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| Saturday, 13-Nov-2010 02:45 |
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Pearl Jewelry - The Story of Pearl Hunters
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As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms.
That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down.
Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer.
There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution.
It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.
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| Monday, 8-Nov-2010 03:14 |
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Pearl Jewelry - The Story of Pearl Hunters
|
|
As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a
highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times
however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to
a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in
display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in
farms.
That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods
used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more
than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in
lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The
unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and
lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would
sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of
air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the
divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down.
Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or
the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents.
Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world.
The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times
the only pearls available to the consumer.
There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old
art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come
from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to
retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In
fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned
from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an
active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from
pollution.
It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers
around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's
been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.
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| Monday, 8-Nov-2010 03:09 |
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Buying Pearl Jewelry Without Being Ripped Off
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Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.
Pearls
Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials.
Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated.
Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre.
A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.
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| Monday, 2-Nov-2009 01:33 |
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Constitutional temptations
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When newly elected Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov suggested last week raising the presidential term in office from the current four years to seven years in the interests of national stability and prosperity, it was difficult to gauge exactly what was happening.
This could have been an attempt to freshwater pearl jewlelry sound out the public and the political elite, or it could have been just Mironov shooting his mouth off without thinking, though one of the prerequisites of joining President Vladimir Putin’s team is an ability to keep one’s mouth shut in public. It could also have been the signal that changes really will be made to the Constitution.
So, the analysts and the political elite held their breaths. The answer came a few days later when Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov told journalists while visiting China that he had spoken with Putin recently and had convinced him of the need to amend the Constitution. According to Seleznyov, Putin was sufficiently convinced to propose forming a tripartite commission representing the Duma, the Federation Council and the Presidential Administration to examine the issue in detail. No denials came from the Kremlin at that stage.
One can imagine how the Communists and former President Boris Yeltsin’s PR people have been feeling. Both groups wanted to make their own amendments to the Constitution but couldn’t do it because they never had the necessary parliamentary majority, regional support, resources and influence to push such changes through.
Not like today’s authorities, who control both houses of parliament and almost all major media outlets. Governors and provincial deputies won’t risk going against the will of their beloved president. (One, Yakutia’s Mikhail Nikolayev, tried, but the Kremlin is now seriously considering taking him to court, so as to set an example.)
The problem is that these would-be Constitution fixers and menders don’t even know exactly what they want to fix and mend, because they have all they want as it is. Of course, they could extend the presidential term or even elect a president-for-life; they could trim the Duma’s authority and broaden the Federation Council’s powers, introduce a law allowing only members of political parties to run for president and sharply reduce the regional authorities’ power. The main thing is to pearl jewelry do something while they still have the chance, because who knows when the situation will change again? And this is why officials like Mironov are musing aloud on the possibilities at hand.
Two days later, however, Putin seemed to deny the speculation while speaking at an event to mark Constitution Day. He said nobody would rewrite the Constitution and the presidential term would stay as it is. Some skeptics, however, say the speech was structured in such a way that Putin did not rule out making amendments to the existing Constitution.
If amendments do end up being discussed, some say the Constitution could actually be given some armor. Turning it into a bureaucratic process, on the other hand – as Seleznyov suggested with his enigmatic tripartite commission – would act more like rust, gradually corroding the Constitution. Such commissions inevitably turn into tangles of paper, reports and recommendations that would all make their way to Putin’s desk. In this way, experienced bureaucrats would piece together Putin’s view for him and the issue of amending the Constitution would eventually become a mere formality with no opposition voices getting heard.
Meanwhile, legal theorists and practitioners, both those who took part in drawing up the 1993 Constitution and others, warn that the Constitution only looks at first glance to be a solid edifice. In fact, they say, it is a fragile and complex mechanism, and meddling with one of its articles would set off a chaotic chain reaction of amendments to other articles.
This process will be difficult only for the first amendments, but once the Constitution is deprived of its armor, everyone will be trying to have their turn at fixing it to suit their needs. This is why the Constitution’s authors gave it protective defenses eight years ago that even the determined Communists weren’t able to pearl jewelry overcome.
The previous Constitution didn’t fare so well. Instead of having the inviolability and unchanging nature that serve as a guarantee of stability and supremacy of the law, it was amended every time the Congress of People’s Deputies met, and thus became no more than an instrument in political struggles and a legal sieve. The same danger lurks now – just one amendment and the current Constitution could begin to crumble.
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| Monday, 2-Nov-2009 01:31 |
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Conspiracy theories run into cold facts
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One keeps hearing it in Moscow: "Maybe the CIA planned the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Just look how it benefited American power and the U.S. economy." (Americans would be surprised to hear that it helped their economy, but never mind.) "After all, we have no proof that Osama bin Laden did it. Isn't it just the same as the idea that maybe the FSB (Russia's secret police, the main successor to the KGB) orchestrated the apartment bombings in Russia in 1999?"
I heard this from a girl down the street. I heard it from a student in one of my classes. Americans also heard it recently in Washington, from a leading Russian political scientist speaking at the Kennan Institute.
Let us examine the alleged conspiracies and conspiracy theories. It would be nice to gemstone necklace find equivalence and conclude that the FSB was innocent. Unfortunately, in this case there is no equivalence.
First, in the case of the WTC attacks, there is no evidence that it was the CIA. None, zero, zip. But there is solid public evidence that it was Islamic fundamentalists and that they were connected with Osama bin Laden.
Second, in the case of the Moscow and Volgodonsk bombings, there has been no evidence that it was the Chechens. None. But there is some evidence that it was the FSB.
The two cases are as far from equivalent as possible. The evidence on the Islamic fundamentalists and bin Laden in the WTC case is considerable, starting with mobile phone calls from hijacked planes, moving on to instructional materials found in vehicles and ending with tapes released by and of bin Laden. Whether the public as yet has been given a definitive "proof" is not a relevant question; the allies were satisfied with the evidence given them, and intelligence agencies rightly protect their sources in order to prosecute the war.
Blaming the bombings in Russia on the FSB, on the other hand, is unfortunately justified by some evidence, inconclusive, to freshwater pearl necklace be sure, but inevitably so in the absence of a transparent investigation from the government. The evidence starts with the Ryazan incident, in which the FSB was caught planting bomb materials in an apartment block. This was later explained away as an exercise, which hardly fit the facts. The only explanation that made sense was the unmentionable one.
Then there is the test of plausibility: It is far more plausible that the FSB would murder its own citizens. A few hundred dead, for a specific practical purpose of the stability of the state and of the entire Russian Federation - this is light stuff, compared to the millions who were killed to satisfy a dictator's whims half a century ago . . . a dictator who was let off rather lightly in some recent remarks of President Vladimir Putin in Poland. And whose picture now sits on the desk of the security guard in the building where I live, alongside pictures of Putin and the Virgin Mary.
The coordination needed for bombing a few apartment buildings was far less than for the attacks on the World Trade Center. Secrecy would be much less difficult for this low-tech operation.
Then there are the Russian traditions of secrecy and American traditions of openness. The American professional pride in whistle-blowers and in publishing leaks of malfeasance often made it impossible for U.S. officials to maintain even the most valid and vital state secrets.
Then there's the test of "cui bono." The mainstay of any conspiracy theory is to attribute some "bono" to the very party that was damaged.
It is obvious who benefited in the case of the apartment bombings in Russia. The electoral campaign of Putin gained momentum. The advocates of a harsher war in Chechnya were strengthened. And, there would have been a benefit to any terrorists who delighted in causing mass suffering to Russians. So, it is not impossible that terrorists would have done it. Conceivably, internationalist Islamists like Khattab, although Chechen terrorists seemed instead have fit the classic mode of hostage taking for bargaining purposes.
In the case of the United States, bin Laden would seem to have gained his usual benefits: vengeance, conflict-proliferation, ego gratification and ideological gratification ("propaganda of the deed" on behalf of Islam). When people were arguing against a military response by the United States, they said that such a response would mean "falling into bin Laden's trap," since they were quite sure that it would lead to a "war with all Islam." No one doubted that it was his scheme to spread conflict. And bin Laden has continued releasing tapes in which he relishes the war. No surprises here.
However, the conspiracy theorists are not satisfied with the obvious evidence. Nor do they notice the actual conspiratorial apparatus of bin Laden, which seems publicly proud of how it can secretly plan its crimes on a global scale. Nor do they seem to pearl jewelry wholesale notice the evidence of a growing conflict between the United States and bin Laden long before those bombings.
No, this would be much too simple an explanation. Instead, they find some made-up benefits for the United States out of this nightmare. The U.S. economy is supposed to have benefited from the Sept. 11 attacks. Actually tens of billions of dollars in damage was done, indirectly hundreds of billions in security and insurance risks, with no end in sight; but lots of ordinary Russians repeat the economic-benefit line anyway.
Then there is the matter of regime response. The Russian leadership knew immediately whom to blame and what to do about it, despite the lack of evidence. The United States, by contrast, didn't know what to do or whom to blame.
Then there were the conspiracy theories held by the Russian regime itself. One of the main sources of genuine conspiratorial behavior in history is a group of people who believe they are battling a great conspiracy. Often they conclude that a little conspiracy of their own is the necessary response.
As of 1999, Russia was in the grip of a vast global conspiracy theory. The West was perceived as agent of malevolent forces scheming to cause Russia to fall apart. The war in Kosovo was depicted as a part of the scheme, one whose real meaning and purpose was very different from the surface one described by Western moralizers who were talking about stopping an ethnic massacre. No, the "real" story was, you see, that CNN and the Western mass media had become the arbiters of the New World Order. They had led the West by the nose to intervene in Yugoslavia on behalf of the Muslim rebels there. Next they would be leading the West to intervene in Russia on behalf of the Chechen rebels.
Russians and Serbs were well aware that Bosnian Muslims had staged massacres of their own people to get international sympathy for their fight against the Serbs.
Given the utterly one-sided, conspiratorial way in which Russians were discussing this pattern of dirty tricks -recognizing only the Muslim tricks but not the Serb ones, depicting the global media as part and parcel of one great apparatus of deception together with the Muslims - it would be surprising if the thought didn't cross the minds of some Russians to try the same trick and set the balance straight.
"If the Muslims can do it and get international sympathy, why can't we?" they thought. "Maybe it's just what we need to whip up public sentiment and get international support for our just cause.
Finally, there is today the ongoing suppression of discussion and evidence. The war against the media has gone on and on despite the abandonment of the 1999 conspiracy theories that provided the original justification for it.
Duma members have had to rely on their parliamentary immunity to get copies of the Boris Berezovsky documentary into the country. News media have failed to show the film, which only repeats what they all said a couple of years ago, when the media climate was still much freer.
But all this is pointless. For the crime, if it did take place, would have taken place in a period when the regime had very different ideas about the world than it does today.
It wouldn't be hard for it to explain away the events as an unfortunate manifestation of a troubled moment in Russia's evolution, a tragic misstep by overzealous FSB agents, acting out of patriotic Russian misperceptions about the external world and trying to get some control over what seemed like an emerging nightmare scenario for their country.
Be that as it may, the regime doesn't seem able to wholesale pearl jewelry put the matter behind itself. It seems to be digging itself in deeper and deeper, suppressing the media and punishing those who mention the unmentionable.
It isn't Americans with "conspiracy theories" that Russia has to refute. It is the Russian people - apparently 50 percent of them - with their common-sense suspicions. And it is the evidence that must be refuted, the only evidence extant. Russia's well-wishers in the West might be satisfied if Russia would finally produce some authentic evidence of Chechen involvement. Or, if there is none, the state has to find a way to come to terms with a more plausible version of the truth.
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| Monday, 2-Nov-2009 01:30 |
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Conference on Caspian region in Moscow
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MOSCOW - Rampant corruption and flimsy laws have stymied development of the Caspian Sea's rich oil and gas resources and deeply frustrated U.S. and other investors, the U.S. government's envoy to the region said Tuesday.
"The Caspian region has not had the progress we expected," Ambassador Steven Mann, the U.S. envoy on Caspian energy issues, said at a Moscow conference on how to divide the Caspian Sea's resources.
He said corruption had hindered growth in the five Caspian states and a lack of legal guarantees had scared away investors. He also said companies in the region had not invested sufficiently in their own infrastructure and in education and health care in their countries.
"Successful development of the Caspian basin is not something we can consider inevitable," said Mann, the former U.S. ambassador to jewelry/c12/index.html]gemstone necklace[/url] the Caspian nation of Turkmenistan.
Mann did, however, express optimism about two projects underway in the region. Construction on an oil pipeline from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to the Turkish port of Ceyhan should begin by early summer, he said. The long-delayed pipeline conspicuously bypasses the Caspian states of Russia and Iran and has been championed by the U.S. government.
Also, he said the Shah Deniz gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey "remains on track." Both pipelines will be operational by 2005, he said.
Mann insisted that the United States wants to cooperate, not compete, with Russia for influence in the strategic region.
Use of the Caspian resources, including what are believed to be the world's third-largest oil deposits, was defined by treaties between Iran and the Soviet Union. After the 1991 Soviet collapse, the five littoral countries laid conflicting claims to the sea's riches, and they have been unable to forge a compromise.
However, Mann said that progress had been made.
"I believe there is movement in a modest and steady way toward agreement," he said.
Russia, Kazakstan and Azerbaijan want to gemstone necklace divide the seabed into national sectors, which would leave Iran with the smallest zone. Iran has sought to divide it equally five ways, and Turkmenistan has not made its position clear.
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| Monday, 2-Nov-2009 01:28 |
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Condoleezza Rice holds talks in Moscow
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MOSCOW - U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told President Vladimir Putin and other top officials Monday that the United States was committed to its partnership with Russia in spite of the two nations' sharp differences over the war in Iraq, a senior U.S. diplomat said.
During a 24-hour visit, Rice met with Russian Security Council chief Vladimir Rushailo, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Putin's chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin. She and the two Ivanovs also met with Putin, a senior U.S. diplomat said.
Rice stressed the importance of dialogue on post-conflict Iraq and "the need to find practical solutions to freshwater pearl earrings humanitarian aspects and the broader reconstruction of the country," the diplomat said.
The diplomat also said that Rice and the Russians had discussed Sunday's incident in which a convoy evacuating the Russian ambassador and other diplomats from Baghdad came under fire. Russia has not blamed the United States for the incident, but the ambassador, Vladimir Titorenko, said Monday that U.S. forces fired on the convoy.
The United States has assured the Russians that no harm was intended but has not accepted blame for the incident, in which the Russian Foreign Ministry said at least four diplomats were wounded, the diplomat said.
"We don't take responsibility," the diplomat said, adding that the convoy was "in the wrong place at the wrong time."
On the eve of Rice's trip, U.S. President George W. Bush spoke with Putin by phone. The two leaders emphasized the need to continue the two countries' political dialogue despite differences over Iraq, according to the Kremlin press service.
Putin has strongly condemned the war in Iraq, but he tempered his tone in several public statements last week, saying that a U.S. defeat would not be in Russia's interests. He said Saturday that the Kremlin would urge Russian lawmakers to dancing pearl ratify a key nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, which the lower house of parliament had postponed indefinitely last month as a sign of protest ahead of the war.
Some observers say the change in tone reflects Russia's hope of winning a role in Iraq's postwar reconstruction, as well as its desire to prevent further damage to ties with the United States. U.S.-Russian relations had been bolstered by Putin's strong support for the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Amid the worst strain in years, Washington accused Russian companies of shipping military equipment to Iraq, charges that Moscow angrily denied. Russia, in turn, fumed at U.S. spy plane flights over the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia, near its southern border.
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| Monday, 2-Nov-2009 01:28 |
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Communists receive go-ahead for election
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Russia's Communists registered their main candidates for the December parliamentary election, largely avoiding the technical hitches besetting two of their main rivals.
The Communists make up the largest party in the outgoing parliament and retain the best grass-roots organization throughout the vast country, a remnant of the Communist era.
Only a few secondary candidates fell foul of the Central Electoral Commission's rules on declaring property and assets - regulations that tripped up two other major contenders.
The Commission had briefly suspended registration of the Fatherland-All Russia election bloc headed by former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, currently leading opinion polls.
It also derailed the Liberal Democratic Party of firebrand ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is now attempting to pearl jewelry
re-register his candidates under a different banner.
Both suffered at the hands of Russia's pedantic traffic police, who had established that some candidates owned cars that had not been declared to the commission.
Russia's new law on parliamentary elections stipulates that all candidates must provide an exhaustive account of all their assets to the authorities. The offending cars have mostly turned out to be old, rusty vehicles of little value.
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