Download or read book Flight of the Diamond Smugglers A Tale of Pigeons Obsession and Greed Along Coastal South Africa written by Matthew Gavin Frank and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Unforgettable. . . . An outstanding adventure in its lyrical, utterly compelling, and heartbreaking investigations of the world of diamond smuggling.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air. Entering Die Sperrgebiet (“The Forbidden Zone”) is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It’s a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames “Mr. Lester,” an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions. From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the “halfway” desert, to Kleinzee’s shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town. Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna’s famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands. Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. With his sovereign prose and insatiable curiosity, Matthew Gavin Frank “reminds us that the world is a place of wonder if only we look” (Toby Muse).

Download or read book Diamonds from the Arkhangelsk Province NW Russia written by Victor Garanin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-07-19 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines and summarizes data on more than 40,000 diamonds from deposits in Russia’s diamondiferous Arkhangelsk province. The geological data of diamond deposits includes the geological setting, ore body morphology and mineral composition. Investigation techniques employed include: Color Cathode Luminescence, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, Raman Spectroscopy, and Carbon Isotopy. The book provides a full description of the diamond morphology. The problems of a potential (mantle) diamond grade for deposits are considered, depending on the physical and chemical conditions involved in the genesis and growth of diamond crystals. Further, there can be a significant impact on the productivity of bodies and the properties of diamonds during post-crystallization metasomatic processes. In this book, the authors propose a diamond crystallization model for changes in diamond crystals within mantle metasomatic transformations, and identify the factors affecting the growth and dissolution of diamonds in the mantle. In addition, they describe the complex evolution of kimberlite from the mantle up to the Earth’s surface. All of these factors affect the quality and quantity of diamonds in a particular diamond deposit, providing the basis for identifying optimal technological mining processes.

Download or read book The Ether in Its Relation to the Structure of Matter and the Transmission of Force written by Casper Otto Miller and published by . This book was released on 1929 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book HPHT Treated Diamonds written by Inga A. Dobrinets and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-12 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: High-temperature and high-pressure treatment of diamond is becoming an important technology to elaborate diamonds. This is the first book providing a comprehensive review of the properties of HPHT-treated diamonds, based on the analysis of published data and the work of the authors. The book gives a detailed analysis of the physics of transformation of internal structures of diamonds subjected to HPHT treatment and discusses how these transformations can be detected using methods of optical microscopy and spectroscopy. It also gives practical recommendations for the recognition of HPHT-treated diamonds. The book is written in a language and terms which can be understood by a broad audience of physicists, mineralogists and gemologists.

Download or read book Domination in Graphs Core Concepts written by Teresa W. Haynes and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-04-29 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph is designed to be an in-depth introduction to domination in graphs. It focuses on three core concepts: domination, total domination, and independent domination. It contains major results on these foundational domination numbers, including a wide variety of in-depth proofs of selected results providing the reader with a toolbox of proof techniques used in domination theory. Additionally, the book is intended as an invaluable reference resource for a variety of readerships, namely, established researchers in the field of domination who want an updated, comprehensive coverage of domination theory; next, researchers in graph theory who wish to become acquainted with newer topics in domination, along with major developments in the field and some of the proof techniques used; and, graduate students with interests in graph theory, who might find the theory and many real-world applications of domination of interest for masters and doctoral thesis topics. The focused coverage also provides a good basis for seminars in domination theory or domination algorithms and complexity. The authors set out to provide the community with an updated and comprehensive treatment on the major topics in domination in graphs. And by Jove, they’ve done it! In recent years, the authors have curated and published two contributed volumes: Topics in Domination in Graphs, © 2020 and Structures of Domination in Graphs, © 2021. This book rounds out the coverage entirely. The reader is assumed to be acquainted with the basic concepts of graph theory and has had some exposure to graph theory at an introductory level. As graph theory terminology sometimes varies, a glossary of terms and notation is provided at the end of the book.

Download or read book Topics on Domination written by S.T. Hedetniemi and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 1991-02-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributions in this volume are divided into three sections: theoretical, new models and algorithmic. The first section focuses on properties of the standard domination number &ggr;(G), the second section is concerned with new variations on the domination theme, and the third is primarily concerned with finding classes of graphs for which the domination number (and several other domination-related parameters) can be computed in polynomial time.

Download or read book Optical Properties of Diamond written by A.M. Zaitsev and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook is the most comprehensive compilation of data on the optical properties of diamond ever written. It presents a multitude of data previously for the first time in English. The author provides quick access to the most comprehensive information on all aspects of the field.

Download or read book Guns Germs Steel written by Riley Quinn and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his 1997 work Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond marshals evidence from five continents and across 13,000 years of human history in an attempt to answer the question of why that history unfolded so differently in various parts of the globe. His results offer new explanations for why the unequal divisions of power and wealth so familiar to us today came into existence – and have persisted. Balancing materials drawn from a vast range of sources, addressing core problems that have fascinated historians, anthropologists, biologists and geographers alike – and blending his analysis to create a compelling narrative that became an international best-seller and reached a broad general market – required a mastery of the critical thinking skill of reasoning that few other scholars can rival. Diamond’s reasoning skills allow him to persuade his readers of the value of his interdisciplinary approach and produce well-structured arguments that keep them turning pages even as he refocuses his analysis from one disparate example to another. Diamond adds to that a spectacular ability to grasp the meaning of the available evidence produced by scholars in those widely different disciplines – making Guns, Germs and Steel equally valuable as an exercise in high-level interpretation.

Download or read book The Political Economy of the Kimberley Process written by Nathan Munier and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigating state responses to the Kimberley Process, an ambitious international agreement meant to reduce the trade of conflict diamonds, this study looks at the political economy of resource-wealthy states in Africa to understand why some African states have higher levels of compliance and co-operation than others.

Download or read book Crystal Growth Technology written by Kullaiah Byrappa and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2003-03-21 with total page 611 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crystals are the unacknowledged pillars of modern technology. The modern technological developments depend greatly on the availability of suitable single crystals, whether it is for lasers, semiconductors, magnetic devices, optical devices, superconductors, telecommunication, etc. In spite of great technological advancements in the recent years, we are still in the early stage with respect to the growth of several important crystals such as diamond, silicon carbide, PZT, gallium nitride, and so on. Unless the science of growing these crystals is understood precisely, it is impossible to grow them as large single crystals to be applied in modern industry. This book deals with almost all the modern crystal growth techniques that have been adopted, including appropriate case studies. Since there has been no other book published to cover the subject after the Handbook of Crystal Growth, Eds. DTJ Hurle, published during 1993-1995, this book will fill the existing gap for its readers. The book begins with ""Growth Histories of Mineral Crystals"" by the most senior expert in this field, Professor Ichiro Sunagawa. The next chapter reviews recent developments in the theory of crystal growth, which is equally important before moving on to actual techniques. After the first two fundamental chapters, the book covers other topics like the recent progress in quartz growth, diamond growth, silicon carbide single crystals, PZT crystals, nonlinear optical crystals, solid state laser crystals, gemstones, high melting oxides like lithium niobates, hydroxyapatite, GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy, superconducting crystals, morphology control, and more. For the first time, the crystal growth modeling has been discussed in detail with reference to PZT and SiC crystals.

Download or read book Diamond Genesis Mineralogy and Geochemistry written by Karen Smit and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-05-03 with total page 898 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diamond is the record-setter in many mineralogical properties such as hardness, diffusivity, thermal conductivity, purity, and covalency of bonding. Similarly, diamond, as the premier gemstone of the mantle holds primacy for geological features such as age and depth of origin. Diamond was among the first crystalline structures to be solved by X-ray diffraction and the first materials measured for their Raman spectrum. At more than 80 billion USD in yearly commercial value, diamond sets the record for the most traded, valuable mineral on the planet. Despite its chemical simplicity, diamond has been the object of more research effort, and had more scientific and popular press pages written about it, than any other mineral.

Download or read book Japanese Mandalas written by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1998-11-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first broad study of Japanese mandalas to appear in a Western language, this volume interprets mandalas as sanctified realms where identification between the human and the sacred occurs. The author investigates eighth- to seventeenth-century paintings from three traditions: Esoteric Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, and the kami-worshipping (Shinto) tradition. It is generally recognized that many of these mandalas are connected with texts and images from India and the Himalayas. A pioneering theme of this study is that, in addition to the South Asian connections, certain paradigmatic Japanese mandalas reflect pre-Buddhist Chinese concepts, including geographical concepts. In convincing and lucid prose, ten Grotenhuis chronicles an intermingling of visual, doctrinal, ritual, and literary elements in these mandalas that has come to be seen as characteristic of the Japanese religious tradition as a whole. This beautifully illustrated work begins in the first millennium B.C.E. in China with an introduction to the Book of Documents and ends in present-day Japan at the sacred site of Kumano. Ten Grotenhuis focuses on the Diamond and Womb World mandalas of Esoteric Buddhist tradition, on the Taima mandala and other related mandalas from the Pure Land Buddhist tradition, and on mandalas associated with the kami-worshipping sites of Kasuga and Kumano. She identifies specific sacred places in Japan with sacred places in India and with Buddhist cosmic diagrams. Through these identifications, the realm of the buddhas is identified with the realms of the kami and of human beings, and Japanese geographical areas are identified with Buddhist sacred geography. Explaining why certain fundamental Japanese mandalas look the way they do and how certain visual forms came to embody the sacred, ten Grotenhuis presents works that show a complex mixture of Indian Buddhist elements, pre-Buddhist Chinese elements, Chinese Buddhist elements, and indigenous Japanese elements.

Download or read book Total Domination in Graphs written by Michael A. Henning and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Total Domination in Graphs gives a clear understanding of this topic to any interested reader who has a modest background in graph theory. This book provides and explores the fundamentals of total domination in graphs. Some of the topics featured include the interplay between total domination in graphs and transversals in hypergraphs, and the association with total domination in graphs and diameter-2-critical graphs. Several proofs are included in this text which enables readers to acquaint themselves with a toolbox of proof techniques and ideas with which to attack open problems in the field. This work is an excellent resource for students interested in beginning their research in this field. Additionally, established researchers will find the book valuable to have as it contains the latest developments and open problems.

Download or read book Handbook of Industrial Diamonds and Diamond Films written by Mark A. Prelas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-19 with total page 1232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines both mined and synthetic diamonds and diamond films. The text offers coverage on the use of diamond as an engineering material, integrating original research on the science, technology and applications of diamond. It discusses the use of chemical vapour deposition grown diamonds in electronics, cutting tools, wear resistant coatings, thermal management, optics and acoustics, as well as in new products.

Download or read book Biological and Biomedical Coatings Handbook written by Sam Zhang and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in a versatile, contemporary style that will benefit both novice and expert alike, Biological and Biomedical Coatings Handbook, Two-Volume Set covers the state of the art in the development and implementation of advanced thin films and coatings in the biological field. Consisting of two volumes-Processing and Characterization and Applicatio

Download or read book Minerals Yearbook written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Advances in Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing written by Firuz Kamalov and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023 with total page 933 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume collects the proceedings of the International Conference on Recent Developments in Mathematics (ICRDM), held at Canadian University Dubai, UAE, in August 2022. This is the second of two volumes, with this volume focusing on more applied topics, particularly mathematical modeling and scientific computing, and the first covering recent advances in algebra and analysis. Each chapter identifies existing research problems, the techniques needed to solve them, and a thorough analysis of the obtained results. Advances in Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing will appeal to a range of postgraduate students, researchers, and industry professionals interested in exploring recent advancements in applied mathematics.