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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Frequently used in home games of draw poker as wilds because these three cards are the only cards of differing rank and suit in a common deck that share an identifying trait.

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.

References

Putter

has worked with Massive Attack, Bruce Glover, Pussycat Dolls, Depeche Mode, Dirk Benedict, Frank Sinatra, Roger Moore & many other famous names.

The Moussaieff Red was displayed as part of the Smithsonian’s “The Splendor of Diamonds” exhibit, alongside The De Beers Millennium Star and The Heart of Eternity.

• A blue diamond, the most famous example being the Hope Diamond
• The Blue Diamond, the name assigned in 1954 to the air demonstration unit of the Philippine Air Force. In 1960, this was changed to The Blue Diamonds.
• Blue Diamond, Nevada, a census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States
• Blue Diamond Growers, a California-based agricultural cooperative and marketing organization that specializes in almonds
• The Blue Diamond (comics), a 1940s superhero from Timely Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics
• Impatiens namchabarwensis or Blue Diamond Impatiens, a member of the Balsaminaceae family
• The Heart of the Ocean, an important element in the 1997 Titanic film.
• Blue Diamond (truck platform), a collaborative agreement between Ford Trucks and Navistar International (previously IHC)
• A Viagra tablet (informal)

Blue Diamonds may refer to:

• Blue Diamonds, a Dutch 1960s doo-wop duo best known for their chart-topping single “Ramona”
• “Blue Diamonds”, a song from Rusted Root’s 2002 album Welcome to My Party
• “Blue Diamonds”, No. 92 Squadron RAF aerobatic display team.
• “Blue Diamonds”, a song from The Long Winters’ 2003 album When I Pretend to Fall

The Heart of Eternity is a member of an exceedingly rare class of colored diamonds. It was found in the Premier Diamond Mine of South Africa. Blue diamonds account for less than 0.1% of the output of the Premier mine, which is the only mine in the world with an appreciable production of blue diamonds. Of the ten colored diamonds that drew the highest bids, six of those ten were blue diamonds, rating values as high as $550,000 to $580,000 per carat ($2750–2900/mg).

The original gem from which the Heart of Eternity came weighed 777 carats (155 g), which was considered to be a magical number, and set off a “gold rush” for similar gems. The cutting of the rough stone was planned for four to five months, until it was decided the rough gem would be cut into three pieces. The largest piece became the Millennium Star, and another part of the gem became the Heart of Eternity Diamond.

The Heart of Eternity was unveiled in January 2000 as part of the De Beers Millennium Jewels collection, which included the Millennium Star. The Heart of Eternity was featured with ten other blue diamonds; the collection of blue diamonds totaled 118 carats (23.6 g). The De Beers Millennium Jewels were displayed at London’s Millennium Dome throughout 2000. An attempt on November 7, 2000 to steal the collection was foiled.[1]

During its exhibition at the Smithsonian, the Heart of Eternity was noted to be on loan from a private collector, giving rise to speculation that it was sold sometime during the exhibition at the Millennium Dome in London.

The company holds a 40% stake in the Diavik Diamonds Project. Production at the Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada’s second diamond mine, is operated by Aber’s joint venture partner, Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group. The mine began producing diamonds in November 2002.

Aber’s participation in the retail segment of the diamond pipeline is by means of its 51% controlling interest in Harry Winston, which they purchased in 2004. As of October 2006, Aber has a 100% ownership in Harry Winston.

Aside from its corporate office in Toronto, Aber Diamond also has a rough diamond sorting faciilty in Toronto and a marketing office in Antwerp, Belgium. Aber Diamond sells Tiffany & Co. about 25% of the diamonds in Aber’s share and sells the remainder on the Antwerp open diamond market through its rough diamond dealer subsidiary, Aber International.

• A blue diamond, the most famous example being the Hope Diamond
• The Blue Diamond, the name assigned in 1954 to the air demonstration unit of the Philippine Air Force. In 1960, this was changed to The Blue Diamonds.
• Blue Diamond, Nevada, a census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States
• Blue Diamond Growers, a California-based agricultural cooperative and marketing organization that specializes in almonds
• The Blue Diamond (comics), a 1940s superhero from Timely Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics
• Impatiens namchabarwensis or Blue Diamond Impatiens, a member of the Balsaminaceae family
• The Heart of the Ocean, an important element in the 1997 Titanic film.
• Blue Diamond (truck platform), a collaborative agreement between Ford Trucks and Navistar International (previously IHC)
• A Viagra tablet (informal)

Blue Diamonds may refer to:

• Blue Diamonds, a Dutch 1960s doo-wop duo best known for their chart-topping single “Ramona”
• “Blue Diamonds”, a song from Rusted Root’s 2002 album Welcome to My Party
• “Blue Diamonds”, No. 92 Squadron RAF aerobatic display team.
• “Blue Diamonds”, a song from The Long Winters’ 2003 album When I Pretend to Fall

The song peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100, was moderately successful on the iTunes music service, and peaked at #8 on the UK Top 40. The song is about Roc-A-Fella, and the chorus “Throw ya diamonds in the sky” refers to the Roc-A-Fella hand sign, which is in the shape of a diamond.

After making the song, West learned more about the plight of West African children who mine conflict diamonds and die in civil wars financed by diamonds, and decided he would use the video to get this message across. He also recorded a remix of the song, featuring Jay-Z, where he talks about conflict diamonds. Some say that the remix was inspired by Lupe Fiasco’s song “Conflict Diamonds”, which itself uses the beat from Kanye’s song. The remix was included on the album, whereas the original version was included as a bonus track.

This song won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Rap Song.

This song was originally named “Diamonds Are Forever” but because Jay-Z had a song on called “Diamond Is Forever”, Kanye changed it to “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”.

A-Side

1. “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” (Clean) – 4:00
2. “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” (Dirty) – 4:00

B-Side

1. “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” (Instrumental) – 4:00
2. “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” (A cappella) – 4:00

References

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.

Mulligan started his career at Wolves for whom he made only one appearance as an 82nd minute substitute in the 1-1 draw with Burnley at Turf Moor. Whilst at Wolves, Mulligan was loaned out to Rushden & Diamonds.

Mulligan made his debut for Diamonds, again as a substitute, in the 1-0 home defeat to Chester City. He was thrown in with half an hour to go with Diamonds already losing. Although he was not able to affect the score, he did show some neat touches, although he squandered a late chance to equalise when his low drive flashed wide.

Mulligan had clearly impressed the management and was rewarded with his first ever start in the away game with Wycombe. Diamonds went 1-0 down after 14 minutes, but just 4 minutes later Mulligan celebrated his first ever professional goal to equalise. As the Wycombe defence failed to clear a cross from the left Mulligan, with his back to goal, scored with a spectacular overhead kick from about 12 yards out that crashed in off the post. The game finished 1-1.

His next goal was a consolation goal in the 2-1 home defeat to Darlington as he lashed the ball home following a corner kick. Although Mulligan opened the scoring with a close-range strike in the match at home to Scunthorpe, Diamonds ended up losing 3-1. With a record of 3 goals in 12 games for a struggling Rushden & Diamonds side, Mulligan’s record was respectable.

He was snapped up on a free transfer by Sheffield United in 2005 although he only made 2 appearances for them in the League Cup as chances at Bramall Lane were limited. In the 2005/06 season he was farmed out on loan to both Port Vale and Gillingham. Although neither spell was especially prolific in terms of goals, he made an impact at Gillingham, where his hard-working style impressed manager Ronnie Jepson. On May 12th 2006 he signed for Gillingham on a permanent basis, on a free transfer.

He was third in the club’s 2006–07 player of the year voting behind Andrew Crofts and Mark Bentley.

It was announced on 17 September 2007 that Mulligan had signed a new contract, keeping him at the Kent club for another 2 years.

• The playing card.
• Jack of Diamonds, a group of artists founded in 1909 in Moscow.
• Jack of Diamonds, a 1967 film directed by Don Taylor.
• Jack of Diamonds, a 2001 film directed by Jon Kirby and Mitchell Morgan.
• Jack of Diamonds (song)

DTC receives uncut diamonds from all of De Beers’ mines around southern Africa, as well as some production from Alrosa in Russia. The diamonds are then sorted into over 16,000 categories, according to size, color, clarity, carat and quality (amount of inclusions). They are then combined into lots for sale to sightholders. Sightholders are invited to DTC’s London offices ten times per year and are given the opportunity to purchase lots of diamonds at prices set by DTC. According to a January 13, 2004 DTC media release ([1]), there are 84 sightholders, and three additional companies authorized to purchase diamonds from DTC for industrial use. In 2004, DTC’s sales were $5.7 billion, an increase of 3.2% over the previous year.

DTC also operates De Beers’ famous diamond marketing campaigns to consumers.

During the Cold War, Soviet scientists developed the diamond synthesis technology because diamond is the best substrate for strategic semi-conductor electronics that are less susceptible to the electromagnetic pulse of nuclear blasts. The Soviet technology fell into American’s hands after the downfall of the Soviet Union. The technology is no longer used for weapon development, but for gem stone production.

While visiting Moscow in 1995 someone asked retired Army General and West Point graduate Carter Clarke if he wanted to buy a diamond making machine. Three months later he visited Moscow again with the scientist Reza Abbaschian and brought 3 of the machines and also 3 Russian scientists to Sarasota, Florida. After 7 years of research and development in cooperation with experts from the University of Florida his company brought high quality diamonds onto the market.

Carbon, in graphite form, is mixed with a metal flux in a cylindrical shape. A tiny seed diamond is placed at the bottom of the cylinder. The metal and graphite are subjected to extreme pressure, 850,000 lbf/in³ (5.9 MPa) and temperature, 3000 °F (1600 °C) for four days. During the period, the carbon atoms within the molten metal crystallize on top of the seed diamond. A three carat (600 mg) bright yellow gem quality diamond is produced inside the resolidified metal cylinder at the end. The metal cylinder is then dissolved in mild acid until the diamond crystal is extracted.

With the addition or elimination of certain impurities under controlled conditions, diamonds of various color can be produced. Since nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere, this process is more likely to produce bright yellow diamonds than any other color. The yellow tint occurs when approximately five out of each 100,000 carbon atoms in the diamond crystal lattice are replaced with nitrogen atoms. It is ironic because natural yellow diamonds often have higher value than white diamonds.

It is named after the capital of Saxony, Germany where it has been on display for most of the last two centuries. It did make some sojourns following World War II, to the Soviet Union until 1958, and to the Smithsonian in Washington DC, USA in 2000, where it was displayed in the same room as the Hope diamond.

The stone’s unique green color is due to natural exposure to radioactive materials (see Diamond enhancement#Irradiation). The stone is being used to compare natural versus lab-produced green diamonds — it is hoped that it can be used to devise a test to differentiate between naturally green diamonds, which are quite rare, and lab-produced ones.

This diamond is located in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden “The New Green Vault”
[1]

• Double – shows any single suit; advancer bids 2♣, after which intervenor corrects to his actual suit (or passes with clubs). This was originally played as requiring either a solid suit or a very good suit and an entry, leaving advancer the opportunity to pass with a couple of side-suit stoppers, though many partnerships now allow a weaker suit.
• 2♣ – shows clubs and hearts
• 2♦ – shows diamonds and hearts
• 2♥ – shows hearts and spades
• 2♠ – shows spades and an unspecified minor suit
• 2NT – shows clubs and diamonds

The convention is named loosely after its creator, Bernard Zeller.

There are a limited number of commercially viable diamond mines currently operating in the world. Diamonds are also mined alluvially over disperse areas, where diamonds have been eroded out of the ground and deposited by water or weather action. There is also at least one example of a non-commercial diamond mine (Crater of Diamonds State Park).

List of diamond mines

• Botswana
  • Damtshaa diamond mine
  • Jwaneng diamond mine
  • Letlhakane diamond mine
  • Orapa diamond mine

• South Africa
  • Baken diamond mine
  • Cullinan diamond mine (previously “Premier mine”)
  • Finsch diamond mine
  • Kimberley, Northern Cape
  • Koffiefontein mine
  • The Oaks diamond mine
  • Venetia diamond mine

• Other African locations
  • Kampangala diamond mine, Congo
  • Murowa diamond mine, Zimbabwe
  • Williamson diamond mine, Tanzania

• United States
  • Crater of Diamonds State Park

Menudo was a gangster with an Italian accent who loved diamonds above all else, to the point that he had all his teeth removed and replaced with diamond ones, so that when he smiled he had a glittering grin. He wanted all the diamonds in Cape Suzette, and to this end he had his henchman Weazel (whose name must not be pronounced weasel, but “wee-zell”), trick Higher For Hire into skywriting secret messages to all of Heimlich’s henchmen throughout the city in a grand scheme he called the Heimlich Maneuver.

The Heimlich Maneuver involved holding Cape Suzette hostage with a fleet of hydrogen blimps and forcing the citizens to hand over all of their diamonds to Menudo, or else the blimps would bomb the city. Menudo was able to keep in contact with the blimp crews (or so he thought) through skywriting secret messages.

Baloo got wind of Heimlich’s plans thanks to Detective Thursday, and, despite his poor spelling, managed to write fake messages to fool the gangsters. Both Heimlich and Weazel were arrested by the police after their helicopter equipped with a diamond-tipped ramming nosecone crashed into the bay.

In a humorous turn, Menudo at one point accidentially starts choking on a diamond in front of an oblivious Weazel while both are in his office. However, Menudo manages to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on himself.

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.

Lowe currently plays for Jamaican National Premier League outfit Portmore United F.C., after spending several years in England, the USA and Canada.

The gems

These synthetic diamonds—precisely duplicate natural diamonds in both optical and physical properties—are touted as “memorial diamonds” and range in price from USD $2,500 for 0.20–0.29 carat (40 to 59 mg) stones to $14,000 for stones weighing 0.90–0.99 carats (180–199 mg). The company can extract enough purified carbon from one human body to synthesize up to 50 gems weighing one carat (0.2 g) each. As little as 227 g of remains are needed to make one diamond. Diamonds made from the cremains of pets are priced the same as those made from human remains, but the size of the animal may be a limiting factor. As of March 2005, LifeGem says it has served 1,000 families since the company’s founding.

The process

The carbon from the remains is converted to graphite after purification, from which point it is placed in a diamond synthesis press. The diamonds are made via the thermal gradient method using alloys as a flux at pressures of 5.0–6.0 GPa and temperatures of 1,600–2,000 °C. The entire process, from cremation to finished stone, takes up to six months for fancy yellow LifeGem diamonds and up to nine months for fancy blue LifeGem diamonds.

Due to boron impurities present in the carbon, most LifeGem synthetic diamonds produced up to 2003 were Type IIb and were a light to medium blue in colour. Iron flux inclusions within the stones also rendered them magnetic. The synthesis process has since been modified: Current production consists of strong yellow to golden yellow and Type IIb blue diamonds.

Three standard diamond cuts are offered to customers: Round brilliant, radiant, and princess (the latter two cuts are rectangular and square in outline, respectively). The company will also take requests for custom cuts. The finished stones are laser inscribed with an identifier (and a tribute for an extra fee), graded by gemologists, and are given a signed certificate of authenticity which contains a LifeGem ID#.

The basic rule is that, if a player wins the last trick of the hand with the 7 of diamonds, his partner must buy them a pint of beer. The additional requirements vary depending whether the beer card trick winner is the declarer or one of the defenders. For the declarer, the requirements are generally that:

• Must make contract,
• Must win last trick with the 7,
• Diamonds must not be trumps (though some people play that only diamond part scores are excluded),
• Must take a justifiable line on the contract to win as many tricks as possible (i.e. not lose tricks to set up the beer or in order to keep the 7 until the last trick),

For a defender, the requirements are generally that:

• Contract must be defeated
• Must win last trick with the beer card
• Diamonds must not be trumps
• Must try to win as many tricks as possible (i.e. not lose tricks to set up the beer or in order to keep the 7 until the last trick)

If the contract is doubled then two beers are earned. If the contract is redoubled then four beers are earned.

Examples

South plays in the inferior contract of three notrump, against which the opponents cash the first four spade tricks. To maximize the chance of getting a beer, declarer must discard two top diamond honors and a small heart from dummy. If the diamonds do not break 4-0, it’s straightforward to cash nine winners, ending with the beer card. If the diamonds don’t break, there’s a chance that a defender will be pseudosqueezed and choose to discard a diamond. For declarer to discard three diamond honors risks losing the contract unnecessarily, and so forfeits the beer, even if diamonds turn out to break normally.

Alternately, if North-South only exclude diamond partials from beer card enforcement, then the declarer in six diamonds can easily beer assuming trumps break. Declarer wins the (say) heart lead in the South hand and cashes one high trump in the North hand. When they break, declarer cashes two more high trumps, exits a spade, uses the rounded-suit entries to ruff two spades in the North hand, and finally trump the losing heart with the beer card. When they do not break, the simplest line (ruff a heart in the South hand, requires hearts 5-2 or better) forces declarer to use the beer card while drawing trumps.

Beginning with the dealer North, the auction proceeds 1D (Pass) 1S (2H); 3H (Pass) 4C (Pass); 4NT (Pass) 5C (Pass); 7C (Dbl) All Pass. Note that the four notrump bid is the modern Roman Keycard Blackwood with 1430 responses and clubs as trumps. South won the HK lead in dummy, drew trumps in three rounds, and played a diamond to the ace. When both minors broke, South ruffed the remaining heart in hand and claimed his doubled grand slam along with the beers. Plus 2330, two beers, and 14 IMPs.

In theory, South should have interpreted the final double as a Lightner double and removed to seven diamonds. However, given that his priorities placed the probable doubled beer ahead of trusting the opponents, he should still NOT redouble. Since the opponents were non-vulnerable, it just may have occurred to them to remove to seven hearts. While the sacrifice rates to go down two thousand, there is certainly no hope for even North to score the beer.

Until the beginning of the 18th century French kings wore plain crowns unembellished with precious stones. This was changed by King Louis XV in 1722, when he had a new crown created, which he had embellished with diamonds from the Royal Collection. He wore it at his coronation.

The new crown was made by Laurent Ronde, the French Crown jeweller. It originally contained collection of Mazarin Diamonds and the famous ‘Regent’ diamond, which was set in the front of the crown, as well as hundreds of other precious diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires.

All of France’s older crowns were lost, stolen or destroyed during the French revolution. The crown of Louis XV was the only one to survive.

In 1885 the French Third Republic decided to sell the Crown Jewels. Given its historic importance, the crown of Louis XV was kept, though its precious stones were replaced by glass.

It is on permanent display in the Louvre museum in Paris.