Diamond stud earrings

A sightholder is a company on the Diamond Trading Company’s (DTC) list of authorized bulk purchasers of rough diamonds. DTC is controlled by the De Beers Group, the single largest producer and purveyor of rough diamonds in the world. In May 2006, DTC released a list of the 93 sightholders on its website. ([1])
Eurostar Diamonds International ([2]) is one of the world’s largest sightholder.

A winkle is a rare squeeze/endplay in contract bridge in which a trick is offered to the defenders but whichever wins the trick is then endplayed. Often one defender would be forced to offer a finesse or ruff and discard while the other could overtake and thereby promote a trick in that suit for declarer.

An example end-position, South needing 4 tricks:

On the play of the last spade, West and North let go clubs, and East is squeezed. Pitching a heart yields an immediate trick in that suit, but if a diamond is pitched declarer follows with Ace and 3 of diamonds. If East wins the trick, they must lead hearts conceding the last two tricks there. If West saves partner by playing the king of diamonds on the second diamond trick, they must then concede the last two tricks to dummy’s now high Ace of clubs and Jack of diamonds.

“Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” is a song by Prince and the New Power Generation from 1991’s Diamonds and Pearls. The lyrics deal directly with money, poverty, and greed. Noteworthy is Prince’s criticism of the Gulf War. The vocal delivery is similar to that of “When Doves Cry” but more subtle. Overall, the song is a smooth delivery with layered vocals by Prince. The song was co-written with Rosie Gaines and performed with the New Power Generation. The song was a modest hit, reaching #24 in the US and #19 in the UK.

The B-side is a previously unreleased track “Call the Law“, with lead vocals by Tony M. and supplemented by Rosie Gaines on the chorus. Prince provides guitar solos throughout the song. The track was added to the New Power Generation release Goldnigga in 1993. The UK 12″ single and CD release also included the album track “Push“.

The song is notable for its promotional video, directed by Spike Lee. Featuring a poverty-stricken African-American family, with no shots of Prince at all, it was considered not “MTV friendly” and overly political. A second version was issued, which this time included some footage of the song being performed by Prince & the New Power Generation.

Holdup is a play in contract bridge, whereby the declarer ducks one or more trick to opponents, usually in notrump contracts, in order to cut their communications. The primary purpose of holdup is to give as many tricks to opponents as needed to exhaust all the cards in the suit from one of their hands. If that hand regains the lead, it will not be able to put the partner on lead to cash its tricks. Holdup is one of basic techniques in play.

Example

South is playing a contract of three notrump, and West leads the king of diamonds. There are nine needed tricks: two spades, two hearts, one diamond and four clubs. However, if the declarer wins the ace of diamonds at trick one and drives out the ace of clubs, the defenders will cash four diamond tricks to set the contract.

South can assure the contract (provided the ace of clubs is with East) by holding up the ace of diamonds: (s)he plays low to the first two diamond tricks
(known as ducking) and wins the ace of diamonds on the third trick. Now, when East wins the ace of clubs, (s)he has no diamonds left to play. If West holds the ace of clubs, the contract is impossible to make. If, on the other hand, East had a diamond, that would mean that diamonds were originally split 4-4 and defenders could only cash three tricks in the suit, so the contract wasn’t endangered.

Rule of seven

Take the number of cards you hold in the defenders’ suit, subtract from seven, and duck that many tricks.

In the hand above, there are five diamonds in the combined North-South hands, and declarer must duck two tricks (winning the third).

If there were an additional diamond in either the North or South hand, for a total of six, then declarer need only duck one trick (winning the second). This is because if West has five diamonds (and North-South six), then East will have only two and will be out of diamonds after two rounds of the suit. If East does have three diamonds, then West will have only four and the defenders can cash only two additional diamond tricks (for a total of three) upon winning the ace of clubs.

This rule, of course, assumes you are playing in 3 NT. It can be generalized for all notrump contracts as follows:

Add four to the rank of the contract and subtract the number of cards you hold in the suit.

Kimberly is a ghost town south of Murfreesboro, Arkansas. The town grew up near John Huddleston’s diamond mine. Kimberly had a population of over 2,000 people. Wooden frame houses were built, some were made into stores, and other businesses. A bank, hotel, and other stores were also built here.

Kimberly was founded after John Huddleston found diamonds on his property. When prospectors came to find diamonds, real estate companies built homes for the prospectors, stores later came. Kimberly was named after Kimberly Diamond Mine in South Africa. Later population declined as people moved to other areas, such as Murfreesboro.

Huddleston’s diamond mine is now part of Crater of Diamonds State Park, where tourists can search for diamonds and keep any they find.

Carbonado, commonly known as the ‘Black Diamond,’ is a natural polycrystalline diamond found in alluvial deposits in the Central African Republic and Brazil. Its natural color is black or dark gray, and it is more porous than other diamonds.

Unusual properties

Unlike other natural polycrystalline diamonds, carbonado has no mantle-derived inclusions and its carbon isotope value is very low. Additionally, carbonado exhibits strong luminescence (photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence) induced by nitrogen and by vacancies existing in the crystal lattice. Analysis of the luminescence suggests that radioactive inclusions existed in the formation process of carbonado. These and other characteristics that separate the carbonado from other diamonds have led to questions as to the carbonado’s origin.

Early theories on origin

The origin of carbonado is controversial, with several hypotheses proposed:

1. Direct conversion of organic carbon under high-pressure conditions (the Earth’s interior.) This is the standard, geological process of diamond formation. The problem with this hypothesis is that, were carbonado formed by phase transformation of organic graphite inside the Earth, they would be found all over the world. However, carbonado appears only in the Central African Republic and Brazil, in areas that are far from other diamond deposits.
2. Shock metamorphism induced by meteoritic impact at the Earth’s surface. According to this hypothesis, carbonado were created by meteoric impact. The problem with this hypothesis is that shock-induced natural polycrystalline diamonds usually have hexagonal diamond (lonsdaleite) inside the samples, and carbonado does not.
3. Radiation-induced diamond formation by spontaneous fission of uranium and thorium. The problem with this hypothesis is that the energy of radiogenic fission is too small to create polycrystalline diamonds of the large grain size of carbonado (up to 500 micrometers).

Extraterrestrial origin

A team of U.S. geologists have published evidence relating to a different origin of these black diamonds: interstellar space. They have found that black diamonds contain trace elements of nitrogen and hydrogen which they claim are sure indicators of an extraterrestrial origin.

The study published in 2006 by Stephen Haggerty and Jozsef Garai, of Florida International University, analyzed the hydrogen in black diamond samples using infrared-detection instruments at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The researchers found that the chemical properties of carbonado indicated that the mineral formed in a supernova explosion that took place prior to the formation of our Solar System.

In this sense, carbonado are theorized to be akin to carbon-rich cosmic dust, likely having formed in an environment near carbon stars. The diamonds were eventually incorporated into solid bodies that subsequently fell to Earth as meteorites.Garai et al. 2006 Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol 653, pp L153-L156 http://www.fiu.edu/~jgara002/research%20statement/carbonado/carbonado-infrared.htm Infrared Absorption Investigations Confirm the Extraterrestrial Origin of Carbonado-Diamonds

References

Holdup is a play in contract bridge, whereby the declarer ducks one or more trick to opponents, usually in notrump contracts, in order to cut their communications. The primary purpose of holdup is to give as many tricks to opponents as needed to exhaust all the cards in the suit from one of their hands. If that hand regains the lead, it will not be able to put the partner on lead to cash its tricks. Holdup is one of basic techniques in play.

Example

South is playing a contract of three notrump, and West leads the king of diamonds. There are nine needed tricks: two spades, two hearts, one diamond and four clubs. However, if the declarer wins the ace of diamonds at trick one and drives out the ace of clubs, the defenders will cash four diamond tricks to set the contract.

South can assure the contract (provided the ace of clubs is with East) by holding up the ace of diamonds: (s)he plays low to the first two diamond tricks
(known as ducking) and wins the ace of diamonds on the third trick. Now, when East wins the ace of clubs, (s)he has no diamonds left to play. If West holds the ace of clubs, the contract is impossible to make. If, on the other hand, East had a diamond, that would mean that diamonds were originally split 4-4 and defenders could only cash three tricks in the suit, so the contract wasn’t endangered.

Rule of seven

Take the number of cards you hold in the defenders’ suit, subtract from seven, and duck that many tricks.

In the hand above, there are five diamonds in the combined North-South hands, and declarer must duck two tricks (winning the third).

If there were an additional diamond in either the North or South hand, for a total of six, then declarer need only duck one trick (winning the second). This is because if West has five diamonds (and North-South six), then East will have only two and will be out of diamonds after two rounds of the suit. If East does have three diamonds, then West will have only four and the defenders can cash only two additional diamond tricks (for a total of three) upon winning the ace of clubs.

This rule, of course, assumes you are playing in 3 NT. It can be generalized for all notrump contracts as follows:

Add four to the rank of the contract and subtract the number of cards you hold in the suit.

Pens is a card game for two or more players. The players sit around a table, and a number of pens (one less than the number of players) are laid with equal spacing in the center of the table, at an equal distance from each of the players. Cards are then removed from the pack such that only one group of four of a kind per player remains. For example, if there were four players, one possible pack would be:

The pack is shuffled, and four cards are dealt to each player. No player may look at another player’s cards.

The game starts when one player says “1, 2, 3, pass.” On ‘pass,’ each player passes any one of their cards, face down, to the player to their left. This process repeats until somebody has a hand of four cards of the same value, at which point they grab one of the pens in the middle of the table. The other players then do the same. The person left without a pen drops out, and the whole game repeats without that player. This continues until there is only one player remaining. That player wins the game.

If a player grabs a pen despite not having four of a kind, they lose the round. However, feinting is allowed, and if by motioning as if to grab a pen (without actually touching one) they cause other players to grab for the pens, the first to touch one loses the round.

A Morton’s Fork Coup is a coup in contract bridge involving the forcing of an opponent to choose between establishing one or more extra tricks in the suit led and losing the opportunity to win a trick in the suit led. It takes its name from the expression Morton’s Fork.

Example

South receives the lead of the jack of diamonds against his six-spade contract. It appears that the contract has unavoidable losers in both hearts and clubs. Although an extra winner can be built in diamonds, the discard it provides is not of a losing card.

However, the contract can be made if South can manage either to discard the hearts from hand or take two heart tricks (thus having two club discards on K and a diamond honor). South plays low from dummy, ruffs, draws trumps, and leads a low heart from hand. If West takes the ace, declarer can unblock hearts, ruff out the ace of diamonds, then discard two clubs on dummy’s winning diamond and king of hearts. If West ducks, declarer again ruffs out the ace of diamonds, but now uses the established winner to discard the queen of hearts, losing only a club.

Note that declarer must be careful not to play a high diamond on the opening lead, as East could then withhold the ace, forcing the declarer to choose a discard prematurely.

Denise Perrier (born 1935) is a French model and actress. She now goes by “Denise Perrier Lanfranchi.”

Perrier was the third person to be chosen as Miss World in 1953, representing France; the same year that France also won the Miss Universe pageant by Christiane Martel.

Perrier has done little acting. Her most memorable scene is an uncredited appearance in the 1971 James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever. In the scene, after a little persuasion from James Bond, she gives up the location of the villain of the film.

After leaving her modeling career, Perrier became active in local government in her native France. She was one of the judges at the 2005 Miss World contest.