Import Ban On Burmese Gemstones

Jewelers of America (JA) represents 11,000 member stores in the US. They are asking the U.S. Congress to amend the Burmese Freedom & Democracy Act of 2003, which bans the importation of products from Burma, so that it includes gemstones mined in that country. JA wants effective democratic reforms in Burma. They also want to make sure the sourcing of gemstones are done the right way. Even though the US may be perceived as the largest consumer market for gems and jewelry, I think the industry as whole should take a common stand and find innovative/practical/realistic ways to enforce compliance rules and regulations. No one has ever come up with a brilliant plan/ideas to do so instead it's hard talk with no results. Only an educated consumer (s) could make the big difference. If they stop buying, then there is no business for Burmese stones. It's Catch-22. Many businesses will go under. What's Plan B? What are the alternatives?

Ben Franklin On Humility

(via Dailyspeculations/Charles Pennington) From the Autobiography of Ben Franklin:
'I added humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word. I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix'd opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny'd myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear'd or seem'd to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag'd in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos'd my opinions procur'd them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail'd with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.'

I liked this one.

Memories Of My Life

Good Books: (via Dailyspeculations) I enjoyed reading Memories of My Life by Francis Galton. As Victor Niederhoffer rightly put it 'Memories of My Life' has a freshness and decency of spirit, and is an illustration of how amazing and creative the human mind can be + it has insights into most scholarly fields, and advice and examples of living a good life on almost every page. I liked this one.

The collected published works by Galton are available at Galton.org
Google allows you to download the book for free.

L'amour fou

(via The Guardian) Total internal reflections of Robert Hughes on surrealism, the most popular art movement of the 20th century + The Victoria and Albert's big show for this year, Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design + the unique designs @ http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/design/story/0,,2041396,00.html

Useful link: vam.ac.uk/surrealthings

Classics Of Everyday Design

(via The Guardian) Jonathan Glancey's classics of everyday design:
Classics of everyday design No 21
Classics of everyday design No 22
Classics of everyday design No 23
Classics of everyday design No 24
Classics of everyday design No 25

I liked this one.

Nonsmoking Capricorn Museum Seeks Networking, Dating, Serious Relationships, Friends

Carly Berwick writes about the new trends among institutions to use MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking web sites to reach new people and forge virtual communities + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2366&current=True

Walker Art Center
Andy Warhol Museum
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Tate Gallery
Brooklyn Museum
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Guggenheim Museum New York
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum

Modernizing The Modern

Kelly Devine Thomas writes about New York’s Museum of Modern Art + what the museum has been, what it is, and what it wants to be + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1630

Common Gemstone Treatments

Tourmaline, often occurs in very dark shades of green, so dark as to appear almost black. This as well as the dark blue material can sometimes be made lighter (and the green possibly more greenish) by heat treatment. The temperature must be controlled carefully as overheating may cause destruction through loss of water. Such heat treated materials tend to be somewhat more brittle than untreated material, which may show itself in a tendency to abrade along facet junctions. Sometimes heat treatment of dark green tourmaline results in a structural alteration at the surface; this is believed to be the cause of so-called satellite reading noted when a refractive index is taken on such material.

Zircon. Heating to temperatures in the range of 900° - 1000°C is used to produce the commercially most important colors of zircon. Reddish brown stones are first heated in a reducing atmosphere, which may alter the color of the stones to blue, colorless, or an undesirable off-color. Those that have not turned blue or colorless may next be heated in oxidizing environment, converting some to colorless and others to a yellow, orange or red color. Stones that still have not taken on a marketable color may be heated further in either atmosphere, and some stones may go through several heating. While virtually all of the heat treated may be quite stable to light and reasonably high temperatures, some heat treated zircons will revert to their original pre-treated color over time. As a precaution, such treated zircons are sometimes exposed to sunlight for several days or stored in the dark for as long as a year in an attempt to weed out unstable stones.

Tanzanite, the important gem variety of zoisite, is one of the most strongly pleochroic gems. Most of the material as mined exhibits three pleochroic colors: violet to purple, blue, and yellow to green. The third of these colors gives the stones a rather unattractive muddy appearance. Heating to relatively low temperatures bleaches the unwanted yellow to green pleochroic component, leaving the desirable violet and blue colors. Proper magnifications may reveal evidence of heat treatment, although it is usually assumed that the material in the gem market has been heat treated.