tools is quite important also for helping all of us make good decisions. And just to come back to the main point: they're all learned.
I am in a start-up mode and going through my go points. A single wrong decision can bring nasty surprises. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur + good books have been an inspiration all my life.
The Go Point: the moment of truth when you have to say yes or no when it’s time to get off the fence.
Michael Useem through dramatic storytelling shows how to master the art and science of being decisive. He places you smack in the middle of people facing their go point, where actions or lack of them determined the fates of individuals, companies, and countries.
- Why on earth did Robert E. Lee send General George Pickett on an almost suicidal charge against the Union lines at Gettysburg?
- How does the leader of a firefighting crew make life-or-death decisions, directing his people with little information about weather patterns to guide him to go up or down the mountain? One direction means safety, the other danger.
- You’ve just assumed responsibility for a scandal-wracked corporation, a company teetering on the brink of disaster. What you decide over the course of the next several days will have consequences for thousands of employees and investors. How do you fulfill your responsibilities?
Michael Useem makes you feel as if you are there, right in the center of the action. He was there: tramping up and down the mountain where firefighters made their momentous decisions; walking the battlefield at Gettysburg to see for himself just what General Pickett faced before making his ill-fated charge; going into a trading pit where million-dollar buy-and-sell decisions are made that affect fortunes of both the firm and the person making the call.
You’ll discover why some decisions were flawless, perfectly on target, and others utterly disastrous. Most of all, you’ll learn how to make the right calls yourself, whether you’re changing your career, hiring an assistant, launching a product, or deciding on a potential acquisition or merger.
Smartly written and offering unusual insights into the minds of decision makers such as General Lee, The Go Point will provide the guidance for you to move with confidence when it’s your turn to get off the fence.
800-CEO-Read writes:
[Useem] is the author of some of the best books ever written on leading, particularly Leadership Moment from the late 90s, a book which uses examples of people leading while confronted with real world situations. Yes, his credentials are impressive, and his view on leadership above par, but what also sets him apart from the pack of business book authors is his storytelling ability. Michael Useem is a damn fine writer.
The Go Point continues his look at leadership, but focuses on that crucial decision-making point where we have to go and move forward.
I found the story about the Colorado forest fire to be intense and riveting. To understand what the firefighters went through and to understand the decisions that were made, Useem walked the landscape with one of the survivors. He tells the tale and then points out the decisions and the errors that were made with too little information. He describes the tremendous stress of battling a raging forest fire and how that affects decision-making.
Knowledge@Wharton interviewed Michael Useem, the author of The Go Point. Here are some excerpts:
We all make decisions all the time and most of them are highly personal -- [such as] what we put on this morning when we got up and got out of the house. A small subset of our decisions, though, has ramifications for people around us, and sometimes those are people we are responsible for. They work for us, we command them, and they may be in our community in some way.
There is a strain of thinking that is probably summed up with the psychologists' clinical term "decidophobia"; some people, [in considering] even what color clothing to put on in the morning, just simply balk at that decision. If it's highly personal, that's OK. The consequence is you don't get out of the house on time. But when it affects other people, you cannot suffer from that particular clinical syndrome, because you are going to ultimately cause others around you distress, maybe even harm.
Decision making and leadership can be difficult, but it can be learned. And I think the basic premise that underlies the book -- I think it just underlies reality -- is that decision making as a skill is learned really by making decisions. Critically though, [it means] looking back on those decisions, to make certain we don't make the same mistake twice, that you have some sense for what went right as well.
By way of example: I interviewed the chief executive of Lenovo -- which is of course China's big PC maker -- on this very topic for a couple of hours recently, and I put the question in summary this way (his name is Liu): "Mr. Liu, you came out of a state owned and operated research center. The government of China funded you, that was where your budget was from, but 22 years back you broke off with a couple of friends to create what is now the world's third-largest PC maker. How did you learn to make decisions along the way -- the decisions being how to market, how to brand, how to price, how to hire -- when you were doing none of those, making none of those decisions before?"
The answer really has stuck with me. At the end of every week, going back now more than 20 years, on Friday afternoon, he sits down with his direct reports, his top team, the five or six people he's closest to. They take time to review everything they've done that week -- what decisions were good, which ones were terrible. He has no MBA degree, no formal training in decision making, leadership, or management.
I say all that by way of coming back to the main point, which is decision making is a learned skill. You've got to make decisions and look back on them.
But in addition to that, becoming more self-conscious about getting the right data, having the right timing, talking to people who you know will not provide a biased read or filter through which they're going to pass their advice -- these are among what I would end up calling in the book the tools of leadership. So on the one hand, intuition is very important.
On the other hand, a set of tools is quite important also for helping all of us make good decisions. And just to come back to the main point: they're all learned.
I am in a start-up mode and going through my go points. A single wrong decision can bring nasty surprises. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur + good books have been an inspiration all my life.
Gained In Translation
Glenn D. Lowry writes about a new generation of artists from the Islamic world using the language of contemporary art to convey their deeply personal and broadly meaningful concepts + morphing psychological and metaphorical space + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2006
Rough Times Ahead
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about cyclical downturns + challenges in the diamond industry + the stagnant jewelry retail markets + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25566
That's Quite A Rock
Ying Wu writes about rough diamond jewelry on the rise + the quickening fashion cycles + other viewpoints @ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118557885150080861.html?mod=home_we_banner_left&mod=livemint
Hydrostatic Weighing Method
Advantages
- The major advantage is that an exact specific gravity (SG) figure can be arrived at.
- There is no limitation on the specific gravity (SG) of the stones that can be calculated. Unlike heavy liquids, high SG stones can be tested just as accurately as low SG stones.
Disadvantages
The accuracy of this method depends on several things:
- The accuracy of the balance. The balance should be able to weigh stones to 0.01 carat. If not, degree of error will be too large.
- The size of the stone is of great importance. With a ruby weighing 2 carats, an error of just 0.01 carat in the water weighing will lead to an error of 0.08 in the final SG determination, which is qute serious. It is generally agreed that even with a very accurate balance, this method should not be used with stones of less than one carat.
- The expertise and skill of the person making the measurements is also important. There are possibilities for error in both the weighing and the calculations. Things such as surface tension and air bubbles in the water can also affect the results.
- The hydrostatic method is rather time consuming and even someone with a great deal of experience usually needs several minutes to calculate the SG of a single stone.
- The major advantage is that an exact specific gravity (SG) figure can be arrived at.
- There is no limitation on the specific gravity (SG) of the stones that can be calculated. Unlike heavy liquids, high SG stones can be tested just as accurately as low SG stones.
Disadvantages
The accuracy of this method depends on several things:
- The accuracy of the balance. The balance should be able to weigh stones to 0.01 carat. If not, degree of error will be too large.
- The size of the stone is of great importance. With a ruby weighing 2 carats, an error of just 0.01 carat in the water weighing will lead to an error of 0.08 in the final SG determination, which is qute serious. It is generally agreed that even with a very accurate balance, this method should not be used with stones of less than one carat.
- The expertise and skill of the person making the measurements is also important. There are possibilities for error in both the weighing and the calculations. Things such as surface tension and air bubbles in the water can also affect the results.
- The hydrostatic method is rather time consuming and even someone with a great deal of experience usually needs several minutes to calculate the SG of a single stone.
Rutile
Chemistry: Titanium dioxide (polymorphous with anatase and brookite)
Crystal system: Tetragonal; vertically striated prisms capped with pyramids; geniculate twins; sometimes repeated twinning causes closed rings.
Color: Rarely transparent; red, brown, black; too dark for gem.
Hardness: 6 – 6.5
Cleavage: Distinct: 1 direction; fracture: brittle, conchoidal to uneven.
Specific gravity: 4.2 – 4.3
Refractive index: 2.62 – 2.90; Uniaxial positive; 0.287
Luster: Adamantine to metallic.
Dispersion: Very high.
Dichroism: Strong but variable.
Occurrence: Found in igneous rocks, pegmatites, metamorphic rocks and limestones.
Notes
Common as inclusion in quartz (rutilated quartz) and a wide variety of gems; made synthetically as diamond simulant with yellow tint, high DR and strong dispersion; faceted for collectors.
Crystal system: Tetragonal; vertically striated prisms capped with pyramids; geniculate twins; sometimes repeated twinning causes closed rings.
Color: Rarely transparent; red, brown, black; too dark for gem.
Hardness: 6 – 6.5
Cleavage: Distinct: 1 direction; fracture: brittle, conchoidal to uneven.
Specific gravity: 4.2 – 4.3
Refractive index: 2.62 – 2.90; Uniaxial positive; 0.287
Luster: Adamantine to metallic.
Dispersion: Very high.
Dichroism: Strong but variable.
Occurrence: Found in igneous rocks, pegmatites, metamorphic rocks and limestones.
Notes
Common as inclusion in quartz (rutilated quartz) and a wide variety of gems; made synthetically as diamond simulant with yellow tint, high DR and strong dispersion; faceted for collectors.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Napoleon Bonaparte
Clearly, the pleasures wines afford are transitory – but so are those of the ballet, or of a musical performance. Wine is inspiring and adds greatly to the joy of living.
Colorless Coatings And Impregnations
A number of essentially colorless substances have been used to coat the surface of gemstones; the primary purpose being to improve the apparent polish by masking small scratches, a grainy texture, or other surface irregularities. Coatings are also used to protect underlying dye treatments. Such treatments are primarily used on aggregate gem materials and those consisting of more than one material.
Aggregates like jadeite and nephrite have a tendency to have small crystals pulled from their surfaces during polishing. Other gem materials like lapis lazuli may show similar characteristics because they contain minerals of different hardness, resulting in the stone not polishing to an even surface. Other gem materials that may be coated include amazonite feldspar, alabaster, marble, rhodochrosite, serpentine, soapstone, and turquoise.
Among the most commonly used colorless coating materials are waxes and paraffin. Under magnification the application of a needle probe may reveal wax by removing some of it, while the application of a heated needle may cause the coating to liquefy and flow. Drill holes on beads are a good area to check as such surface coatings tend to concentrate in these.
Plastics are a class of somewhat more durable substances used to surface-coat gem materials. These too may be detected under magnification by the ability to scratch them with a needle probe. A needle may also be used to remove a small amount of a plastic coating, which then might be heated to reveal a characteristic acrid odor. A relatively thick plastic coating might be detected on the refractometer, where a reading for the plastic, or both the plastic and underlying gem material, could be seen.
Colorless impregnations are used on gem materials for a number of reasons. They are used to stabilize porous stones like turquoise by preventing skin oils from producing undesirable color changes. Some materials, because of their porous surface have a whitish chalky appearance due to the scattering effects these surface have on incident light; this can be minimized by a colorless impregnation. Such treatment is used on low quality turquoise, producing an improvement in color; it is also used on some porous, chalky opal from Brazil that does not reveal its play of color without such treatment.
Aggregates like jadeite and nephrite have a tendency to have small crystals pulled from their surfaces during polishing. Other gem materials like lapis lazuli may show similar characteristics because they contain minerals of different hardness, resulting in the stone not polishing to an even surface. Other gem materials that may be coated include amazonite feldspar, alabaster, marble, rhodochrosite, serpentine, soapstone, and turquoise.
Among the most commonly used colorless coating materials are waxes and paraffin. Under magnification the application of a needle probe may reveal wax by removing some of it, while the application of a heated needle may cause the coating to liquefy and flow. Drill holes on beads are a good area to check as such surface coatings tend to concentrate in these.
Plastics are a class of somewhat more durable substances used to surface-coat gem materials. These too may be detected under magnification by the ability to scratch them with a needle probe. A needle may also be used to remove a small amount of a plastic coating, which then might be heated to reveal a characteristic acrid odor. A relatively thick plastic coating might be detected on the refractometer, where a reading for the plastic, or both the plastic and underlying gem material, could be seen.
Colorless impregnations are used on gem materials for a number of reasons. They are used to stabilize porous stones like turquoise by preventing skin oils from producing undesirable color changes. Some materials, because of their porous surface have a whitish chalky appearance due to the scattering effects these surface have on incident light; this can be minimized by a colorless impregnation. Such treatment is used on low quality turquoise, producing an improvement in color; it is also used on some porous, chalky opal from Brazil that does not reveal its play of color without such treatment.
In Spite Of The Gods
Good Books: (via Emergic) Here is a brief about the book from Random House:
India remains a mystery to many Americans, even as it is poised to become the world’s third largest economy within a generation, outstripping Japan. It will surpass China in population by 2032 and will have more English speakers than the United States by 2050. In In Spite of the Gods, Edward Luce, a journalist who covered India for many years, makes brilliant sense of India and its rise to global power. Already a number-one bestseller in India, his book is sure to be acknowledged for years as the definitive introduction to modern India.
In Spite of the Gods illuminates a land of many contradictions. The booming tech sector we read so much about in the West, Luce points out, employs no more than one million of India’s 1.1 billion people. Only 35 million people, in fact, have formal enough jobs to pay taxes, while three-quarters of the country lives in extreme deprivation in India’s 600,000 villages. Yet amid all these extremes exists the world’s largest experiment in representative democracy and a largely successful one, despite bureaucracies riddled with horrifying corruption.
Luce shows that India is an economic rival to the U.S. in an entirely different sense than China is. There is nothing in India like the manufacturing capacity of China, despite the huge potential labor force. An inept system of public education leaves most Indians illiterate and unskilled. Yet at the other extreme, the middle class produces ten times as many engineering students a year as the United States. Notwithstanding its future as a major competitor in a globalized economy, American leaders have been encouraging India’s rise, even welcoming it into the nuclear energy club, hoping to balance China’s influence in Asia.
The Guardian reviewed Edward Luce’s book in August:
Several recent books have examined the savage inequalities between the country's burgeoning, educated, urban elite and the shockingly poor who live in the vast hinterlands. Luce's thoughtful and thorough book - 'an unsentimental evaluation of contemporary India against the backdrop of its widely expected ascent to great power status in the 21st century' - fits right into this category. He suggests the dichotomy of India in the book's subtitle and later calls India's rise 'strange' because, while becoming an important political and economic force, it has remained 'an intensely religious, spiritual and, in some ways, superstitious society'.
It is always difficult to structure a book like this one, but Luce manages well by breaking up the narrative into neat chapters, each dealing with a different theme and each capable of standing on its own feet. We are offered accounts of India's 'schizophrenic' flourishing economy; its state machinery; its caste conflicts; the rise of Hindu nationalism; the dynastic nature of its politics; its relationship with Pakistan and its Muslim minority; its relationship with the US and China; the country's experience of grappling with modernity and urbanization.
The Hindu Business Line had a detailed review of Luce’s book:
The book concludes with a discussion of India's huge opportunities and challenges in the twenty-first century. Judging by the living conditions of ordinary Indians, rather than by the drama of national events, Luce is of the view that the country is moving forward on a remarkably stable trajectory. And, as opposed to China, India has given a higher priority to stability than it has to efficiency.
'India is like a lorry with twelve wheels. If one or two puncture, it doesn't go into the ditch,' is a quote of Myron Weiner that he cites. That way, China may have fewer wheels so it can travel faster, but 'people far beyond China's borders worry about what would happen if a wheel came off,' notes Luce, extending Weiner's analogy.
Though investors are deterred by the babus, institutional advantages such as an independent judiciary and a free media' may make India the proverbial tortoise that can overtake the Chinese hare, postulates the author. India can also draw on a deep well of intellectual capital.
Yet, for those closer home, a word of caution is not to take our economic strengths for granted. As the joke goes, 'India never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity'. It is also suffering from a premature spirit of triumphalism, alerts Luce.
I think Luce's book is about the new but morphing India. It's an insightful book about India, and Luce brings an outsider's perspective.
India remains a mystery to many Americans, even as it is poised to become the world’s third largest economy within a generation, outstripping Japan. It will surpass China in population by 2032 and will have more English speakers than the United States by 2050. In In Spite of the Gods, Edward Luce, a journalist who covered India for many years, makes brilliant sense of India and its rise to global power. Already a number-one bestseller in India, his book is sure to be acknowledged for years as the definitive introduction to modern India.
In Spite of the Gods illuminates a land of many contradictions. The booming tech sector we read so much about in the West, Luce points out, employs no more than one million of India’s 1.1 billion people. Only 35 million people, in fact, have formal enough jobs to pay taxes, while three-quarters of the country lives in extreme deprivation in India’s 600,000 villages. Yet amid all these extremes exists the world’s largest experiment in representative democracy and a largely successful one, despite bureaucracies riddled with horrifying corruption.
Luce shows that India is an economic rival to the U.S. in an entirely different sense than China is. There is nothing in India like the manufacturing capacity of China, despite the huge potential labor force. An inept system of public education leaves most Indians illiterate and unskilled. Yet at the other extreme, the middle class produces ten times as many engineering students a year as the United States. Notwithstanding its future as a major competitor in a globalized economy, American leaders have been encouraging India’s rise, even welcoming it into the nuclear energy club, hoping to balance China’s influence in Asia.
The Guardian reviewed Edward Luce’s book in August:
Several recent books have examined the savage inequalities between the country's burgeoning, educated, urban elite and the shockingly poor who live in the vast hinterlands. Luce's thoughtful and thorough book - 'an unsentimental evaluation of contemporary India against the backdrop of its widely expected ascent to great power status in the 21st century' - fits right into this category. He suggests the dichotomy of India in the book's subtitle and later calls India's rise 'strange' because, while becoming an important political and economic force, it has remained 'an intensely religious, spiritual and, in some ways, superstitious society'.
It is always difficult to structure a book like this one, but Luce manages well by breaking up the narrative into neat chapters, each dealing with a different theme and each capable of standing on its own feet. We are offered accounts of India's 'schizophrenic' flourishing economy; its state machinery; its caste conflicts; the rise of Hindu nationalism; the dynastic nature of its politics; its relationship with Pakistan and its Muslim minority; its relationship with the US and China; the country's experience of grappling with modernity and urbanization.
The Hindu Business Line had a detailed review of Luce’s book:
The book concludes with a discussion of India's huge opportunities and challenges in the twenty-first century. Judging by the living conditions of ordinary Indians, rather than by the drama of national events, Luce is of the view that the country is moving forward on a remarkably stable trajectory. And, as opposed to China, India has given a higher priority to stability than it has to efficiency.
'India is like a lorry with twelve wheels. If one or two puncture, it doesn't go into the ditch,' is a quote of Myron Weiner that he cites. That way, China may have fewer wheels so it can travel faster, but 'people far beyond China's borders worry about what would happen if a wheel came off,' notes Luce, extending Weiner's analogy.
Though investors are deterred by the babus, institutional advantages such as an independent judiciary and a free media' may make India the proverbial tortoise that can overtake the Chinese hare, postulates the author. India can also draw on a deep well of intellectual capital.
Yet, for those closer home, a word of caution is not to take our economic strengths for granted. As the joke goes, 'India never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity'. It is also suffering from a premature spirit of triumphalism, alerts Luce.
I think Luce's book is about the new but morphing India. It's an insightful book about India, and Luce brings an outsider's perspective.
Top Ten Trends In Contemporary Art
Robin Cembalest writes about trends among trends + the themes behind their work + complexity and richness of their performances @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2002
The Beholder
The Economist writes about Charles Saatchi, Britain’s most prominent collector of contemporary art, but also, possibly, the world’s + his ability to identify talent in students newly hatched into the art world + other viewpoints @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9567058
GIA: Paying Money For Nothing
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about the basis of legal action (the case is now closed) involving a member of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, Max Pincione vs. Vivid Collections, Moty Spector, Ali Khazane, and the GIA + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25597
Red Carpet-Worthy Diamonds
Hitha Prabhakar writes about jeweler Neil Lane, who has quietly created a reputation as the go-to guy for accessorizing Hollywood starlets + other viewpoints @ http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/17/diamond-stars-oscars-forbeslife-cx_hp_0220luxeforlessdiamonds.html
Prehnite
Chemistry: Hydrated calcium aluminum silicate.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; in nodular masses with radiating crystalline structure; distinct crystals rare.
Color: Semi-transparent to translucent; brownish yellow, yellowish green, light green, colorless; phenomena: chatoyant.
Hardness: 6 – 6.5
Cleavage: Distinct: 1 direction, basal; fracture: brittle, uneven.
Specific gravity: 2.88 – 2.94 (gem)
Refractive index: 1.61 – 1.64; 1.63 mean; Biaxial positive; 0.03
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Deposited in cavities in igneous and serpentine rocks; Australia, China, South Africa, Pakistan, USA.
Notes
Common mineral; may look like emerald, jade; faceted, cabochon, slab.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; in nodular masses with radiating crystalline structure; distinct crystals rare.
Color: Semi-transparent to translucent; brownish yellow, yellowish green, light green, colorless; phenomena: chatoyant.
Hardness: 6 – 6.5
Cleavage: Distinct: 1 direction, basal; fracture: brittle, uneven.
Specific gravity: 2.88 – 2.94 (gem)
Refractive index: 1.61 – 1.64; 1.63 mean; Biaxial positive; 0.03
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Deposited in cavities in igneous and serpentine rocks; Australia, China, South Africa, Pakistan, USA.
Notes
Common mineral; may look like emerald, jade; faceted, cabochon, slab.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Life Of Brian
Memorable quotes from the movie:
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): Okay, sir, my final offer: half a shekel for an old ex-leper?
Brian (Graham Chapman): Did you say ex-leper?
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): That's right, sir, 16 years behind a veil and proud of it, sir.
Brian (Graham Chapman): Well, what happened?
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): Oh, cured, sir.
Brian (Graham Chapman): Cured?
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): Yes sir, bloody miracle, sir. Bless you!
Brian (Graham Chapman): Who cured you?
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): Jesus did, sir. I was hopping along, minding my own business, all of a sudden, up he comes, cures me! One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by-your-leave! 'You're cured, mate.' Bloody do-gooder.
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): Okay, sir, my final offer: half a shekel for an old ex-leper?
Brian (Graham Chapman): Did you say ex-leper?
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): That's right, sir, 16 years behind a veil and proud of it, sir.
Brian (Graham Chapman): Well, what happened?
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): Oh, cured, sir.
Brian (Graham Chapman): Cured?
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): Yes sir, bloody miracle, sir. Bless you!
Brian (Graham Chapman): Who cured you?
Ex-Leper (Michael Palin): Jesus did, sir. I was hopping along, minding my own business, all of a sudden, up he comes, cures me! One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by-your-leave! 'You're cured, mate.' Bloody do-gooder.
Duke Ellington
'I like any and all of my associations with music - writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky.'
The War Of The World
Good Books: (via Emergic) Amazon.com has a review from Booklist:
Ferguson's broadest work to date, this sprawling book folds the author's previous theories of empire and economics into an international history of twentieth-century violence. What went wrong with modernity, he asks, such that the Fifty Years War from 1904 to 1953 could be the bloodiest in history, and why did so much violence happen at particular times (such as the early 1940s) and particular places (such as eastern Europe). To the common answers of ethnic conflict and economic volatility, Ferguson adds, perhaps unsurprisingly, the decline of empires. Consistent with Empire and Colossus, the problem was frequently that the empires of the twentieth century were too strong not to fight, but that they were too weak, as illustrated by an analysis of Britain's reluctance to intervene in Germany before 1939. Coupled with ubiquitous and persistent notions of racial superiority and the ill-fitting contours of nation-states, the borderlands of empires--Manchuria, Poland, the Balkans--became the killing fields of the twentieth century. In chronicling what he labels the "descent of the West," Ferguson challenges many scholars on many fronts, and deploys a broad spectrum of sources--from war novels to population data to his perennial attention to the bond markets. His ultimate conclusion--that the War of the World was the suicide of the West--is tinged with regret about what might have been, and perhaps even a Gibbon-esque anxiety about the coming Asian century.
The Guardian wrote in a review:
According to Ferguson, the 20th-century bloodbath was down to the dreadful concatenation of ethnic conflict, economic volatility and empires in decline. Despite genetic advances that revealed man's essential biological similarities, the 1900s saw wave upon wave of ethnic strife thanks (pace Richard Dawkins) to a race "meme" entering public discourse. Across the world, the idea of biologically distinct races took hold of the 20th century mindset to deadly effect.
Tensions along increasingly conscious ethnic faultlines (in regions such as the eastern edges of Germany) frequently spilt over into conflict during periods of economic volatility. For extremities of wealth and poverty proved far more incendiary than the steady, immiserating effects of economic depression. When ethnicity and financial turbulence then occurred in the context of retreating or expanding empires - British, German, or Soviet - the capacity for bloodshed proved even greater. And, as a final thought, the 20th century witnessed not the triumph of the west, but its inexorable descent.
The Boston Globe interviewed Ferguson and had this to say in its introduction:
Ferguson maintains that the United States is unquestionably an imperial power, but because Americans don't like to think so, the US often fails to fulfill its imperial responsibilities. One crucial case in point for Ferguson is Iraq, where, in his view, an imperial power less in denial about itself would have known that such an invasion required forethought, vast resources, and the willingness to stick around for a very long time.
The theme of empire is central to the new book, as well. Ferguson believes the real problem with an empire shows up when it declines, at which time genocidal hatred is liable to break out among the ethnic groups it had governed. That's what happened, he argues, in the extraordinarily-often inter-ethnically-violent 20th century, and what he worries may be underway in the Middle-East.
Here is a quote by Ferguson: 'The really troubling thing is that all the things that happened in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 40s could happen in the Middle East now. The ingredients are there: You've got ethnic and religious hatred, economic volatility, and an empire- the American empire-declining and losing control. Not a great scenario.'
The past is often a guide to the future. Ferguson's analysis of conflict in the previous century holds a lot of clues for what can happen next.
I think The War of The World is a fascinating book because you learn a lot from the past and understand the future given the conflicts that we continue to face today.
Ferguson's broadest work to date, this sprawling book folds the author's previous theories of empire and economics into an international history of twentieth-century violence. What went wrong with modernity, he asks, such that the Fifty Years War from 1904 to 1953 could be the bloodiest in history, and why did so much violence happen at particular times (such as the early 1940s) and particular places (such as eastern Europe). To the common answers of ethnic conflict and economic volatility, Ferguson adds, perhaps unsurprisingly, the decline of empires. Consistent with Empire and Colossus, the problem was frequently that the empires of the twentieth century were too strong not to fight, but that they were too weak, as illustrated by an analysis of Britain's reluctance to intervene in Germany before 1939. Coupled with ubiquitous and persistent notions of racial superiority and the ill-fitting contours of nation-states, the borderlands of empires--Manchuria, Poland, the Balkans--became the killing fields of the twentieth century. In chronicling what he labels the "descent of the West," Ferguson challenges many scholars on many fronts, and deploys a broad spectrum of sources--from war novels to population data to his perennial attention to the bond markets. His ultimate conclusion--that the War of the World was the suicide of the West--is tinged with regret about what might have been, and perhaps even a Gibbon-esque anxiety about the coming Asian century.
The Guardian wrote in a review:
According to Ferguson, the 20th-century bloodbath was down to the dreadful concatenation of ethnic conflict, economic volatility and empires in decline. Despite genetic advances that revealed man's essential biological similarities, the 1900s saw wave upon wave of ethnic strife thanks (pace Richard Dawkins) to a race "meme" entering public discourse. Across the world, the idea of biologically distinct races took hold of the 20th century mindset to deadly effect.
Tensions along increasingly conscious ethnic faultlines (in regions such as the eastern edges of Germany) frequently spilt over into conflict during periods of economic volatility. For extremities of wealth and poverty proved far more incendiary than the steady, immiserating effects of economic depression. When ethnicity and financial turbulence then occurred in the context of retreating or expanding empires - British, German, or Soviet - the capacity for bloodshed proved even greater. And, as a final thought, the 20th century witnessed not the triumph of the west, but its inexorable descent.
The Boston Globe interviewed Ferguson and had this to say in its introduction:
Ferguson maintains that the United States is unquestionably an imperial power, but because Americans don't like to think so, the US often fails to fulfill its imperial responsibilities. One crucial case in point for Ferguson is Iraq, where, in his view, an imperial power less in denial about itself would have known that such an invasion required forethought, vast resources, and the willingness to stick around for a very long time.
The theme of empire is central to the new book, as well. Ferguson believes the real problem with an empire shows up when it declines, at which time genocidal hatred is liable to break out among the ethnic groups it had governed. That's what happened, he argues, in the extraordinarily-often inter-ethnically-violent 20th century, and what he worries may be underway in the Middle-East.
Here is a quote by Ferguson: 'The really troubling thing is that all the things that happened in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 40s could happen in the Middle East now. The ingredients are there: You've got ethnic and religious hatred, economic volatility, and an empire- the American empire-declining and losing control. Not a great scenario.'
The past is often a guide to the future. Ferguson's analysis of conflict in the previous century holds a lot of clues for what can happen next.
I think The War of The World is a fascinating book because you learn a lot from the past and understand the future given the conflicts that we continue to face today.
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