India, China To Equal US Jewellery Market

Commodity Online writes about the global gem and jewelry market + the status of India and China by 2015 @ http://www.commodityonline.com/newnews.php?id=1961

King Of Bling

Susan Adams writes about Laurence Graff, the most exclusive diamond merchant, the new Harry Winston, the branding genius + other viewpoints @ http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0813/084.html

Meerschaum

(Sepiolite)
Chemistry: Hydrated magnesium silicate
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; microcrystalline; an intermediate mixture of a fine fibrous material and an amorphous substance of the same composition.
Color: Opaque.
Hardness: 2 – 2.5
Cleavage: -
Specific gravity: 2; very porous (when dry it will float in water)
Refractive index: 1.53 mean.
Luster: Earthy
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Alluvial deposits; Greece, Spain, USA, Morocco.

Notes
Soft white and very porous, stains readily (can float); meerschaum from the German word meaning ‘sea foam’; sepiolite from the Greek meaning ‘cuttlefish’; alteration product of serpentine and magnesite; fluorescence: bright blue (long wave); carvings, pipes.

Charles Thomas Munger

"It is not given to human beings to have such talent that they can just know everything about everything all the time. But it is given to human beings who work hard at it – who look and sift the world for a mispriced bet – that they can occasionally find one. And the wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have odds. And the rest of the time, they don't. It's just that simple."

A priceless advice.

The Marketing Gurus

Good Books: (via Emergic) The Marketing Gurus by Chris Murray is a collection of summaries of some of the best marketing books. It’s a good concept; one can get a flavor of the best recent ideas in marketing.

Here is a review from Publishers Weekly (via Amazon):
As the editor of Soundview Executive Book Summaries, which distills business books into 5,000-word recaps, Murray offers 17 such summaries of marketing books published in the last 15 years. It's arguably a narrow range for the best "of all time" even with big names like Regis McKenna and Sergio Zyman on board. Each book summary begins with a quick summation, often making redundant the introductions written especially for the collection. And though the condensed versions manage to extract the key ideas from each text, some authors fare better than others. Faith Popcorn's unique voice survives compression, for example, much better than Seth Godin's does. The selected books are sequenced to suggest a broader argument that runs from connecting with customers to marketing in the 21st century, but the actual connections between the various works are largely unstated. Unless you're completely new to marketing research, chances are you've come across at least one of these books already, but Soundview's summaries are a good introduction for those with no background.

This is what the book description says:
Since 1978, Soundview Executive Book Summaries has offered its subscribers condensed versions of the best business books published each year. Soundview’s summaries have won it acclaim as the definitive selection service for sophisticated business book readers.

For the first time ever, Soundview is bringing together summaries of seventeen essential marketing classics in a single volume. The Marketing Gurus distills thousands of pages into fewer than three hundred, making it ideal for busy professionals, students, and anyone curious about how marketing has evolved.

I think it's an excellent introduction for beginners so that they are able to revisit and distill some of the recent marketing ideas.

Optical Delusions

Hilarie M. Sheets writes about Tim Eitel's monumental canvases + the psychological tenor of the contemporary-looking figures + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2154

The New Emirate On The Schelde

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about the concept of offshore economies + competition among the key players like Belgium, Dubai, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Israel promising the nomadic tribe of tax exiles with exotic global capital conveniences + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25748

Lazurite

Chemistry: Isomorphous combination hauynite and sodalite.
Crystal system: Cubic; rarely dodecahedral or compact masses in aggregate.
Color: dark blue or greenish blue
Hardness: 5.5
Cleavage: Imperfect: dodecahedral.
Specific gravity: 2.7 – 2.9
Refractive index: 1.50 mean
Luster: Dull to greasy.
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: In limestones as a result of contact metamorphism.

Notes
Lapis lazuli is a complex aggregate of hauynite, sodalite, noselite and lazurite; inclusions: pyrite, calcite.