Prettified Labradorite

I always had my doubts about the new-find labradorite, and now David Federman explains the gemological facts in detail @ http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/may08/sunstone.cfm

A must-read. I think David Federman was spot on.

Jewelers Row

Visit Bangkok, Bombay, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Tokyo, London, Paris, Antwerp, Amsterdam etc, it makes an interesting study in the economics of marketing to visit the collection of dozens of jeweler shops all crowded into a couple of blocks. Why?

Read this blog @ http://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/blog/1071.htm

It must be pretty boring to sit all day every day in a little shop that makes one or two sales a week, except at special holidays. One jeweler I know has a portable computer under the counter and spends a lot of time day-trading , which is buying stocks in the morning and selling them in the afternoon. Although competition in the district goes well beyond vigorous, there is an active fraternity of jewelers in the area, steering customers to each other when they don't have a requested item themselves, eating lunch at one of the local bistros, exchanging gossip of the trade, carefully observing the traffic up and down the sidewalks. And then, you can always have your wife, daughter or neighbor sit on a high stool in front of the counter. Trying on jewelry.

How true!

Surrealist Manifesto

(via Wiki) Two Surrealist Manifestos were issued by the Surrealist movement, in 1924 and 1929, respectively. The first Surrealist manifesto was written by the French writer André Breton in 1924 and released to the public 1925.

The document defines Surrealism as:
Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.

The second manifesto written in 1929 Breton asked Surrealists to assess their 'degree of moral competence', and along with other theoretical refinements issued the Second manifeste du surréalisme.

Useful links:
http://www.screensite.org/courses/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2281350,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealist_Manifesto

After intense bidding war @ Sotheby's Paris auction house, the nine manuscripts were eventually acquired by Gérard Lhéritier, a noted collector and the founder of the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Paris, for a total of €3.6m (£2.9m).
www.sothebys.com

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) started as an idea...today big firms are called upon to be good corporate citizens, and they all want to show that they are.....
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10491077

Useful links:
www.corporatephilanthropy.org
www.unglobalcompact.org
www.mckinseyquarterly.com
www.bcccc.net

Heard On The Street

Good people can set their own price tag, and they want jam tomorrow, not in five years.

The Alchemist

(via Newyorker) Harvey Weinstein will produce a movie version of the novel 'The Alchemist,' by Paulo Coelho, directed by and starring Laurence Fishburne. At a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, Weinstein said that film adaptations of best-sellers—'pre-sold commodities'—were safer box-office bets.

Useful links:
www.weinsteinco.com
www.paulocoelho.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oaybo46kMC8

I liked the book. Paul Coelho is awesome. I love his work.

Art + ASCII

Art and ASCII is intriguing, in fact, I liked it. Detailed review @
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/multimedia/2008/05/mf_hiroyuki_ss?

Useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII_art
www.2ch.net (thought to be the largest Internet forum in the world)
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-06/mf_usfans

The Coffee Trader

The Coffee Trader by David Liss is a brilliant historical thriller. I found myself drinking more coffee than usual while reading this novel.

Useful link:
www.davidliss.com