FATF Update

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has developed a guidance document in close consultation with representatives of the dealers in precious metals and dealers in precious stones industries. Go to www.fatf-gafi.org for further information.

InnoCentive

I found the article on Innocentive, a company that links organizations (seekers) with problems (challenges) to people all over the world (solvers) who win cash prizes for resolving them @ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/22inno.htmlpagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=df5efa6eea21c9b7&ex=1216958400 brilliant.

Useful link:
www.innocentive.com

Random Thoughts

You give all of your inspiration and everything you want to do to the dancers, and it’s up to them to make it work, actually. The choreographer really depends on the dancers in the end.

- Alexei Ratmansky, Choreographer

How true!

Marcel Tabuteau

Marcel Tabuteau: How Do You Expect to Play the Oboe If You Can't Peel a Mushroom? by Laila Storch tells a remarkable story in an engaging style.

Solar Power From Saharan Sun

Alok Jha's article on solar power from Saharan sun + the impact @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/solarpower.windpower was interesting. As Doug Parr (Greenpeace UK) rightly put it, if it's cost-effective, a largescale renewable energy grid is just the kind of innovation we need if we're going to beat climate change.

Useful links:
www.esof2008.org
http://ie.jrc.ec.europa.eu
www.greenpeace.org.uk
www.jrc.ec.europa.eu

FTC Update

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has rejected a petition from the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) and nine other trade associations requesting that the commission use its industry guides on the use of the term 'cultured' to describe laboratory-created gemstones. The groups that had signed on to the petition included the JVC, American Gem Society, American Gem Trade Association, CIBJO (World Jewellery Confederation), Cultured Pearl Association, Diamond Council of America, Diamond Manufacturers and Importers Association of America, Jewelers of America, Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America and World Federation of Diamond Bourses.

Useful links:
www.ftc.gov
www.jvclegal.org
www.americangemsociety.org
www.agta.org
www.cibjo.org
www.cpaa.org
www.diamondcouncil.org
www.dmia.net
www.jewelers.org
www.mjsa.org
www.worldfed.com

The Best Places For Business

Forbes 2008 survey of the best places for business lists the following countries.

1. Denmark
2. Ireland
3. Finland
4. United States
5. United Kingdom
6. Sweden
7. Canada
8. Singapore
9. Hong Kong
10. Estonia

For the complete list, go to www.forbes.com/bestbizcountries

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.
- Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776)

Beyond Orientalism

The exhibition, Beyond Orientalism, opens on 25 July 2008 - 25 October 2008 at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) in Kuala Lumpur. The show highlights Islamic calligraphy, tile designs, beautiful geometrical motifs + the art of M.C. Escher + a rare 19th century Koran, made for a Malay sultan with lashings of gold illumination + Chinese calligraphic wall scrolls with Koranic quotations. A must-visit!

Useful link:
www.iamm.org.my

Andrzej Klimowski + Danusia Schebal

The visual translation of The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece of Soviet magical realism, by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schebal was brilliant.

Useful links:

www.klimowski.com

www.danusiaschejbal.com

www.selfmadehero.com

Random Thoughts

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

- Richard Feynman
www.feynmanonline.com

Two American Music Icons

Two Men With The Blues by Willie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis, two of contemporary American music's greatest icons, is a great album with great music. You will love it.

Useful links:

www.wyntonmarsalis.org

www.willienelson.com

A Green New Deal

According to the New Economics Foundation, a unique new group of specialists in finance, energy and environment, a Green New Deal will deliver a comprehensive solution to the triple crunches of the credit crisis, high energy prices and climate change. In order to achieve positive results many countries will have to learn the art of rapid transition (economic + political + behavioural). The Green New Deal group's inspiration comes from President Roosevelt's response to the 1929 Wall Street financial crash. A Green New Deal Report can be downloaded from the New Economic Foundation's website @ www.neweconomics.org

Geometric Informatics

The video of Radiohead's 'House Of Cards' by director James Frost using 3-D and radar technologies was brilliant. I liked it.

Useful links:
www.geometricinformatics.com
www.radiohead.com

I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points - and how strangely emotional it ended up being.
- Thom Yorke

Jamie Hewlett

Jamie Hewlett is an English comic book artist and designer. He is best known for being the co-creator of the comic strip Tank Girl and co-creator of the band Gorillaz. He is a major creator in the comics industry, and one of the few to break into mainstream media. I am a huge fan of Jamie Hewlett.

Useful links:
www.gorillaz.com
www.monkeyjourneytothewest.com

The World's Most Sought-after Champagnes

I found Vidya Ram's article on highest-quality Champagnes @ http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2008/07/18/champagne-prices-rising-forbeslife-cx_vr_0718wine.html interesting. I think demand is definitely outstripping supply, really.

Useful links:
www.liv-ex.com
www.wamllp.com

Champagne is what is drunk in the casinos of the world, on the yachts of Russian oligarchs and by footballers' wives, so there is an element of flash money about it.
- Justin Gibbs

An Interesting Gem Dispute

David K Li writes about a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Harry Winston company + the 733-carat sapphire connection @ http://www.nypost.com/seven/07162008/news/nationalnews/heavyweight_gem_cuffle_120112.htm

The New Museum

The New Museum has announced plans for a triennial exhibition devoted to emerging global artists, slated to open in the spring of 2009. Go to www.newmuseum.org for further information.

Random Thoughts

I like to wait for the noise in the brain to recede and to have a better relation to the unconscious. Anyone who spends time with young people knows that you can’t fake play. There’s real play, and then there’s fake play, and when young people are fake playing you see it immediately. I’m deeply suspicious of the craft in which I have expertise, because I grew up in a dictatorship. Whether it was the shadow of the dictatorship of Trujillo, or was my father who was part of the military apparatus of the dictatorship, I always knew the dangers of authoring, and authority, and storytelling.

- Junot Díaz
www.junotdiaz.com

The Vikram Talwar Story

The Vikram Talwar story + the differentiator factor between a good C.E.O. and an average one + other viewpoints @ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/jobs/20boss.html was insightful and inspiring.

Useful link:
www.exlservice.com

Heard On The Street

If Americans stopped consuming, the pain would be global.