Chaim Even Zohar Viewpoint

Chaim's viewpoint on the state of the diamond market was interesting. The current economic crisis may have caused a power shift. It would be interesting to watch De Beers, Bostwana and Russia and their strategy of choice in current economic crisis.

Useful links:
www.debeersgroup.com
www.debswana.com
www.dtc.com
http://eng.alrosa.ru
www.diamondintelligence.com

Wrekin's Ruby

One of the strangest tales in the history of company accounting looks increasingly likely to end with a fabled gem being downgraded to an unusual paper weight. The Gem of Tanzania, a large ruby whose £11m valuation once underpinned the finances of a failed company with yearly turnover of £103m, may be worth as little as £100. It is a paper weight. Period. Visit Bangkok, Jaipur, or Hong Kong and you can buy them for less than £100. Whoever gave the gemstone £11m valuation need a medical checkup. What a joke, really!

The Many Faces Of George Washington

Milton Esterow's article on Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington and the Chinese artist was interesting.

Useful links:
www.nbmaa.org
www.pem.org
www.metmuseum.org

Nanotechnology Art Gallery

Small is big. Now a handful of artists are going smaller still, often applying the tools of nanotechnology to control matter at a molecular level. It's beautiful. Really.

Useful links:
www.nanotech-now.com/nanotechnology-art-gallery.htm
www.willard-wigan.com
www.crisorfescu.com

The 48 Hour Film Project

(via Wiki) The 48 Hour Film Project is a contest in which teams of filmmakers are assigned a genre, a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue, and have 48 hours to create a short film containing those elements. The winning film will go up against films from around the world.

Useful link:
www.48hourfilm.com

Innovation Tournament

Check out Wipro Technologies + Knowledge @ Wharton's global Innovation Tournament. The tournament is open to participants worldwide. The winners will be selected through a process of elimination and honored in early 2010. The deadline to submit entries is November 6, 2009.

Burma JADE Act Report 2009

This report examines: 1) the key characteristics of the trade of Burmese-origin jadeite and rubies; (2) the progress U.S. agencies have made to restrict imports of Burmese jadeite, rubies, and related jewelry into the U.S. market; and (3) the progress U.S. agencies have made in pursuing international actions, including (a) seeking a World Trade Organization (WTO) waiver of U.S. WTO obligations regarding import restrictions of the JADE Act; (b) securing a United Nations (UN) resolution that expresses the need to address trade in Burmese-origin jadeite, rubies, and related jewelry and calls for a workable certification scheme to prevent such trade; and (c) working to negotiate an international arrangement--similar to the Kimberley Process (which certifies the origins of rough diamonds)--to prevent such trade. Our work incorporated views from U.S. government officials, U.S. and foreign jewelry industry representatives, foreign government officials, and academics with a range of expertise on Burma's economy and political situation.

Highlights of the report include:
-The Burmese jadeite and ruby trades are very different from one another and significantly involve China and Thailand.
-U.S. agencies have taken some steps but have not shown that they are effectively restricting imports of Burmese-origin rubies, jadeite, and related jewelry while allowing imports of non-Burmese-origin goods.
-U.S. agencies have made no discernible progress in gaining international support to prevent global trade in Burmese-origin rubies, jadeite, and related jewelry.
-Agency officials said there are serious impediments to achieving this objective, such as lack of international support and the inherent difficulty in identifying the country of origin for rubies and ruby jewelry. http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-987

Moscow Biennale Of Contemporary Art 2009

Jean-Hubert Martin's latest project, Against Exclusion, opened in Moscow, introducing Anish Kapoor and Spencer Tunick, to be joined by underappreciated Russians such as Valery Koshlyakov and Alexandr Brodsky, as well as artists from African villages, aboriginal tribal chieftans, and Afghan carpet weavers. www.3rd.moscowbiennale.ru

Reverse Graffiti

According to British artist Paul Curtis (aka Moose), the world is a mess. His signature technique is cleaning. www.reversegraffitiproject.com

Project H Design

Check out Emily Pilloton's Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People, a unique tool that delivers efficient design solutions.

Useful link:
http://projecthdesign.org

Cambridge 800

Quentin Blake's 70-foot-long work celebrating the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University was brilliant.

Useful link:
www.quentinblake.com

Luke Johnson Viewpoint

Most intelligent entrepreneurs and executives desire to invest their work with meaning. They like the idea of improving the world while earning a living. And many of us who mostly shuffle paper secretly admire those in the Hard Industries, who manufacture things, in spite of all the obstacles. So true!

Useful links:
www.lukejohnson.org
www.riskcapitalpartners.co.uk
www.channel4.com

Living Climate Change

Living Climate Change is an open forum. It's also a place to show, discuss, and share compelling and provocative thoughts and ideas about the future.

Useful link:
http://livingclimatechange.com

Global Business BBC

Peter Day's viewpoints on the future shape of new media was interesting. Expect rule-breaking disruptive innovation.

Useful links:
www.telegraph.co.uk
www.mediatique.co.uk
www.buzzmachine.com
www.benkler.org
www.4ip.org.uk

David Sibley

If you're out in the park and you notice from 100 feet away a tree with unusual flowers or an odd leaf shape or interesting bark, these books require you to walk up to the tree, take a twig in your hand and go through a series of steps. It's at least five minutes until you come up with an answer. And immediately you lose sight of the whole tree and you lose sight of what attracted your attention in the first place. Taking a step back and looking at the whole tree, then looking at a few more trees and flipping through the pages of my book, you quickly start to see that all the maples have similarly shaped leaves and fruit and that all the oaks have acorns.

- David Allen Sibley

Useful link:
www.sibleyguides.com

Just like gem identification. Really.

Art And Politics In China

Katie Hill's viewpoints on arts and politics in China was insightful.

Mary Delany And Her Circle

A must visit show.

Useful link:
http://ycba.yale.edu
www.janewildgoose.co.uk
www.britishmuseum.org

Art Market Update

Check out a new collection of contemporary art galleries in Los Angeles. The place is full of colorful characters.

Useful links:
www.beneventolosangeles.com
www.khastoo.com
www.overduinandkite.com
www.circus-gallery.com

Petra Finds 507.55-carat Rough Diamond

It has been reported that a 507.55 carat white diamond has been found at the Cullinan mine in South Africa.

Useful link:

www.petradiamonds.com

Gold Loans

While pawning the family jewels would be a sign of distress in the West, trading gold for cash increasingly is viewed in India as the equivalent of taking out a home equity loan to expand a business or simply to buy things. It's true. It's easy. Period.

Useful links:
www.manappuram.com
www.muthootfinance.com
www.gold.org

Can't Remember What I Forgot

Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research by Sue Halpern is a wonderful book for everyone. A must read.

Useful link:

www.suehalpern.net

Hedgeable

Hedgeable, an investment start-up has come up with a neat gimmick to draw attention to its launch: a nationwide contest to find the three investors whose portfolios lost the most value between October 2007, when stockmarkets began to tumble, and March 2009, when they hit bottom. I thought it was a brilliant idea. Hats off to Michael Kane!

Useful link:
www.hedgeable.com

Random Thoughts

In the past, we thought that the carbon dioxide in the bubbles just gave the wine an acidic bite and a little tingle on the tongue, but this study shows that it is much more than this. Glasses that encourage more bubbles to come up are going to be better. At the bottom of proper champagne glasses, they put a little bit of (rough) glass, which encourages the nucleation of the flow of bubbles.

- Dr Jamie Goode
www.wineanorak.com

It's good to know.

London Design Festival 2009

Old is new again. www.londondesignfestival.com

John Cassidy Viewpoint

John Cassidy's opinion piece in the New Yorker was spot on. A number of explanations have been proposed for the great boom and bust, most of which focus on greed, overconfidence, and downright stupidity on the part of mortgage lenders, investment bankers, and Wall Street C.E.O.s. According to a common narrative, we have lived through a textbook instance of the madness of crowds. If this were all there was to it, we could rest more comfortably: greed can be controlled, with some difficulty, admittedly; overconfidence gets punctured; even stupid people can be educated. Unfortunately, the real causes of the crisis are much scarier and less amenable to reform: they have to do with the inner logic of an economy like ours. The root problem is what might be termed “rational irrationality”—behavior that, on the individual level, is perfectly reasonable but that, when aggregated in the marketplace, produces calamity. So true!

Useful link:
http://hyunsongshin.org

Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman's 'Shape of Jazz to Come' is still as relevant as ever.

Useful link:
www.ornettecoleman.com
www.jalc.org

Grown In Detroit

Grown in Detroit, a documentary by two Dutch filmmakers was brilliant. Inspiring, really.

Useful links:
http://grownindetroit.filmmij.nl
www.grownindetroit.tv

Random Thoughts

It's the perfect time for Faberge to come back. In the eyes of customers, other brands have become devalued and suffered a loss of identity. Customers want uniqueness and provenance.

- Mark Dunhill
www.faberge.com

Spot on.

Project 10 To The 100th

Check out Google's new project '10 to the 100th', which is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

Read My Pins

Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box by Madeleine Albright offers a whole new side of Secretary Albright.

Useful links:

www.thealbrightgroupllc.com

www.albrightcapital.com

Diamond Market Update

Historically, Americans revert to their prior shopping patterns after a recession. And one fact is irrefutable: Americans are born to spend.

- Ken Gassman
www.kennethgassman.com

So true!

The World's Most Expensive Blackberry

Check out Alexander Amosu's most expensive BlackBerry with specially cut diamonds.

Useful link:
www.amosu.co.uk

Tyler Brule

I found Tyler Brule's viewpoints on culture and travels very interesting.

Useful link:
www.beingtylerbrule.com

Change By Design

Check out Tim Brown's innovative approach. www.ideo.com/cbd

Wine Buying

Jeffrey M. O'Brien writes: There's an oft-repeated bit of eno-philosophy that says the wine business is immune to recession because people drink in good times and bad. But it turns out there's a caveat: In bad times such as these, they mostly drink the cheap stuff. That means vintners who sell wine for $10 or less are raking in money, but everyone else is getting squeezed -- which can be a very good thing for the savvy wine buyer. From restaurants to tasting rooms, clearinghouses to supermarkets, high-end wines -- some of which were impossible to get a few years ago -- are suddenly within reach.

So true!

Luke Johnson Viewpoint

Humour and charm are a surprisingly powerful combination as a means of ascent in life. I have met a number of entrepreneurs who have built fortunes on the back of their wit and general popularity – and not much else.

- Luke Johnson

Useful links:
www.ft.com/comment/columnists/lukejohnson
www.lukejohnson.org
www.riskcapitalpartners.co.uk
www.channel4.com

Spot on.

Wildlife Finder

Check out Sir David Attenborough's favourite moments from BBC's famed natural history unit.

Useful links:
www.bbc.co.uk/wildlifefinder
www.davidattenborough.co.uk

Hope Diamond In New Setting

See footage of the Hope Diamond in its new setting, including an interview with winning designer Maurice Galli.

Useful links:
www.mnh.si.edu
www.smithsonianchannel.com

The Poetry Of Time

Check out The Poetry of Time, a visual anthology of Van Cleef and Arpels' contribution to watchmaking. www.vancleef-arpels.com

One Hundred Years Of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez's seminal novel One Hundred Years of Solitude has been chosen by international writers as the most influential book. It's an amazing book. It's a masterpiece. Really.

Useful link:
www.wasafiri.org

Art News

Anyone who believes the art market has been felled by the financial crisis should have been in New York earlier this month for the seasonal auctions of Chinese bronzes, furniture and ceramics. The salerooms at Sotheby's and Christie's were overflowing with bidders, more than three-quarters of them from Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan. Extra Mandarin-speakers, all of them fluent and young, had been taken on specially to handle additional telephone bidding from Asia.

- Economist
www.economist.com

Useful links:
www.sothebys.com
www.christies.com

I guess confidence has returned to the market.

Random Thoughts

If you are intelligent the market will teach you caution and fortitude, sharpen your wits, and reduce your pride. If you are foolish and refuse to learn a lesson, it will ridicule you, laugh you to scorn, break you, and toss you on the rubbish-heap.

- Frank J. Williams

Spot on.

Synthetic Colored Diamond Market Update

I think synthetic diamonds in a variety of color ranges are catching the attention of price sensitive Indians. I hope dealers and jewelers disclose treatments and sell the stones with proper description/identification.

Useful link:
www.gjepc.org

Men’s Earrings

More and more men are wearing earrings. Sign of the times, I guess.

Bill Cunningham Viewpoint

On the Street / The Look. Shoes that make a statement is back. I liked it. Thanks Bill.

Art Market Update

Souren Melikian's viewpoints on Chinese buyers at the auction market was interesting. Stunning news, really.

Useful links:
www.christies.com
www.asia.si.edu

How To Lie With Statistics

How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff is a great book that explains how experts use statistics to deceive consumers. The principles it puts forth are still valid today. Really. A must read.

L Prize

Philips is confident that the product submitted meets or exceeds all of the criteria for the L Prize.

- Rudy Provoost, Philips Lighting

Useful links:
www.lightingprize.org
www.lighting.philips.com
www.rpi.edu
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl

Only a lot more time shall tell.

Maira Kalman Viewpoint

I always look forward to seeing what Maira has created. Her artwork creations are always outstanding, brilliant and inspiring. Thanks Maira.

Useful links:
www.mairakalman.com
http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com

Random Thoughts

Our experience is that not everyone who undergoes our programme becomes an entrepreneur. The average is around 52-54%, and in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, it’s 85%. So everyone cannot do it. At one time, there was supposed to be an inverse relationship between a person’s education and his or her chances of becoming an entrepreneur. But things are now changing. In high-tech sectors like biotech and computer sciences, highly educated people have made a mark. If you have a big idea and the capability to execute it, you can be an entrepreneur. But if you have low tolerance level towards business upheavals or turbulence, entrepreneurship is not for you.

- Dinesh Awasthi
www.ediindia.org

Spot on.

Staffordshire Hoard

One-of-a-kind find, really. Check out the Anglo-Saxon treasure at the the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.

Useful links:
www.bmag.org.uk
www.britishmuseum.org

Room For Debate

Our spending is currently equal to the entire economies of China and India added together and then doubled.
- Fareed Zakaria
www.fareedzakaria.com

If Americans don’t start buying a lot of stuff again, can the world economy be saved? What’s the global Plan B? Check out the different viewpoints from these experts: Juliet Schor + Bernard Baumohl + Michael Pettis + Lawrence Glickman + Desmond Lachman.

Coral Conference 2009

Check out this upcoming conference on Coral in New York on October 30 - 31, 2009 at the Graduate Center, CUNY, Fifth Avenue at 34th Street.

Useful links:
www.tiffanyandcofoundation.org
www.thehenryfoundation.org
http://coralreef.noaa.gov
www.themagazineantiques.com

Chaim Even Zohar Viewpoint

Chaim's opinion piece was insightful. Gem shows bring more hype than action. More than half of the worldwide diamond jewelry retail sales are still finalized in the U.S. Hard to believe but true.

Useful links:
www.gfms.co.uk
www.diamondintelligence.com

The Art Of Deductive Observation

Amy Herman's creative thinking and unique teaching methodology was interesting.

Useful links:
www.frick.org
www.metmuseum.org
http://artfulperception.com

The Prince's Rainforests Project

There is no more important issue facing the world than the problem of carbon in the atmosphere. The rainforests are the major source of that carbon.

- Sir David Attenborough
www.davidattenborough.co.uk
www.rainforestsos.org

Random Thoughts

When compared to traditional technical and fundamental analyses, Behavioral Analysis creates significant value due to its inherent predictive--instead of reactive--nature. This is the first time this new financial theory has been applied practically to stocks, commodities and currencies. BAM was developed over a 20 years process of studying human social behavior and how it affects specific market prices. And now we want to be the first to share our predictions on Twitter to help everyone--not just hedge funds--while putting our model to the ultimate test.

- J.G. Savoldi
Behavioral Analysis of Markets
www.baminvestor.com

Another crash in 2-5 months? Not again.

The Making Of The Godfather Movie

Mark Seal's opinion piece in the Vanity Fair about the making of The Godfather movie was interesting. What a story! Really. I can't wait to see the re-release of a Hollywood masterpiece.

Global Business BBC

Peter Day shares some of the management secrets behind the WD40's top secret formula, and learns some lessons which other, much larger businesses could profit from.

Useful links:
www.wd40.com
www.interbrand.co.uk

Luke Jerram

Check out Luke Jerram's glass sculptures of deadly viruses and bacteria at The Smithfield Gallery in London.

Useful links:
www.lukejerram.com
www.thesmithfieldgallery.com

Diamond Bottle

Got US$2 million to spare? A diamond, pearl and gold Chambord Royal orb bottle, valued at more than $2 million has been unveiled in conjuction with the opening of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' starring Anna Friel and Joseph Cross at the Theatre Royal Haymarket London.

Useful links:
www.chambordonline.com
www.trh.co.uk

Grupo Corpo Collection

Check out H. Stern + Grupo Corpo Collection, a unique collection of jewelry pieces inspired by Grupo Corpo dance group, Brazil.

Useful links:
www.hstern.net
www.grupocorpo.com.br

Siggi Eggertsson

I really liked Siggi's high-resolution animated portfolios. Immersive. Really.

Useful links:
http://vanillusaft.com
www.bigactive.com

Green Living Technologies

Green Roofs + Green Walls. I think GLT (Green Living Technologies) has become a role model for the rest of the world. www.agreenroof.com

Shocking Ideas

The smart list via Wired was interesting. Some are controversial. Some are game-changing ideas. I hope they do the right thing.

The Valley Of The Piedra Lumbre

All the earth colors of the painter's palette are out there in the many miles of badlands.

- Georgia O'Keeffe
www.okeeffemuseum.org
www.ghostranch.org

Newsweek's Green Rankings

Check out the overall green scores of companies' based on their environmental policies, reputation, and industry-neutral metrics via Trucost.

Useful links:
http://greenrankings.newsweek.com
http://www.trucost.com/newsweek

Art Market Update

The Economist's review on Pop art collectors was brilliant.

Gursky is not simply a photographer fiddling around in Photoshop. You need to think about him as a classical painter and a master of the impossible perspective. That’s why he broke the ceiling of photography prices. When his works were selling for $100,000, I thought it was crazy, then when they hit a million, it didn’t seem so strange.
- Andrew Renton

The Israel Diamond Institute's Together Works Program

I thought IDI's (The Israel Diamond Institute) YouTube channel was interesting. Definitely an out of the box approach to promote the diamond sector. Hats off to IDI!

Useful link:
www.israelidiamond.co.il

Jewelers Ethics Association

Information. Education + mediation for consumers and the industry.

Useful link:
www.jewelersethicsassociation.com

The True Blood Jewelry Collection

Udi Behr's 'True Blood' jewelry line was intriguing. www.loveandpride.com

Symmetry

Symmetry by Hermann Weyl has great ideas addressing core issues in philosophy, math and markets. A must read.

Random Thoughts

According to the energy economist Phil Verleger, a $1 tax on gasoline and diesel fuel would raise about $140 billion a year. If I had that money, I’d devote 45 cents of each dollar to pay down the deficit and satisfy the debt hawks, 45 cents to pay for new health care and 10 cents to cushion the burden of such a tax on the poor and on those who need to drive long distances. Such a tax would make our economy healthier by reducing the deficit, by stimulating the renewable energy industry, by strengthening the dollar through shrinking oil imports and by helping to shift the burden of health care away from business to government so our companies can compete better globally. Such a tax would make our population healthier by expanding health care and reducing emissions. Such a tax would make our national-security healthier by shrinking our dependence on oil from countries that have drawn a bull’s-eye on our backs and by increasing our leverage over petro-dictators, like those in Iran, Russia and Venezuela, through shrinking their oil incomes.

- Thomas L Friedman
www.thomaslfriedman.com
www.pkverlegerllc.com

Spot on.

Precious

Precious has won the main prize at the Toronto Film Festival. It tells the story of Harlem teenager Precious, who is illiterate and expecting her second child. Don't miss.

Useful links:
www.weareallprecious.com
www.tiff.net

Random Thoughts

Publishers of all types, from news to music, are unhappy that consumers won't pay for content anymore. At least, that's how they see it. In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn't better content cost more? A copy of Time costs $5 for 58 pages, or 8.6 cents a page. The Economist costs $7 for 86 pages, or 8.1 cents a page. Better journalism is actually slightly cheaper. Almost every form of publishing has been organized as if the medium was what they were selling, and the content was irrelevant. Book publishers, for example, set prices based on the cost of producing and distributing books. They treat the words printed in the book the same way a textile manufacturer treats the patterns printed on its fabrics.Economically, the print media are in the business of marking up paper. We can all imagine an old-style editor getting a scoop and saying "this will sell a lot of papers!" Cross out that final S and you're describing their business model. The reason they make less money now is that people don't need as much paper.

- Paul Graham
http://paulgraham.com

So true!

Guide To Painting

Learn how to paint. Meet your tutors. Chris Ofili. Nigel Cooke. Peter Doig. Tomoki Kashiki. Dexter Dalwood. Trenton Doyle Hancock. Yoshimoto Nara. NS Harsha. Cicily Brown. Tony Swain. Gideon Rubin. Ian Davenport. Peter Mcdonald. Emilia Izquierdo. Yun-fei Ji.

Souren Melikian Viewpoint

The success of the downmarket sales is rarely trumpeted as such by auction houses. Marketing teams don’t like to boast about how well they sell mediocrity. These sales prove beyond doubt that there is considerably more cash around, ready to be spent, even at the more modest levels of society, than is generally realized. It is all a matter of psychology, and somehow there is nothing like the competitive lottery atmosphere of an auction to whip it up.
- Souren Melikian

Useful link:
www.christies.com

Great review. Thanks Souren.

Bill Cunningham Viewpoint

On the Street / Catwalk. Fashion Week in New York was brilliant. Thanks Bill.

Why We Travel

Readers' photos via the New York Times was stunningly beautiful.

The Illusionist

I enjoyed the movie. Complex characters + superb acting. The ending was fantastic.

Useful link:
www.theillusionist.com

Montana World of WearableArt

The Montana World of WearableArt, which goes by the acronym WOW is a fabulous event. Check out the link www.worldofwearableart.com

Inspiring Thirst

Meet Kermit Lynch, winemaker, and author of Adventures on the Wine Route.

Useful links:
http://blog.kermitlynch.com
http://www.ft.com/arts/columnists/robinson
www.jancisrobinson.com

One Minute To Save The World

The great thing about a one-minute film is that it can be as pure and passionate as an idea. It does not need to be polluted by becoming an enterprise, a complexity or the desire to make it a work of art.
- Shekhar Kapur

I've jumped in front of whaling ships and gone on demos, but I realised that instead of being in a crowd of 100,000, film was the most powerful thing I could do.
- Franny Armstrong

The deadline for One minute to save the world international short film competition is October 5, 2009. www.1minutetosavetheworld.com

Thanks to Bruce Parry. http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/bruce

Aztec Exhibition

The latest Aztec exhibition held at the British Museum was educational and insightful. A must visit.

Useful link:
www.britishmuseum.org

Real Diamond Stories

We relied on diamonds, and they betrayed us.
- Vilas Khoyani

It is possible to pull too many diamonds out of the ground and cut and polish too many of them and try to cram them down the gullets of the American customer. It’s like making foie gras. You wind up with a very unhappy goose.
- Christopher Ellis

This wasn’t just a bubble, this was a balloon, a hot-air- balloon explosion. We were living a fairy tale for the last 10 years or so, and you can’t do that.
- Jon Bridge

We are deeply in this -- in a recession -- and it’s going to take a long time to get out of it.
- Warren Buffett

We took a cash cow and turned it into a credit pig.
- Martin Rapaport

There is a growing realization that the government won’t be able to spend at the levels it has. Everyone knows that diamonds are not forever.
- Razia Khan

People are reluctant to be seen purchasing luxury goods. Previously we relied on the feel-good factor. Now even people with the money have the feel-guilty factor stopping them from buying.
- Johann Rupert

Useful links:
www.diamondwww.com
www.gjepc.org
www.consensusadvisors.com
www.awdc.be
www.igcgroup.com
www.debswana.com
www.debeersgroup.com
www.jewelersboard.com
www.benbridge.com
www.helzberg.com
www.diamonddistrict.org
www.oroalexander.com
www.antwerpen.be
www.diamantkring.org
www.diamonds.net
www.jcklasvegasshow.com
www.vibrantgujarat.com
www.suratmunicipal.org
www.labourandemployment.gov.in
www.kimberleyprocess.com
www.afdb.org

Vo Trong Nghia

Vo Trong Nghia's beautiful/sustainable bamboo designs were brilliant and inspiring. I liked it.

Useful links:
www.votrongnghia.com
www.chi-athenaeum.org/intarch

Bioenergy Projects

The Economist report on ethanol from rubbish, the latest biofuel was interesting. I hope there will be more innovation to fuel efficiency without raising food prices globally.

Useful links:
www.epa.gov/OMS/renewablefuels
www.fulcrum-bioenergy.com
http://greenhouseintl.com
www.microfueler.com

Luxury Market Update

The Economist report on LVMH, the world’s largest luxury-goods group was insightful.

There are four main elements to our business model—product, distribution, communication and price. Our job is to do such a fantastic job on the first three that people forget all about the fourth.
- LVMH
www.lvmh.com

Useful links:
www.bernsteinresearch.com
www.bain.com

Random Thoughts

Many traders feel they need to play the market all the time. Rea­sons vary. Some crave the excitement. Others see it as a crutch to prop up their hopes. If you are out of the market, you cannot look forward to its providing financial gain.. When everything else in your life results in disappointment, the trade or invest­ment serves as something on which you can pin your hopes. In such situations, the trader or investor is using the market to compensate for his frustrations. For others, the motivation of con­stantly being in the market is nothing less than pure greed. In all these cases, the motivations are flawed so it is not surprising that the results are also.

- Martin J. Pring
www.pring.com

So true!

Open House

I thought London's annual Open House weekend where the public get a chance to see inside some of the capital's architectural gems was brilliant.

Useful link:
www.openhouse.org.uk

The Informant

Check out Steven Soderbergh's take on corporate malfeasance in modern-day America via The Informant! http://theinformantmovie.warnerbros.com

Visualization Symposium 2009

New ideas about how to make data easier to interpret and act on. Check out experts discuss new ways to connect the dots. www.zib.de/eurovis09

Installation Art

Sign of the times, I guess. More buyers are scaling back. They have become inert. It was intriguing to watch newcomers pay crazy prices to break into the art world’s inner circles to build instant credibility. Now they are in state of shock and awe. The art business is not for everyone. Really.

Useful links:
http://tanyabonakdargallery.com
www.arcangelosassolino.it
www.jamescohan.com
www.hauserwirth.com
http://inglettgallery.com
http://deitch.com
http://worldclassboxing.org
www.gagosian.com

Diamond Market Update

Greg Campbell's viewpoints on the ever-changing diamond marketplace was interesting. It's a strange business. Many do not understand the distribution pipeline and the actors in the industry. Consumers have also changed. No matter what the design/quality, first of all they’re looking for the sweet price. Period.

New Yorker Festival 2009

Meet today’s most talked-about personalities from the worlds of literature, politics, music, and film. www.newyorker.com/festival

Random Thoughts

Coke is relentlessly focused on in-store marketing and packaging. They really know how to look after the brand.

- Jez Frampton
www.interbrand.com

Spot on.

Masters Of Design 2009

Talent profiles via Fast Company = David Butler + Lisa Strausfeld +David Rockwell + David Adjaye + Alberto Alessi +

Useful link:
www.fastcompany.com/design/2009

Frankfurt Book Fair 2009

The Frankfurt Book Fair 2009 (world's biggest book fair) will take place from October 14-18, 2009. Don't miss.

Useful link:
www.buchmesse.de

The Power Of Images

Images from some of the world's finest nature and wildlife photographers will be on display at the Saatchi gallery, London on September 18/19, 2009. Don't miss.

Useful links:
www.conservation.org
www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk

D*Face

Check out Dean Stockton, also known as D*Face debut exhibit in New York. It's a mashup of superheroes, rock icons, political figures +++++

Useful links:
www.dface.co.uk
www.jonathanlevinegallery.com