April 2010 Archives
Free Diamonds For the Hunting.
Pennsylvania's Crater of Diamonds State Park is known for rich deposits of diamonds and semi-precious stones such as amethyst, garnet, peridot, jasper, agate, calcite, barite, and quartz.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is located two miles southeast of Murfreesboro. It is one of the 52 state parks administered by the State Parks Division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.
Visitors are encouraged to search for these stones and are allowed to keep whatever they find.
Earlier this week, Patti Kubli, discovered a flawless, 3.17-carat yellow diamond at the Crater of Diamonds State Park earlier this week. It was the Pennsylvania resident's first visit to the state park. Kubli had been surface searching for about ½ an hour when she noticed it shining in the dirt.
Kubli named the diamond after her mother, calling it The Dorie Diamond. Her diamond was weighed and certified by the park staff. According to Park Interpreter Margi Jenks, the discovery is “Slightly pear-shaped, this diamond is an intense canary yellow and it’s extremely shiny. She commented that the diamond was about the size of a jellybean.
In total, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at Arkansas’s diamond site since the first diamonds were found here in 1906 by John Huddleston, the farmer who at that time owned the land long before it became an Arkansas state park. Notable finds from the Crater State Park include the Star of Murfreesboro (34.25 carats) and the Star of Arkansas (15.33 carats).
What a Beautiful Rare Diamond Ring!
The upcoming Sotheby's Australia's April 12 sale of antique and contemporary jewelry will be a significant one for the auction house. They will feature the first red diamond ever offered for public auction in Australia.
The 0.82-carat, fancy purplish-red Argyle diamond is set into a ring and is flanked by a pair of fancy blue diamonds in a round brilliant-cut diamond surround, all mounted in platinum. Its value is estimated at between 700,000 and 1 million Australian dollars (between about $645,065 and $921,556) and will be accompanied by a letter from Argyle Diamonds attesting to its rarity.
Political Correctness For Engagment Rings And Wedding Bands Comes To The UK.
The UK web site Personnel Today reports ( Bare Fingers At Work) that workers will now be forced to remove their wedding rings while at work after a shock amendment was added to the Equality Bill on April 1st so that employees going through a divorce would not feel discriminated against.
Ministers from the three main political parties backed an amendment in the House of Commons to make employers ban wedding and engagement rings from the workplace, after the European Parliament ruled that divorcees should be afforded the same protection as religious groups.
It follows advice from the equality watchdog earlier this month that vegans and atheists should be protected under equality law.
A new equality code of practice states: "A belief need not include faith or worship of a god or gods, but must affect how a person lives their life or perceives the world."
Ministers in parliament last night claimed that those who have experienced, or were going through divorce, did so because it was indeed a belief about how a person lives their life, and that anything that supports marriage could be seen as anti-discriminatory to that belief.
One said: "People going through divorce do so because they believe marriage is no longer an option for them. It is their right to believe that they are not suited to the life of marriage after all, and seeing other people's wedding rings at work or elsewhere is a constant reminder to them that their belief is undermined."
He added: "Employers must have a duty to ensure that workers do not feel discriminated against at work. Asking colleagues to remove wedding rings is the most simple and cost-effective way of ensuring equality."
Under the proposals, workers will also be told not to discuss marriage proposals or arrangements at work for fear of upsetting divorcees.
WOW! What the #$%&^%)*& is going on?
eBay Wins Trademark Suit VS. Tiffany
A federal appeals court upheld a lower court's decision ruling in favor of eBay, finding that the company is not responsible for trademark violations if sellers use its online marketplace to sell fake Tiffany and Co. jewelry and other merchandise as the real thing.
Tiffany first sued eBay in 2004, alleging that eBay engaged in trademark infringement, trademark dilution and false advertising by allowing "Tiffany" pieces sold on eBay in 2004 and 2005, that were eventually found to be counterfeits. Between 73 percent and 75 percent of the items that sellers listed for sale as genuine Tiffany products were fakes.
The essential point of the Courts ruling is that eBay would not necessarily need to stop advertising goods such as Tiffany products even if it knows that some of them are counterfeit.
eBay applauded the Courts ruling and said the decision confirms that the company is meeting its responsibilities in fighting counterfeiting under trademark law. Its efforts include "buyer protection programs," set up to reimburse buyers who discovered goods that they purchased were not authentic. It has also worked with Tiffany to post warnings on the site about the authenticity of Tiffany goods.
Tiffany and Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Kowalski said in a statement. "Obviously Tiffany is very disappointed by today's decision,"As an e-commerce leader, eBay has a responsibility to protect consumers and promote trust in its marketplace. EBay knew that counterfeit merchandise was being sold on its site--and eBay took no effective steps to stop it. EBay deliberately misled consumers for profit, and unfortunately, the court has justified its actions. The consumer is the real loser today."
Tiffany's attorneys are performing a full review of the decision and will consider an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Stay tuned.
Should Internet Diamond Web Sites Pay State Sales Taxes On Your Engagement Rings?
Yes, say Brick and Mortar Retail jewelers who maintain that they are at distinct disadvantage versus their Internet competition and thus not operating on a level playing field. They are lobbying State legislatures as well as the Federal Government to enact law that will require Internet Jewelers and all Internet vendors to collect sales taxes.
What has operated in favor of Internet vendors is the strict definition of what constitutes an actual place of business, thanks to a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision. In Quill v. North Dakota, the court ruled that a company must have a "physical presence" for a state to require that company to collect sales taxes.
The Quill decision underscores an irony: While retailers and their affiliates may benefit from not charging online sales tax, the states those businesses are located in stand to lose big money every year. States are losing between $10 billion and $25 billion a year in online tax revenue, according to the Multistate Tax Commission in Washington, D.C. That's money that would find its way into state treasuries if those sales took place in physical stores within their borders.
Case in point is Amazon.com. Amazon's report to the Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledges that the price advantage with which the company starts out vis-à-vis local stores and other competitors that are obligated to charge sales taxes is a key strategic asset. By claiming sales tax immunity in the vast majority of states, Amazon has enjoyed a 5 percent to 10 percent price advantage over local retailers, while also depriving states and localities of hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue each year.
As the Internet grows and consumers make more purchases online; State legislators will face increasing pressure weighing the issue's political implications vs. the need to raise needed revenue to pay off increasing deficits. Tax scholars will continue to debate exactly what defines a business' "physical presence" in the context of 21st century Internet-based commerce, and the patchwork of different sales tax laws and relationships with the online business model will likely stay a muddled mess.
Our view is that with the current deficit ridden state of the US economy, the explosion of Federal entitlement programs, erosion of the tax bases due to rising unemployment, the pressure to enact Internet tax collection across State lines may very well become a reality sooner than you think.
Tiffany Etoile Replica by Exceldiamonds.com
Just completed for one of our Customers.
Tiffany Legacy Replica Ring and Band for Ken C. by Exceldiamonds.com
Rare Blue Diamond Sells For Record Price At Sotheby's Auction.
A rare 5.16-carat blue diamond sold at auction for $6.4 million in Hong Kong on Wednesday, confirming Asia's fast-growing taste for the precious stone.
London's famed Moussaieff Jewellers paid more than the $5.9 million expected price tag for the pear-shaped stone, the first blue diamond from the celebrated De Beers Millennium Jewels Collection to appear at auction.
But the world per-carat record for a blue diamond remains the $10.5 million paid by a Hong Kong property tycoon for a seven-carat blue diamond in Geneva in May last year.
In December, a five-carat chickpea-sized vivid pink gem set a per-carat world record price for a diamond when it fetched $10.8 million at an auction in Hong Kong.
www.squarepegweb.com / www.e4mediagroup.com Did Not Create Our Website!
Beware of SquarePeg Web Design - Square Peg Web Design Are Crooks!
Recently, it was brought to our attention that a web development firm called www.squarepegweb.com - which seems to be a subsidiary of www.e4mediagroup.com was showcasing our company www.exceldiamonds.com, in their portfolio section, promoting us as "one of their clients".
We are not clients of theirs and actually never even heard of them until this screenshot below was sent to our attention:
Naturally, we immediately contacted Square Peg Web Design and were told that they outsource to an Indian company who actually creates much of their work and who they claimed was responsible for fraudulently claiming that they had created our website.
We talked to Square Peg and they immediately took the site off their portfolio. They further apologized for not doing their due diligence in order to ascertain and validate whether our website (and perhaps others?) was actually designed by this "Indian Designer".
Was this an honest mistake on the part of www.squarepegdesign.com?
We'd like to think so.
Sadly, it seems that Square Peg Web already has a reputation for shady practices.
In fact, upon further review of their website, they make a big to do over here about the importance of hiring a web designer who will actually do the work in-house and not outsource it...yet.....Square Peg Web Design is not only guilty of outsourcing themselves...what's even worse is that they didn't even design their own website!
Instead, they purchased a boiler plate solution from another company!! Click here.
...Just boggles the mind....
Very unfortunate.
Read more, here.
Touch and Feel Diamond Engagement RingsThrough Your Computer!
What did you say?
Yes, I said it and believe it. This is not a Rod Serling Twilight Zone imagination run amuck, but truly there will come a time in the not too distant future when we will be able to touch and feel diamonds and jewelry from our computer.
Indeed,The Sun this week reported that Hong Kong scientists have developed a robotic hand that allows people talking over the web to experience the sensation of touching each other — even feeling the strength of a handshake.
The cyber hand can grip and shake as well as make the signs for OK and 'V' for victory.
Professor Liu Yunhui, who led researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: "At this moment the function is not perfect and it can't copy exactly, partly because the robot hand is different from the human hand in terms of the degree of freedom of movement it has.
"There are also a few errors such as delays in processing and mechanical problems. But in the future it will be possible to produce more sophisticated and more dextrous movements."
Users wear a wrist band which picks up electrical impulses generated by muscles as they contract.
It was originally designed to help the elderly keep in contact with their loved ones in a more personal way.
Prof Liu added: "Although they can show their care through phone calls, physical touch is still a better way to express love.
"The main obstacle we have at the moment is the cost. Our project target was to produce a toy.
It was intended to be low cost and so there were constraints because of the money we could spend. If you want high dexterity it is possible, but you need more motors and you have to spend more money."
The team intends to make progress with future models looking like the human hand — and one day hope to make an entire person which could copy every one of your movements.
Broken Engagement: Does She Have To Return the Diamond Engagement Ring?
A Staten Island, New York man has filed a lawsuit in court to get his engagement ring back after the wedding was called off by his fiance.
Christopher Reinhold, 25 alleges that his ex, Colette DiPierro refused to return the $17,500 diamond engagement ring he gave her after she allegedly broke off the wedding.
As a result, he has filed a lawsuit to get the diamond engagement ring back.
Rich Divorcee "Downsizing" By Selling Off Her Diamonds
The Wall Street Journal today reports that Patricia Kluge, the socialite who made a fortune from her divorce from billionaire media tycoon John Kluge, and is now in the wine business is selling off her diamonds and jewelery through Sothebys.
More than 200 pieces of jewelry from her collection, including a pair of platinum and diamond pendant-ear clips set with almost 64 carats of pear-shaped diamonds and estimated between $600,000 and $800,000.
Also included are some “fancy-intense” yellow diamonds, suites of sapphires and rubies, and a sapphire and diamond Panthère wristwatch from Cartier circa 1985. The watch is estimated between $100,000 and $150,000.
Her Virginia winery, Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard, is doing well and she’s planning to build a new home on the vineyard, which she says will more reflective of her “changing taste and more streamlined lifestyle,” according to Sotheby’s.
She also plans to travel more “so that she can enjoy her other homes.
C'est la Vie.
Synthetic Diamonds Now Super Efficient Lasers.
In addition to diamonds being the prized gem for engagement rings and known to be the hardest cutting element available, research now being carried out at Macquarie University in the UK is showing it also to be a super efficient laser material.
Associate Professor Richard Mildren and his colleagues at the Macquarie University Photonics Research Center discovered it was possible to generate a coherent laser beam from man-made diamond in late 2008. They have now demonstrated diamond lasers with efficiency higher than almost all other materials.
The speed at which heat travels through diamond is the highest of all known materials, and it is hoped that this property will enable us to simultaneously miniaturize the device and increase the laser beam power to unprecedented levels.
The diamonds used in the laser research are colorless, approximately eight millimeters long, and weigh a bit less than a carat. They are grown to the researcher's specifications using a process called chemical vapor deposition that essentially creates the crystal lattice carbon by carbon atom and layer by layer on top of a large flat diamond crystal substrate. The synthetic diamond forms the core component of what is called a Raman laser, a type of laser that is optically stimulated rather than electrically powered.
Diamond is also the most transparent material known to man, in terms of the range of light wavelengths (or colors) that can pass through the material. Mildren said this would enable researchers to select from a huge range of laser wavelengths, such as in the far infrared, and hence potentially tap into a broad range of applications.
Is The World Really Running Out of Diamonds?
The Economic Times of London reports that De Beers said it will reduce its production to extend the life of its mines as the supply of diamonds in the world is dwindling.
Des Kilalea, a diamond analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said that taking into account the moderated output diamond prices could rise by at least 5 percent a year for the next five years.
The diamond industry, in the past 20 years, has not found new diamond deposits to match the two biggest mines in Africa, which are owned by De Beers, or the Russian mines of Alrosa.
De Beers accounts for 40 percent of global rough diamond sales.
Guys, your engagement ring purchase is going to get more expensive.
A True Diamond In The Rough!
This ring was dropped off to Goodwill Industries in Harrisburg, PA.
Appraised at $17,600, a 2.6-carat diamond ring with a platinum band was found last week among donations at Goodwill’s distribution center at 627 N. Cameron St. in Harrisburg is the most expensive item ever given to Goodwill Industries Keystone Area.
This diamond ring blended in with the no-longer-wanted gaudy gold, rhinestones, and cubic zirconia that flow through Goodwill’s thrift stores.
Barry Landis, a retired jeweler from Camp Hill, who has sorted through Goodwill’s jewelry for the last two years, said he trembled while palming the slightly tarnished and dirty yet elegant 2-carat European diamond surrounded by 14 smaller diamonds. The filigree swirls on the band caught his eye.
Landis said 90 percent of the donated jewelry he sorts through is costume jewelry.
“It could have ended up with a price tag of $5.99,” he said. “It makes me think about what treasures might be out there in some of the Goodwill stores.”
Was it an accidental donation? A relic of an ended marriage? A discarded family heirloom? No one called missing a ring, Landis said.
Cubic Zirconia Diamonds To Fuel Your Car and Home?! Don't Laugh, Might Just Happen!
PhysOrg.com reports that using specialized cubic zirconia, scientists from Nanjing Normal University in China and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory designed a membrane that could allow solid oxide fuel cells to operate at lower temperatures and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. This new membrane, created by adding scandium to cubic zirconia, passes oxygen faster and at temperatures far lower than the more common yttria-stabilized zirconia.
Affordable fuel cells could reduce the need for imported oil. However, solid oxide fuel cells currently don't fit the budget of most homeowners. The cost is tied to the internal temperature of the cell, around 1000 degrees Celsius. This temperature means the cell must be built using very durable, very expensive ceramics. Lower temperatures mean the cells could be built from stainless steel and other less expensive materials. The trick to dropping the temperature, and thus the cost, is the membrane or solid electrolyte that quickly passes oxygen from one side of the cell to the other.
In this study, the scientists investigated why some materials are better than others at passing oxygen along.
Using oxygen-plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, the researchers grew scandia-stabilized zirconia films on sapphire substrates. The films were examined using x-ray diffraction, electron spectroscopy, and microscopy.
Theoretical calculations and models were applied to the experimental data. Results showed that the nanoscale, nanosecond interactions occurring in the scandia-doped cubic zirconia film conducted oxygen faster than the yttrium doping in current electrolytes.
Cubic Zirconia? WOW!!!
