Saturday, August 18, 2007
Namibia DTC: Testing Ground For The New Rough Distribution System
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about Namibia DTC (NDTC) + the new rough distribution system to local manufacturers + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
Can You Identify This Stone?
(via The Canadian Gemmologist, Vol.III, No.4, Spring, 1982) I, too, am sometimes found as a green stone, though you probably see me more often as red brown, white, blue, or golden colors. My R.I can vary considerably, as does my S.G. Usually you see me as tetragonal crystals, but if I am found as rolled pebbles, I am more nearly amorphous. Sometimes I show easily recognized absorption spectra, sometimes none at all. What am I?
Answer: Zircon
Answer: Zircon
Ulexite
Chemistry: Hydrated borate of calcium and sodium
Crystal system: Monoclinic; fibrous.
Color: Transparent to translucent; white.
Hardness: 1 - 2
Cleavage: Perfect; Fracture: fibrous.
Specific gravity: 1.65 – 1.99
Refractive index: 1.51 mean; 0.029
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion:-
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: USA
Notes
Collectors stone; also known as Television Stone, for if a slab is polished with both faces at right angle to the fibers, it will transmit image as per fiber optics; used to make imitation cat’s eye effect assembled stones; fluorescence: blue green (SW); may phosphoresce.
Crystal system: Monoclinic; fibrous.
Color: Transparent to translucent; white.
Hardness: 1 - 2
Cleavage: Perfect; Fracture: fibrous.
Specific gravity: 1.65 – 1.99
Refractive index: 1.51 mean; 0.029
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion:-
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: USA
Notes
Collectors stone; also known as Television Stone, for if a slab is polished with both faces at right angle to the fibers, it will transmit image as per fiber optics; used to make imitation cat’s eye effect assembled stones; fluorescence: blue green (SW); may phosphoresce.
Jewelry And Gem Program
I found an interesting link via FBI @ http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/jag/jagpage.htm on jewelry theft + the costs associated with gem and jewelry thefts + the popular fencing cities in the United States.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Greatest Film Directors
11. Martin Scorsese
12. Akira Kurosawa
13. Ingmar Bergman
14. John Cassavetes
15. Billy Wilder
16. Jean Renoir
17. Francis Ford Coppola
18. Howard Hawks
19. Francois Truffaut
20. Buster Keaton
12. Akira Kurosawa
13. Ingmar Bergman
14. John Cassavetes
15. Billy Wilder
16. Jean Renoir
17. Francis Ford Coppola
18. Howard Hawks
19. Francois Truffaut
20. Buster Keaton
Greatest Films
The films I like:
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Collapse
Good Books: (via Emergic) Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed follows Guns, Germs and Steel + discusses how societies morphed through the centuries + why some became lucky and prosperous. History is a life-long school of learning...... It's a good book for everyone.
Here is an excerpt from an article by the author in The New York Times:
What lessons can we draw from history? The most straightforward: take environmental problems seriously. They destroyed societies in the past, and they are even more likely to do so now. If 6,000 Polynesians with stone tools were able to destroy Mangareva Island, consider what six billion people with metal tools and bulldozers are doing today. Moreover, while the Maya collapse affected just a few neighboring societies in Central America, globalization now means that any society's problems have the potential to affect anyone else. Just think how crises in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq have shaped the United States today.
Other lessons involve failures of group decision-making. There are many reasons why past societies made bad decisions, and thereby failed to solve or even to perceive the problems that would eventually destroy them. One reason involves conflicts of interest, whereby one group within a society (for instance, the pig farmers who caused the worst erosion in medieval Greenland and Iceland) can profit by engaging in practices that damage the rest of society. Another is the pursuit of short-term gains at the expense of long-term survival, as when fishermen overfish the stocks on which their livelihoods ultimately depend.
History also teaches us two deeper lessons about what separates successful societies from those heading toward failure. A society contains a built-in blueprint for failure if the elite insulates itself from the consequences of its actions. That's why Maya kings, Norse Greenlanders and Easter Island chiefs made choices that eventually undermined their societies. They themselves did not begin to feel deprived until they had irreversibly destroyed their landscape.
The other deep lesson involves a willingness to re-examine long-held core values, when conditions change and those values no longer make sense. The medieval Greenland Norse lacked such a willingness: they continued to view themselves as transplanted Norwegian pastoralists, and to despise the Inuit as pagan hunters, even after Norway stopped sending trading ships and the climate had grown too cold for a pastoral existence. They died off as a result, leaving Greenland to the Inuit. On the other hand, the British in the 1950's faced up to the need for a painful reappraisal of their former status as rulers of a world empire set apart from Europe. They are now finding a different avenue to wealth and power, as part of a united Europe.
Here is an excerpt from an article by the author in The New York Times:
What lessons can we draw from history? The most straightforward: take environmental problems seriously. They destroyed societies in the past, and they are even more likely to do so now. If 6,000 Polynesians with stone tools were able to destroy Mangareva Island, consider what six billion people with metal tools and bulldozers are doing today. Moreover, while the Maya collapse affected just a few neighboring societies in Central America, globalization now means that any society's problems have the potential to affect anyone else. Just think how crises in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq have shaped the United States today.
Other lessons involve failures of group decision-making. There are many reasons why past societies made bad decisions, and thereby failed to solve or even to perceive the problems that would eventually destroy them. One reason involves conflicts of interest, whereby one group within a society (for instance, the pig farmers who caused the worst erosion in medieval Greenland and Iceland) can profit by engaging in practices that damage the rest of society. Another is the pursuit of short-term gains at the expense of long-term survival, as when fishermen overfish the stocks on which their livelihoods ultimately depend.
History also teaches us two deeper lessons about what separates successful societies from those heading toward failure. A society contains a built-in blueprint for failure if the elite insulates itself from the consequences of its actions. That's why Maya kings, Norse Greenlanders and Easter Island chiefs made choices that eventually undermined their societies. They themselves did not begin to feel deprived until they had irreversibly destroyed their landscape.
The other deep lesson involves a willingness to re-examine long-held core values, when conditions change and those values no longer make sense. The medieval Greenland Norse lacked such a willingness: they continued to view themselves as transplanted Norwegian pastoralists, and to despise the Inuit as pagan hunters, even after Norway stopped sending trading ships and the climate had grown too cold for a pastoral existence. They died off as a result, leaving Greenland to the Inuit. On the other hand, the British in the 1950's faced up to the need for a painful reappraisal of their former status as rulers of a world empire set apart from Europe. They are now finding a different avenue to wealth and power, as part of a united Europe.
Wine And Gems In Dijon
‘Color Sparkles: Legendary Wines and Gemstones,’ a unique exhibition of fine gems and fine wines, is being held in the Sciences Garden at the Parc de I’Arquebuse, Dijon, France, through Dec 9, 2007 + the French National Museum of Natural History with wines from the great vintners of Burgundy and beyond + wine tasting and hands-on experiments in light and color @ www.dijon.fr/fiche/eclats-de-couleruspierres-et-vins-de-legende.evt.5604.php
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