More Than You Know

Good Books: (via Emergic) Michael Mauboussin is chief investment strategist at Legg Mason Capital. His book More Than You Know is a collection of his essays written over the past few years.

Here is what Publisher’s Weekly has to say (via Amazon.com):
Mauboussin is not your average Wall Street equity analyst, writing investment recommendations whose topical interest wanes a few days after the report is issued. His strategy reports begin with scientific findings from diverse fields, then show why an investor should care. This book is a collection of 30 short reports, revised and updated, covering animal behavior ("Guppy Love: The Role of Imitation in Markets"), psychology ("Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers"), philosophy of science ("The Janitor's Dream: Why Listening to Individuals Can be Hazardous to Your Wealth") and other fields. Each essay describes a fascinating scientific finding, then develops and applies it to personal investing. "Survival of the Fittest," for example, begins by discussing how Tiger Woods improved his golf swing, introduces the concept of fitness landscapes from evolutionary biology, then explains why investors in commodity-producing companies should like strong centralized management, while technology-stock buyers should prefer flexible organizations with lots of disruptive new ideas. The book is breezy and well written, but not dumbed down, and provides extensive references. It can be read for entertainment as popular science or to broaden your investment thinking.

You can find some of Mauboussin’s recent essays here.

This is a fascinating book + gem and jewelry professionals + entrepreneurs must read the book for insights because you will meet the same type of characters in the (any) industry.

Modern Love

Peter Schjeldahl writes about the art and style of Sara & Gerald Murphy@ http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/08/06/070806craw_artworld_schjeldahl

Canadian Diamond Anti-Money Laundering Rules In-The-Making

Chaim Even-Zohar writes about Canadian government's overstated concerns posed by the diamond industry + BHP Billiton's suggestions on the methodology of reporting transactions + client identification difficulties + AML/CFT compliance agenda (s) + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=25527

Thermal Conductivity

With the rapid advancements in the field of crystal growth in the past several years, materials produced for the purpose of simulating diamond have become more and more difficult to detect. Because the R.I’s (refractive index) of diamond and most simulants are over the limit of the conventional refracatometer, identification is more difficult.

In 1978, the Ceres Corporation, which is a large manufacturer of synthetic cubic zirconia, came out with completely new type of instrument for the separation of diamond from the various simulants. The instrument is termed a ‘thermal conductivity probe’ and operates on the principle of thermal (heat) conductivity. Diamond is unique in this property and even the most impure Type I stones still conduct heat many times quicker than the next best material.

Since the Ceres probe was developed many other companies have also developed similar instruments. They usually consist of a small box with a meter or lights to indicate whether or not the stone is diamond. A pen-like probe is attached to the box by a wire. The conductivity of the stone is tested by pressing the copper tip of the probe against the stone. An electrical current is passed through a thermister in contact with the stone which heats it up slightly. Then the current is cut off and sensors measure the speed with which it cools. Diamond, having the highest thermal conductivity, cools tip faster than any other material.

The advantages of the thermal conductivity probe are many. Any size stone from 0.03 carat up can be tested, mounted or unmounted. The quality of the polish or thin surface coatings does not affect the accuracy.

Advantages
- Stones down to 0.03 carat can be tested.
- Mounted or unmounted stones can be tested.
- Faceted or rough stones can be tested.
- Doublets can be tested if several parts of the stone are checked.
- Thin surface coatings on the stone do not affect the accuracy.
- Each stone takes only about 3 seconds to test.
- The test is extremely accurate, especially for materials which closely resemble diamond in appearance.

Disadvantages
- The probe only indicates whether or not a stone is diamond. It does not distinguish between various simulants.
- As with any instrument, there is chance for error if it is not used properly or if it was manufactured poorly.

The thermal conductivity probes offer the gemologist an accurate and quick means of distinguishing between diamond and its simulants. If used properly by a trained gemologist, the results are both accurate and repeatable.

Scheelite

Chemistry: Calcium tungstate.
Crystal system: Tetragonal; dipyramids (may look like octahedral) or tabular crystals, also granular masses.
Color: Transparent to translucent; colorless, brown, orange, yellow, purple.
Hardness: 4.5 - 5
Cleavage: Perfect: 1 direction: fracture: splintery, sub-conchoidal to uneven.
Specific gravity: 5.9 – 6.1
Refractive index: 1.918 – 1.934; Uniaxial positive; 0.016
Luster: Vitreous to adamantine.
Dispersion: Medium
Dichroism: Strong.
Occurrence: Metamorphic, hydrothermal and pegmatites; Mexico, USA, Italy, UK.

Notes
May be dyed to look like many other stones; fine yellow may look like fancy diamond, but DR; also made synthetically; fluorescence: strong blue in short wave, but no reaction in long wave; may show didymium spectral lines in yellow and green; faceted for collectors.

Other People's Money

Memorable quotes from the movie:

Lawrence Garfield (Danny DeVito): This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle occurred, and the yen did this and the dollar did that and the infrastructure did the other thing, we would still be dead. You know why? Fiber optics. New technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead, all right. We're just not broke. And do you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes, slow but sure.

How To Grade Tea

Grading tea is an art than science + it owes its special effect to its caffeine, tannins, amino acid, protein content (s) + trace element (s): fluoride, potassium, calcium, manganese, vitamins: niacin, vitamin B1 and B2 + it acts directly on the brain and central nervous system (s) + it increases concentration.

Look how similar the concept is to diamond grading (old + new terms) + colored stone grading: it's either the color (due color causing trace elements), saturation or tone (based on percentage of elements + other modifiers) + other factors (like clarity + size, shape, proportion, symmetry, finish) that creates a unique gradation.

- Whole Leaf

- Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP)

- Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (GFOP)
- FOP with golden tips

- Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (TGFOP)
- FOP with lots of golden tips

- Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP)
- Exceptional quality FOP

- Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (SFTGFOP)
- The very best FOP

- Orange Pekoe (OP)

- Pekoe (P)

- Flowery Pekoe (FP)

- Pekoe Souchong (PS)

- Souchong (S)

Experts may also add 1 to decribe top quality after leaf designation (s): like FTGFOP1, OP1, S1 and so on.

- Broken Leaf
- Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP), Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (GBOP), Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (FBOP), Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (TGBOP), Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (GFBOP), Tippy Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (TGFBOP)

- Fannings
- Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings (BOPF)

- Dust
- Broken Orange Pekoe Dust (BPOD), Pekoe Dust (PD), Red Dust (RD), Super Red Dust (SRD), Fine Dust (FD), Super Fine Dust (SFD), Golden Dust (GD)

The grades of tea are represented by initials or a series of initials. Here are the grades of leaf sizes from largest to smallest:

- Whole Leaf
- Souchon
- FOP: Flowery Orange Pekoe
- OP: Orange Pekoe

- Broken Leaf
- P: Pekoe
- BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe

- Fannings and Dust
- F: Fannings
- D: Dust

- Additional Modifiers
- T: Tippy
- G: Golden

Usually they start at the lowest grade PS (Pekoe Souchong) to FOP (higher quality). They may also add modifiers such as GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) + even more modifiers such FTGFOP (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) + SFTGFOP (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) to improve the overall quality.

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).