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IGL now certifies Champagne Diamonds
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IGL, India's first Diamond Grading Laboratory, now certifies Champagne Diamonds.
Samrat Zaveri MD Trendsmith announced that all the diamond jewellery sold by Trendsmith will be certified exclusively by IGL. The Champagne Certificate will contain specific details such as weight, shape, cut and measurements, proportions (which include depth, table width, crown height and angle, pavilion depth, girdle thickness), clarity (standard clarity grading scale), finish (which includes polish and symmetry), colour grade (C1-C7) and comments by the diamond grader.
by GilbertZ
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Phone Spam War
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Algorhythm points out the irony that he's paying $3 per month to SBC/Ameritech for their "Privacy Manager" to block telemarketers, knowing full well that the company most responsible for his junk telephone calls is SBC Ameritech! He asks for suggestions...
Well, as I've discussed before on DT, I used to get 5-10 junk phone calls per day at home. I used the script from Junkbusters that he said he's too busy to try. And I can say that it worked wonders. I can't remember the last time I got a junk cold call. And with a bit of modification, it can be done rather quickly.
I embellished the script a little, especially when it was clear the cold caller didn't know the law...
The most important thing to keep in mind during a phone call from one of these guys is that the person making the call is trained to overcome your objections and can be rather resistent to your script. If you don't get joy out of tormenting the cold caller and having them call you a freak, as I managed to get one really smooth cold caller to "lose it" and do, then in my experience you can speed up the process considerably with the following:
"Hello, I'm calling for MCI/Sprint (whoever) and this is a courtesy call."
(The FOR is a dead giveaway that he works for a telemarketing company and NOT MCI/Sprint/whoever. Courtesy call = junk phone call)
May I speak to your supervisor?
(I never heard a "no" to this one).
"Yes".
Do you maintain a do not call list?
(If they say no, I always say, "Do you realize that you are personally liable in court to pay me $5,000 for calling me when you do not maintain a Do Not Call List". That always gets their attention. I think the law is the company is liable, but by making it personal and scaring them, you usually get them to pay attention)
"Yes".
Please put me on it!
That's all it takes, but to be more effective, I would definitely add the following lines:
Do you work FOR MCI/Sprint (whoever) or do you work for a telemarketing company making calls ON BEHALF of MCI/Sprint AND other companies?
(Sometimes they will resist telling the truth on this one, but the supervisor generally knows the law and knows that you are a PITA who will never give up and will generally cooperate with a little prodding)
"A telemarketing company".
Can you please put me on the Do Not Call List for both MCI/Sprint (whoever)
AS WELL AS ALL OTHER COMPANIES YOU CALL FOR?
"Yes".
You're done. It takes about 2-3 months of this before you stop receiving calls. Although the concept was from JunkBusters, the fact is that it works and I'm telling you real-life experience.
Additionally, by the time this problem was going down, my brother bought me the TeleZapper for my birthday so I can't say how much it helped, but it's only on one line. And the calls stopped coming from both lines...
The only junk phone calls I have to deal with is Junk Faxes. And they sure seem to defeat the telezapper. I also have to think with the frequency of their use, that they have found a way to defeat paying any charges on their phone bill as well.
As far as Junk Faxes go, it is clearly violative of the law. And there are often urls mentioned in the fax "newsletter" and phone numbers, so I'm a bit puzzled as to why they haven't been shut down...
by GilbertZ
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$3 million in Jewelry to be auctioned tonight
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Auction of $3 million in jewelry
NORTHAMPTON - Some 600 pieces of jewelry - an estimated $3 million worth - obtained from police seizures, attorneys, store closings, estate sales and bankruptcies - will go on sale tonight in one of the more unusual auctions staged in the city.
A New Jersey-based auction company says $3 million of the finest jewelry - Rolex watches and six-carat diamond solitaires - will be sold to the public.
Armed guards will be on hand to protect the bounty gleaned from police departments, bankruptcy sales or customs seizures, said Julian Turobiner of the State Auction Services Inc. of Teaneck, N.J., which is holding the auction.
by GilbertZ
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DMA finally see what the rest of the world already knows about Spam
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One of my favorite topics here is spam and how to get rid of it. As I've said before on DT, the reason that legislation hasn't worked is because of a powerful lobbying organization called the DMA. They have opposed legislation for a long time. These are the folks behind junk mail and other marketing gimmicks. Even they have finally recognized the need for anti-spam laws. This reduces one of the bottlenecks to spam- somewhat.
The only reason they are realizing this is because with spam taking over, their own members' emails are getting lost in the noise and are therefore not effective. They are so blind and self-serving that they don't understand how useless their own stand is and how their power is making everyone including their own members suffer.
And their change of heart is still rather feeble. For they still want it to be legal to send unsolicited email. In other words, Opt-out laws rather than Opt-in laws. What does this mean? It means that the emails must provide a way for you to be removed from the mailing list.
Although I'm in disagreement with the DMA on this issue, their concept of opt-out is completely unrealistic even from their own worldview. No one uses opt-out anymore because all it does is validate your email address to spammers who will then send you more emails.
It is more than a little aggravating that our lawmakers are also so self-serving that they rather listen to a PAC like the DMA rather than what is obvious to any human being with an email address. Spam should be very illegal period. If the politicians need money, they can get plenty more than the DMA is offering if they would stem the tide of this scourge of the Internet.
by GilbertZ
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Club vs. Lojack
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Mark Pilgrim goes into considerable detail about what I was recently discussing here on referer spam and similar topics. His basic point was that LoJack deters crime overall, but won't stop your car from getting stolen, whereas the club will stop your car from being stolen because the thief will go after another car...until such time that The Club is so ubiquitous that it will be worth the thief's effort to steal cars that use it.
What Mark failed to do in his discussion is provide an example of a LoJack type system in the world of fighting spam. I'd say the answer to that question is to make spam and all it's variants very illegal with extremely stiff penalties, far beyond what you would normally expect such a crime to carry due to the number of people affected and for how destructive it is to the community as a whole.
P.S. using the PayPal style system where they say "please enter the code contained in this blurry image with no ALT text" is a problem that spammers have solved by shipping out those gifs to humans to decode them and continuing with the automated process!
by GilbertZ
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Tiffany to Produce Diamonds: Goes into Manufacturing
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Tiffany to Produce Diamonds
TIFFANY is going the whole way with diamonds. The celebrated jeweller is becoming a diamond manufacturer and dealer to secure the supplies of the gems that made its name.
Traditionally, Tiffany bought polished diamonds from major centres in Antwerp, Tel Aviv and New York. It is now going into manufacturing and dealing to have a greater control of the product supply chain, it says.
But the key issue is guaranteeing solid sources for diamonds, which is becoming a major concern among diamond and jewellery companies.
"The move shows how significant the issue of supply has become and Tiffany can do it because they are selling at a premium," says Charles Wyndham of WWW International Diamond Consultants. This is especially the case for customers of De Beers, which faces a shortage of rough and was looking to reduce its client list of about 120 companies by about half.
by GilbertZ
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Heid Klum: Babes & Baubles Gala, Jewelry Night in Oregon to benefit Center for Women's Health
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Women take a night out for serious fun
She may have left her diamond-encrusted Miracle Bra at home, but there was no mistaking who the guest of honor was.
Heidi Klum, the supermodel best known for her Victoria's Secret catalog work, was the special guest at Thursday's Babes and Baubles Gala. The event, held at the Governor Hotel, was a benefit for the Center for Women's Health at Oregon Health & Science University.
The jewelry-themed girl's night out included a showing of gowns from the downtown boutique Mario's as well as exquisite jewelry from Portland's Zell Bros and New York-based Mouawad Jewelers, for whom Klum has designed a small collection of gold and diamond pieces.
German-born Klum, 29, all doe eyes and cheekbones, said it made perfect sense to her that the evening theme was No Boys Allowed.
I think it's wonderful,she said. It's usually a man's world, isn't it? This is a great way to turn it around. It's also a great cause. Women need to be reminded to take care of themselves; we're used to nurturing other people.
The sold-out event was the brainchild of Portland philanthropic leaders Arlene Schnitzer and Julie Neupert Stott. Schnitzer, who is co-chairwoman of OHSU's Campaign for Women's Health, said the idea for Babes and Baubles came about during preliminary meetings with Jake’s restaurant, which provided the evening’s lavish fare.
by GilbertZ
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New body formed to certify Origin of Diamonds
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New Body is Formed to Certify Diamond Origins
New Body is Formed to Certify Diamond Origins
Business Day (Johannesburg)
October 29, 2002
FORMER KPMG head of certification, Jim Keegan, has formed a new body to certify the origins of diamonds under the Kimberley Process.
The new company, International Diamond Certification, will take on WWW International Diamond Consultants as an associate for its expertise in the diamond industry.
"The new company has been established to meet the growing demand from across the diamond industry for credible independent audit and certification relating to the Kimberley Process," it said in a statement.
The launch of the company comes three days before the World Diamond Congress starts in London and less than two weeks before the landmark meeting at Interlaken, Switzerland on November 5, which is expected to ratify the adoption of the Kimberley Process by the European Union for implementation beginning early next year.
by GilbertZ
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1983: Samantha Smith To Andropov: Congratulations on your new job!
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I remember Samantha. This was the 10 year old girl who wrote a letter to Soviet Leader Yuri Andropov and got a letter back and an invitation to the Soviet Union. She got to meet Andropov and the local population. Put a face to the people in the Soviet Union. An interesting letter to see how a child of 10 perceives the world and politics. Life should be so simple and in some ways, it comes down to her questions: "I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren't please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country. God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight."
I didn't know and am rather sad to hear that she died at 13 in a plane crash.... As the saying goes, the good die young...
by GilbertZ
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London Magazine: Bin Laden's Will complains of Betrayal
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Reuters: Bin Laden's will, dated December 14, 2001, obtained.
A London-based magazine said on Friday it was publishing a will written by Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, in which he complains of betrayal by fellow militants in Afghanistan.
The Arabic-language al-Majallah said the will, typed and signed by bin Laden and dated December 14, 2001, was obtained a week ago from a "very reliable" source in Afghanistan.
It said the will, typically packed with verses from the Muslim holy book the Koran, depicted a man who appeared desperate and on the verge of death.
"Reading it, you get the impression of a dying man. It may be that he was wounded and felt he was dying," Majallah Editor-in-Chief Hani Nakshabandi told Reuters of the will, which is due to be published on Saturday.
by GilbertZ
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