Memorable quote (s) from the movie:
Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman): What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful.
Guard: People kept robbing it.
Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman): Small price to pay for beauty.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Why Color Matters
Here is an interesting perspective on color and products. I don't know if it works for colored stones but there are similarities. Again, beauty and color is in the eye of the beholder.
Jim Howard, Heather Kirk and Chris Howard writes:
We’re conditioned to notice color. It’s one of the first things we notice on products or materials. The way we view those colors psychologically triggers how we feel and think. They even influence us to buy.
Your color choice will project a message about your business. When designing a brand, it makes sense to use color to establish a perceived image based on the way that color is perceived. That’s good marketing.
Think about some of the top brands. When you picture IBM, Wal-Mart or HP, do you see blue? When you think of a Target store, do you see the red bulls-eye? With American Express, you automatically see green. When you think of McDonald’s, don’t you see those yellow arches with the red sign?
Those colors were not chosen by accident. IBM represents business. American Express is all about money. McDonald’s wants to get your emotions stimulated and make you hungry. They know their target market.
What emotions are you stirring with your brand? Are they the right emotions to reach your target audience? You don’t want to waste time and money by overlooking the message you are conveying with color.
Here’s a list of frequently used colors and how people generally associate them:
WHITE – White is associated with innocence, purity, peace and contentment. It’s considered clean and sterile. It’s cool and refreshing. White can have a calming, stabilizing influence.
BLACK – Black is the ultimate power color. It suggests strength, potency, authority, boldness, seriousness, stability and elegance. It’s distinguished and classic, great for creating drama. Black has more weight than other colors. Too much can be ominous.
GRAY or SILVER – Gray can be associated with conservative qualities and considered traditional. Business-wise, it symbolizes high tech and suggests authority, practicality, earnestness and creativity.
GOLD – Gold suggests wealth. It’s considered to be very classy.
BLUE – Blue is the favorite color of many businesses. It suggests sanctuary and fiscal responsibility. It inspires confidence. It is the most popular and second most powerful color. Darker shades are authoritative. Dark and bright blues represent trust, security, faithfulness and dignity. Paler shades can imply freshness and cleanliness, although they can imply weakness.
RED – Red stimulates many kinds of appetites. Red commands attention, alerts us and creates a sense of urgency. It’s considered the sexiest of all colors. Red symbolizes heat, fire, blood, love, warmth, power, excitement, energy, strength, passion, vitality, risk, danger and aggressiveness. Financially, it’s associated with debt.
YELLOW – Yellow is the sunshine hue and is a spiritual color. Yellow represents a warning, but it can also bring happiness and warmth. The most preferred yellows are the creamy and warm ones. Bright yellow can be irritable to the eye in large quantities. Yellow speeds metabolism. It’s often used to highlight or draw attention.
GREEN – People associate green with the color of money, as well as nature. Olive greens are associated with health and freshness — a good choice for environmental concerns. Green suggests fertility, freedom, healing and tranquility. Green represents jealousy. Businesses use it to communicate status and wealth. Green is a calming, refreshing color that is very easy on the eyes.
BROWN – Brown is associated with nature and the earth. Dark browns represent wood or leather. Brown and shades of cream are associated with warmth and coziness. Brown suggests richness, politeness, helpfulness and effectiveness. It is solid, credible, mature and reliable. Light brown implies genuineness.
ORANGE – Orange is associated with vibrancy and the tropics, as well as warmth and contentment. It can instill a sense of fun and excitement. It implies health. It suggests pleasure, cheer, endurance, generosity and ambition. It can make an expensive product seem more affordable. It appeals to a wide range of people, both male and female.
PINK – Pink is considered to be a very feminine color. It represents gentleness, romance, well being and innocence.
PURPLE – Purple represents royalty and luxury. In darker shades, it’s considered a wealthy color. It suggests spirituality and sophistication. In paler shades, such as lavender, it’s feminine and romantic.
When determining the color choice for your brand, be sure to ask yourself if the color adds or detracts from your message and use these tips to help rocket you to success.
More info @ http://www.expertbusinesssource.com/article/CA6442504.html?industryid=46177
Jim Howard, Heather Kirk and Chris Howard writes:
We’re conditioned to notice color. It’s one of the first things we notice on products or materials. The way we view those colors psychologically triggers how we feel and think. They even influence us to buy.
Your color choice will project a message about your business. When designing a brand, it makes sense to use color to establish a perceived image based on the way that color is perceived. That’s good marketing.
Think about some of the top brands. When you picture IBM, Wal-Mart or HP, do you see blue? When you think of a Target store, do you see the red bulls-eye? With American Express, you automatically see green. When you think of McDonald’s, don’t you see those yellow arches with the red sign?
Those colors were not chosen by accident. IBM represents business. American Express is all about money. McDonald’s wants to get your emotions stimulated and make you hungry. They know their target market.
What emotions are you stirring with your brand? Are they the right emotions to reach your target audience? You don’t want to waste time and money by overlooking the message you are conveying with color.
Here’s a list of frequently used colors and how people generally associate them:
WHITE – White is associated with innocence, purity, peace and contentment. It’s considered clean and sterile. It’s cool and refreshing. White can have a calming, stabilizing influence.
BLACK – Black is the ultimate power color. It suggests strength, potency, authority, boldness, seriousness, stability and elegance. It’s distinguished and classic, great for creating drama. Black has more weight than other colors. Too much can be ominous.
GRAY or SILVER – Gray can be associated with conservative qualities and considered traditional. Business-wise, it symbolizes high tech and suggests authority, practicality, earnestness and creativity.
GOLD – Gold suggests wealth. It’s considered to be very classy.
BLUE – Blue is the favorite color of many businesses. It suggests sanctuary and fiscal responsibility. It inspires confidence. It is the most popular and second most powerful color. Darker shades are authoritative. Dark and bright blues represent trust, security, faithfulness and dignity. Paler shades can imply freshness and cleanliness, although they can imply weakness.
RED – Red stimulates many kinds of appetites. Red commands attention, alerts us and creates a sense of urgency. It’s considered the sexiest of all colors. Red symbolizes heat, fire, blood, love, warmth, power, excitement, energy, strength, passion, vitality, risk, danger and aggressiveness. Financially, it’s associated with debt.
YELLOW – Yellow is the sunshine hue and is a spiritual color. Yellow represents a warning, but it can also bring happiness and warmth. The most preferred yellows are the creamy and warm ones. Bright yellow can be irritable to the eye in large quantities. Yellow speeds metabolism. It’s often used to highlight or draw attention.
GREEN – People associate green with the color of money, as well as nature. Olive greens are associated with health and freshness — a good choice for environmental concerns. Green suggests fertility, freedom, healing and tranquility. Green represents jealousy. Businesses use it to communicate status and wealth. Green is a calming, refreshing color that is very easy on the eyes.
BROWN – Brown is associated with nature and the earth. Dark browns represent wood or leather. Brown and shades of cream are associated with warmth and coziness. Brown suggests richness, politeness, helpfulness and effectiveness. It is solid, credible, mature and reliable. Light brown implies genuineness.
ORANGE – Orange is associated with vibrancy and the tropics, as well as warmth and contentment. It can instill a sense of fun and excitement. It implies health. It suggests pleasure, cheer, endurance, generosity and ambition. It can make an expensive product seem more affordable. It appeals to a wide range of people, both male and female.
PINK – Pink is considered to be a very feminine color. It represents gentleness, romance, well being and innocence.
PURPLE – Purple represents royalty and luxury. In darker shades, it’s considered a wealthy color. It suggests spirituality and sophistication. In paler shades, such as lavender, it’s feminine and romantic.
When determining the color choice for your brand, be sure to ask yourself if the color adds or detracts from your message and use these tips to help rocket you to success.
More info @ http://www.expertbusinesssource.com/article/CA6442504.html?industryid=46177
An Unusual Gem Deposit (Man-Made) at Pallebedda, Sri Lanka
An intriguing tale from Sri Lanka. Gemstones are full of surprises and the ones with accumulated luck and knowledge always find them.
(via Journal of Gemmology, Vol.28, No.1, Jan 2002) M D P L Francis and P G R Dharmaratne writes:
Abstract
An unusual gem deposit (man-made) lies in the remote village of Pallebedda in Sri Lanka. This deposit is known as ‘walankatu illama’ which lies within the bund or embankment of an abandoned tank called Kandiyapalle (alias Bisokotuwa). Second rate material from a jewelry industry of ancient times was included probably at the time of its construction. This deposit contains many archaeological artifacts including many varieties of beads, rough gems, gem carvings, glass and coins, but it is mined by villagers mainly for the precious stones because they cab be most easily marketed.
Introduction
Sri Lanka is renowned for its wide variety of fine quality gemstones such as sapphire, ruby, chrysoberyl, alexandrite, spinel and beryl. Most of these gems are found as alluvial deposits in ancient buried or existing stream beds and low-lying areas. There are several primary outcrop deposits but the gems found in them are commonly not of the best quality, other than those found at the moonstone deposit of Meetiyagoda.
Gem deposits in Sri Lanka are classified according to their distance of transportation from the source, by the shapes and sizes of the rock and mineral fragments found. Gem bearing beds where angular minerals and rocks have been deposited in situ are named as residual gem deposits. Gem bearing layers found on the hill slopes with minerals and rock fragments that are semi-rounded or rounded are termed eluvial gem deposits. The third type of gem deposit is alluvial, which is by far the most prevalent in Sri Lanka. These deposits generally lie in old stream beds, far away from their sources and are characterized by the presence of well rounded heavy minerals, indicating longer distances of transportation.
In Sri Lanka there is currently no scientific approach towards gem exploration. Established gem miners who can afford to invest in land, to purchase a license to prospect for gems and other expenses, always follow the trails of illicit gem miners. Some people find gems during their day-to-day activities such as construction of a well or while ploughing their farmlands. However, the type of gem deposit to be discussed in this paper is somewhat different to the three kinds of deposit outlined above.
Along the Ratnapura-Embilipitiya road, 21 km from Embilipitiya, is a village of Pallebedda, a gem trading center, which has existed since ancient times. Six km north east of Pallebedda is the small village of Galpaya, with an abandoned tank named Kandiyapalle alias Bisokotuwa Wewa. The bund (embankment) which encloses the tank contains hidden treasure consisting of a variety of gems, beads, and carvings made of different materials. These artifacts and gems occur in a layer in the bund, 60 to 180 cm thick, which local people call ‘walankatu illama’. In Sinhalese, ‘walankatu’ refers to pieces of earthenware and ‘illama’ refers to gem deposit. The artifacts beat witness to how knowledgeable the ancient civilization of Sri Lanka was and to their standard of living. The gem carvings exhibit the most intricate and delicate workmanship and provide evidence of a sophisticated technology of the time.
Historical records
According to several authors there is evidence that this area was once a flourishing agricultural village. R L Brohier, Surveyor General during colonial times, describes this tank with reference to a Mr Collins and a Mr Mitford who was Assistant Government Agent, Sabaragamuva Province in 1848. According to the quotes this tank was quite beautiful at the time and had watered nearly a thousand acres of paddy fields. There is an ancient stone pillar situated in the village with an inscription dating to the tenth century A.D which indicates that the village was called Girimandula. It is not certain as to who built the tank but according to folklore the builder was King Vijayabahu I (1055-1110).
Materials found
For the villager, ‘walankatu illama’ is merelya gem deposit, unique because artifacts were found among the buried potsherds. This deposit is located along the tank bund that extends for more than 3.2 km (two miles). At a depth of 60 to 120 cm from the top surface lies the layer called the ‘walankatu illama’ with an abundance of potsherds. The thickness of the layer ranges from 60 to 180 cm. The layer is easily identified and the material is washed as usual in large wicker baskets to extract the gem material. A general idea as to the percentage of the earthenware material contained in the illama can be formed from the heaps of debris found in the vicinity of the washing sites. The miners are interested only in the gems, carvings and beads that fetch high prices. The highest prices are obtained for gems such sapphire, geuda, pushparaga (yellow sapphire), chrysoberyl, etc. Even among these gems there are instances of finding stones with drill holes to indicate that they were once discarded as valueless, owing to imperfections detected during the process of drilling. Other than these, various kinds of objects have been found within the area, and these include many kinds of beads, clay utensils, glass bangles, stone cameos, intaglios, coins and bones.
The illama contains many types of large and small beads in a variety of shapes. These include, glass, carnelian, agate, amethyst, terracotta, garnet, feldspar, rock crystal, chrysoberyl and zircon. These stones are called ‘mukkaru gal’ by the villagers, because most have drill holes which identify them as the raw material of a trade practiced for a living by a segment of society known as mukkaru. The most sought after beads (mukkaru gal) were the beads made of gem materials such as conrundum or amethyst.
At this site agate beads and clear glass beads have also been found in large quantities. According to archaeological dating, clear glass was made at a later date than colored glass. As in many other places, carnelian beads of many shapes and sizes found at this site are believed to be from India. Pieces of beads broken during production, unfinished beads and discarded second-rate material suggest that there had been jewelry workshops here during ancient times.
Terracotta beads of various shapes and sizes are very common, the majority being disc-shaped; the larger ones are embedded with a tiny copper wire to strengthen the bead—an example of the ingenuity of the ancient craftsmen.
Almost all the beads show clear evidence of how they were drilled. The abrasion marks indicate that they were drilled from both ends to meet in the middle, and commonly this resulted in a slight disorientation in the center.
The question arises as to how they drilled tiny holes through these very hard substances. Some are of the opinion that emery powder and iron drill bits were used. If this is the case, how were the hard materials like sapphires drilled? Even for other gem species, it could have taken a very long time using this method to drill a single bead. Large numbers of beads found in the area suggest that the drillers were experts. Is it possible that they could have used diamond drill bits exported from India for the purpose of drilling? According to Henry Parker the bow-driven drill was familiar to locals in Sri Lanka from the second century B C onwards. So it is a fair assumption that they used this type of drill along with diamond drill bits to drill with ease large quantities of beads and to cope with the harder gems such as sapphire. A number of stones of hard materials such as sapphire and spinel that contain multiple drill holes of the same gauge or different gauges have been found. This could have happened as a result of testing the gauges of drill bits on these stones.
The most interesting materials found in this deposit are not the beads or the clay utensils but the most intricately carved cameos and intaglios. These carvings are mostly in materials such as carnelian, rock crystal and colored glasses, and very rarely in other types of material—one such rare type is chrysoberyl. Some carvings depict a cow in a seated position and three cows carved are similar to an ancient painting of an Egyptian goddess. The human figures carved are of both males and females. The female figures are mainly of dancers and of semi-nude woman meant to be either a dancer or more probably a goddess adorned with masks. Male figures include a hunter with his weapon and a dead animal, a seated Buddha in meditation and a man dragging a child bound with ropes, scratched on rock crystal (wessantara jataka, a parable of Buddhism).
Conclusion
These materials are much older than the date of construction of the dam, and this layer found within the dam was the fill material for the bund excavated from the nearby ancient work sites, where the clay utensils, beads and other carvings were manufactured. According to many experts, the materials can be dated from the first to the twelfth century A D. Therefore the assumption is that at the time the mukkaru people lived and worked in this vicinity in large numbers. The artifacts are of very good craftsmanship although they were made using the most primitive methods and instruments. In terms of the intricacy of the carvings and the quality of the drill holes in the sapphire they are not inferior to today’s standards. They are also remarkable aesthetically.
This is an unusual gem deposit because it contains artifacts that had been once discarded by people who were only interested in gems of value (precious material). Sometimes a villager who has found a carved artifact of a precious stone may try to erase the carving by grinding it on a lap to make a faceted gem. This would find a more ready market than the carvings, which are considered as archaeological artifacts and cannot be sold on the open market.
(via Journal of Gemmology, Vol.28, No.1, Jan 2002) M D P L Francis and P G R Dharmaratne writes:
Abstract
An unusual gem deposit (man-made) lies in the remote village of Pallebedda in Sri Lanka. This deposit is known as ‘walankatu illama’ which lies within the bund or embankment of an abandoned tank called Kandiyapalle (alias Bisokotuwa). Second rate material from a jewelry industry of ancient times was included probably at the time of its construction. This deposit contains many archaeological artifacts including many varieties of beads, rough gems, gem carvings, glass and coins, but it is mined by villagers mainly for the precious stones because they cab be most easily marketed.
Introduction
Sri Lanka is renowned for its wide variety of fine quality gemstones such as sapphire, ruby, chrysoberyl, alexandrite, spinel and beryl. Most of these gems are found as alluvial deposits in ancient buried or existing stream beds and low-lying areas. There are several primary outcrop deposits but the gems found in them are commonly not of the best quality, other than those found at the moonstone deposit of Meetiyagoda.
Gem deposits in Sri Lanka are classified according to their distance of transportation from the source, by the shapes and sizes of the rock and mineral fragments found. Gem bearing beds where angular minerals and rocks have been deposited in situ are named as residual gem deposits. Gem bearing layers found on the hill slopes with minerals and rock fragments that are semi-rounded or rounded are termed eluvial gem deposits. The third type of gem deposit is alluvial, which is by far the most prevalent in Sri Lanka. These deposits generally lie in old stream beds, far away from their sources and are characterized by the presence of well rounded heavy minerals, indicating longer distances of transportation.
In Sri Lanka there is currently no scientific approach towards gem exploration. Established gem miners who can afford to invest in land, to purchase a license to prospect for gems and other expenses, always follow the trails of illicit gem miners. Some people find gems during their day-to-day activities such as construction of a well or while ploughing their farmlands. However, the type of gem deposit to be discussed in this paper is somewhat different to the three kinds of deposit outlined above.
Along the Ratnapura-Embilipitiya road, 21 km from Embilipitiya, is a village of Pallebedda, a gem trading center, which has existed since ancient times. Six km north east of Pallebedda is the small village of Galpaya, with an abandoned tank named Kandiyapalle alias Bisokotuwa Wewa. The bund (embankment) which encloses the tank contains hidden treasure consisting of a variety of gems, beads, and carvings made of different materials. These artifacts and gems occur in a layer in the bund, 60 to 180 cm thick, which local people call ‘walankatu illama’. In Sinhalese, ‘walankatu’ refers to pieces of earthenware and ‘illama’ refers to gem deposit. The artifacts beat witness to how knowledgeable the ancient civilization of Sri Lanka was and to their standard of living. The gem carvings exhibit the most intricate and delicate workmanship and provide evidence of a sophisticated technology of the time.
Historical records
According to several authors there is evidence that this area was once a flourishing agricultural village. R L Brohier, Surveyor General during colonial times, describes this tank with reference to a Mr Collins and a Mr Mitford who was Assistant Government Agent, Sabaragamuva Province in 1848. According to the quotes this tank was quite beautiful at the time and had watered nearly a thousand acres of paddy fields. There is an ancient stone pillar situated in the village with an inscription dating to the tenth century A.D which indicates that the village was called Girimandula. It is not certain as to who built the tank but according to folklore the builder was King Vijayabahu I (1055-1110).
Materials found
For the villager, ‘walankatu illama’ is merelya gem deposit, unique because artifacts were found among the buried potsherds. This deposit is located along the tank bund that extends for more than 3.2 km (two miles). At a depth of 60 to 120 cm from the top surface lies the layer called the ‘walankatu illama’ with an abundance of potsherds. The thickness of the layer ranges from 60 to 180 cm. The layer is easily identified and the material is washed as usual in large wicker baskets to extract the gem material. A general idea as to the percentage of the earthenware material contained in the illama can be formed from the heaps of debris found in the vicinity of the washing sites. The miners are interested only in the gems, carvings and beads that fetch high prices. The highest prices are obtained for gems such sapphire, geuda, pushparaga (yellow sapphire), chrysoberyl, etc. Even among these gems there are instances of finding stones with drill holes to indicate that they were once discarded as valueless, owing to imperfections detected during the process of drilling. Other than these, various kinds of objects have been found within the area, and these include many kinds of beads, clay utensils, glass bangles, stone cameos, intaglios, coins and bones.
The illama contains many types of large and small beads in a variety of shapes. These include, glass, carnelian, agate, amethyst, terracotta, garnet, feldspar, rock crystal, chrysoberyl and zircon. These stones are called ‘mukkaru gal’ by the villagers, because most have drill holes which identify them as the raw material of a trade practiced for a living by a segment of society known as mukkaru. The most sought after beads (mukkaru gal) were the beads made of gem materials such as conrundum or amethyst.
At this site agate beads and clear glass beads have also been found in large quantities. According to archaeological dating, clear glass was made at a later date than colored glass. As in many other places, carnelian beads of many shapes and sizes found at this site are believed to be from India. Pieces of beads broken during production, unfinished beads and discarded second-rate material suggest that there had been jewelry workshops here during ancient times.
Terracotta beads of various shapes and sizes are very common, the majority being disc-shaped; the larger ones are embedded with a tiny copper wire to strengthen the bead—an example of the ingenuity of the ancient craftsmen.
Almost all the beads show clear evidence of how they were drilled. The abrasion marks indicate that they were drilled from both ends to meet in the middle, and commonly this resulted in a slight disorientation in the center.
The question arises as to how they drilled tiny holes through these very hard substances. Some are of the opinion that emery powder and iron drill bits were used. If this is the case, how were the hard materials like sapphires drilled? Even for other gem species, it could have taken a very long time using this method to drill a single bead. Large numbers of beads found in the area suggest that the drillers were experts. Is it possible that they could have used diamond drill bits exported from India for the purpose of drilling? According to Henry Parker the bow-driven drill was familiar to locals in Sri Lanka from the second century B C onwards. So it is a fair assumption that they used this type of drill along with diamond drill bits to drill with ease large quantities of beads and to cope with the harder gems such as sapphire. A number of stones of hard materials such as sapphire and spinel that contain multiple drill holes of the same gauge or different gauges have been found. This could have happened as a result of testing the gauges of drill bits on these stones.
The most interesting materials found in this deposit are not the beads or the clay utensils but the most intricately carved cameos and intaglios. These carvings are mostly in materials such as carnelian, rock crystal and colored glasses, and very rarely in other types of material—one such rare type is chrysoberyl. Some carvings depict a cow in a seated position and three cows carved are similar to an ancient painting of an Egyptian goddess. The human figures carved are of both males and females. The female figures are mainly of dancers and of semi-nude woman meant to be either a dancer or more probably a goddess adorned with masks. Male figures include a hunter with his weapon and a dead animal, a seated Buddha in meditation and a man dragging a child bound with ropes, scratched on rock crystal (wessantara jataka, a parable of Buddhism).
Conclusion
These materials are much older than the date of construction of the dam, and this layer found within the dam was the fill material for the bund excavated from the nearby ancient work sites, where the clay utensils, beads and other carvings were manufactured. According to many experts, the materials can be dated from the first to the twelfth century A D. Therefore the assumption is that at the time the mukkaru people lived and worked in this vicinity in large numbers. The artifacts are of very good craftsmanship although they were made using the most primitive methods and instruments. In terms of the intricacy of the carvings and the quality of the drill holes in the sapphire they are not inferior to today’s standards. They are also remarkable aesthetically.
This is an unusual gem deposit because it contains artifacts that had been once discarded by people who were only interested in gems of value (precious material). Sometimes a villager who has found a carved artifact of a precious stone may try to erase the carving by grinding it on a lap to make a faceted gem. This would find a more ready market than the carvings, which are considered as archaeological artifacts and cannot be sold on the open market.
The Beauty Of Numbers
1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321
Monday, May 28, 2007
Man Of The Year
Memorable quote (s) from the movie:
Hemmings (Rick Roberts): Will you be disappointed to be going back to television after this ride?
Eddie Langston (Lewis Black): Oh, no. I have a glorious love-hate relationship with TV.
Hemmings (Rick Roberts): How so?
Eddie Langston (Lewis Black): TV scares me. It makes everything seem credible.
Hemmings (Rick Roberts): Why is that so bad?
Eddie Langston (Lewis Black): If everything seems credible then nothing seems credible. You know, TV puts everybody in those boxes, side-by-side. On one side, there's this certifiable lunatic who says the Holocaust never happened. And next to him is this noted, honored historian who knows all about the Holocaust. And now, there they sit, side-by-side, they look like equals! Everything they say seems to be credible. And so, as it goes on, nothing seems credible anymore! We just stopped listening!
Hemmings (Rick Roberts): Will you be disappointed to be going back to television after this ride?
Eddie Langston (Lewis Black): Oh, no. I have a glorious love-hate relationship with TV.
Hemmings (Rick Roberts): How so?
Eddie Langston (Lewis Black): TV scares me. It makes everything seem credible.
Hemmings (Rick Roberts): Why is that so bad?
Eddie Langston (Lewis Black): If everything seems credible then nothing seems credible. You know, TV puts everybody in those boxes, side-by-side. On one side, there's this certifiable lunatic who says the Holocaust never happened. And next to him is this noted, honored historian who knows all about the Holocaust. And now, there they sit, side-by-side, they look like equals! Everything they say seems to be credible. And so, as it goes on, nothing seems credible anymore! We just stopped listening!
Gemstone Shopping Tips From Lambert
Lambert Gems writes:
I. Narrow your Search
- Shop for a color (fashion wardrobe considerations).
- Shop for a particular species/variety of gemstone.
- Shop by budget.
- Shop by serendipity (Wide open- browse and decide).
II. Budget considerations and Guidelines
1. Don’t be unduly influenced by the tags “precious” and semiprecious.” These are historical terms. Precious gems are diamond, ruby, blue sapphire and emerald. All other gems are termed semiprecious. A high quality 1 ½ carat tsavorite garnet will cost more than a lower quality 1 ½ carat ruby.
2. If your budget is too small to buy the quality you want, of a ruby, sapphire or emerald, consider buying some of the more recently discovered gemstones which are also rare and beautiful. Alternative examples: tsavorite garnet (green), green tourmaline, rubellite tourmaline (red), pink tourmaline, tanzanite (violet blue), spessartite garnet (orange to reddish Orange to orangish Red).
3. If you are planning to have your gemstone(s) set in a piece of jewelry, your budget consideration should take into account the estimated cost of the setting. A very large stone will require a larger, more costly setting than a smaller stone.
III. Value/Price Factors: The “Four C’s”- Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight
The above Four C’s are listed in order of importance. Color, clarity and cut combine to determine the quality of a gemstone.
With each gemstone type, quality (firstly) and size (secondly) effect price. The effect of quality and size is much greater for rare/high demand gemstone types (e.g. ruby, sapphire, emerald) than for the more common, lower value gemstones (e.g. citrine, amethyst, pyrope and almandine red garnets, blue topaz). Because of this, with the more common gemstone types, you can afford to “think bigger.”
1. Color (or the lack of it, in the case of diamond) is the most important determinant of value. With any gemstone type, an intense pure color has more value than a lower color intensity stone with secondary color. An example: an intense (high saturation) red ruby is more valuable than: a lower saturation Red ruby or a high saturation purplish Red ruby. The above color valuation rule has nothing to do with personal taste and fashion considerations. Feel free to prefer pale (pink) amethyst over purple amethyst. Feel free to prefer purplish Red rubellite tourmaline over Red rubellite tourmaline. With almost all gems, grey and brown secondary colors are not desirable. There are exceptions, e.g. smoky quartz (grayish Brown, brownish Grey). Too dark or too light (“tone”) is undesirable. Uniformity of color affects value and appearance. Color patchiness is undesirable. Color banding (zoning) is common in certain species of gems (E.g. sapphire, amethyst, citrine) and does not have much of an effect on value unless it is very obvious to the unaided eye. Light source has an effect on color. Incandescent light makes rubies look better. Fluorescent light makes blue sapphire look better. For many gemstones, natural daylight or artificial light that mimics natural daylight is the best way to view and judge the color grade of a gemstone.
2. Clarity: the degree of visible flaws inside (“inclusions”) or on the surface (“blemishes”) of a gemstone. With colored gemstones, this determination is made with the unaided eye (without the use of a loupe). Almost all gemstones have inclusions. “Eye clean” is the most desirable. If the inclusions are not obvious, they have little effect on the gemstone’s value. Some gemstone types, notably emerald and rubellite (red tourmaline) are very rare without inclusions and pricing takes this into consideration.
3. Cut: This affects the amount of light that is internally reflected out of a stone. If too deep, a stone will have dark areas. You’ll also be paying for carat weight that cant be seen in a setting. If too shallow, it will have a washed out “window” appearance. Good cut also means good proportions between crown and pavilion. Beware of too much “bulge” on the sides of a stone. You’ll be paying for carat weight that can’t be seen in a setting. If a crystalline gemstone has low clarity but attractive and more or less uniform color, it is normally cut en cabochon instead of a faceted cutting style.
4. Carat Weight: Gems are normally sold by carat weight. All other things being equal, a larger size gem will have a higher price per carat than a smaller size gem of the same variety. Some gems types have different specific gravities (weight per volume) than other gem types and will therefore have different sizes for the same carat weight. A three carat ruby is a lot smaller than a three carat aquamarine
Appearance
Place the gem face-up between two fingers with light coming from behind you (natural light preferred). Rock your hand slightly from side to side and forward and backward. Do you see a window or large dark areas? Can you see flashes of light coming through the surface of the stone or is it dull and lifeless? Make an assessment of the color based on what you are looking for. Examine the stone from the top and from the sides. Is it relatively well proportioned and symmetrical? Do the sides excessively bulge? Does the stone appear too deep?
IV. Gemstone Treatments
Most types of gemstones are routinely treated by “accepted” treatments and therefore, there is no routine disclosure of such treatment. The trade distinguishes between accepted treatments (no routine disclosure required) and treatments that require disclosure and you should, as well. Accepted treatments do not lower the value of gems. The treatments that require disclosure lower the value of gems and the pricing of gems that have undergone these treatments should be lower.
Trade Accepted Treatments (routine disclosure not required)
- heating ruby and sapphire
- oil, wax and certain resin/polymer impregnation of emeralds. There is still some disagreement on whether all resin/polymer treatment needs routine disclosure
- bleaching pearls white
- heating of amethyst, aquamarine, citrine, tanzanite, tourmaline, zircon , precious topaz
- irradiating blue topaz
- waxing jadeite, lapis and other decorative gemstone types
- dying onyx black
Gemstone types that are not routinely treated are garnet, peridot, spinel, iolite and chrysoberyl alexandrite.
Treatments That Require Routine Disclosure
- beryllium treatment of sapphire and ruby
- glass filling of ruby and sapphire
- bleaching and dyeing of jade, polymer impregnation of jade
- irradiation of diamonds to produce fancy (colored) diamonds
- high pressure and temperature treatment of diamonds to improve their color grade
- drilling and resin or glass filling of diamonds
- dyeing of stones and pearls
- irradiation of chrysoberyl cat’s eye to obtain higher grade color
- resin/polymer impregnation of emeralds. There is still disagreement on whether permanent non-discoloring polymer impregnation requires routine disclosure.
V. Synthetics Gems, Imitation Gems, Man Made Gems
Disclosure is a must as these will have lower value than their counterparts (synthetics) or the gems they imitate (man made and imitation gems)
- Synthetics
These have the same chemical and physical characteristics as their natural counterpart except they have been made in a lab. Disclosure is a must as these have lower value than their natural counterparts. A layman cannot distinguish between synthetic and natural gems.
- Man Made Gems
These are gems that are produced in lab and that have no natural counterpart. Examples: CZ, Moissanite.
- Imitation Gems
In this case, a gem with a similar appearance is represented as a gem that it is not. The imitation can be a natural, synthetic or man made gem. The purpose is usually deception. Examples: red spinel for ruby; almondine garnet for ruby; CZ, moissanite or white sapphire for diamond, citrine for yellow sapphire.
VI. Gems That Require Special Care
- Peridot: It is a little low in hardness so care must be taken in setting it, wearing it and cleaning it.
- Tanzanite: Same special care as for peridot, for same reasons.
- Emerald: A high value fragile gem. Not recommended for everyday wear. Care must be taken in setting it, wearing it and cleaning it.
- Pearls: Will be attacked by perfume (before drying) and prolonged exposure to perspiration. Must be cleaned properly and stored properly.
- Decorative Stones: These are stones that are not single crystals and hence are porous. They should not be washed with soap as this will penetrate and change their appearance. Examples: Lapis, agates, turquoise. - Diamond, Topaz, Kunzite: A sharp blow, in a certain direction, can cause the stone to break (cleave).
More info @ www.lambertgems.com
I. Narrow your Search
- Shop for a color (fashion wardrobe considerations).
- Shop for a particular species/variety of gemstone.
- Shop by budget.
- Shop by serendipity (Wide open- browse and decide).
II. Budget considerations and Guidelines
1. Don’t be unduly influenced by the tags “precious” and semiprecious.” These are historical terms. Precious gems are diamond, ruby, blue sapphire and emerald. All other gems are termed semiprecious. A high quality 1 ½ carat tsavorite garnet will cost more than a lower quality 1 ½ carat ruby.
2. If your budget is too small to buy the quality you want, of a ruby, sapphire or emerald, consider buying some of the more recently discovered gemstones which are also rare and beautiful. Alternative examples: tsavorite garnet (green), green tourmaline, rubellite tourmaline (red), pink tourmaline, tanzanite (violet blue), spessartite garnet (orange to reddish Orange to orangish Red).
3. If you are planning to have your gemstone(s) set in a piece of jewelry, your budget consideration should take into account the estimated cost of the setting. A very large stone will require a larger, more costly setting than a smaller stone.
III. Value/Price Factors: The “Four C’s”- Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight
The above Four C’s are listed in order of importance. Color, clarity and cut combine to determine the quality of a gemstone.
With each gemstone type, quality (firstly) and size (secondly) effect price. The effect of quality and size is much greater for rare/high demand gemstone types (e.g. ruby, sapphire, emerald) than for the more common, lower value gemstones (e.g. citrine, amethyst, pyrope and almandine red garnets, blue topaz). Because of this, with the more common gemstone types, you can afford to “think bigger.”
1. Color (or the lack of it, in the case of diamond) is the most important determinant of value. With any gemstone type, an intense pure color has more value than a lower color intensity stone with secondary color. An example: an intense (high saturation) red ruby is more valuable than: a lower saturation Red ruby or a high saturation purplish Red ruby. The above color valuation rule has nothing to do with personal taste and fashion considerations. Feel free to prefer pale (pink) amethyst over purple amethyst. Feel free to prefer purplish Red rubellite tourmaline over Red rubellite tourmaline. With almost all gems, grey and brown secondary colors are not desirable. There are exceptions, e.g. smoky quartz (grayish Brown, brownish Grey). Too dark or too light (“tone”) is undesirable. Uniformity of color affects value and appearance. Color patchiness is undesirable. Color banding (zoning) is common in certain species of gems (E.g. sapphire, amethyst, citrine) and does not have much of an effect on value unless it is very obvious to the unaided eye. Light source has an effect on color. Incandescent light makes rubies look better. Fluorescent light makes blue sapphire look better. For many gemstones, natural daylight or artificial light that mimics natural daylight is the best way to view and judge the color grade of a gemstone.
2. Clarity: the degree of visible flaws inside (“inclusions”) or on the surface (“blemishes”) of a gemstone. With colored gemstones, this determination is made with the unaided eye (without the use of a loupe). Almost all gemstones have inclusions. “Eye clean” is the most desirable. If the inclusions are not obvious, they have little effect on the gemstone’s value. Some gemstone types, notably emerald and rubellite (red tourmaline) are very rare without inclusions and pricing takes this into consideration.
3. Cut: This affects the amount of light that is internally reflected out of a stone. If too deep, a stone will have dark areas. You’ll also be paying for carat weight that cant be seen in a setting. If too shallow, it will have a washed out “window” appearance. Good cut also means good proportions between crown and pavilion. Beware of too much “bulge” on the sides of a stone. You’ll be paying for carat weight that can’t be seen in a setting. If a crystalline gemstone has low clarity but attractive and more or less uniform color, it is normally cut en cabochon instead of a faceted cutting style.
4. Carat Weight: Gems are normally sold by carat weight. All other things being equal, a larger size gem will have a higher price per carat than a smaller size gem of the same variety. Some gems types have different specific gravities (weight per volume) than other gem types and will therefore have different sizes for the same carat weight. A three carat ruby is a lot smaller than a three carat aquamarine
Appearance
Place the gem face-up between two fingers with light coming from behind you (natural light preferred). Rock your hand slightly from side to side and forward and backward. Do you see a window or large dark areas? Can you see flashes of light coming through the surface of the stone or is it dull and lifeless? Make an assessment of the color based on what you are looking for. Examine the stone from the top and from the sides. Is it relatively well proportioned and symmetrical? Do the sides excessively bulge? Does the stone appear too deep?
IV. Gemstone Treatments
Most types of gemstones are routinely treated by “accepted” treatments and therefore, there is no routine disclosure of such treatment. The trade distinguishes between accepted treatments (no routine disclosure required) and treatments that require disclosure and you should, as well. Accepted treatments do not lower the value of gems. The treatments that require disclosure lower the value of gems and the pricing of gems that have undergone these treatments should be lower.
Trade Accepted Treatments (routine disclosure not required)
- heating ruby and sapphire
- oil, wax and certain resin/polymer impregnation of emeralds. There is still some disagreement on whether all resin/polymer treatment needs routine disclosure
- bleaching pearls white
- heating of amethyst, aquamarine, citrine, tanzanite, tourmaline, zircon , precious topaz
- irradiating blue topaz
- waxing jadeite, lapis and other decorative gemstone types
- dying onyx black
Gemstone types that are not routinely treated are garnet, peridot, spinel, iolite and chrysoberyl alexandrite.
Treatments That Require Routine Disclosure
- beryllium treatment of sapphire and ruby
- glass filling of ruby and sapphire
- bleaching and dyeing of jade, polymer impregnation of jade
- irradiation of diamonds to produce fancy (colored) diamonds
- high pressure and temperature treatment of diamonds to improve their color grade
- drilling and resin or glass filling of diamonds
- dyeing of stones and pearls
- irradiation of chrysoberyl cat’s eye to obtain higher grade color
- resin/polymer impregnation of emeralds. There is still disagreement on whether permanent non-discoloring polymer impregnation requires routine disclosure.
V. Synthetics Gems, Imitation Gems, Man Made Gems
Disclosure is a must as these will have lower value than their counterparts (synthetics) or the gems they imitate (man made and imitation gems)
- Synthetics
These have the same chemical and physical characteristics as their natural counterpart except they have been made in a lab. Disclosure is a must as these have lower value than their natural counterparts. A layman cannot distinguish between synthetic and natural gems.
- Man Made Gems
These are gems that are produced in lab and that have no natural counterpart. Examples: CZ, Moissanite.
- Imitation Gems
In this case, a gem with a similar appearance is represented as a gem that it is not. The imitation can be a natural, synthetic or man made gem. The purpose is usually deception. Examples: red spinel for ruby; almondine garnet for ruby; CZ, moissanite or white sapphire for diamond, citrine for yellow sapphire.
VI. Gems That Require Special Care
- Peridot: It is a little low in hardness so care must be taken in setting it, wearing it and cleaning it.
- Tanzanite: Same special care as for peridot, for same reasons.
- Emerald: A high value fragile gem. Not recommended for everyday wear. Care must be taken in setting it, wearing it and cleaning it.
- Pearls: Will be attacked by perfume (before drying) and prolonged exposure to perspiration. Must be cleaned properly and stored properly.
- Decorative Stones: These are stones that are not single crystals and hence are porous. They should not be washed with soap as this will penetrate and change their appearance. Examples: Lapis, agates, turquoise. - Diamond, Topaz, Kunzite: A sharp blow, in a certain direction, can cause the stone to break (cleave).
More info @ www.lambertgems.com
A Crackdown In Antwerp Threatens The City's Historic Gem Trade.
Carol Matlack writes:
Deal making is part of the scenery in Antwerp's centuries-old diamond district. Passing one another on the narrow streets, traders nod in greeting while talking into cell phones. A black-hatted Hasidic broker, spotting a prospective customer, pulls a clear plastic bag of tiny, sparkling stones from his overcoat and launches into a rapid-fire sales pitch. At a nearby café, two men take turns peering through a jeweler's loupe at a pile of diamonds between their coffee cups.
But lately the buzz of commerce has been tinged with anxiety. Over the past 18 months police have repeatedly swept in, raiding offices and hauling away papers and gems as evidence in investigations of money laundering and tax evasion. One trader died of a heart attack during a police search of his home last December, prompting a protest by fellow traders, who shut down the district for a day.
Although fewer than 20 of Antwerp's nearly 2,000 trading companies have been raided, police have seized tens of millions of dollars' worth of diamonds. The gems are held as evidence while the probe continues. Adding to the tension, DeBeers Group's trading arm, which supplies 50 percent of the world's diamonds, warned Antwerp traders that they could be cut off if they don't follow industry rules against money laundering.
Traders say the pressure is spooking suppliers and customers alike, sending them to rival centers in Dubai, India, and Israel. Imports of rough diamonds, the uncut stones that are Antwerp's main business, fell 20 percent in April, though year-to-date figures remain above 2006. "People are afraid and upset," trader Shashin Choksi says, sitting in his office next to a refrigerator-size safe full of jewels.
Moving Money
No question, the $70 billion-a-year global diamond business has some ugly facets. Easy to transport and hard to trace, the precious stones are a favored vehicle for financing illicit activity, from drug trafficking to terrorism. "The diamond industry is very secretive. Large amounts of money can be moved around, and it's relatively easy to misstate the value," says Alex Vines, a former U.N. diamond-trade investigator who now heads the Africa program at Chatham House, part of London's Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Belgian authorities won't discuss their investigation. But the Diamond High Council, a quasi-governmental agency that oversees the Antwerp trade, says recent raids stemmed from a probe of a diamond shipping company, Monstrey Worldwide Services. Agents searched the company in October, 2005, and arrested its owner in a money-laundering investigation. Monstrey has shut its doors and no one from the company could be reached for comment, but police have seized the inventories of at least 16 traders who were its customers.
Antwerp traders fear the crackdown could end the city's reign as the world's No. 1 diamond center. Antwerp's first exchange opened in the 15th century, and although most cutting and polishing has relocated to cheaper locales such as China, 80% of the world's uncut diamonds still pass through the city. "If rough diamonds disappear from Antwerp, it is finished," says Koen Smets, a Belgian who buys diamonds from local traders and sends them to a factory in China for finishing.
The threat to their livelihood has united Antwerp's multicultural diamond community as never before. Over the past decade a growing population of Indians has gradually displaced Orthodox Jews as the dominant group of traders. But now, says third-generation Jewish trader Ziv Knoll, "we're all in the same boat." Knoll says he knows several traders who are relocating to Dubai and Tel Aviv. If the raids continue, he says, he may do the same. "We can't continue to work with constant harassment."
Matlack is BusinessWeek's Paris bureau chief.
More info @ http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,484949,00.html
Deal making is part of the scenery in Antwerp's centuries-old diamond district. Passing one another on the narrow streets, traders nod in greeting while talking into cell phones. A black-hatted Hasidic broker, spotting a prospective customer, pulls a clear plastic bag of tiny, sparkling stones from his overcoat and launches into a rapid-fire sales pitch. At a nearby café, two men take turns peering through a jeweler's loupe at a pile of diamonds between their coffee cups.
But lately the buzz of commerce has been tinged with anxiety. Over the past 18 months police have repeatedly swept in, raiding offices and hauling away papers and gems as evidence in investigations of money laundering and tax evasion. One trader died of a heart attack during a police search of his home last December, prompting a protest by fellow traders, who shut down the district for a day.
Although fewer than 20 of Antwerp's nearly 2,000 trading companies have been raided, police have seized tens of millions of dollars' worth of diamonds. The gems are held as evidence while the probe continues. Adding to the tension, DeBeers Group's trading arm, which supplies 50 percent of the world's diamonds, warned Antwerp traders that they could be cut off if they don't follow industry rules against money laundering.
Traders say the pressure is spooking suppliers and customers alike, sending them to rival centers in Dubai, India, and Israel. Imports of rough diamonds, the uncut stones that are Antwerp's main business, fell 20 percent in April, though year-to-date figures remain above 2006. "People are afraid and upset," trader Shashin Choksi says, sitting in his office next to a refrigerator-size safe full of jewels.
Moving Money
No question, the $70 billion-a-year global diamond business has some ugly facets. Easy to transport and hard to trace, the precious stones are a favored vehicle for financing illicit activity, from drug trafficking to terrorism. "The diamond industry is very secretive. Large amounts of money can be moved around, and it's relatively easy to misstate the value," says Alex Vines, a former U.N. diamond-trade investigator who now heads the Africa program at Chatham House, part of London's Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Belgian authorities won't discuss their investigation. But the Diamond High Council, a quasi-governmental agency that oversees the Antwerp trade, says recent raids stemmed from a probe of a diamond shipping company, Monstrey Worldwide Services. Agents searched the company in October, 2005, and arrested its owner in a money-laundering investigation. Monstrey has shut its doors and no one from the company could be reached for comment, but police have seized the inventories of at least 16 traders who were its customers.
Antwerp traders fear the crackdown could end the city's reign as the world's No. 1 diamond center. Antwerp's first exchange opened in the 15th century, and although most cutting and polishing has relocated to cheaper locales such as China, 80% of the world's uncut diamonds still pass through the city. "If rough diamonds disappear from Antwerp, it is finished," says Koen Smets, a Belgian who buys diamonds from local traders and sends them to a factory in China for finishing.
The threat to their livelihood has united Antwerp's multicultural diamond community as never before. Over the past decade a growing population of Indians has gradually displaced Orthodox Jews as the dominant group of traders. But now, says third-generation Jewish trader Ziv Knoll, "we're all in the same boat." Knoll says he knows several traders who are relocating to Dubai and Tel Aviv. If the raids continue, he says, he may do the same. "We can't continue to work with constant harassment."
Matlack is BusinessWeek's Paris bureau chief.
More info @ http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,484949,00.html
Azim Premji’s Wisdom
Azim Premji, the software czar and the chairman of Wipro Ltd decided to share his successes, setbacks and the lessons he learnt during his corporate journey. He does it in an e-mail sent on April 09 to the Wiproites. We bring you some excerpts from his words of wisdom as it would be beneficial to every forward-looking person.
(via manoramaonline / Executive Knowledge Lines) Azim Premji writes:
My own successes and setbacks along the way have taught me some lessons. I wish to share them with you and hope you will find them useful.
Lesson #1
Be careful to ask what you want. You may get it. What this means is that do not ask too little either of yourself or the others around you. What you ask is what you get. When I look back at the time when I joined Wipro, I was 21. If you ask me whether I thought that Wipro would grow so by someday, the honest answer is that I did not. But neither did I think it would not. We constantly stretched ourselves to higher and higher targets. Sometimes, it seemed possible, sometimes fanciful and sometimes plain insane. But we never stopped raising limits. And we got a lot more than what we bargained for.
Lesson # 2
Respond, don't react Always be aware of your emotions and learn to manage them. There is a huge difference between people who react impulsively and those who can disengage themselves and then respond at will. By choosing to respond differently, we can prevent another person from controlling our behaviour. I remember a small story that illustrates this well. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the customer would walk by, refuse to return the greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would pickup the money, smile politely and say, Thank you, Sir. One day, the vendor's assistant asked him, Why are you always so polite with him when he is so rude to you? Why don't you throw the newspaper at him when he comes back tomorrow? The vendor smiled and replied, "He can't help being rude and I can't help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate mine?''
Lesson # 3
Intuitions are important for making decisions. It is important to realise that our intuition is a very important part ofdecision making. Many things are recorded by our subconscious. Use both sides of the brain. Even that is not enough. Some decisions need the use of the heart as well. When you use your mind and heart together, you may get a completely new and creative answer.
Lesson # 4
Learn to work in teams. The challenges ahead are so complex that no individual will be able to face them alone. While most of our education is focused in individual strength, teaming with others is equally important. You cannot fire a missile from a canoe. Unless you build a strong network of people with complimentary skills, you will be restricted by your own limitations. Globalisation has brought people of different origins, different upbringing and different cultures together. Ability to become an integral part of a cross-cultural team will be a must for your success.
Lesson #5
Never lose your zest and curiosity. All the available knowledge in the world is accelerating at a phenomenal rate. The whole world's codified knowledge base (all documented information in library books and electronic files) doubled every 30 years in the early 20th century. By the 1970s, the world's knowledge base doubled every seven years. Information researchers predict that by the year 2010, the world's codified knowledge will double every 11 hours. Remaining on top of what you need to know will become one of the greatest challenges for you.The natural zest and curiosity for learning is one of the greatest drivers for keeping updated on knowledge. A child's curiosity is insatiable because every new object is a thing of wonder and mystery. The same zest is needed to keep learning new things. I personally spend at least 10 hours every week on reading. If I do not do that, I will find myself quickly outdated.
Lesson # 6
Put yourself first. This does not mean being selfish. Nor does it mean that you must become so full of yourself that that you become vain or arrogant.It means developing your self-confidence. It means, developing an inner faith in yourself that is not shaken by external events. It requires perseverance. It shows up in the ability to rebound from a setback with double enthusiasm and energy. I came across a recent Harvard Business Review which describes this very effectively: No one can truly define success and failure for us. Only we can define that for ourselves. No one can take away our dignity unless we surrender it. No one can takeaway our hope and pride unless we relinquish them. No one can steal our creativity, imagination and skills unless we stop thinking. No one can stop us from rebounding unless we give up. And there is no way we can take care of others, unless we take care of ourselves.
Lesson # 7
Have a broader social vision. While there is every reason to be excited about the future, we must not forget that we will face many challenges as well. By 2015, we will have 829 million strong workforce. That will make India home to 18% of global working-age population. The key challenge is to transform that into a globally competitive work-force. This will not be an easy task. Despite all the rapid economic expansion seen in recent years, job growth in India still trails the rise in working-age population. It is important that gains are spread across this spectrum, so that the divide between the employed and the under-employed, is minimised. Education is a crucial enabler that can make this growth as equitable as possible.
Lesson # 8
Play to win. Playing to win is not the same as playing dirty. It is not about winning all the time or winning at any cost. Playing to win is having the intensity to stretch to the maximum and bringing our best foot forward. Winning means focusing on the game. The score board tells you where you are going, but don't concentrate too much on it. If you can focus on the ball, the scores will move by themselves. I recently came across this story that I thought I would share with you. A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen. He returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal-some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite and asked them to help themselves to coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to wantonly the best for yourselves, you were more concerned about comparing your cups but what you really wanted was coffee. Yet you spent all your time eyeing each other's cups. Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to contain life, but cannot really change the quality of life. Sometimes, by over concentrating on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."
(via manoramaonline / Executive Knowledge Lines) Azim Premji writes:
My own successes and setbacks along the way have taught me some lessons. I wish to share them with you and hope you will find them useful.
Lesson #1
Be careful to ask what you want. You may get it. What this means is that do not ask too little either of yourself or the others around you. What you ask is what you get. When I look back at the time when I joined Wipro, I was 21. If you ask me whether I thought that Wipro would grow so by someday, the honest answer is that I did not. But neither did I think it would not. We constantly stretched ourselves to higher and higher targets. Sometimes, it seemed possible, sometimes fanciful and sometimes plain insane. But we never stopped raising limits. And we got a lot more than what we bargained for.
Lesson # 2
Respond, don't react Always be aware of your emotions and learn to manage them. There is a huge difference between people who react impulsively and those who can disengage themselves and then respond at will. By choosing to respond differently, we can prevent another person from controlling our behaviour. I remember a small story that illustrates this well. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the customer would walk by, refuse to return the greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would pickup the money, smile politely and say, Thank you, Sir. One day, the vendor's assistant asked him, Why are you always so polite with him when he is so rude to you? Why don't you throw the newspaper at him when he comes back tomorrow? The vendor smiled and replied, "He can't help being rude and I can't help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate mine?''
Lesson # 3
Intuitions are important for making decisions. It is important to realise that our intuition is a very important part ofdecision making. Many things are recorded by our subconscious. Use both sides of the brain. Even that is not enough. Some decisions need the use of the heart as well. When you use your mind and heart together, you may get a completely new and creative answer.
Lesson # 4
Learn to work in teams. The challenges ahead are so complex that no individual will be able to face them alone. While most of our education is focused in individual strength, teaming with others is equally important. You cannot fire a missile from a canoe. Unless you build a strong network of people with complimentary skills, you will be restricted by your own limitations. Globalisation has brought people of different origins, different upbringing and different cultures together. Ability to become an integral part of a cross-cultural team will be a must for your success.
Lesson #5
Never lose your zest and curiosity. All the available knowledge in the world is accelerating at a phenomenal rate. The whole world's codified knowledge base (all documented information in library books and electronic files) doubled every 30 years in the early 20th century. By the 1970s, the world's knowledge base doubled every seven years. Information researchers predict that by the year 2010, the world's codified knowledge will double every 11 hours. Remaining on top of what you need to know will become one of the greatest challenges for you.The natural zest and curiosity for learning is one of the greatest drivers for keeping updated on knowledge. A child's curiosity is insatiable because every new object is a thing of wonder and mystery. The same zest is needed to keep learning new things. I personally spend at least 10 hours every week on reading. If I do not do that, I will find myself quickly outdated.
Lesson # 6
Put yourself first. This does not mean being selfish. Nor does it mean that you must become so full of yourself that that you become vain or arrogant.It means developing your self-confidence. It means, developing an inner faith in yourself that is not shaken by external events. It requires perseverance. It shows up in the ability to rebound from a setback with double enthusiasm and energy. I came across a recent Harvard Business Review which describes this very effectively: No one can truly define success and failure for us. Only we can define that for ourselves. No one can take away our dignity unless we surrender it. No one can takeaway our hope and pride unless we relinquish them. No one can steal our creativity, imagination and skills unless we stop thinking. No one can stop us from rebounding unless we give up. And there is no way we can take care of others, unless we take care of ourselves.
Lesson # 7
Have a broader social vision. While there is every reason to be excited about the future, we must not forget that we will face many challenges as well. By 2015, we will have 829 million strong workforce. That will make India home to 18% of global working-age population. The key challenge is to transform that into a globally competitive work-force. This will not be an easy task. Despite all the rapid economic expansion seen in recent years, job growth in India still trails the rise in working-age population. It is important that gains are spread across this spectrum, so that the divide between the employed and the under-employed, is minimised. Education is a crucial enabler that can make this growth as equitable as possible.
Lesson # 8
Play to win. Playing to win is not the same as playing dirty. It is not about winning all the time or winning at any cost. Playing to win is having the intensity to stretch to the maximum and bringing our best foot forward. Winning means focusing on the game. The score board tells you where you are going, but don't concentrate too much on it. If you can focus on the ball, the scores will move by themselves. I recently came across this story that I thought I would share with you. A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen. He returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal-some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite and asked them to help themselves to coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to wantonly the best for yourselves, you were more concerned about comparing your cups but what you really wanted was coffee. Yet you spent all your time eyeing each other's cups. Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to contain life, but cannot really change the quality of life. Sometimes, by over concentrating on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Showdown
Memorable quote (s) from the movie:
Billy Massey (Dean Martin): Do you like sheriffing?
Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson): It's a job.
Billy Massey (Dean Martin): What kind of salary do you get?
Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson): No salary, I...
Kate Jarvis (Susan Clark): Oh, he gets two dollars for serving a warrant, three dollars for arresting anybody...
Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson): And thirty cents a mile for chasing idiots...
Kate Jarvis (Susan Clark): Like you.
Billy Massey (Dean Martin): Well then, you ought to thank me for doubling back. I let you make a few extra bucks.
Billy Massey (Dean Martin): Do you like sheriffing?
Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson): It's a job.
Billy Massey (Dean Martin): What kind of salary do you get?
Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson): No salary, I...
Kate Jarvis (Susan Clark): Oh, he gets two dollars for serving a warrant, three dollars for arresting anybody...
Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson): And thirty cents a mile for chasing idiots...
Kate Jarvis (Susan Clark): Like you.
Billy Massey (Dean Martin): Well then, you ought to thank me for doubling back. I let you make a few extra bucks.
How To Judge Different Styles Of Cut
Cutting style is the category under which facet shapes and arrangements are classified. Generally, a faceted gem will fall into one of the categories listed below, although the cutting may sometimes be so poor as to render the cutting style unidentifiable. A facet is a flat, polished surface on a fashioned gemstone.
Brilliant cut: The brilliant cut is probably the best-known cut because most diamonds are cut in this style. Its design is aimed at providing a combination of brilliance, dispersion ('fire') and scintillation ('sparkle'). All facets except the table and culet are triangular or kite shaped; this style is very common in diamonds, but is also seen in many other gems.
Step cut: The step or emerald cut consists of facets cut with parallel sides which are arranged in steps. This style is very common for emeralds, but is also seen in many other colored stones. Its chief attribute is the ability to show off a gem's color.
Mixed cut: The objective of the mixed cut is to obtain as much weight as possible from the rough. As the name implies, the mixed cut is a mixture of two styles, the brilliant and step cuts. Optically, it can also be attractive. Rubies and sapphires are frequently cut in this style, as are many other gems.
Scissors cut: This is not a particularly common cut, because it tends to waste large amounts of rough. Because of this, it is mainly limited to cheap synthetic materials. Hence, a scissors cut will indicate, but not prove, the possibility of a synthetic gem. The scissors cut is a series of long triangular- and kite-shaped facets on a rectangular stone.
Native cut: This is not so much a cutting style as a lack of style. The term native cut generally is synonymous with poorly cut. Facets are often misshapen and may not even be flat. In the Sri Lankan version of this cut, the table facet is often square or rectangular instead of the usual octagonal shape. Proportions are frequently lumpy, as the stones are cut with only weight retention in mind.
Princess cut: This is a relatively new cut but is a variation of the Barion Cut. The stones have ordinary step crowns. All of the pavilion facets except the long break facet along each side are usually no more than four degrees greater than the culet angle. A good number of facets end as a point at the girdle. The stones remain true squares, rectangles, triangles, etc. by having the facets end at the long break facet. The stones are exceedingly brilliant throughout. The square princess has twenty eight pavilion facets.
Cabochon cut: One of the oldest cutting styles, the cabochon employs no facets at all. Rather it is a smooth, polished dome which can be very high, very low, or some variation in between. It is the best style to display fine colored gems of lesser transparency. Hence, highly-flawed rubies, emeralds, etc., may be cut as cabochons; also jadeite, nephrite, star rubies and star sapphires. Cabochons come in two main types: single cabs and double cabs.
Brilliant cut: The brilliant cut is probably the best-known cut because most diamonds are cut in this style. Its design is aimed at providing a combination of brilliance, dispersion ('fire') and scintillation ('sparkle'). All facets except the table and culet are triangular or kite shaped; this style is very common in diamonds, but is also seen in many other gems.
Step cut: The step or emerald cut consists of facets cut with parallel sides which are arranged in steps. This style is very common for emeralds, but is also seen in many other colored stones. Its chief attribute is the ability to show off a gem's color.
Mixed cut: The objective of the mixed cut is to obtain as much weight as possible from the rough. As the name implies, the mixed cut is a mixture of two styles, the brilliant and step cuts. Optically, it can also be attractive. Rubies and sapphires are frequently cut in this style, as are many other gems.
Scissors cut: This is not a particularly common cut, because it tends to waste large amounts of rough. Because of this, it is mainly limited to cheap synthetic materials. Hence, a scissors cut will indicate, but not prove, the possibility of a synthetic gem. The scissors cut is a series of long triangular- and kite-shaped facets on a rectangular stone.
Native cut: This is not so much a cutting style as a lack of style. The term native cut generally is synonymous with poorly cut. Facets are often misshapen and may not even be flat. In the Sri Lankan version of this cut, the table facet is often square or rectangular instead of the usual octagonal shape. Proportions are frequently lumpy, as the stones are cut with only weight retention in mind.
Princess cut: This is a relatively new cut but is a variation of the Barion Cut. The stones have ordinary step crowns. All of the pavilion facets except the long break facet along each side are usually no more than four degrees greater than the culet angle. A good number of facets end as a point at the girdle. The stones remain true squares, rectangles, triangles, etc. by having the facets end at the long break facet. The stones are exceedingly brilliant throughout. The square princess has twenty eight pavilion facets.
Cabochon cut: One of the oldest cutting styles, the cabochon employs no facets at all. Rather it is a smooth, polished dome which can be very high, very low, or some variation in between. It is the best style to display fine colored gems of lesser transparency. Hence, highly-flawed rubies, emeralds, etc., may be cut as cabochons; also jadeite, nephrite, star rubies and star sapphires. Cabochons come in two main types: single cabs and double cabs.
How To Examine Gemstones With The Loupe And Tweezer
Upon first glance, the examination of a stone with the loupe and tweezer seems simple. However, the proper technique not only will help in locating inclusions, but it will show that the user has experience in handling and examining gemstones.
Below are a few tips for using the loupe and tweezer:
Loupe
Clean the stone carefully with a piece of cotton cloth and then pick it up directly with tweezers. Touching the stone with fingers may leave grease marks which might resemble inclusions.
If the right eye is to be used, hold the loupe in the right hand. Hold it as close as possible to the eye (or glasses), for the closer it is to the eye, the larger the field of view.
The stone to be examined should be held with tweezers and both hands should be in contact with each other. This eliminates shaking and unsteadiness.
Lighting is the next consideration and is of vital importance. One commonly used but ineffective method is to place the light directly behind the stone. The result is that rear facets reflect the light away from the stone. This leaves the stone's interior dark and the eyes blinded by glare. A much better technique makes use of a table lamp positioned so that the light faces straight down. The stone is held just next to the edge of the lamp shade so that light enters the stone from the side. Now the glare is eliminated and inclusions are much more readily seen.
Tweezer
A good pair of tweezers is another essential piece of equipment. These should be specifically designed for gemstone use. To avoid corrosion, tweezers should be made of stainless steel. Critical is the knurling found on the inside of the tips, to keep the gem from slipping. Better examples actually include a groove designed to grip the gem's girdle.
In terms of color, black is best, because it eliminates reflections. Brushed (not polished) steel is also okay; avoid brass-colored tweezers, which make rubies appear redder. In terms of tip size, the narrow tips work best with melee, but are difficult to use on large stones. For stones of 1 ct or more, a wider tip is preferred.
Below are a few tips for using the loupe and tweezer:
Loupe
Clean the stone carefully with a piece of cotton cloth and then pick it up directly with tweezers. Touching the stone with fingers may leave grease marks which might resemble inclusions.
If the right eye is to be used, hold the loupe in the right hand. Hold it as close as possible to the eye (or glasses), for the closer it is to the eye, the larger the field of view.
The stone to be examined should be held with tweezers and both hands should be in contact with each other. This eliminates shaking and unsteadiness.
Lighting is the next consideration and is of vital importance. One commonly used but ineffective method is to place the light directly behind the stone. The result is that rear facets reflect the light away from the stone. This leaves the stone's interior dark and the eyes blinded by glare. A much better technique makes use of a table lamp positioned so that the light faces straight down. The stone is held just next to the edge of the lamp shade so that light enters the stone from the side. Now the glare is eliminated and inclusions are much more readily seen.
Tweezer
A good pair of tweezers is another essential piece of equipment. These should be specifically designed for gemstone use. To avoid corrosion, tweezers should be made of stainless steel. Critical is the knurling found on the inside of the tips, to keep the gem from slipping. Better examples actually include a groove designed to grip the gem's girdle.
In terms of color, black is best, because it eliminates reflections. Brushed (not polished) steel is also okay; avoid brass-colored tweezers, which make rubies appear redder. In terms of tip size, the narrow tips work best with melee, but are difficult to use on large stones. For stones of 1 ct or more, a wider tip is preferred.
Color patterns In Opal
The vast majority of precious opal may show unique pattern to the play-of-color. The major patterns tend to fall into one of the following categories:
Pinfire: This is a mass of pinpoints, flashing different colors as the stone is moved. All colors may be seen, but red is most desirable. This pattern is fairly common and is the least sought after.
Harlequin or mosaic: Harlequin is the rarest and one of the most beautiful arrangements of play-of-color in opal; resembling a harlequin clown's costume. The true harlequin pattern appears as squares of equal size and regular arrangement. The pure pattern is particularly valuable. The color display consists of units of uneven size with distorted angles. Some dealers use the term only for the rare pattern described above, whereas others will allow more irregularity.
Flash: Flash refers to opals in which the play-of-color appears in sudden flashes that disappear or change as the stone is moved. The colors may be any shade from blue (most common) through the progressively rarer green, yellow, orange and red, with an occasional flash of violet or purple.
Red flash is most prized, but opals with violet or purple are also highly desirable due to their rarity. However, just the presence of a particular color does not make for a valuable stone; the full range of colors should be present. Stones which display all the colors, and which have colors that change with the angle of view are the most valuable opals of the type.
Exploding flash: The pattern moves outwards in all directions as the stone is moved, with red usually changing to orange or green.
Rolling flash: The patch of color moves as the stone is turned.
Broad flash: This pattern is made up of color flashes larger than 2 mm in size which are visible only at certain angles. If the flash covers a wide area it is called 'sheen'. Many precious opals fall into this category.
Other patterns include:
Floral: Resembles floral patterns seen on printed dress fabrics. The units of color are large than pinfire, more or less rounded, but slightly irregular.
Peacock's tail: Green and blue radiating out like a peacock displaying its tail feathers.
Palette: Resembles an artist's palette with patches of paint.
Pinfire: This is a mass of pinpoints, flashing different colors as the stone is moved. All colors may be seen, but red is most desirable. This pattern is fairly common and is the least sought after.
Harlequin or mosaic: Harlequin is the rarest and one of the most beautiful arrangements of play-of-color in opal; resembling a harlequin clown's costume. The true harlequin pattern appears as squares of equal size and regular arrangement. The pure pattern is particularly valuable. The color display consists of units of uneven size with distorted angles. Some dealers use the term only for the rare pattern described above, whereas others will allow more irregularity.
Flash: Flash refers to opals in which the play-of-color appears in sudden flashes that disappear or change as the stone is moved. The colors may be any shade from blue (most common) through the progressively rarer green, yellow, orange and red, with an occasional flash of violet or purple.
Red flash is most prized, but opals with violet or purple are also highly desirable due to their rarity. However, just the presence of a particular color does not make for a valuable stone; the full range of colors should be present. Stones which display all the colors, and which have colors that change with the angle of view are the most valuable opals of the type.
Exploding flash: The pattern moves outwards in all directions as the stone is moved, with red usually changing to orange or green.
Rolling flash: The patch of color moves as the stone is turned.
Broad flash: This pattern is made up of color flashes larger than 2 mm in size which are visible only at certain angles. If the flash covers a wide area it is called 'sheen'. Many precious opals fall into this category.
Other patterns include:
Floral: Resembles floral patterns seen on printed dress fabrics. The units of color are large than pinfire, more or less rounded, but slightly irregular.
Peacock's tail: Green and blue radiating out like a peacock displaying its tail feathers.
Palette: Resembles an artist's palette with patches of paint.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
The Mirror Crack'd
Memorable quote (s) from the movie:
Vicar (Charles Lloyd Pack): Oh, Mr. Rudd. I understand that you are a fillum producer.
Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson): Oh, no, sir. A director.
Vicar (Charles Lloyd Pack): Is there any difference?
Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson): Yes, sir. The, uh, producer supplies all the money; the director spends it. Then the producer yells that the director is spending too much money; the director doesn't pay any attention, and goes right on spending. The director gets all the credit; the producer gets an ulcer. You see, it's all very simple; excuse me.
Vicar (Charles Lloyd Pack): Oh, Mr. Rudd. I understand that you are a fillum producer.
Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson): Oh, no, sir. A director.
Vicar (Charles Lloyd Pack): Is there any difference?
Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson): Yes, sir. The, uh, producer supplies all the money; the director spends it. Then the producer yells that the director is spending too much money; the director doesn't pay any attention, and goes right on spending. The director gets all the credit; the producer gets an ulcer. You see, it's all very simple; excuse me.
Santa Maria Aquamarine
Here is an interesting story of a designer and her beautiful creation of jewelry with Santa Maria Aquamarine. The real Santa Maria Aquamarine is well known among collectors as one of the best qualities in the world. As always beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
(via Journal of Gemmology, Vol.27, No.5, January 2001) Francisco Bank, Prof Hermann Bank and Elena Villa writes:
Abstract
A Santa Maria aquamarine is the inspiration for the design of a necklace. Details of the stone are given, as well as the description of the design and make-up of the necklace.
The Aquamarine
Aquamarine of the highest quality and the finest blue has for many years been called ‘Santa Maria’ after such material was found at the small locality of Santa Maria in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Since there are so many places called Santa Maria in Brazil, it may have been better to have named the aquamarine after the nearby town, Itabira.
The story is told that in 1925 a mule had fallen down a hole and had broken a leg; the owner of the mule saw blue crystals in the hole and so discovered what came to be the most famous aquamarine locality in the world. For some years blue aquamarines have been mined in several ‘lavras’ (mines) in the region of Santa Maria, and were of such a good sky blue color (like the blue of tropical skies) that after 75 years people still dream today of the super color of Santa Maria aquamarine. After World War II more aquamarines were found near the original localities, but although similar, they did not quite equal the extraordinary stones of 1925.
In c.1990 blue beryls were found in a secondary deposit in Mozambique which were similar to the Brazilian ‘Santa Maria’ aquamarines and these have been called ‘Santa Maria Africana; however, in comparison they appear to have a more steely appearance than the lovely sky blue of the original Brazilian stones.
Gemological properties
Santa Maria aquamarines have the following properties:
RI = 1578-1581 (1.585-1.588)
Birefringence = 0.007-8
Specific gravity = 2.68-2.70
Spectroscopic investigation of the stone used for the necklace gave absorption lines at 370, 426, 557, 833 and 891nm. The equipment used was a Perkin Elmer Lambda 12 spectroscope.
The necklet
A Santa Maria aquamarine of 16.75ct was the inspiration for a necklet designed by one author (Elena Villa) and made by Hans Dieter Krieger of Idar Oberstein, Germany. The inclusions are disc-like and oriented parallel to each other with a rather filmy appearance.
The design
The color of the aquamarine and the inclusions ‘reflecting the shiny waves of the ocean’ inspired the creation of this unique piece of jewelry named the ‘Light Tree Water Being’. Elena Villa writes about the concept and development of the piece as follows:
“Like any other real existing being, the invented being also should have a history. Where does it come from? How has it been called into being? For me nature on earth, under water and in space, offers the richest variety of colors and shapes. Inspired by this natural diversity, the basic idea for this piece of jewelry was born. The coincidence of the strong concentrated forms of energy, light, water and earth, as well as the grace of each of these natural elements, unified in the delicate expressiveness of a jewelry piece, stimulated a new interpretation of nature through jewelry.”
“Evolution in its progress is thrilling and cannot be foreseen. The attraction to create new forms of expression, and also new possible forms of living, was more than enough reason to realize an evolutionary association between a gem and an invented being. Under such circumstances the gem can rise to life because it is no more just immobile and beautiful, but pat of a living being. The form of living and the gem turn to a symbiosis and reach a stage of subtle living effect.”
“The aim was not to have a motionless new piece of jewelry but to compose a new living being with the facilities of jewelry creation design. The result is a decorative independent individual who inspires the fantasy of the wearer as well the viewer, free and powerful with personal radiation.”
Manufacture
The piece was cast in platinum, the gold sections being formed by hand and soldered to the platinum. The aquamarine was set and then all pieces were connected by laser; the piece was finally polished with selected areas finished in a satin surface.
(via Journal of Gemmology, Vol.27, No.5, January 2001) Francisco Bank, Prof Hermann Bank and Elena Villa writes:
Abstract
A Santa Maria aquamarine is the inspiration for the design of a necklace. Details of the stone are given, as well as the description of the design and make-up of the necklace.
The Aquamarine
Aquamarine of the highest quality and the finest blue has for many years been called ‘Santa Maria’ after such material was found at the small locality of Santa Maria in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Since there are so many places called Santa Maria in Brazil, it may have been better to have named the aquamarine after the nearby town, Itabira.
The story is told that in 1925 a mule had fallen down a hole and had broken a leg; the owner of the mule saw blue crystals in the hole and so discovered what came to be the most famous aquamarine locality in the world. For some years blue aquamarines have been mined in several ‘lavras’ (mines) in the region of Santa Maria, and were of such a good sky blue color (like the blue of tropical skies) that after 75 years people still dream today of the super color of Santa Maria aquamarine. After World War II more aquamarines were found near the original localities, but although similar, they did not quite equal the extraordinary stones of 1925.
In c.1990 blue beryls were found in a secondary deposit in Mozambique which were similar to the Brazilian ‘Santa Maria’ aquamarines and these have been called ‘Santa Maria Africana; however, in comparison they appear to have a more steely appearance than the lovely sky blue of the original Brazilian stones.
Gemological properties
Santa Maria aquamarines have the following properties:
RI = 1578-1581 (1.585-1.588)
Birefringence = 0.007-8
Specific gravity = 2.68-2.70
Spectroscopic investigation of the stone used for the necklace gave absorption lines at 370, 426, 557, 833 and 891nm. The equipment used was a Perkin Elmer Lambda 12 spectroscope.
The necklet
A Santa Maria aquamarine of 16.75ct was the inspiration for a necklet designed by one author (Elena Villa) and made by Hans Dieter Krieger of Idar Oberstein, Germany. The inclusions are disc-like and oriented parallel to each other with a rather filmy appearance.
The design
The color of the aquamarine and the inclusions ‘reflecting the shiny waves of the ocean’ inspired the creation of this unique piece of jewelry named the ‘Light Tree Water Being’. Elena Villa writes about the concept and development of the piece as follows:
“Like any other real existing being, the invented being also should have a history. Where does it come from? How has it been called into being? For me nature on earth, under water and in space, offers the richest variety of colors and shapes. Inspired by this natural diversity, the basic idea for this piece of jewelry was born. The coincidence of the strong concentrated forms of energy, light, water and earth, as well as the grace of each of these natural elements, unified in the delicate expressiveness of a jewelry piece, stimulated a new interpretation of nature through jewelry.”
“Evolution in its progress is thrilling and cannot be foreseen. The attraction to create new forms of expression, and also new possible forms of living, was more than enough reason to realize an evolutionary association between a gem and an invented being. Under such circumstances the gem can rise to life because it is no more just immobile and beautiful, but pat of a living being. The form of living and the gem turn to a symbiosis and reach a stage of subtle living effect.”
“The aim was not to have a motionless new piece of jewelry but to compose a new living being with the facilities of jewelry creation design. The result is a decorative independent individual who inspires the fantasy of the wearer as well the viewer, free and powerful with personal radiation.”
Manufacture
The piece was cast in platinum, the gold sections being formed by hand and soldered to the platinum. The aquamarine was set and then all pieces were connected by laser; the piece was finally polished with selected areas finished in a satin surface.
Synthetic Diamond Market
The synthetic diamond market, especially in fancy colors are expanding. There are real concerns among experts and consumers that many are not properly trained/skilled to identify or grade them. To grade or not to grade: this is the new headache for the diamond testing and grading laboratories around the world. Natural diamond producers and dealers have their own headaches because many in the trade have difficulty explaining undisclosed treatments in way both the experts and consumers can really understand. But the key to the success for the synthetic diamond producers is their ability to grow fancy colored diamonds. Overall the growth has been slow but steady. Well known companies like Chatham Created Diamonds and Gemesis Corporations and others have developed their unique marketing strategies via branding and celebrity endorsements to compete with natural diamond producers in the dog-eat-dog world of diamond trade. The popular synthetic diamond colors include pink, yellow, blue and brown. Although colorless synthetic diamonds are produced for special markets, but for now it's the fancy colors that's appealing to the consumers. The price information for synthetic colored diamonds is limited because different producers have different operating costs and delivery techniques.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Million Dollar Jewels
1. Baroda Pearls (Christie’s) $7,096,000
2. Kashmir sapphire, cushion, 22.66 carat (Christie’s) $3,064,000
3. Blue diamond, fancy grayish blue, cushion, 9.39 carat (Christie’s) $2,392,000
4. Bulgari diamond ring, potentially flawless, rectangular, 24.65 carat (Christie’s) $2,056,000
5. Diamond pendant, fancy intense yellow (Sotheby’s) $2,056,000
6. Emerald and diamond ring, Van Cleef & Arpels (Sotheby’s) $1,888,000
7. Yellow diamonds, three pear-shaped, fancy deep brownish yellow, 38.28, 32.15, and 29.60 carats (Christie’s) $1,720,000
8. Diamond, pear, H/VVS2, 40.12 carat (Christie’s) $1,664,000
9. Pendant suspended from a 30 carat baguette diamond collar, pear, 48.91 carat, J/VS2 (Sotheby’s) $1,552,000
10. Diamond ring, Van Cleef & Arpels, emerald cut, D/VVS1, 16.98 carat (Sotheby’s) $1,552,000
11. Diamond cluster brooch, Harry Winston, D color (Christie’s) $1,328,000
12. Pair of Asscher cut diamond ear pendants, 25.05 carats each (Christie’s) $1,014,000
2. Kashmir sapphire, cushion, 22.66 carat (Christie’s) $3,064,000
3. Blue diamond, fancy grayish blue, cushion, 9.39 carat (Christie’s) $2,392,000
4. Bulgari diamond ring, potentially flawless, rectangular, 24.65 carat (Christie’s) $2,056,000
5. Diamond pendant, fancy intense yellow (Sotheby’s) $2,056,000
6. Emerald and diamond ring, Van Cleef & Arpels (Sotheby’s) $1,888,000
7. Yellow diamonds, three pear-shaped, fancy deep brownish yellow, 38.28, 32.15, and 29.60 carats (Christie’s) $1,720,000
8. Diamond, pear, H/VVS2, 40.12 carat (Christie’s) $1,664,000
9. Pendant suspended from a 30 carat baguette diamond collar, pear, 48.91 carat, J/VS2 (Sotheby’s) $1,552,000
10. Diamond ring, Van Cleef & Arpels, emerald cut, D/VVS1, 16.98 carat (Sotheby’s) $1,552,000
11. Diamond cluster brooch, Harry Winston, D color (Christie’s) $1,328,000
12. Pair of Asscher cut diamond ear pendants, 25.05 carats each (Christie’s) $1,014,000
The Great Casino Bubble
Here is an excerpt from the classic book ‘Pearl Trader’. Louis Kornitzer is of a different generation but brilliant. I am always captivated by his humor and wisdom + style and experience + the unique way he connects with the people in the gem trade. No matter how many times you read the book, you still want to read it again because you have experienced something new—a new total internal reflection.
Louis Kornitzer writes:
For one year, eight months and some indefinite number of days, I had nothing but inward praise and more tangible gratitude for my room and table boy, Tang Tai Ling.
Tang Tai Ling had so far displayed scrupulous honesty, for he never so much as nibbled at my sweetmeats, sampled my cigars or cigarettes, or allowed his finger to stray towards my small change.
But one day I began to wonder whether a twisted nose in an ashen pockmarked, though, curiously ascetic, face, was not meant as a danger signal for the unwary. I began to suspect from various trifling signs that he was well on the way to become intimately acquainted with the inside of the safe in my bedroom; and from then onward I systematically changed the combination lock once a month in the stillness of night. But for all that he bore me no grudge, I felt sure. On the contrary, I suspected that I had greatly risen in his esteem.
In the absence of definite proof of his intentions I censured myself, however, for allowing the shadow of my suspicion to fall upon him; and I was rather glad than otherwise when events proved that I had not in thought been unjust to him, and extreme danger forced him to lift the mask which hid—I hate to say it—a thief.
It happened like this.
The rooms next to mine were occupied by an American newly arrived in the colony, a self-styled doctor of medicine and, as it turned out, a thoroughgoing quack. The fellow was a heavy drinker, and one night when he had taken on a rather heavy mixed cargo of liquor he forgot to lock his bedroom door before tumbling into bed, boots and all. In the morning, consequently, there was a great commotion; his wallet, containing a big wad of money, had vanished.
The hotel management should then with propriety have remembered that for the last fifteen years, at intervals of from nine months to a year, successive occupants of that room and of the adjoining apartments, which were under Tang Tai Ling’s especial care, had been laid under contribution. But jealous of the reputation of the house, they maintained that since the whole of their staff, from bookkeeper to kitchen scullion, had been in their employ for a decade and a half, the doctor must have lost his wallet outside.
The American, however, was sure he knew better. He insisted upon going into the matter. And so, after a few days of strenuous effort, he prevailed upon a reluctant Public Security Department to dispatch its minions to the hotel.
I was not on the spot when they arrived, but I heard them come. The European and Chinese detectives presented themselves with the noise and clatter of a cavalry detachment. From the porch of my ground floor window I listened to the hubhub, and knew that down there in the basement the whole of the staff were being ordered by the management to line up in the yard to be questioned; and that then their quarters would be searched if the police should think it necessary.
In a moment, however, my door opened and Tang Tai Ling, who should have been downstairs with the others, slid into the room with a jug and glasses in his hands. Outwardly calm, he was as pale as death, and his agitation was betrayed by his nervously twitching fingers as he set the tray upon the table.
From the corner of my eye I saw him go to my wardrobe, open it, draw from under his belt a small bundle and toss it among my linen. Not a word did he say to me. I asked no questions. I did not care to investigate, or to find out anything that might compel me to act the informer. There was nothing to be said, and he crept out as silently as he had come in.
When half an hour later he re-entered my room, Tang Tai Ling was as self-possessed as ever, and with the utmost brazenness busied himself with my socks, which he declared needed overhauling. He took away a goodly bundle of them for the house-amah to see and with them, I felt, went the American’s bank roll.
If Tang Tai Ling had been obsequious before, he was henceforth a father to me, and I read that in his eyes which reproved me for still continuing to change the safe combination at regular intervals. Dared he have spoken he would have said, “No need for that now, master. Give me a chance to prove that I am grateful to you for saving my face.”
As for the American quack doctor, he fled the colony within a month or so of these events. The cause of his flight was an illegal operation which claimed the life of a young woman, so my sympathy stayed with the get-rich-quick Chinaman.
Tang Tai Ling had made good use of his years of service in Hong Kong, for in Macao, the Portuguese colony on the China coast near by, he owned a great deal of house property and some shops which members of his family ran for him. He was a good husband, I was told, to three wives, a devoted father to a numerous progeny and a doting grandsire to two sturdy Portuguese half castes.
In a manner it was to him that I was indebted for some pleasant day dreams, for he was the first cause of what I might well call “The Great Casino Bubble”. He brought me advance information of the intended sale by the Macao Government of the ancient block of buildings known as “Boa Vista” with a magnificent site, overlooking the sea, belonging to it. The property had in the course of years been let to many tenants and had latterly been used as an hotel. But the last tenants, at any rate, had found it difficult to make a living and pay the rent which the government demanded. Twentieth century hotel guests cannot be comforted with fourteenth century cheer.
And now “Boa Vista” and its grounds were for sale once more. Already invaded by the germ of a great idea, I made careful inquiries about the place. I became convinced that if one were to make extensive alternations, the buildings could be turned into a modern attractive hotel, of which the Portuguese Colony stood in great need. I pondered over the idea for a long time, and the longer I thought the greater became my ambition. It occurred to me that a casino and hotel combined might prove a still more profitable proposition—if one could work it.
Once the idea of an up-to-date casino had taken hold of me, I began to elaborate on the original scheme, till within a few days of its conception I could already see in my mind’s eye the Monte Carlo of the Far East, with myself in the role of M. Blanc. All the conditions likely to make for success appeared to be present: the position of the place was analogous, topographically, to that of Monte Carlo, the climate salubrious, the vegetation luxuriant, the scenery beautiful. There was a romantic bit of history attached to the place, sufficient of Old Portugal left to attract tourists. But in the addition to all these advantages, the nearness to two of the wealthiest Chinese provinces—Kwangsi and Kwantung—and Macao’s equidistance from Hong Kong and Canton promised to make it the Mecca of all gamblers in that part of the world, as well as a haven for those merely desiring rest and a change of scene.
I was privately informed that the Macao government was only too anxious to stop the opium traffic altogether, if some other equally productive means of revenue could be found. Everything seemed propitious. I studied the matter from all angles, and could find no snag in it. Here was a grand opportunity for organizing something really big. I amused myself by working out the whole thing in all its aspects, down to the minutest detail. And almost unawares I soon found myself in Macao.
I knew by this time a sufficiently large number of wealthy Chinese in Hong Kong, Canton and North China who, I was sure, would give the proposition their financial backing, and had sufficient faith and confidence in me to leave the organizing in my hands. I spoke to an engineer and architect friend of mine, and described to him what I had in mind, and then sent him to survey the estate and existing buildings. He reported favorably upon the site, and produced some remarkably fine drawings of elevations—were now something to impress my Chinese backers, I thought, as well as the municipal councilors of Macao who would have the last word.
There were to be an amusement pier, pleasure boats and a ferry service to the neighboring coast, a hydro with gymnasium, thermal baths and swimming pools, a casino containing rooms for chemin de fer, roulette, fan-tan, and petits chevaux, billiard tables and dance halls. The hotel was to have 250 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, American fashion, and was to be constructed so that one could build on twice that number of rooms without interfering with the symmetry of the structure. Yes—I had my dreams!
A special feature was to be the outer gallery encircling the spoke-like wings of the main building, where as many small shops were to be installed as there were trades in the city, and where no two traders in the same commodity were to be allowed space. Ample provision for garages and repair shops were also included in the plans.
The scheme, financially, provided that in return for the concession the Government of Macao was to receive from the casino company a percentage of its net profits for thirty years, part of which was to go to the municipality of Macao to be utilized for the improvement of roads and lighting, and the clearing of slum areas; while the policing of the casino area was to be undertaken by the company, and all minor officials and labor were to be recruited from the local population. At the end of thirty years the whole of the estate and buildings were to become the exclusive property of the government.
Three million dollars was my estimate for the cost of this undertaking, and the authorized capital of the company I intended to be five million, of which my Chinese financiers were willing to find between them one a half million and give an assurance that they could raise as much again from their own circle of friends.
There was thus no need for me to worry about the money side of the scheme. Therefore, as soon as possible, I arranged for an interview with His Excellency, the Governor of Macao, to whom I submitted my proposals. Although he was pleased with it, so he gave me to understand, he remained diplomatically non-committal. But a week later our negotiations with the municipality started, to whom His Excellency had referred the matter with his recommendations that they were to consider it favorably.
Now the fun started. In those early hectic days, when I was still under the hot spell of my vision, many Portuguese officials began to discover that a visit to Hong Kong on business connected with the ‘great scheme’ assured free entertainment over long weekends for themselves and their ladies. Details had to be discussed, of course, and they argued, no doubt, that they might as well be discussed in comfort at Hong Kong Hotel as in stuffy Government offices at Macao.
One is prepared for that sort of thing in the Far East. I had more or less expected something of the kind. Moreover, you can’t entertain too lavishly folk who appreciate your genius and tell you to your face how they admire you, and how ready they are to promote your interests. I was not surprised when some of my Portuguese well-wishers informed me that they found it difficult to cooperate with me officially while little private worries were pressing so heavily upon them. Courteously they hinted that since they had honored me with their confidence I could surely do no less than relieve them of their most pressing burdens of debt, so that they might the better be able to devote their undivided attention to the furthering of my business. After all, is the want of a few hundred dollars to be allowed to interfere with your co-worker’s peace of mind?
It soon leaked out in the Portuguese Colony that I was not only a man of extraordinary enterprise, but also as different as chalk from cheese from those stuck-up inaccessible Britishers in Hong Kong—in fact, that I was muy simpatico and so generous. How I wished they hadn’t spread such lies! More and more officials came to see me, and their wives and daughters who came with them, of course, were so very charming! They had heard, these ladies, that I dabbled in diamonds too, ‘just for fun’—they said—and would I mind very much if they asked me to value for them their own diamond jewelry? Of course, they knew they weren’t really first class stones, but then father was only a Government official, and Portugal but a poor country. Still they adored diamonds, and some day—who knows?—if it wasn’t too much to hope when the Senor’s dream of Monte Carlo in Macao had become a reality and he was rolling in millions, he might perchance remember his humble friends, the wives and daughters of the Portuguese officials, who had made it possible for his dream to come true. In the meantime, if he had some teeny-weeny little stones that no one wanted—?
Would it delight you to have me confess that I ever believed that pretty speeches, pretty cars and pretty stones are perfectly suited to each other? Would you have me say more, so that you might with justice bestow upon me the honorable letters M.U.G?
So, everything went swimmingly, and as fast as official business can be transacted anywhere. Of course there were vexatious delays, vexatious only, I was told because I, a mere impulsive merchant, did not realize that Government business—at least Portuguese Government business—was not transacted on common mercantile lines. The explanation satisfied me for a while. I was still green.
I cannot recall a single instance of downright graft in connection with that grandly-conceived scheme. No one ever came up to me and said, “Unless you pay me so many thousand dollars I am going to oppose you in Council!” No one every threatened to frustrate my plans unless I handed over so much of my prospective profits—in advance. My gifts were freely bestowed to cement friendships of which I stood in need, and they were bestowed to cement friendships of which I stood in need, and they were bestowed without compulsion. It was only when my well-wishers increased out of all proportions even to the grandeur of my scheme that I first began to fear for its ultimate success.
My company had not been formed. It still existed partly in my imagination and partly on paper, backed by promises contingent upon being able to secure the approval of the Macao municipality and, of course, the subsequent sanction of the authorities in Lisbon. Hence there were no funds available for ‘preliminaries’ save those which came from my own pocket. Was it to be wondered at, therefore, that after six months of entertaining and free-will offerings I felt put out when one of the brightest dignitary—reminded me of a Portuguese proverb to the effect that he who rides on a well-grassed axle rides in comfort?
I judged that the axle had been, if anything, smothered in grease, and yet I was not riding in comfort. And I told him as much, quite bluntly. Upon mature reflection he therefore decided that the best interests of the colony would not be served by his sponsoring of my scheme: rank treason to my great cause and to me, his dear ‘amigo’. Such faithlessness should not go unpunished, and he would have deserved that I record his name here and now; if I retain it is only because of sweet Carmencita, his daughter.
Other councilors followed the traitor’s lead—some on the principle that all new things should be banned, and others just because the Governor of the Colony himself was greatly in favor of my proposals. Opposition grew like a snowball, almost overnight. My friends, their wives and daughters, came to see me no more.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong my scheme was also meeting with great opposition from those in the British Colony who thought that if roulette in luxurious surroundings were substituted for fan-tan in squalid, stuffy, unwholeseome rooms, the British youth of Hong Kong would surely got to the dogs. The British authorities, therefore, were also dead against me and did their best to break the scheme.
But above all, I had one most powerful and hitherto unsuspected opponent who had been against me from the start. This was the man behind the opium monopoly in Macao. I had said in my prospectus that there would be no further need for the ugly opium traffic in Portuguese possession as a source of revenue if my scheme were accepted. Naturally he was not going to lie down under this and see his source of income taken away from beneath his very nose. I like a fool had completely left him out of my calculations, and now, using his enormous influence and dipping freely into his long purse, he countered me at every step. He was the decisive factor behind my failure—for failure I could now see it was. While the documents were still preparing in Macao and a first report was already on its way to the Portuguese capital, I had already decided to abandon my plans. The dice were too heavily loaded against what would have been at any time a hazardous project.
And so after coming thus far my scheme was dropped, and with it all my glittering dreams of another and even more exotic Monte Carlo. It was only then that I actually met Li, the opium monopolist who had so contributed to wreck my plans. The jeweler in Hong Kong with whom he dealt had not been able to supply eight matched diamonds of hazel-nut size, and he had been told that he might find them with me. I did not disappoint him, and from then on Li became a regular visitor at my office once a week or so.
He was a strange volcanic type. The manner of his buying was like this: he would come through the door like a whirlwind, refuse to be seated since he really should not have come as he was so terribly busy. He would then say, ‘Anything good in diamonds—not too dear?’
When I had spread before him what I thought might tempt him, he would turn the stones over with a toothpick and say, “How much?’ To whatever price I mentioned he would say, ‘Too dear!’ walk to the door, there make a half-turn and add, ‘No less?’ come back to the table, pick up the stones, wrap them in any piece of paper that was handy and, with a ‘Send me the account’, disappear. Next time he would bring the check to cover the amount of his last purchase, and buy again ‘on tick’. These purchases ran into twenty, thirty and forty thousand dollars a time, and I could not imagine what he did with all the diamonds be bought. Well—I found out at last. He gave them all away. Many of the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao official’s wives sported gorgeous diamond earrings and diamonds rings. No wonder my friend Li could pull off deals that few other men could handle!
He tumbled one day to the fact that his purveyor of diamonds was the same man who had spoken so disparagingly of the opium traffic on which he himself was battening. He came and gave me a lecture, saying at the same time that if I had enlisted his cooperation he would have come in on the scheme. With his aid, I am sure all difficulties would have vanished. But it was too late. The opportune moment had gone; and it rests still with some future speculator to make my dream reality.
Louis Kornitzer writes:
For one year, eight months and some indefinite number of days, I had nothing but inward praise and more tangible gratitude for my room and table boy, Tang Tai Ling.
Tang Tai Ling had so far displayed scrupulous honesty, for he never so much as nibbled at my sweetmeats, sampled my cigars or cigarettes, or allowed his finger to stray towards my small change.
But one day I began to wonder whether a twisted nose in an ashen pockmarked, though, curiously ascetic, face, was not meant as a danger signal for the unwary. I began to suspect from various trifling signs that he was well on the way to become intimately acquainted with the inside of the safe in my bedroom; and from then onward I systematically changed the combination lock once a month in the stillness of night. But for all that he bore me no grudge, I felt sure. On the contrary, I suspected that I had greatly risen in his esteem.
In the absence of definite proof of his intentions I censured myself, however, for allowing the shadow of my suspicion to fall upon him; and I was rather glad than otherwise when events proved that I had not in thought been unjust to him, and extreme danger forced him to lift the mask which hid—I hate to say it—a thief.
It happened like this.
The rooms next to mine were occupied by an American newly arrived in the colony, a self-styled doctor of medicine and, as it turned out, a thoroughgoing quack. The fellow was a heavy drinker, and one night when he had taken on a rather heavy mixed cargo of liquor he forgot to lock his bedroom door before tumbling into bed, boots and all. In the morning, consequently, there was a great commotion; his wallet, containing a big wad of money, had vanished.
The hotel management should then with propriety have remembered that for the last fifteen years, at intervals of from nine months to a year, successive occupants of that room and of the adjoining apartments, which were under Tang Tai Ling’s especial care, had been laid under contribution. But jealous of the reputation of the house, they maintained that since the whole of their staff, from bookkeeper to kitchen scullion, had been in their employ for a decade and a half, the doctor must have lost his wallet outside.
The American, however, was sure he knew better. He insisted upon going into the matter. And so, after a few days of strenuous effort, he prevailed upon a reluctant Public Security Department to dispatch its minions to the hotel.
I was not on the spot when they arrived, but I heard them come. The European and Chinese detectives presented themselves with the noise and clatter of a cavalry detachment. From the porch of my ground floor window I listened to the hubhub, and knew that down there in the basement the whole of the staff were being ordered by the management to line up in the yard to be questioned; and that then their quarters would be searched if the police should think it necessary.
In a moment, however, my door opened and Tang Tai Ling, who should have been downstairs with the others, slid into the room with a jug and glasses in his hands. Outwardly calm, he was as pale as death, and his agitation was betrayed by his nervously twitching fingers as he set the tray upon the table.
From the corner of my eye I saw him go to my wardrobe, open it, draw from under his belt a small bundle and toss it among my linen. Not a word did he say to me. I asked no questions. I did not care to investigate, or to find out anything that might compel me to act the informer. There was nothing to be said, and he crept out as silently as he had come in.
When half an hour later he re-entered my room, Tang Tai Ling was as self-possessed as ever, and with the utmost brazenness busied himself with my socks, which he declared needed overhauling. He took away a goodly bundle of them for the house-amah to see and with them, I felt, went the American’s bank roll.
If Tang Tai Ling had been obsequious before, he was henceforth a father to me, and I read that in his eyes which reproved me for still continuing to change the safe combination at regular intervals. Dared he have spoken he would have said, “No need for that now, master. Give me a chance to prove that I am grateful to you for saving my face.”
As for the American quack doctor, he fled the colony within a month or so of these events. The cause of his flight was an illegal operation which claimed the life of a young woman, so my sympathy stayed with the get-rich-quick Chinaman.
Tang Tai Ling had made good use of his years of service in Hong Kong, for in Macao, the Portuguese colony on the China coast near by, he owned a great deal of house property and some shops which members of his family ran for him. He was a good husband, I was told, to three wives, a devoted father to a numerous progeny and a doting grandsire to two sturdy Portuguese half castes.
In a manner it was to him that I was indebted for some pleasant day dreams, for he was the first cause of what I might well call “The Great Casino Bubble”. He brought me advance information of the intended sale by the Macao Government of the ancient block of buildings known as “Boa Vista” with a magnificent site, overlooking the sea, belonging to it. The property had in the course of years been let to many tenants and had latterly been used as an hotel. But the last tenants, at any rate, had found it difficult to make a living and pay the rent which the government demanded. Twentieth century hotel guests cannot be comforted with fourteenth century cheer.
And now “Boa Vista” and its grounds were for sale once more. Already invaded by the germ of a great idea, I made careful inquiries about the place. I became convinced that if one were to make extensive alternations, the buildings could be turned into a modern attractive hotel, of which the Portuguese Colony stood in great need. I pondered over the idea for a long time, and the longer I thought the greater became my ambition. It occurred to me that a casino and hotel combined might prove a still more profitable proposition—if one could work it.
Once the idea of an up-to-date casino had taken hold of me, I began to elaborate on the original scheme, till within a few days of its conception I could already see in my mind’s eye the Monte Carlo of the Far East, with myself in the role of M. Blanc. All the conditions likely to make for success appeared to be present: the position of the place was analogous, topographically, to that of Monte Carlo, the climate salubrious, the vegetation luxuriant, the scenery beautiful. There was a romantic bit of history attached to the place, sufficient of Old Portugal left to attract tourists. But in the addition to all these advantages, the nearness to two of the wealthiest Chinese provinces—Kwangsi and Kwantung—and Macao’s equidistance from Hong Kong and Canton promised to make it the Mecca of all gamblers in that part of the world, as well as a haven for those merely desiring rest and a change of scene.
I was privately informed that the Macao government was only too anxious to stop the opium traffic altogether, if some other equally productive means of revenue could be found. Everything seemed propitious. I studied the matter from all angles, and could find no snag in it. Here was a grand opportunity for organizing something really big. I amused myself by working out the whole thing in all its aspects, down to the minutest detail. And almost unawares I soon found myself in Macao.
I knew by this time a sufficiently large number of wealthy Chinese in Hong Kong, Canton and North China who, I was sure, would give the proposition their financial backing, and had sufficient faith and confidence in me to leave the organizing in my hands. I spoke to an engineer and architect friend of mine, and described to him what I had in mind, and then sent him to survey the estate and existing buildings. He reported favorably upon the site, and produced some remarkably fine drawings of elevations—were now something to impress my Chinese backers, I thought, as well as the municipal councilors of Macao who would have the last word.
There were to be an amusement pier, pleasure boats and a ferry service to the neighboring coast, a hydro with gymnasium, thermal baths and swimming pools, a casino containing rooms for chemin de fer, roulette, fan-tan, and petits chevaux, billiard tables and dance halls. The hotel was to have 250 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, American fashion, and was to be constructed so that one could build on twice that number of rooms without interfering with the symmetry of the structure. Yes—I had my dreams!
A special feature was to be the outer gallery encircling the spoke-like wings of the main building, where as many small shops were to be installed as there were trades in the city, and where no two traders in the same commodity were to be allowed space. Ample provision for garages and repair shops were also included in the plans.
The scheme, financially, provided that in return for the concession the Government of Macao was to receive from the casino company a percentage of its net profits for thirty years, part of which was to go to the municipality of Macao to be utilized for the improvement of roads and lighting, and the clearing of slum areas; while the policing of the casino area was to be undertaken by the company, and all minor officials and labor were to be recruited from the local population. At the end of thirty years the whole of the estate and buildings were to become the exclusive property of the government.
Three million dollars was my estimate for the cost of this undertaking, and the authorized capital of the company I intended to be five million, of which my Chinese financiers were willing to find between them one a half million and give an assurance that they could raise as much again from their own circle of friends.
There was thus no need for me to worry about the money side of the scheme. Therefore, as soon as possible, I arranged for an interview with His Excellency, the Governor of Macao, to whom I submitted my proposals. Although he was pleased with it, so he gave me to understand, he remained diplomatically non-committal. But a week later our negotiations with the municipality started, to whom His Excellency had referred the matter with his recommendations that they were to consider it favorably.
Now the fun started. In those early hectic days, when I was still under the hot spell of my vision, many Portuguese officials began to discover that a visit to Hong Kong on business connected with the ‘great scheme’ assured free entertainment over long weekends for themselves and their ladies. Details had to be discussed, of course, and they argued, no doubt, that they might as well be discussed in comfort at Hong Kong Hotel as in stuffy Government offices at Macao.
One is prepared for that sort of thing in the Far East. I had more or less expected something of the kind. Moreover, you can’t entertain too lavishly folk who appreciate your genius and tell you to your face how they admire you, and how ready they are to promote your interests. I was not surprised when some of my Portuguese well-wishers informed me that they found it difficult to cooperate with me officially while little private worries were pressing so heavily upon them. Courteously they hinted that since they had honored me with their confidence I could surely do no less than relieve them of their most pressing burdens of debt, so that they might the better be able to devote their undivided attention to the furthering of my business. After all, is the want of a few hundred dollars to be allowed to interfere with your co-worker’s peace of mind?
It soon leaked out in the Portuguese Colony that I was not only a man of extraordinary enterprise, but also as different as chalk from cheese from those stuck-up inaccessible Britishers in Hong Kong—in fact, that I was muy simpatico and so generous. How I wished they hadn’t spread such lies! More and more officials came to see me, and their wives and daughters who came with them, of course, were so very charming! They had heard, these ladies, that I dabbled in diamonds too, ‘just for fun’—they said—and would I mind very much if they asked me to value for them their own diamond jewelry? Of course, they knew they weren’t really first class stones, but then father was only a Government official, and Portugal but a poor country. Still they adored diamonds, and some day—who knows?—if it wasn’t too much to hope when the Senor’s dream of Monte Carlo in Macao had become a reality and he was rolling in millions, he might perchance remember his humble friends, the wives and daughters of the Portuguese officials, who had made it possible for his dream to come true. In the meantime, if he had some teeny-weeny little stones that no one wanted—?
Would it delight you to have me confess that I ever believed that pretty speeches, pretty cars and pretty stones are perfectly suited to each other? Would you have me say more, so that you might with justice bestow upon me the honorable letters M.U.G?
So, everything went swimmingly, and as fast as official business can be transacted anywhere. Of course there were vexatious delays, vexatious only, I was told because I, a mere impulsive merchant, did not realize that Government business—at least Portuguese Government business—was not transacted on common mercantile lines. The explanation satisfied me for a while. I was still green.
I cannot recall a single instance of downright graft in connection with that grandly-conceived scheme. No one ever came up to me and said, “Unless you pay me so many thousand dollars I am going to oppose you in Council!” No one every threatened to frustrate my plans unless I handed over so much of my prospective profits—in advance. My gifts were freely bestowed to cement friendships of which I stood in need, and they were bestowed to cement friendships of which I stood in need, and they were bestowed without compulsion. It was only when my well-wishers increased out of all proportions even to the grandeur of my scheme that I first began to fear for its ultimate success.
My company had not been formed. It still existed partly in my imagination and partly on paper, backed by promises contingent upon being able to secure the approval of the Macao municipality and, of course, the subsequent sanction of the authorities in Lisbon. Hence there were no funds available for ‘preliminaries’ save those which came from my own pocket. Was it to be wondered at, therefore, that after six months of entertaining and free-will offerings I felt put out when one of the brightest dignitary—reminded me of a Portuguese proverb to the effect that he who rides on a well-grassed axle rides in comfort?
I judged that the axle had been, if anything, smothered in grease, and yet I was not riding in comfort. And I told him as much, quite bluntly. Upon mature reflection he therefore decided that the best interests of the colony would not be served by his sponsoring of my scheme: rank treason to my great cause and to me, his dear ‘amigo’. Such faithlessness should not go unpunished, and he would have deserved that I record his name here and now; if I retain it is only because of sweet Carmencita, his daughter.
Other councilors followed the traitor’s lead—some on the principle that all new things should be banned, and others just because the Governor of the Colony himself was greatly in favor of my proposals. Opposition grew like a snowball, almost overnight. My friends, their wives and daughters, came to see me no more.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong my scheme was also meeting with great opposition from those in the British Colony who thought that if roulette in luxurious surroundings were substituted for fan-tan in squalid, stuffy, unwholeseome rooms, the British youth of Hong Kong would surely got to the dogs. The British authorities, therefore, were also dead against me and did their best to break the scheme.
But above all, I had one most powerful and hitherto unsuspected opponent who had been against me from the start. This was the man behind the opium monopoly in Macao. I had said in my prospectus that there would be no further need for the ugly opium traffic in Portuguese possession as a source of revenue if my scheme were accepted. Naturally he was not going to lie down under this and see his source of income taken away from beneath his very nose. I like a fool had completely left him out of my calculations, and now, using his enormous influence and dipping freely into his long purse, he countered me at every step. He was the decisive factor behind my failure—for failure I could now see it was. While the documents were still preparing in Macao and a first report was already on its way to the Portuguese capital, I had already decided to abandon my plans. The dice were too heavily loaded against what would have been at any time a hazardous project.
And so after coming thus far my scheme was dropped, and with it all my glittering dreams of another and even more exotic Monte Carlo. It was only then that I actually met Li, the opium monopolist who had so contributed to wreck my plans. The jeweler in Hong Kong with whom he dealt had not been able to supply eight matched diamonds of hazel-nut size, and he had been told that he might find them with me. I did not disappoint him, and from then on Li became a regular visitor at my office once a week or so.
He was a strange volcanic type. The manner of his buying was like this: he would come through the door like a whirlwind, refuse to be seated since he really should not have come as he was so terribly busy. He would then say, ‘Anything good in diamonds—not too dear?’
When I had spread before him what I thought might tempt him, he would turn the stones over with a toothpick and say, “How much?’ To whatever price I mentioned he would say, ‘Too dear!’ walk to the door, there make a half-turn and add, ‘No less?’ come back to the table, pick up the stones, wrap them in any piece of paper that was handy and, with a ‘Send me the account’, disappear. Next time he would bring the check to cover the amount of his last purchase, and buy again ‘on tick’. These purchases ran into twenty, thirty and forty thousand dollars a time, and I could not imagine what he did with all the diamonds be bought. Well—I found out at last. He gave them all away. Many of the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao official’s wives sported gorgeous diamond earrings and diamonds rings. No wonder my friend Li could pull off deals that few other men could handle!
He tumbled one day to the fact that his purveyor of diamonds was the same man who had spoken so disparagingly of the opium traffic on which he himself was battening. He came and gave me a lecture, saying at the same time that if I had enlisted his cooperation he would have come in on the scheme. With his aid, I am sure all difficulties would have vanished. But it was too late. The opportune moment had gone; and it rests still with some future speculator to make my dream reality.
Body Clock Constant Throughout Life
I hope the gemologists, lab gemologists, gem dealers and jewelers take note of this natural phenomenon. It may affect gem identification and grading of stones.
BBC News writes:
Scientists have calculated that the body's internal clock works on a cycle of 24 hours and 11 minutes. Previous studies had concluded that the body, or circadian, clock worked on a 25-hour period that shortened with age.
But a study, funded by the US National Institutes for Health, has found both older and younger healthy people share the same circadian period of a little more than 24 hours. This is despite the fact that older people tend to wake up earlier.
Lead study author Dr Charles Czeisler, of Harvard Medical School, said: "The circadian period averages 24 hours and 11 minutes in both young and older individuals.
"However, older people tend to arise earlier in the morning, because the hours at which they can get a good night's sleep, relative to their circadian clock, are much more restricted." The study focused on a group of 24 men and women. The 11 younger subjects had an average age of 23.7 and the 13 older subjects had an average of 67.4.
In order to measure the length of the circadian period, investigators used a number of carefully designed techniques to minimise the factors which can inadvertently reset the circadian clock.
These include activity, exposure to indoor room light, travel and illness. Genetics may also be a factor. Dr Andrew Monjan, of the National Institute of Aging, said that older people might wake up earlier in the day than their younger counterparts because something - perhaps light exposure - is interrupting sleep and throwing off the sleep-wake cycle.
Body's pacemaker
In humans the circadian pacemaker is located deep within the brain's hypothalamus, in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, where it helps the body keep time. It controls a number of body functions and interacts with the mechanisms controlling sleep.
For most people, studies show that the pressure to sleep builds up throughout the day and peaks around 9pm-10pm. At this time, the body's temperature starts to drop and lowers about one degree during sleep.
As it starts to rise, around 4am, the likelihood of waking increases. In addition, the pineal gland, located deep within the brain, produces and secretes the chemical melatonin at high levels during the night.
A number of factors can affect melatonin secretion, especially many common medications and light. For example, a lamp turned off at bedtime can affect the stimulation of the pineal gland, and sunrise triggers the chemical process that enables a person to begin waking up.
More info @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/377146.stm
BBC News writes:
Scientists have calculated that the body's internal clock works on a cycle of 24 hours and 11 minutes. Previous studies had concluded that the body, or circadian, clock worked on a 25-hour period that shortened with age.
But a study, funded by the US National Institutes for Health, has found both older and younger healthy people share the same circadian period of a little more than 24 hours. This is despite the fact that older people tend to wake up earlier.
Lead study author Dr Charles Czeisler, of Harvard Medical School, said: "The circadian period averages 24 hours and 11 minutes in both young and older individuals.
"However, older people tend to arise earlier in the morning, because the hours at which they can get a good night's sleep, relative to their circadian clock, are much more restricted." The study focused on a group of 24 men and women. The 11 younger subjects had an average age of 23.7 and the 13 older subjects had an average of 67.4.
In order to measure the length of the circadian period, investigators used a number of carefully designed techniques to minimise the factors which can inadvertently reset the circadian clock.
These include activity, exposure to indoor room light, travel and illness. Genetics may also be a factor. Dr Andrew Monjan, of the National Institute of Aging, said that older people might wake up earlier in the day than their younger counterparts because something - perhaps light exposure - is interrupting sleep and throwing off the sleep-wake cycle.
Body's pacemaker
In humans the circadian pacemaker is located deep within the brain's hypothalamus, in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, where it helps the body keep time. It controls a number of body functions and interacts with the mechanisms controlling sleep.
For most people, studies show that the pressure to sleep builds up throughout the day and peaks around 9pm-10pm. At this time, the body's temperature starts to drop and lowers about one degree during sleep.
As it starts to rise, around 4am, the likelihood of waking increases. In addition, the pineal gland, located deep within the brain, produces and secretes the chemical melatonin at high levels during the night.
A number of factors can affect melatonin secretion, especially many common medications and light. For example, a lamp turned off at bedtime can affect the stimulation of the pineal gland, and sunrise triggers the chemical process that enables a person to begin waking up.
More info @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/377146.stm
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Variscite From Western Australia
Meekatharra District in central Western Australia is becoming known as the news source for variscite. Due to the remoteness of the area and the oppressively hot climate, mining takes place for only a 10-day period once a year during the cool season (May through September). The variscite colors range from light to dark yellowish green with attractive patterns created by orangy brown veining. The varisite reportedly is not treated or stabilized in any way. Through microscopic examination and EDXRF analysis the experts have identified particles of gold along with Fe and As.
Opal's Density
(via Australian Gemmologist, Volume 23, No.2, April – June 2007) Alan Hodgkinson writes:
The author describes how liquids such as sodium polytungstate and glycerine can be used practically to discriminate natural opals from synthetic and all-plastic imitation opals.
A typical gem quality opal has a water content of 6-10 percent and this is subject to both evaporation and drying out. In contrast, however, some opals are extremely hygroscopic, and upon immersion in water there can be considerable intake. This not only alters the weight and therefore the density of opal, but also can alter its appearance. As a consequence of this water intake, the whole stone looks more valuable. Also note how the opal has temporarily darkened where the water intake has concentrated.
Natural opal weight (before): 16.19ct
Natural opal weight (after): 18.10 ct
Obviously, any attempt at determining the specific gravity of such an opal, by hydrostatic or beam balance method would upset by its water intake. However, a useful response for estimating this opals specific gravity can be gained by the immediate reaction of the opal to immersion in sodium polytungstate. Webster gives the S.G for white and black and opal as near 2.1. Bear in mind, this density range is only significant when there is no matrix present. Please remember that the latter feature itself a pointer to a natural opal identity, unless the opal is part of a composite imitation. Those man-made opals with a 20 to 30 percent polymer infilling have a decidedly lower S.G in the region of 1.8 – 1.9, while those white synthetic opals that use zirconia as a sphere binder have a slightly raised S.G in the region of 2.2.
Suspension in sodium polytungstate
It is fairly simple matter to suspend an opal in the harmless medium, sodium polytungstate. This compound was demonstrated to the author in 1979 by Dr W W Hanneman. When pure, sodium polytungstate’s S.G is 2.8. Adding distilled water lowers its density. In contrast, heating the liquid evaporates and therefore raises its density. Once the opal is suspended, the R.I of the liquid can be confirmed by refractometer. This can then be read off against a straight line graph compiled by Hanneman which will indicate the approximate density of the opal. The alternative is to use known control stones (natural and synthetic) and compare the buoyancy or heaviness of the test opal against the behavior of the controls.
Glycerin as a heavy liquid
Glycerin is not harmful, washes off immediately with cold water, is not expensive, and might be found useful to separate opals from the all-plastic opal simulants, as pointed out by Emmanuel Fritsch. This viscous liquid has a density of 1.26 in which all imitation plastic opals will float. In contrast, all opal, whether natural or synthetic, will sink. Even those man-made opals which contain silica spheres but which have a substantial plastic binder, will sink. Apart from the plastic opal imitations, all of the above sink at variable speeds—dependent on size, and not density.
The author describes how liquids such as sodium polytungstate and glycerine can be used practically to discriminate natural opals from synthetic and all-plastic imitation opals.
A typical gem quality opal has a water content of 6-10 percent and this is subject to both evaporation and drying out. In contrast, however, some opals are extremely hygroscopic, and upon immersion in water there can be considerable intake. This not only alters the weight and therefore the density of opal, but also can alter its appearance. As a consequence of this water intake, the whole stone looks more valuable. Also note how the opal has temporarily darkened where the water intake has concentrated.
Natural opal weight (before): 16.19ct
Natural opal weight (after): 18.10 ct
Obviously, any attempt at determining the specific gravity of such an opal, by hydrostatic or beam balance method would upset by its water intake. However, a useful response for estimating this opals specific gravity can be gained by the immediate reaction of the opal to immersion in sodium polytungstate. Webster gives the S.G for white and black and opal as near 2.1. Bear in mind, this density range is only significant when there is no matrix present. Please remember that the latter feature itself a pointer to a natural opal identity, unless the opal is part of a composite imitation. Those man-made opals with a 20 to 30 percent polymer infilling have a decidedly lower S.G in the region of 1.8 – 1.9, while those white synthetic opals that use zirconia as a sphere binder have a slightly raised S.G in the region of 2.2.
Suspension in sodium polytungstate
It is fairly simple matter to suspend an opal in the harmless medium, sodium polytungstate. This compound was demonstrated to the author in 1979 by Dr W W Hanneman. When pure, sodium polytungstate’s S.G is 2.8. Adding distilled water lowers its density. In contrast, heating the liquid evaporates and therefore raises its density. Once the opal is suspended, the R.I of the liquid can be confirmed by refractometer. This can then be read off against a straight line graph compiled by Hanneman which will indicate the approximate density of the opal. The alternative is to use known control stones (natural and synthetic) and compare the buoyancy or heaviness of the test opal against the behavior of the controls.
Glycerin as a heavy liquid
Glycerin is not harmful, washes off immediately with cold water, is not expensive, and might be found useful to separate opals from the all-plastic opal simulants, as pointed out by Emmanuel Fritsch. This viscous liquid has a density of 1.26 in which all imitation plastic opals will float. In contrast, all opal, whether natural or synthetic, will sink. Even those man-made opals which contain silica spheres but which have a substantial plastic binder, will sink. Apart from the plastic opal imitations, all of the above sink at variable speeds—dependent on size, and not density.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)