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