Greatest Opening Film Lines (The Human Comedy - 1943) :
I am Matthew Macauley. I have been dead for two years, but so much of me is still living that I know now the end is only the beginning. As I look down on my homeland of Ithaca, California, with its cactus, vineyards and orchards, I feel so much of me is still living there - in the places I've been, in the fields, the streets, the church, and, most of all, my home where my hopes, my dreams, my ambitions, my beliefs still live in the daily lives of my loved ones.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Talal Abu Ghazaleh
I believe that I was lucky to have suffered. Some people don’t realize that in suffering there is great potential, because if you are deprived for any reason.. politically, financially, socially or otherwise.. and if you set your mind in the right direction, you will find that the only way to survive is for you to excel, by being better so you can be treated better.
The Selling Of Jeff Koons
Kelly Devine Thomas writes about Jeff Koons, the controversial art star + his pop, conceptual, and minimalist art concepts + his unique way of interpreting work of arts + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1829
Treasure Maps
Bill James (Australia) writes:
Most often used by rock-hounds is the inch to a mile scale military map, prepared by the Royal Australian Survey Corps and available from stationers and booksellers. This map gives accurate and detailed information on routes and camping places as well as indicating promising prospecting localities.
The military map is most useful in conjunction with one of the detailed geological maps produced by the Commonwealth Bureau of Mineral Resources or the Mines Department of the various States. When planning a prospecting trip, it is wise to have several alternatives in mind, so as to avoid disappointment. In a granite area, for instance, we may wish to try our luck on the rockface and talus, on mine dumps and also at what we work out as the most promising stretch of the river.
We require a good deal of equipment to tackle the rockface. A pick and showel, a light mineralogist’s pick-hammer, a striking hammer of about 3lb weight—one with a square face and a chisel peen is the most useful—and half-a-dozen rock gads of various sizes. A steel crowbar or prybar of the type known to American rockhounds as a pocket robber is invaluable. This tool, which varies from 18 in. to 45 in. according to taste, has a 30 degree bend at each end to provide powerful leverage.
A sledgehammer up to about 14 lb in weight may also be needed. The rockface offers three collecting areas—the face itself, the talus, and the eluvial deposits buried beneath the talus which have been concentrated by gravity. Both the last-named present few problems except hard pick and showel work, cracking any lumps of rock that look as if they could contain crystals. A quarter or eighth-inch sieve will be required to deal with the smaller gravel.
The rockface is another matter. Weathered rock can be a deathtrap even to a properly equipped and experienced climber. But you are neither experienced nor properly equipped. If the face is in any way difficult, you will be a fool try climbing and working on it. Leave it alone and concentrate on the easier stuff. That goes for quarries too, but there the owner will probably insist that you remain on terra firma, anyway.
It may happen that a pegmatite dyke or sill or a rock cavity occurs in a position where you can attack it safely. The finest gem crystals are often found in gas holes of pink or red granites and plants growing out of the rockface may indicate such a cavity.
In basalts, the steamholes or amygdales may be filled with opal or agate. Amethysts are found in quartz veins as a druse—a cavity lined with crystals of the same nature as the host rock, as distinct from a geode. Gem pockets are usually found in the midst of the thickest part of pegmatite dykes and sills. The rock should be tested at these points with the pick and will be found to break open comparatively easily over a pocket of crystals.
Cavities in the rock mostly have to be opened by splitting with a succession of gads and the prybar then used carefully to break off and bring out the crystals. Sometimes these cavities are filled with clay and the contents must be sieved to make sure no gems are lost.
Sieves, a bucket and shovel, with maybe a pick and a crowbar to shift the boulders are what we require to deal with river gravels. Some people use a miner’s pan but the best equipment for gemstones is two sieves which fit together. I prefer the half-inch and quarter-inch mesh in general, but a quarter-inch sieve and an eight-inch or even a one-sixteenth-inch are better if there is any chance of picking up diamonds.
Standing gumboot deep in a river agitating a couple of sieves becomes hard work very quickly. However, special aluminum sieves are now available to lighten the load for rockhounds. It is no use looking for gem gravels on the steep slopes where the river runs swiftly most of the time and torrentially in heavy rain. But as soon as the surface becomes more level or some obstruction checks the flow, the heavier part of the gravels will be discarded.
Deposits are formed on the inside of bends and on the downstream side of obstructions. Any gutters, hollows and crevices in the streambed become natural traps for gemstones. Boulders trundled along the river by floods pin down the gravels wherever they come to rest. Any gravel bar or dump of tailings from an alluvial dredge is worth a try on a river known to contain gemstones. The method is to fit the two sieves together with the wider mesh on top and then fill the upper sieve with gravel. Dip both sieves in the river so that the water covers the gravel and rotate to and fro vigorously. Continue this action until all the finer material has dropped into the lower sieve.
Carefully go over the pebbles remaining in the top sieve for any gem material before emptying it. Then take the lower sieve, immerse it until the gravel is just below water level and agitate thoroughly once more. The object is to bring all the heavier material, including gemstones, to the bottom of the sieve. Give the sieve a final to-and-fro jerk, take it smartly from the water and turn it over on the nearest handy piece of flat ground.
Treasure Maps: (continued)
Most often used by rock-hounds is the inch to a mile scale military map, prepared by the Royal Australian Survey Corps and available from stationers and booksellers. This map gives accurate and detailed information on routes and camping places as well as indicating promising prospecting localities.
The military map is most useful in conjunction with one of the detailed geological maps produced by the Commonwealth Bureau of Mineral Resources or the Mines Department of the various States. When planning a prospecting trip, it is wise to have several alternatives in mind, so as to avoid disappointment. In a granite area, for instance, we may wish to try our luck on the rockface and talus, on mine dumps and also at what we work out as the most promising stretch of the river.
We require a good deal of equipment to tackle the rockface. A pick and showel, a light mineralogist’s pick-hammer, a striking hammer of about 3lb weight—one with a square face and a chisel peen is the most useful—and half-a-dozen rock gads of various sizes. A steel crowbar or prybar of the type known to American rockhounds as a pocket robber is invaluable. This tool, which varies from 18 in. to 45 in. according to taste, has a 30 degree bend at each end to provide powerful leverage.
A sledgehammer up to about 14 lb in weight may also be needed. The rockface offers three collecting areas—the face itself, the talus, and the eluvial deposits buried beneath the talus which have been concentrated by gravity. Both the last-named present few problems except hard pick and showel work, cracking any lumps of rock that look as if they could contain crystals. A quarter or eighth-inch sieve will be required to deal with the smaller gravel.
The rockface is another matter. Weathered rock can be a deathtrap even to a properly equipped and experienced climber. But you are neither experienced nor properly equipped. If the face is in any way difficult, you will be a fool try climbing and working on it. Leave it alone and concentrate on the easier stuff. That goes for quarries too, but there the owner will probably insist that you remain on terra firma, anyway.
It may happen that a pegmatite dyke or sill or a rock cavity occurs in a position where you can attack it safely. The finest gem crystals are often found in gas holes of pink or red granites and plants growing out of the rockface may indicate such a cavity.
In basalts, the steamholes or amygdales may be filled with opal or agate. Amethysts are found in quartz veins as a druse—a cavity lined with crystals of the same nature as the host rock, as distinct from a geode. Gem pockets are usually found in the midst of the thickest part of pegmatite dykes and sills. The rock should be tested at these points with the pick and will be found to break open comparatively easily over a pocket of crystals.
Cavities in the rock mostly have to be opened by splitting with a succession of gads and the prybar then used carefully to break off and bring out the crystals. Sometimes these cavities are filled with clay and the contents must be sieved to make sure no gems are lost.
Sieves, a bucket and shovel, with maybe a pick and a crowbar to shift the boulders are what we require to deal with river gravels. Some people use a miner’s pan but the best equipment for gemstones is two sieves which fit together. I prefer the half-inch and quarter-inch mesh in general, but a quarter-inch sieve and an eight-inch or even a one-sixteenth-inch are better if there is any chance of picking up diamonds.
Standing gumboot deep in a river agitating a couple of sieves becomes hard work very quickly. However, special aluminum sieves are now available to lighten the load for rockhounds. It is no use looking for gem gravels on the steep slopes where the river runs swiftly most of the time and torrentially in heavy rain. But as soon as the surface becomes more level or some obstruction checks the flow, the heavier part of the gravels will be discarded.
Deposits are formed on the inside of bends and on the downstream side of obstructions. Any gutters, hollows and crevices in the streambed become natural traps for gemstones. Boulders trundled along the river by floods pin down the gravels wherever they come to rest. Any gravel bar or dump of tailings from an alluvial dredge is worth a try on a river known to contain gemstones. The method is to fit the two sieves together with the wider mesh on top and then fill the upper sieve with gravel. Dip both sieves in the river so that the water covers the gravel and rotate to and fro vigorously. Continue this action until all the finer material has dropped into the lower sieve.
Carefully go over the pebbles remaining in the top sieve for any gem material before emptying it. Then take the lower sieve, immerse it until the gravel is just below water level and agitate thoroughly once more. The object is to bring all the heavier material, including gemstones, to the bottom of the sieve. Give the sieve a final to-and-fro jerk, take it smartly from the water and turn it over on the nearest handy piece of flat ground.
Treasure Maps: (continued)
Gemstones With Change Of Color
To anyone who has ever viewed a fine quality piece of alexandrite, the phenomena of change of color must certainly rank among the greatest wonders of the gem kingdom. Change of color or the alexandrite effect as it is known is a relatively recent discovery. The gem was christened alexandrite, in honor of the future Czar Alexander II on whose birthday it was supposedly found. After its discovery it achieved rapid popularity, not only for its interesting color change, but also because the two colors, green and red, were the colors of the Czarist Russian army. Fine quality alexandrites are today among the most desirable precious stones. Besides the normal criteria for judging gems, the quality of an alexandrite is based primarily on the quality of color change and the intensity and purity of those colors. The best colors would those of a fine emerald or ruby and this stone would be described as having a one hundred percent change. Stones of this quality may be difficult to find, but most specimens show a change of only twenty to thirty percent with the two colors being diluted with brown and yellow.
There are various gemstones which display the phenomenon of change of color. Synthetic alexandrite has been manufactured in Russia, USA and other countries by flux and Czochralski (pulling) process. Both types display a fine change from bluish green to purplish red, just as in the natural stones. The flux grown gem materials show inclusions such as wispy flux fingerprints, platinum plates and crystals and angular zoning. Stones grown by the Czochralski process are usually free of inclusions, but may show gas bubbles and/or curved growth lines.
Of all the gem materials which show a change of color, none is more commonly seen than the synthetic color change (alexandrite-like) sapphire. This material is not synthetic chrysoberyl, but instead is flame fusion synthetic corundum. By adding a trace of vanadium to the growth mixture, a color change is produced. The color is grayish green in daylight and purplish red in incandescent light. Often this gem will be offered for sale as synthetic alexandrite or even worse, as natural alexandrite. The stone is not difficult to identify as the color change is not exactly the same as true alexandrites. Proper examination will reveal curved striae and possibly gas bubbles. Natural color change sapphires do exist and show a change that varies from violetish blue to grayish green in daylight, to purplish red in incandescent light. The change of color can be attributed to vanadium, chromium, iron and titanium in various proportions. Fine quality color change sapphires are prized by collectors.
Next to alexandrite, the stone with the most dramatic change of color is probably the color change garnet. Color change garnets show a change very similar to that of alexandrite from a bluish green to purplish red. Glass imitations have been made to simulate a color change as well. Since the stone does not really change color from one light source to another it should not considered as a true change of color.
There are various gemstones which display the phenomenon of change of color. Synthetic alexandrite has been manufactured in Russia, USA and other countries by flux and Czochralski (pulling) process. Both types display a fine change from bluish green to purplish red, just as in the natural stones. The flux grown gem materials show inclusions such as wispy flux fingerprints, platinum plates and crystals and angular zoning. Stones grown by the Czochralski process are usually free of inclusions, but may show gas bubbles and/or curved growth lines.
Of all the gem materials which show a change of color, none is more commonly seen than the synthetic color change (alexandrite-like) sapphire. This material is not synthetic chrysoberyl, but instead is flame fusion synthetic corundum. By adding a trace of vanadium to the growth mixture, a color change is produced. The color is grayish green in daylight and purplish red in incandescent light. Often this gem will be offered for sale as synthetic alexandrite or even worse, as natural alexandrite. The stone is not difficult to identify as the color change is not exactly the same as true alexandrites. Proper examination will reveal curved striae and possibly gas bubbles. Natural color change sapphires do exist and show a change that varies from violetish blue to grayish green in daylight, to purplish red in incandescent light. The change of color can be attributed to vanadium, chromium, iron and titanium in various proportions. Fine quality color change sapphires are prized by collectors.
Next to alexandrite, the stone with the most dramatic change of color is probably the color change garnet. Color change garnets show a change very similar to that of alexandrite from a bluish green to purplish red. Glass imitations have been made to simulate a color change as well. Since the stone does not really change color from one light source to another it should not considered as a true change of color.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Gems From New South Wales, Australia
It has been reported that there at least seven alluvial sapphire localities producing pink, red and purple corundums + blue, yellow and green corundums at Barrington Tops, Macquarie River, Cudgegong River, Swan Brook, Bingara, Tumbarumba and Yarrowitch Valley. The samples specimens may be useful to study the unique chemisty + origin of ruby and sapphire deposits and their economic significance in New South Wales, Australia.
A Case Study: VNU As Its Competitor’s Best Promoter
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about media conglomerates' operating system (s) + the impact when bad decisions are made by their managers + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=24470
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