Beautiful Evidence

Good Books: (via Emergic) Beautiful Evidence is Edward Tufte's latest book. Tufte’s forte is information visualisation.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Edward Tufte:
Tufte's work is important in such fields as information design and visual literacy, which deal with the visual communication of information. He coined the term chartjunk to refer to useless, non-informative, or information-obscuring elements of information displays. Tufte's work argues strongly against the inclusion of any decoration in visual presentations of information and claims that ink should only be used to convey significant data and aid its interpretation.

The focus in this book is on evidence presentation. As Tufte writes in the introduction: (The book) is about how seeing turns into showing, how empirical observations turn into explanations and evidence, suggests new designs, and provides analytical tools for assessing the credibility of evidence presentations.

I believe the book makes you think about the meaning of words and images + the ability to interpret truth in simple language (s).

Multiple Personalities

Ann Landi writes about painter's experimentation in a variety of genres creating their own artistic personality + morphing narrative style (s) + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2021

Nicky Oppenheimer Calls For African Mitigation Policies To Close Labor Cost Gap With India

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about the consequences of subsidies and/or two-tier pricing policies in diamond rough + De Beer's policy shift + journalist's dilema of reporting genuine news + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp

Indicator Stones (Heavy Liquids)

In order to check the SG of the liquid, indicator stones are used. Indicator stones are small stones of a known SG that are kept in the bottles.

Heavy liquids and indicator stones
- 3.32: Methylene iodide: 100% = corundum (SG=4.00); jadeite (SG=3.34)
- 3.05: Methylene iodide: 68%; benzyl benzoate: 32% = tourmaline (SG=3.04-3.06)
- 2.85: Methylene iodide: 64%; benzyl benzoate: 36% = nephrite (SG=2.95)
- 2.67: Methylene iodide: 60%; benzyl benzoate: 40% = calcite (SG=2.71); syn.emerald flux (SG=2.66)
- 2.62: Methylene iodide: 59%; benzyl benzoate: 41% = crystalline quartz (SG=2.66); cryptocrystalline quartz (SG=2.60) Chalcedony
- 2.57: Methylene iodide: 58% benzyl benzoate: 42% = cryptocrystalline quartz (SG=2.60) Chalcedony; microcline feldspar (SG=2.56) Amazonite

These indicator stones are extremely valuable because they allow one to quickly estimate the density of the liquid. The number printed on the bottle is only a guideline regarding the liquid’s SG, and many factors such as evaporation or contamination can alter its SG. So it is of great importance that the tester checks the densities of the liquid daily. For instance, if you are using a 2.67 liquid and you find that calcite (2.71) floats very slowly, then the liquid must be slightly above 2.71. When a liquid’s SG does not exactly match the number of the bottle, it does not mean that the liquid needs to be adjusted. So long as you can find the SG of the liquid it can be used. This is the purpose of the indicator stones.

SG range of gemstones
When determining the specific gravity (SG) of a gem, one should always keep in mind that each gem has a plus or minus range of SG and not just a single figure. There are many factors which can affect the SG of a specimen, such as the clarity, inclusions, impurities, etc and a tester’s degree of error must be taken into account as well. So one can see that the final figure obtained is usually much less reliable than an R.I reading for instance. For this reason, it is usually not possible to separate one stone from another on the basis of SG alone unless their SG’s are apart from each other. You must always consider the plus or minus of a property. Although specific gravity is an important diagnostic property, in most cases, additional tests must be used to positively identity a particular stone.

Saussurite

Chemistry: Decomposition product of plagioclase feldspar (mainly albite and zoisite).
Crystal system: Rock; massive.
Color: Opaque; often green variegated; whitish, grey green, yellow green, bluish green.
Hardness: 6.5
Cleavage: -
Specific gravity: 3.0 – 3.4 (may be as low as 2.8 if little zoisite present)
Refractive index: 1.70 (to as low as 1.57; variable; mean reading)
Luster: -
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Mineral aggregate formed as hydrothermal alteration product of plagioclase feldspar; named after the Swiss explorer Horace Benedict de Saussure, who discovered it on the slopes of Mont Blanc.

Notes
May look like jadeite, nephrite or zoisite; cabochon, carvings.

Stock Market vs Gem Market

Here is what Warren Buffet says about stock market (s):
We do not have an opinion about where the stock market, interest rates, or business activity will be a year from now. We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasts is to make fortune tellers look good. We believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.

True. Stock markets, like gem markets are always prone to extremes of elation and panic attacks. They are interpenetrant twins of the real world. As Warren Buffett put it wisely, it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. Not always. A friend of mine in the gem industry would tell me this: I love money + gemstones more than the things it can buy, but what I love more is other people's gemstones + money + he would say, I'm not your best friend. I'm your only friend. How do you like that?

To Kill A Mocking Bird

Memorable quotes from the movie:

Atticus Finch (Greogry Peck): If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.

Winning Decisions

Good Books: (via Emergic) J. Edward Russo and Paul Schoemaker’s Winning Decisions book focusses on getting it right the first time.

From the book’s description:
Decision-making is a business skill which managers often take for granted in themselves and others but it's not as easy as some might think. The authors, whose expertise has been sought out by over a hundred companies, including Arthur Andersen, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Unilever, contend that decision-making, like any other skill, must be developed and honed if it is to be used effectively. Winning Decisions offers step-by-step analyses of how people typically make decisions, and provides invaluable advice on how to improve your chances of getting your next big decision right the first time. The book is packed with worksheets, tools, questionnaires, case studies, and anecdotes analyzing major decisions made by organizations like British Airways, NASA, Shell Oil, and Pepsi. Some of the proven, straightforward techniques covered in Winning Decisions include how to:

- Reframe issues to ensure that the real problem is being addressed
- Improve the quality and quantity of your options
- Convert expert yet conflicting opinions into useful insights
- Make diversity of views and conflict work to your advantage
- Foster efficient and effective group decision-making
- Learn from past decisions--your own and those of others

Here is what Publisher’s Weekly wrote about Winning Decisions (published in 2001):
The coauthors of 1989's Decision Traps offer a clear, straightforward explanation of how managers should perform one of their most basic tasks: making a decision. Russo, professor of marketing and behavior science at Cornell, and Shoemaker, research director of Wharton's Mack Center for Technology and Innovation, break their method into four steps: framing decisions, i.e., factoring in difficulties like information overload and the "galloping rate of change," and thereby determining which choices need to be addressed and which ones don't; gathering real intelligence, not just information that will support internal biases; coming to conclusions, i.e., assessing how one's company acts on the intelligence gathered; and learning from experience. The authors walk readers through each of the steps. Unlike many business books, this one is akin to a workbook, providing how-tos, case studies and worksheets so readers can put their ideas into play immediately. The authors highlight key concepts, and they even show an occasional humorous side. However, they stress that even improving the way one goes about making decisions won't guarantee that they'll be the right ones. Decisions still have to be executed successfully, and luck is always a factor. Still, with better decision-making skills, the odds are bound to go up.

I think the book highlights traits of cognitively swift entrepreneurs of tomorrow. It's a must-read book.

Painting By Numbers

Peter Schjeldahl profiles Gustave Courbet @ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/07/30/070730crbo_books_schjeldahl

Slides And Prejudice

Linda Yablonsky writes about new generation artist's concept (s) based on photo-based painting (s) + the new technology + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2020

De Beers At The Mall Of The Emirates

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about Dubai and the Mall the Emirates + wholesale vs retail market sector + De Beers and DTC supported brands + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25546

Heavy Liquids

For the purpose (s) of identifying gems it is not usually so important to obtain an exact SG determination because most gems have a plus or minus range of SG. An approximate value is just useful as an exact value. For this reason, heavy liquids offer the gemologist what is considered by most to be the best overall method of SG determination available.

When a gem is put into a liquid of lower density than its own, it will sink. If the stone’s density is less than that of the liquid, it will float. Or if the stone’s density is exactly equal to that of the liquid, it will suspended, neither sinking nor floating. So it can be seen that by using a range of liquids with known densities it is possible to estimate the specific gravity of a gem. By noticing the speed with which a gem sinks or floats in a liquid, an accurate estimate can be made regarding the difference between the specific gravity of the liquid and the stone.

Types Of Heavy Liquids
The heavy liquids today consist of methylene iodide (pure SG=3.32) diluted with varying amounts of benzyl benzoate (pure SG=1.12) to obtain values below 3.32. The main advantage of using benzyl benzoate to dilute the methylene iodide instead of xylene (toluene), which was used in the past, is that the evaporation rates for methylene iodide and benzyl benzoate are nearly equal and so the density of the mixture is fairly constant and does not need to be adjusted as often as mixtures using xylene.

Methylene iodide: 3.32
Bromoform: 2.89
Benzyl benzoate: 1.12
Xylene (toluene): 0.87
Clerici’s solution: 4.15

Clerici’s solution is a concentrated solution in water of thallium formate and thallium malonate. It is expensive, poisonous and rather dangerous to handle compared with other liquids, but with a density of about 4.15 it is easy to forget about these shortcomings. Many find it useful to dilute Clerici’s solution (with water) to about 4.00 which is the SG of corundum.

Of all the heavy liquids, methylene iodide is undoubtedly the most useful. With a pure SG of 3.32 and of equal importance, an R.I (refractive index) of 1.74, it can serve two purposes: testing SG and immersion. Upon exposure to light, methylene iodide has a tendency to turn brown or black, but if a small piece of copper is kept in the bottle this darkening process can be reversed.

Sapphirine

Chemistry: Silicate containing magnesium and aluminum.
Crystal system: Monoclinic; small tabular pseudo-hexagonal.
Color: Transparent; dark blue to intense blue, blue, brownish green, purplish pink.
Hardness: 7.5
Cleavage: Indistinct: 3 directions.
Specific gravity: 3.51 (3.4 – 3.58)
Refractive index: 1.705 – 1.718; biaxial positive; 0.006-0.007
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: Strong.
Occurrence: In metamorphic rocks; gem quality: Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, Madagascar.

Notes
Rare metamorphic mineral; named after its sapphire blue color; faceted.

How To Grade Wine

Grading wine requires unique insight + knowledge + interpretation skills. It's a gift. You start with:

1. Appearance

2. Color

3. Aroma

4. Bouquet

5. Volatile Acidity

6. Total Acidity

7. Sugar

8. Flavor

9. Body

10. Astringency

11. General Quality

It's amazing to note the similarities to colored stone + diamond grading. I mean the concept. I think it's fun experimenting with the idea (s) because to me there is a link + I like to synthesize different concepts, especially when they are subjective because you create a unique language to communicate with people.

The Go Point

Good Books: (via Emergic) Here is how the book, The Go Point is described [via Amazon.com]:
The Go Point: the moment of truth when you have to say yes or no when it’s time to get off the fence.

Michael Useem through dramatic storytelling shows how to master the art and science of being decisive. He places you smack in the middle of people facing their go point, where actions or lack of them determined the fates of individuals, companies, and countries.

- Why on earth did Robert E. Lee send General George Pickett on an almost suicidal charge against the Union lines at Gettysburg?

- How does the leader of a firefighting crew make life-or-death decisions, directing his people with little information about weather patterns to guide him to go up or down the mountain? One direction means safety, the other danger.

- You’ve just assumed responsibility for a scandal-wracked corporation, a company teetering on the brink of disaster. What you decide over the course of the next several days will have consequences for thousands of employees and investors. How do you fulfill your responsibilities?

Michael Useem makes you feel as if you are there, right in the center of the action. He was there: tramping up and down the mountain where firefighters made their momentous decisions; walking the battlefield at Gettysburg to see for himself just what General Pickett faced before making his ill-fated charge; going into a trading pit where million-dollar buy-and-sell decisions are made that affect fortunes of both the firm and the person making the call.

You’ll discover why some decisions were flawless, perfectly on target, and others utterly disastrous. Most of all, you’ll learn how to make the right calls yourself, whether you’re changing your career, hiring an assistant, launching a product, or deciding on a potential acquisition or merger.

Smartly written and offering unusual insights into the minds of decision makers such as General Lee, The Go Point will provide the guidance for you to move with confidence when it’s your turn to get off the fence.

800-CEO-Read writes:
[Useem] is the author of some of the best books ever written on leading, particularly Leadership Moment from the late 90s, a book which uses examples of people leading while confronted with real world situations. Yes, his credentials are impressive, and his view on leadership above par, but what also sets him apart from the pack of business book authors is his storytelling ability. Michael Useem is a damn fine writer.

The Go Point continues his look at leadership, but focuses on that crucial decision-making point where we have to go and move forward.

I found the story about the Colorado forest fire to be intense and riveting. To understand what the firefighters went through and to understand the decisions that were made, Useem walked the landscape with one of the survivors. He tells the tale and then points out the decisions and the errors that were made with too little information. He describes the tremendous stress of battling a raging forest fire and how that affects decision-making.

Knowledge@Wharton interviewed Michael Useem, the author of The Go Point. Here are some excerpts:

We all make decisions all the time and most of them are highly personal -- [such as] what we put on this morning when we got up and got out of the house. A small subset of our decisions, though, has ramifications for people around us, and sometimes those are people we are responsible for. They work for us, we command them, and they may be in our community in some way.

There is a strain of thinking that is probably summed up with the psychologists' clinical term "decidophobia"; some people, [in considering] even what color clothing to put on in the morning, just simply balk at that decision. If it's highly personal, that's OK. The consequence is you don't get out of the house on time. But when it affects other people, you cannot suffer from that particular clinical syndrome, because you are going to ultimately cause others around you distress, maybe even harm.

Decision making and leadership can be difficult, but it can be learned. And I think the basic premise that underlies the book -- I think it just underlies reality -- is that decision making as a skill is learned really by making decisions. Critically though, [it means] looking back on those decisions, to make certain we don't make the same mistake twice, that you have some sense for what went right as well.

By way of example: I interviewed the chief executive of Lenovo -- which is of course China's big PC maker -- on this very topic for a couple of hours recently, and I put the question in summary this way (his name is Liu): "Mr. Liu, you came out of a state owned and operated research center. The government of China funded you, that was where your budget was from, but 22 years back you broke off with a couple of friends to create what is now the world's third-largest PC maker. How did you learn to make decisions along the way -- the decisions being how to market, how to brand, how to price, how to hire -- when you were doing none of those, making none of those decisions before?"

The answer really has stuck with me. At the end of every week, going back now more than 20 years, on Friday afternoon, he sits down with his direct reports, his top team, the five or six people he's closest to. They take time to review everything they've done that week -- what decisions were good, which ones were terrible. He has no MBA degree, no formal training in decision making, leadership, or management.

I say all that by way of coming back to the main point, which is decision making is a learned skill. You've got to make decisions and look back on them.

But in addition to that, becoming more self-conscious about getting the right data, having the right timing, talking to people who you know will not provide a biased read or filter through which they're going to pass their advice -- these are among what I would end up calling in the book the tools of leadership. So on the one hand, intuition is very important.

On the other hand, a set of tools is quite important also for helping all of us make good decisions. And just to come back to the main point: they're all learned.

I am in a start-up mode and going through my go points. A single wrong decision can bring nasty surprises. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur + good books have been an inspiration all my life.

Gained In Translation

Glenn D. Lowry writes about a new generation of artists from the Islamic world using the language of contemporary art to convey their deeply personal and broadly meaningful concepts + morphing psychological and metaphorical space + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2006

Rough Times Ahead

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about cyclical downturns + challenges in the diamond industry + the stagnant jewelry retail markets + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25566

That's Quite A Rock

Ying Wu writes about rough diamond jewelry on the rise + the quickening fashion cycles + other viewpoints @ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118557885150080861.html?mod=home_we_banner_left&mod=livemint

Hydrostatic Weighing Method

Advantages
- The major advantage is that an exact specific gravity (SG) figure can be arrived at.

- There is no limitation on the specific gravity (SG) of the stones that can be calculated. Unlike heavy liquids, high SG stones can be tested just as accurately as low SG stones.

Disadvantages
The accuracy of this method depends on several things:
- The accuracy of the balance. The balance should be able to weigh stones to 0.01 carat. If not, degree of error will be too large.

- The size of the stone is of great importance. With a ruby weighing 2 carats, an error of just 0.01 carat in the water weighing will lead to an error of 0.08 in the final SG determination, which is qute serious. It is generally agreed that even with a very accurate balance, this method should not be used with stones of less than one carat.

- The expertise and skill of the person making the measurements is also important. There are possibilities for error in both the weighing and the calculations. Things such as surface tension and air bubbles in the water can also affect the results.

- The hydrostatic method is rather time consuming and even someone with a great deal of experience usually needs several minutes to calculate the SG of a single stone.

Rutile

Chemistry: Titanium dioxide (polymorphous with anatase and brookite)
Crystal system: Tetragonal; vertically striated prisms capped with pyramids; geniculate twins; sometimes repeated twinning causes closed rings.
Color: Rarely transparent; red, brown, black; too dark for gem.
Hardness: 6 – 6.5
Cleavage: Distinct: 1 direction; fracture: brittle, conchoidal to uneven.
Specific gravity: 4.2 – 4.3
Refractive index: 2.62 – 2.90; Uniaxial positive; 0.287
Luster: Adamantine to metallic.
Dispersion: Very high.
Dichroism: Strong but variable.
Occurrence: Found in igneous rocks, pegmatites, metamorphic rocks and limestones.

Notes
Common as inclusion in quartz (rutilated quartz) and a wide variety of gems; made synthetically as diamond simulant with yellow tint, high DR and strong dispersion; faceted for collectors.