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Spectral Signatures, Blockchains, and Immortality


In 1928, Sir C.V. Raman and his colleague K.S. Krishnan observed, using the smallest amount of filtered sunlight, that every material has its own distinct spectral signature. A spectral signature is how light’s frequency is altered after it comes in contact with a material. Our environment is altered by our presence and we are altered by it. Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for discovering the Raman Effect.
Using Raman Spectroscopy, we can now scan a diamond and capture its unique spectral signature. Women like to say “this diamond is really talking to me” when they find a diamond that they love – that’s the diamond’s spectral signature. Up until now, very little has been done with the individual light fingerprint of a diamond; we have spent more time weighing, measuring, and plotting our diamonds than listening to what they were saying to us through their sparkle.
With the digitalization of just about everything from movies, songs, and photographs up to the “clouds”, it’s not inconceivable to imagine a time when there will be a diamond cloud, a virtual universal database where all legitimate, natural, safely sourced diamonds are recorded. Using blockchains, the same way bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are stored, we can use incorruptible digital ledgers to bring worldwide transparency to an industry veiled in secrecy for too long.
In this Diamond Utopia that I imagine, a person could someday be able to use the smart device of their choice and access each diamond’s unique spectra. Since these spectra would be digitized, all pertinent information associated with the diamond would be accessible: its clarity, color, cut, carat weight, and supporting documentations (like Fully Bonded Appraisals) to tell the owner what it is, what it is worth, where it came from, and history of ownership. We would be able to distinguish not only real diamonds from lab grown diamonds, but also distinguish from the newly-mined to the previously-owned. We could finally know the diamond’s provenance.
Still, some people are against creating universal blockchains for diamonds. They believe it is a way to discriminate against “used” diamonds. Right now, anybody can take a diamond that has been bought and sold countless times and walk into an appraiser and get a new report, a new title. Like a criminal who has negotiated a deal with the authorities and is given a new identity, the old diamond is born anew.
I’m sure it’s very naïve of me to think that the jewelry industry will do all the necessary steps to finally make buying diamonds totally transparent and that all the players in the game would be willing to follow the rules, but a Diamond Guy can dream.
Hundreds of years from now, the diamonds we own will be in the hands of someone else. If we want them to know the diamond’s family tree, we have to take the appropriate steps now so our diamonds can tell their stories forever.

by Fred Cuellar, author of the best-selling book “How to Buy a Diamond.” More questions? Ask the Diamond Guy®

Top Ten Complaints a Woman Has About Her Engagement Ring

by Fred Cuellar

  • TOP 10 COMPLAINTS WOMEN HAVE ABOUT THEIR ENGAGEMENT RINGS (by Fred Cuellar). Over the last 30 years, I’ve witnessed a lot of happiness/joy and a lot of anger/frustration from the women who receive diamond engagement rings. This article focuses on the top ten complaints women currently have about their engagement rings. There used to be only one – “It’s not big enough! Size, size, size!” Overwhelmingly, size was the number one complaint for as long as I could remember. Then, mysteriously size dropped from its number one spot to the #2 spot in 2005. Now, more than 10 years later, SIZE isn’t even in the top five! What are millennials finding more important than “YUGE!!”? Let’s find out.

Dallas Couple Celebrates 65th Anniversary

On February 8th, 2013, Dallas Texas couple Dave and Grace Fleischer celebrated their sixty-fifth anniversary. According to divorcerate.org, the divorce rate in America for a first marriage is 41%, the rate for a second marriage jumps to 60% and the rate for the third is a whopping 73%! With these astounding figures, we scratch our heads and marvel, “How do they do it?” or more importantly, “How could they stand each other for that long?”

When asked how they would advise young married couples today, Grace Fleischer stated matter-of-factly, “Love each other”. But her answer seems too simple, too easy, especially when we have experienced difficult, trying times in our own relationships. Sadly, love alone doesn’t seem like enough.

But, Dave Fleischer revealed that they’ve had plenty of hard times themselves throughout their sixty-five years together. “You love and stay with each other, regardless”, he said. “In ’83, or even before that, when I lost my business, we just had tough times, but just had to stick it out and stay with each other”. To make matters worse, they also almost lost their home. “I think that would be about the worst [time] I can remember,” Dave reminisced.

Growing older provided additional challenges for Dave and Grace Fleischer. Grace had a brain operation in 2004 and has trouble getting around, often needing a wheelchair or walker and Dave took a year hiatus from his enjoyable 20-year retirement career as a school crossing guard because he fell and broke his hip last year. Despite these pitfalls, he plans to go back to work this August and is looking forward to “seeing [the] kids and helping them cross the street… [and having] a little bit of income.”

The most compelling part of their sixty-five years of marriage is the fact that Grace and Dave are far from being the perfect couple. Couples often find that with difficult times come fights and arguments, and the Fleischer’s are no exception. Dave said that they still have their squabbles and fondly remembered what Grace used to do when they weren’t getting along, “She always got mad at me when we [were] in the car and she would wanna open the door and jump out when the car was moving!”

In addition, Grace revealed that she “can’t remember” if her husband Dave was even in the top ten handsomest men she had ever met and when asked if she thought he was handsome today, she quipped, “If he puts his teeth in”. But physical attraction is hardly strong enough to keep a marriage going, and what Grace loves most about Dave is that he does things for her. Grace never learned how to drive a car, so Dave must drive her everywhere she needs to go. Although Dave believes that Grace was and is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, he, like Grace, appreciates his mate not only for her physical attributes, but because she is there for him. Dave stated, “She is compassionate, looks after me, and takes care of me and I do the same for her.”

So what’s their secret? They went through lots of rough patches, fought, and argued over the years, but yet they are still together after everything, wanting to take care of each other, after most people would have given up. Spending time with one another has significantly helped them “stick through” the tougher times and helped their love evolve over time. Dave noted that over the years, they’ve spent quality time together; when they were younger, they rode together to the Jewish community center on his motorcycle and after work, Grace came to Dave’s barbeque store and cashiered for him. These days, simple pleasures such as playing cards with another couple, spending time with their three grandchildren, visiting the casinos once in a while, and attending the Dallas summer musicals provide satisfying time together for Dave and Grace.

So really, love alone isn’t enough. Couples “promise” their vows at the altar, but as Dave and Grace prove, couples must instead commit to their marriages; they must stick to each other and spend quality time together, despite the challenges that each inevitably faces some time or another in their relationship. Dave and Grace Fleischer illustrate that in order to keep a marriage going strong, love must be at the core of the relationship, surrounded by a wealth of compassion, commitment and communication. “That’s what I’d advise anybody that’s married or getting married,” Dave said, “to love each other and do for each other and…not fuss and fight.”

By Robin Nennig of Diamond Cutters International

Interview from Marketplace

By David Weinberg

Today a couple of the nation’s largest jewelry retailers are arguing in a federal courtroom in Ohio. At issue is a multi-million dollar ad campaign by the diamond retailer Zales. The ad claims that Zales’ Celebration Fire diamond is the most brilliant diamond in the world. Sterling Jewelers, the company that owns Zales’ competitors Kay and Jared, says Zales’ has to take back its superlative.

Zales’ claims the lawsuit is without merit. “Our advertising was based upon testing by qualified independent laboratory and our ads make that clear” said Roxanne Barry, the director of investor relations for the Zale Corporation.

Fred Cuellar, author of the number-one selling book on diamonds, “How to Buy a Diamond,” says it’s very easy to tell if Zales’ claim is true.

“It’s simple, there’s a formula you follow,” Cuellar says. “Efficiency rating times amplified light return equals weighted light return. Remember, a photon of light is a boson. Bosons are not Fermions. Am I losing you?”

Cueller broke it down in simpler terms. He said if Sterling, the company that is suing Zales, argues that the brilliance of a diamond is subjective, “They’re wrong and they’re toast.”

But Cueller says if Sterling argues that Zales didn’t do the proper test to determine the brilliance of the diamond, then they have a case. “I studied everything they did with the Celebration diamond and they didn’t follow the protocol and so they actually can’t make the claim based on the way they did the tests on their 50-something stones.”

If Zales loses the case, it will have to pull its ad campaign in the midst of the holiday season.

Here is the link to the original article:
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/jewelry-chains-fight-over-clearest-brightest-diamonds

June 6, 2012 Press Release for Diamond Cutters International

For Immediate Release

Diamond Cutters International honors both quantum physics creator and Rubik’s Cube inventor with Rubik’s Masterpiece to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube, the world’s best-selling puzzle, as part of a major international exhibition.

Houston, Texas — As a young physics student in 1874, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, wanted to understand how matter moved through time and space. In a speech presented in Florence, Italy in 1944, titled Das Wesen der Materie [The Nature of Matter], the German-born physicist said, “The mind is the matrix of all matter.” Little did Planck know he was doing more than explaining the beginnings of quantum theory; he was setting the stage for what would become one of the most widely enjoyed and studied toy puzzles in history. One hundred years after Planck began his pursuit of understanding quantum mechanics, a young Hungarian inventor, architect and professor of architecture, Erno Rubik invented the Rubik’s Cube, a perfect model of Planck’s simple statement. Fifteen years further removed, another craftsman, this time in diamonds, precious stones and metals, Fred Cuellar, founder and CEO of Diamond Cutters International (DCI), created what was to become known as the Rubik’s Masterpiece, or as the Guinness Book of World Records refer to as, “World’s Most Expensive Toy.”

From a simple quote, to an inventor’s goal to be able to physically place a working model of that concept in a person’s hands, to one artist’s desire to create a version as beautiful as the complexity of the universe, the Rubik’s Cube and its $2.5 million counterpart the Rubik’s Masterpiece, have entertained, enthralled and enraptured people around the world. Today, in cooperation with the Liberty Science Center (LSC) in Jersey City and Google, a major exhibit celebrating the Rubik’s Cube is being developed to open April 2014 at the LSC before traveling around the world to various art museums, science centers, and alternative exhibit spaces for up to seven years.

“Erno Rubik was able to make the complex adapted system, which Plank was describing, into a toy, essentially placing the universe in our hands,” says Cuellar of Rubik’s invention. “When I first saw his plastic toy I thought to myself, this is far too incredible a puzzle; it needs to be made of the finest most precious material. I had to honor Rubik and ultimately Planck, using my own skills and talents, so I created the Rubik’s Masterpiece.”

So impressed was Rubik when he first held his namesake masterpiece in his hands that he said of Cuellar’s version of his puzzle, “This is my Mona Lisa.”

Cuellar’s Rubik’s Masterpiece will be the centerpiece of the 40th anniversary exhibit. Valued at over $2.5 million, the fully functioning Rubik’s Cube required 8,500 man hours to be crafted in 18 karat yellow gold with 25 precious stones per panel set in invisible settings. Cuellar used 185 carats of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and white diamonds to create the classic colored panels of the Rubik’s Cube puzzle with one small difference. While the original Rubik’s Cube is colored red, green, blue, orange, yellow, and white, Cuellar—himself a lover of puzzles and codes—decided to replace orange with purple for a variety of reasons both clever and protective.

The color purple has historically represented royalty due to the fact that in ancient times it was the most difficult, and thus most precious color to create. Only kings and monarchs were allowed to wear purple and to this day it still represents this regal and noble class.

Secondarily, Cuellar wanted to honor both Planck and Rubik, and the color purple allowed him to do this through a clever use of an acronym. The ‘pu’ stand for Planck’s universe, while the ‘rp’ represent Rubik’s puzzle, and finally ‘le’ stand for light energy, which is ultimately what Planck and Rubik each had a desire to understand.

No photograph has ever been taken of the purple side of the Rubik’s Masterpiece, and until now, this design change has not been publicized, to eliminate the risk of others creating replica versions of Cuellar’s incredible work. But with its inclusion in the upcoming exhibit, Cuellar decided it was time to reveal the truth.

“We are excited to be a part of this incredible exhibit,” says Cuellar, “and to be able to share our creation with not only the guests of the Liberty Science Center but ultimately the world.”

The interactive Rubik’s Cube Exhibition will explore the interplay of design, engineering, mathematics, and creativity. In addition to DCI’s spectacular creation, the exhibition will include elaborate Cube artwork; Cube-solving robots; virtual reality simulations of Cubes that aren’t really there; a glowing 35-foot-tall Rubik’s Cube that can be manipulated by anyone with an Internet connection; and a tiny nanoscale Cube.

“Rubik’s Cube has stood the test of time,” says LSC CEO Paul Hoffman, “and yet remains on the leading edge of innovation. Not a week goes by without somebody—an architect in Turkey, a musician in China, a mathematician in Moscow, or a roboticist in Japan—using the Cube in an ingenious new way.”

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About Fred Cuellar, the Diamond Guy®
Having once been unable to afford to purchase a diamond ring for his bride-to-be, Fred Cuellar set out to learn all he could about the diamond business and in so doing has become one of the world’s leading experts. He is the founder of Diamond Cutters International (DCI) where Fred’s industry pioneering work in diamond corresponding grading and diamond bonding have not only revolutionized the diamond industry but has made DCI one of the world’s top diamond cutting, design, importing and sales organizations with a client list that reads like a who’s who of world political leaders, celebrities and championship sports organizations, including President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura, the Saudi Royal Family, Erno Rubik, Oprah Winfrey, the Dallas Cowboys, the Denver Broncos, the Detroit Red Wings, the New York Yankees, the LA Galaxy where David Beckham received his first championship ring and more.

To assist others that suffer from the same plight that he once did, Fred launched the MyGemologist™ program and the philanthropic Adopt-A-Diamond™ program, as well as authored “How to Buy a Diamond,” now in its seventh edition and the number one selling book on diamonds in the country. Fred was also instrumental in developing a number of purchasing techniques, including “buying shy,” that have help save thousands of dollars for buyers and increased sales for the diamond industry worldwide. Fred’s tireless work has benefited not only the diamond industry but diamond buyers.

About Liberty Science Center
Liberty Science Center is a 300,000-square-foot learning center located in Liberty State Park on the Jersey City bank of the Hudson near the Statue of Liberty. Liberty Science Center (LSC.org) is dedicated to bringing the excitement of science to people of all ages, Liberty Science Center houses seven museum exhibition halls, a 3D theater, the nation’s largest IMAX® Dome Theater, live simulcast surgeries, tornado and hurricane-force wind simulators, K-12 classrooms and labs, and teacher-development programs. 600,000 students, teachers, and parents visit the science center each year, and tens of thousands more benefit from the center’s off-site and online programs.

Contact: Dee Doan
Diamond Cutters International
Phone 713.222.2728
Fax 713.622.3805
4265 San Felipe, Ste. 960
Houston, TX 77027

Dear @Klout: It Has Come Time For Me To Say Goodbye To You…

Dear @Klout

It Has Come Time For Me To Say Goodbye To You. While I Believe Your Heart Was In The Right Place When You Came Up With Your Idea Of Social Influence, I Believe You Are Fundamentally Broken. You Are Hurting People. You Make Them Feel Good One Day, Only To Tell Them They Are Worth Less The Next. The Measure Of Someone’s Influence Is Not The Measure Of Clicks, RTs & Like Buttons. It’s The Measure Of How Much Someone Is Willing To Sacrifice For You. Influence Is Love. Influence Is Kindness, Gratitude & Compassion. There Are No Buttons For These. I’ve Stood By & Watched You Divide The Digital World Into “Winners” & “Losers”. Maybe I Hung On So Long Because You Kept Calling Me A “Winner”. When My Klout Score Got To 80 I Thought Wow! I Must Be Special! Now It Rests At 83 & I Don’t Feel Special Anymore, I Feel Used & Manipulated. You Gave Me Worthless Points In Trade For My Friends Attention So You Could Sell Them. Well It’s Been Fun But It’s Time For Me To Get Off Your Ride. You See There Is No Algorithm To Measure Human Emotion, You’re Just An Emperor Wearing No Clothes. The Funny Part Will Be To See My “Klout” Go Down When I Stop Tweeting About You. But You See, I Never Really Had Klout, I Have Clout. And For All Your Effort You Never Figured Out One Thing, I’m Kinda Influential About #Diamonds, Not Desserts. 😉

Fred

Tweet or Die!

For the last two years I’ve been analyzing why people get followed or unfollwed on Twitter to see if there was a deep life lesson that we should learn. This is what I’ve found:

The Life & Death of a Tweep


Twitter Follow-to-Follower ratio is out of whack!

One of the first things I do when I look at a tweep is to see if they have more “friends” vs. followers. If the ratio is heavily distorted I believe they are playing a numbers game! They’re not looking for friends/relationships, they’re looking for numbers—follower numbers! In their little minds, if they can show the world how many “followers” they have, maybe they’ll feel accepted, i.e. loved. Life doesn’t work that way. Studies show that the more “acquaintances” you have, the less true friends you’ll have. When Twitter flags you as a numbers player, you get unfollowed (at least by people); the bots will still love you.

No Reciprocation

You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you on Twitter to be a loving tweep, but you do have to acknowledge someone who asks you a question, pays you a compliment or gives you any other kind of Twitter love. If you feel you’re too busy or have too many followers, then cut back! Rule: Don’t follow more people than you can reciprocate/love. People that are on Twitter just to hear themselves talk in one way conversations don’t live very long on Twitter.

Lack of Tweets

I call tweeps that don’t tweet after a certain period of time (pick a time, everyone is different on this rule—couple weeks, month, 6 months, year, etc.) inactive accounts. The facts are that most people sign up with Twitter, get bored, don’t get it, prejudge, get pissed off or whatever excuse they want to give for quitting something again and abandon their Twitter account. The body may be there but the tweep soul is gone. Want to die a tweepy death? Don’t tweet for a while and you will be stamped inactive. Inactive accounts get unfollowed.

The Egg Avatar! The Death Star!

I’ll admit that if it weren’t for my wife and one of my executives, I might never have gotten around to putting my face on my Twitter account. To this day I might be known as the egg man! Am I glad I did! That picture or lack of one tells the world how I feel about myself. Am I shy, reserved, happy, sad, in hiding or transparent? That picture forms our first impression. When I see an egg avatar, I think only one thing; someone doesn’t care. If you don’t care, why should I follow you?

No Bios!

It’s amazing the number of people who can’t take a few seconds to tell me a little bit about themselves. Your bio tells me why you are here, what you stand for, what you believe in. I know it’s tough to sum up in a few words who you are but isn’t that what Twitter is about? The ability to sum up in a few words what’s on your mind. If you can’t take the time to tell me who you are and why you’re here, you’re obviously just passing through.

Low Klout Score

There has been a lot written about the pros and cons of Klout. I’m not here to rehash them but I will acknowledge that if Klout gives you a Klout score less than 20, you are just going through the motions; you’re just going through life checking off the boxes. If you believe life, the greatest gift in the entire world is just to be endured and don’t believe in lasting relationships, Klout is going to figure it out. If you want to live your life off the grid, that’s your prerogative but just remember the three things that will kill anything—isolation, division, and overcrowding.

Life Lessons

So what have I learned? As Twitter goes, so goes life. If you befriend people but are unwilling to be friendly; if you expect love but are unwilling to give love; if you don’t speak up every now and then to let us know you’re alive, if you are unwilling to show your face in public; if you haven’t figured out who you are, what you believe in or at the very least tell us where you’re going, you will die a Twitter death, you will be unfollowed. At the end of the day Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, lunch with your best friend, are all about the same thing; they are tools to help us honor, protect and connect the most valuable thing in our lives; our relationships. We are nothing without each other.

by Fred Cuellar, author of the best-selling book “How to Buy a Diamond.” More questions? Ask the Diamond Guy®

Are you ready for love?