An inspiring story. I wish someone could do the same with gemstone inclusions.
Todd Jatras writes :
ABC News has a great video interview with British micro-artist Willard Wigan, who uses a high-powered microscope and claims he has to slow his heart down in order to work between beats, creating the world's smallest sculptures. Wigan uses tiny homemade tools and paints with “a hair plucked from a fly’s back.” Check out works of his such the eye-of-a-needle Wizard of Oz scene (pictured left), dolls the size of a human blood cell and Charlie Chaplin balanced on a human eyelash. Wigan turned to micro art as a young child humiliated at school because of learning disabilities and says that he still can’t read or write. A major collection of his work recently sold for $20 million.
More info @ http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/06/microscopic-art.html
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Opal Star Triplet
Star opals also exist and are similar to the cat’s eye opals. This is not true asterism, but instead results from fault planes within the opal. Two kinds of stars are seen—three-rayed stars and six-pointed stars. The material is used in the making of triplets and comes from Idaho (USA).
U.S. Tax Officials: Biting Without Teeth...
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about diamond industry specific anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing legislation (AML/CFT) + the practical difficulties in the implementation + U.S government's lack of skills, manpower, expertise and the tools to audit the diamond and jewelry industry + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=27001
The Spot Method
For normal use with the refractometer, the stone being tested should have a well-polished flat facet. In 1948, Lester Brown developed a technique which enables the gemologist to make refractive index readings on cabochons or stones with extremely small facets, which up until that time was not possible. The technique is known as the spot method or distant vision technique and works as follows:
- Remove the eyepiece and use white light.
- Put a very small drop of liquid onto the center of the hemisphere. Very gently place the stone onto the drop and then examine the scale.
- If the drop outline covers more than two or three scale divisions it is too large and the reading will not be accurate. The size of the spot should be reduced by picking up the stone, wiping the liquid off the stone, and putting it back down on the remaining amount of liquid still on the hemisphere.
- When the spot is no longer than three scale divisions, the head should be moved up and down the scale. The spot will go from dark to light as you move your head down the scale. The point should be found where the spot appears exactly half light and half dark. This is where the reading is made.
- Sometimes the spot changes so quickly from dark to light that the half position can not be seen. If it is dark at 1.58 and light at 1.60, the refractive index can be estimated at about 1.59.
The readings obtained using the spot method may be unclear and hazy. This may be due to the stone being poorly polished. In order to insure that the reading will be as sharp and clear as possible, it is good idea to examine the stone carefully to find the smoothest and best polished area. Then, that area should be put in contact with the hemisphere instead of a dull or scratched area. This will make a big difference in the accuracy of the initial reading. The first thing to do is to remove some liquid to sharpen the division. If the reading is still unclear then a rough estimate must be made, keeping in mind that it will only be accurate to plus or minus a few scale divisions.
- Remove the eyepiece and use white light.
- Put a very small drop of liquid onto the center of the hemisphere. Very gently place the stone onto the drop and then examine the scale.
- If the drop outline covers more than two or three scale divisions it is too large and the reading will not be accurate. The size of the spot should be reduced by picking up the stone, wiping the liquid off the stone, and putting it back down on the remaining amount of liquid still on the hemisphere.
- When the spot is no longer than three scale divisions, the head should be moved up and down the scale. The spot will go from dark to light as you move your head down the scale. The point should be found where the spot appears exactly half light and half dark. This is where the reading is made.
- Sometimes the spot changes so quickly from dark to light that the half position can not be seen. If it is dark at 1.58 and light at 1.60, the refractive index can be estimated at about 1.59.
The readings obtained using the spot method may be unclear and hazy. This may be due to the stone being poorly polished. In order to insure that the reading will be as sharp and clear as possible, it is good idea to examine the stone carefully to find the smoothest and best polished area. Then, that area should be put in contact with the hemisphere instead of a dull or scratched area. This will make a big difference in the accuracy of the initial reading. The first thing to do is to remove some liquid to sharpen the division. If the reading is still unclear then a rough estimate must be made, keeping in mind that it will only be accurate to plus or minus a few scale divisions.
Everything Is Miscellaneous
This concept may work wonders in the gem and jewelry industry if executed appropriately.
(via Emergic) Rajesh Jain writes:
I have followed David Weinberger's blog for a long time. So, it was natural to want to read his new book “Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder.” David's two previous books include “The Cluetrain Manifesto” (as co-author) and “Small Pieces Loosely Joined.”
From the book's inside flap:
Human beings are information omnivores: we are constantly collecting, labeling, and organizing data. But today, the shift from the physical to the digital is mixing, burning, and ripping our lives apart. In the past, everything had its one place--the physical world demanded it--but now everything has its places: multiple categories, multiple shelves. Simply put, everything is suddenly miscellaneous.
In Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger charts the new principles of digital order that are remaking business, education, politics, science, and culture. In his rollicking tour of the rise of the miscellaneous, he examines why the Dewey decimal system is stretched to the breaking point, how Rand McNally decides what information not to include in a physical map (and why Google Earth is winning that battle), how Staples stores emulate online shopping to increase sales, why your children’s teachers will stop having them memorize facts, and how the shift to digital music stands as the model for the future in virtually every industry. Finally, he shows how by "going miscellaneous," anyone can reap rewards from the deluge of information in modern work and life.
From A to Z, Everything Is Miscellaneous will completely reshape the way you think--and what you know--about the world.
This is what David wrote in an essay on Amazon:
As businesses go miscellaneous, information gets chopped into smaller and smaller pieces. But it also escapes its leash--adding to a pile that can be sorted and arranged by anyone with a Web browser and a Net connection. In fact, information exhibits bird-like "flocking behavior," joining with other information that adds value to it, creating swarms that help customers and, ultimately, the businesses from which the information initially escaped.
For example, Wize.com is a customer review site founded in 2005 by entrepreneur Doug Baker. The site provides reviews for everything from computers and MP3 players to coffee makers and baby strollers. But why do we need another place for reviews? If you’re using the Web to research what digital camera to buy for your father-in-law, you probably feel there are far too many sites out there already. By the time you have scrolled through one store’s customer reviews for each candidate camera and then cross-referenced the positive and the negative with the expert reviews at each of your bookmarked consumer magazines, you have to start the process again just to remember what people said. Wize in fact aims at exactly that problem. It pulls together reviews from many outside sources and aggregates them into three piles: user reviews, expert reviews (with links to the online publications), and the general "buzz." (For shoppers looking for a quick read on a product, Wize assigns an overall ranking.) When Wize reports that 97 percent of users love the Nikon D200 camera, it includes links to the online stores where the user reviews are posted, so customers are driven back to the businesses to spend their money.
Wize...[makes] money by selling advertising, but their value is in the way their sites aggregate the miscellaneous--letting lots of independent sources flock together, all in one place. We’re seeing the same trend in industry after industry, including music, travel, and the news media. Information gets released into the wild (sometimes against a company’s will), where it joins up with other information, and the act of aggregating adds value. Companies lose some control, but they gain market presence and smarter customers. The companies that are succeeding in the new digital skies are the ones that allow their customers to add their own information and the aggregators to mix it up, because whether or not information wants to be free, it sure wants to flock.
(via Emergic) Rajesh Jain writes:
I have followed David Weinberger's blog for a long time. So, it was natural to want to read his new book “Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder.” David's two previous books include “The Cluetrain Manifesto” (as co-author) and “Small Pieces Loosely Joined.”
From the book's inside flap:
Human beings are information omnivores: we are constantly collecting, labeling, and organizing data. But today, the shift from the physical to the digital is mixing, burning, and ripping our lives apart. In the past, everything had its one place--the physical world demanded it--but now everything has its places: multiple categories, multiple shelves. Simply put, everything is suddenly miscellaneous.
In Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger charts the new principles of digital order that are remaking business, education, politics, science, and culture. In his rollicking tour of the rise of the miscellaneous, he examines why the Dewey decimal system is stretched to the breaking point, how Rand McNally decides what information not to include in a physical map (and why Google Earth is winning that battle), how Staples stores emulate online shopping to increase sales, why your children’s teachers will stop having them memorize facts, and how the shift to digital music stands as the model for the future in virtually every industry. Finally, he shows how by "going miscellaneous," anyone can reap rewards from the deluge of information in modern work and life.
From A to Z, Everything Is Miscellaneous will completely reshape the way you think--and what you know--about the world.
This is what David wrote in an essay on Amazon:
As businesses go miscellaneous, information gets chopped into smaller and smaller pieces. But it also escapes its leash--adding to a pile that can be sorted and arranged by anyone with a Web browser and a Net connection. In fact, information exhibits bird-like "flocking behavior," joining with other information that adds value to it, creating swarms that help customers and, ultimately, the businesses from which the information initially escaped.
For example, Wize.com is a customer review site founded in 2005 by entrepreneur Doug Baker. The site provides reviews for everything from computers and MP3 players to coffee makers and baby strollers. But why do we need another place for reviews? If you’re using the Web to research what digital camera to buy for your father-in-law, you probably feel there are far too many sites out there already. By the time you have scrolled through one store’s customer reviews for each candidate camera and then cross-referenced the positive and the negative with the expert reviews at each of your bookmarked consumer magazines, you have to start the process again just to remember what people said. Wize in fact aims at exactly that problem. It pulls together reviews from many outside sources and aggregates them into three piles: user reviews, expert reviews (with links to the online publications), and the general "buzz." (For shoppers looking for a quick read on a product, Wize assigns an overall ranking.) When Wize reports that 97 percent of users love the Nikon D200 camera, it includes links to the online stores where the user reviews are posted, so customers are driven back to the businesses to spend their money.
Wize...[makes] money by selling advertising, but their value is in the way their sites aggregate the miscellaneous--letting lots of independent sources flock together, all in one place. We’re seeing the same trend in industry after industry, including music, travel, and the news media. Information gets released into the wild (sometimes against a company’s will), where it joins up with other information, and the act of aggregating adds value. Companies lose some control, but they gain market presence and smarter customers. The companies that are succeeding in the new digital skies are the ones that allow their customers to add their own information and the aggregators to mix it up, because whether or not information wants to be free, it sure wants to flock.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Opal Cat’s Eye Triplet
Cat’s eye opals are not chatoyant in the ordinary sense of the word. Instead the eye is simply a single streak of color across the stone due to parallel fault planes within the opal. The material is normally made into triplets as the quartz dome magnifies the effect.
The New Friends Of De Beers
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about the perception of De Beer's Chairman/Managing Director by the local establishment press + the chain of events + the new concept of State Diamond Trader + the new way of doing business + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=27042
US$10m For A Rock In A Bay
I have known David Glickman for nearly two decades, and he is a unique + one-of-a-kind gem dealer in Bangkok, Thailand. He has a good sense of humor; I would call him the Woody Allen of the gem and jewelry business. I wish him all the best of luck finding a buyer for his island.
(via AP) Nation writes:
If you have ever wanted to own a piece of San Francisco Bay, now is your chance. Red Rock, the only privately owned island in the bay, is up for sale. But it is well beyond most pocketbooks.
David Glickman, a Bangkok-based gems dealer and attorney, wants US$10 million (Bt346 million) for the 5.8-acre, uninhabited island in the shadow of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
"It's time to sell. I'm not going to live much longer. I'm almost 78. My wife is Thai, highly educated, and I'd like to leave her in good finances," Glickman said.
Red Rock Island, which gets its name from the reddish-brown color of its soil, was privately purchased in the 1920s. After a few owners, Glickman, then practicing law in San Francisco, bought it sight unseen in 1964 for $49,500.
It is located about 13 kilometers north of San Francisco's famed Fisherman's Wharf at a point where the San Francisco, Marin and Contra Costa counties converge.
"At the time, I thought I'd sell it. The island has a good spot for a marina, and it's in the bay, so the marina would be useful," he said. "But each time I thought I was going to sell it, something happened to make it worth more money."
Settled for good in Thailand, Glickman has so far refused to drop the asking price or consider donating it for conservation purposes.
More info @ http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/20/headlines/headlines_30037353.php
(via AP) Nation writes:
If you have ever wanted to own a piece of San Francisco Bay, now is your chance. Red Rock, the only privately owned island in the bay, is up for sale. But it is well beyond most pocketbooks.
David Glickman, a Bangkok-based gems dealer and attorney, wants US$10 million (Bt346 million) for the 5.8-acre, uninhabited island in the shadow of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
"It's time to sell. I'm not going to live much longer. I'm almost 78. My wife is Thai, highly educated, and I'd like to leave her in good finances," Glickman said.
Red Rock Island, which gets its name from the reddish-brown color of its soil, was privately purchased in the 1920s. After a few owners, Glickman, then practicing law in San Francisco, bought it sight unseen in 1964 for $49,500.
It is located about 13 kilometers north of San Francisco's famed Fisherman's Wharf at a point where the San Francisco, Marin and Contra Costa counties converge.
"At the time, I thought I'd sell it. The island has a good spot for a marina, and it's in the bay, so the marina would be useful," he said. "But each time I thought I was going to sell it, something happened to make it worth more money."
Settled for good in Thailand, Glickman has so far refused to drop the asking price or consider donating it for conservation purposes.
More info @ http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/20/headlines/headlines_30037353.php
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