FTC Update

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has rejected a petition from the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) and nine other trade associations requesting that the commission use its industry guides on the use of the term 'cultured' to describe laboratory-created gemstones. The groups that had signed on to the petition included the JVC, American Gem Society, American Gem Trade Association, CIBJO (World Jewellery Confederation), Cultured Pearl Association, Diamond Council of America, Diamond Manufacturers and Importers Association of America, Jewelers of America, Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America and World Federation of Diamond Bourses.

Useful links:
www.ftc.gov
www.jvclegal.org
www.americangemsociety.org
www.agta.org
www.cibjo.org
www.cpaa.org
www.diamondcouncil.org
www.dmia.net
www.jewelers.org
www.mjsa.org
www.worldfed.com

The Best Places For Business

Forbes 2008 survey of the best places for business lists the following countries.

1. Denmark
2. Ireland
3. Finland
4. United States
5. United Kingdom
6. Sweden
7. Canada
8. Singapore
9. Hong Kong
10. Estonia

For the complete list, go to www.forbes.com/bestbizcountries

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.
- Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776)

Beyond Orientalism

The exhibition, Beyond Orientalism, opens on 25 July 2008 - 25 October 2008 at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) in Kuala Lumpur. The show highlights Islamic calligraphy, tile designs, beautiful geometrical motifs + the art of M.C. Escher + a rare 19th century Koran, made for a Malay sultan with lashings of gold illumination + Chinese calligraphic wall scrolls with Koranic quotations. A must-visit!

Useful link:
www.iamm.org.my

Andrzej Klimowski + Danusia Schebal

The visual translation of The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece of Soviet magical realism, by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schebal was brilliant.

Useful links:

www.klimowski.com

www.danusiaschejbal.com

www.selfmadehero.com

Random Thoughts

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

- Richard Feynman
www.feynmanonline.com

Two American Music Icons

Two Men With The Blues by Willie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis, two of contemporary American music's greatest icons, is a great album with great music. You will love it.

Useful links:

www.wyntonmarsalis.org

www.willienelson.com

A Green New Deal

According to the New Economics Foundation, a unique new group of specialists in finance, energy and environment, a Green New Deal will deliver a comprehensive solution to the triple crunches of the credit crisis, high energy prices and climate change. In order to achieve positive results many countries will have to learn the art of rapid transition (economic + political + behavioural). The Green New Deal group's inspiration comes from President Roosevelt's response to the 1929 Wall Street financial crash. A Green New Deal Report can be downloaded from the New Economic Foundation's website @ www.neweconomics.org

Geometric Informatics

The video of Radiohead's 'House Of Cards' by director James Frost using 3-D and radar technologies was brilliant. I liked it.

Useful links:
www.geometricinformatics.com
www.radiohead.com

I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points - and how strangely emotional it ended up being.
- Thom Yorke