[Rockhounds] More foolishness about the '800 million dollar' emerald

Thu Mar 5 21:00:57 PST 2009

Remember that the owner of the specimen has an agenda to pump up the 
perceived value so they can sell it.

Kreigh

On Thursday, Mar 5, 2009, at 22:26 America/Detroit, J Bryan Kramer 
wrote:

> No you aren't being overly harsh, but you are missing the point. They 
> write
> these things with a purpose, to sell papers. There is a rule in 
> journalism
> today: blood leads. meaning any stories with blood in them ends up on 
> the
> front page and I'd guess money and sex scandals follow blood tho.
>
> So she doesn't want to know if that $400000 emerald is a $4000 beryl. 
> One
> sounds more interesting and the truth wouldn't even make it to the 
> paper in
> the first place, who would care about a not so valuable rock being 
> fought
> over.
>
> You notice that there is no attribution for the appraiser who probably 
> only
> exists in the mind of one of the complainants. Journalism is dead and 
> all
> you see in the papers any more are opinion pieces and scandal stories 
> of one
> sort or the other. There is no editorial supervision, no editor to ask 
> "who
> says it is worth X?"
>
>  That is why these papers are vanishing all over the country.
>
> BK
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 22:09, Kris Rowe 
> <lapidary.specialties at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I'm echoing your comments, Pete. However, isn't it amazing how an 800 
>> lb
>> hunk of matrix and (from the pic I've seen) pretty pedestrian
>> "emerald"/green beryl feeds media interest? Ooooooooo ... CONFLICT!
>> (Yaaaaaawwnnn ... )
>>
>> It's great to see that "Brazilian appraisers" are setting such high 
>> price
>> points on such pedestrian material. Perhaps we all should send our 
>> biggest
>> specimens to Brazil! Just think, a couple of So. Dakota or No. 
>> Carolina
>> spudomene crystals would certainly fetch enough to retire the National
>> Debt!
>> (Okay, maybe only "dent" it, these days ... *grin!*) Certainly the 
>> huge
>> feldspar's found in Maine would be worth a kings ransom!
>>
>> Okay, all kidding aside, this is obviously just another in the 
>> seemingly
>> endless series of "news bulletins" that are absolutely, completely, 
>> and
>> (sadly) PROUDLY full of poorly researched information. Perhaps if we
>> reached
>> out to the Wall St. Journal reporter and pointed her toward the 
>> obscure,
>> hard-to-find sources that we're privy to, such as The Smithsonian, 
>> The GIA,
>> Mineral Record, Rocks & Minerals, Rock & Gem or any one of 
>> *THOUSANDS* of
>> G&M Society Bulletins, she'd benefit. Heck, even the crafters at 
>> today's
>> Lapidary Journal ... errrrr ... "Jewelry Artist" magazine could write 
>> a
>> more
>> factually correct article. (Sarcasm intended, and IMHO, deserved.)
>>
>> The shocking thing is that this "opinion blog" class article appeared 
>> in
>> such an august periodical. Just goes to show that (Personal Quote) 
>> "If you
>> give a dunce a soapbox, they will still remain a dunce."
>>
>> My apologies to anyone who feels I'm being overly harsh on this
>> "Journalist." (*smile*)
>>
>> Q: What's that whining noise?
>> A: Edward R. Murrow spinning in his grave! Call the Fire Department!
>>
>> Be Well, y'all!
>>                      Kris
>>                      Lapidary Specialties
>>                      Blog & Gallery: R&R
>> Rockhound<http://r-and-r-rockhound.blogspot.com/>
>>
>> "Seems like Silly Season starts earlier every year ..." - Me
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 3:47 PM, Tim <nospam at orerockon.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Not to mention worth a few thousand (OK MAYBE $10k) if you are too 
>>> lazy
>> to
>>> save a few thou and fly to Paraiba and pick out one for yourself out 
>>> of
>> the
>>> spoils heaps. Would get charged a pretty big extra luggage fee 
>>> though...
>>>
>>> Tim Fisher
>>> Ore-ROCK-On!
>>> Email address at http://OreRockOn.com
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
>>> [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of
>>> pmodreski at aol.com
>>> Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 10:58 AM
>>> To: rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com
>>> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] More foolishness about the '800 million 
>>> dollar'
>>> emerald
>>>
>>> Yeah, the most idiotic thing about all these news stories that the 
>>> media
>>> keep repeating, is referring to this as "an emerald".? For heaven's
>> sakes,
>>> it is a big hunk of dirty old rock, with a bunch of emerald-green 
>>> mostly
>>> non-gemmy beryl crystals sticking up out of it.
>>>
>>> P.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: J Bryan Kramer <codeburner at gmail.com>
>>> To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem 
>>> collectors
>>> <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
>>> Sent: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 11:24 am
>>> Subject: [Rockhounds] More foolishness about the '800 million dollar'
>>> emerald
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,503808,00.html>
>>>
>>> BK
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
>
> “"It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly 
> colored
> than the day."
>
>                       Vincent van Gogh
> J Bryan Krämer
> North Florida, USA
> photos at:
> http://pbase.com/photoburner
>
>
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