Archive for February 27th, 2006
Bekas Mes PT KEM Jadi Lahan Tambang Emas
Digarap Masyarakat, Kerjasama Pemkab dan PT KEM
Sabtu, 25 Februari 2006/kaltimpos.com
SENDAWAR- Penambangan emas di lokasi PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM) Kampung Tutung Kecamatan Linggang Bigung, Kutai Barat (kubar) kini dibuka lagi. Hanya saja, penambangan pasca tutupnya produksi emas PT KEM sejak tahun 2002 lalu itu, berskala kecil saja.
Kepala Dinas Pertambangan dan Lingkungan Hidup Kubar Drs A Wahyudinata mengatakan, penambangan emas skala kecil ini dilakukan masyarakat bekerjasama antara Pemkab Kubar dan PT KEM sendiri. Cara ini, sudah tertuang dalam kesepakatan Komite Pengarah Penutupan Tambang, yang terlibat oleh tiga unsur tadi. “Diperkirakan penambangan emas ini paling lama hanya satu tahun sudah berakhir. Dan hasil tambang emasnya utnuk masyarakat sendiri,” sebut Wahyudinata kepada Kaltim Post, ditanya kondisi tambang PT KEM pacsa tutup di Kubar itu, kemarin.
Ia menjelaskan, penambangan emas skala kecil, yakni emas yang didapatkan diyakinkan tidak layak untuk penambangan oleh PT KEM yang menggunakan alat berat. Melainkan tambang dimaksud menggunakan peralatan sederhana karena butiran emasnya sedikit. Dan lokasi penambangannya pun buka di lokasi tambang PT KEM yang kini sudah ditutup, melainkan di lahan bekas mes (asrama karyawan PT KEM) sejak pengakhiran tambang bangunannya sudah dibongkar. “Jadi lokasi tambangnya itu di tanah sekitar beberapa meter sepanjang alur sungai Kelian. Atau bekas bangunan mes karyawan PT KEM dan tidak juga begitu luas lahannya,” terangnya. Kenapa lahan ini dilakukan penambangan? Alasannya, sesuai kesepakatan melalui tim yang tergabung di komite pengarah penutupan tambang agar lahan ini dibersihkan dari tambang emas. Jika masih ada, dikhawatirkan akan menjadi lahan tambang rakyat yang mengarah kepada kerusakan alam. “Karena lahan ini, sudah menjadi kewajiban PT KEM untuk menghijaukan kembali dengan menatanya menjadi lahan basah dan hutan lindung, setelah dilakukan penambangan ini,” katanya. Lebih lanjut dikatakannya, pengembalian lahan gundul akibat aktivitas tambang menjadi hutan lindung ini, sudah menjadi kewajiban PT KEM sesuai dengan kontrak karya.
Penjelasan Wahyudinata ini dibenarkan Superintendent External Relations PT KEM Bahtiar Effendi, ketika dihubungi terpisah tentang aktivitas PT KEM saat ini. “Penjelasan oleh pak Wahyu (Wahyudinata) sudah benar,” kata Bahtiar. Namun untuk menjelaskan lebih lanjut hal tersebut, ia menolak memberikan keterangan lebih lanjut. “Coba hubungi Yudi Cahyana (Manager Site Administrasi dan External Relations PT KEM), saja. Beliau lebih mengetahui,” pintanya kepada wartawan media ini. Namun upaya mengonfirmasi hal tersebut belum berhasil. (rud)
February 27th, 2006
Emas Tinggi, Lebih Baik Pegang Rupiah
Senin, 27 Feb 2006,/jawapos.com
SURABAYA - Meski saat ini harga emas dunia saat ini sangat tinggi, bukan berarti bahwa investasi di logam mulai tersebut akan menguntungkan. Sebab dengan harga yang relatif belum stabil itu, ada kemungkinan bahwa harga emas akan melorot drastis. Pada akhirnya merugikan investor yang bersangkutan.
Country Manager World Gold Council (WGC) Indonesia, Leo Hadi Loe, menjelaskan bahwa selama minyak mentah dunia (crude oil) belum stabil dan terus mengalami kenaikan, maka dampaknya akan dirasakan pada pasar emas dunia. ” Sebab dengan tingginya tingkat inflasi di USA, Jepang, dan Uni Eropa, membuat fund manager menarik dana mereka dari pasar valuta asing. Dan mengalihkannya ke emas dan pasar saham di Asia Tenggara. Itu yang membuat harga emas melonjak sangat tinggi dalam beberapa bulan terakhir ini,” jelasnya panjang lebar.
Akibatnya, demand terhadap logam mulia tersebut juga ikut menurun. Sebab menurut Leo, banyak para investor long term yang melakukan aksi wait and see. Untuk menunggu harga emas stabil kembali. ” Sampai sekarang pasar belum bisa menerima bahwa emas bisa di atas USD 558,40 per troy ounce. Karena itu meski harga emas melonjak tinggi, saat ini bukan saat yang tepat untuk berinvestasi secara jangka panjang. Sebab ada kemungkinan di masa depan, harga emas akan stabil di bawah harga pembelian saat ini. Bahkan untuk investasi short term pun harus dilakukan secara hati-hati,” kata Leo.
Karena itu, disarankan agar para investor memegang saham lokal maupun rupiah saja dibandingkan emas. Mengingat ada keuntungan sekitar 13 persen dari sana. ” Jika memengang emas, nilai aset kita memang bisa melonjak tinggi. Tapi di sisi lain, tidak ada pasar yang mampu menyerapnya. Sementara rupiah menunjukan tren penguatan, yang bisa memberikan keuntungkan,” terangnya.
Sementara itu, harga emas yang tinggi sehingga menurunkan konsumsinya berakibat pada pengurangan produksi beberapa pabrik emas di Indonesia. Sekitar sekitar 50 - 70 persen. Bahkan ada pabrikan yang menghentikan produskinya sama sekali. ” Kondisi pasar internasional maupun lokal tidak bisa menyerap emas dengan harga setinggi saat ini. Sehingga pilihan logis adalah mengurangi produksi,” keluh Leo. (aan)
February 27th, 2006
Brand Names / Bulgari seeks new luxury markets
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Italian jewelry brand Bulgari has been an international favorite for more than 120 years.
More recently, it has expanded its business beyond its core products of jewelry and watches. It now sells perfumes and leather goods, and even runs hotels.
The brand was born when Sotirio Bulgari, a Greek who emigrated to Italy, opened a silversmiths in Rome in 1884. His two sons, Giorgio and Costantino, created unique designs reflecting Roman classicism and the Renaissance, which were instant hits.
In the 1970s, the brand began expanding abroad and opened stores in France, Switzerland and the United States. The brand’s renowned Bulgari Bulgari watch was released in 1977.
This was followed by the launch of perfumes in 1993, and silk goods and sunglasses in 1996.
The holding company Bulgari S.p.A. went public in July 1995, accelerating its business expansion. It opened a hotel in Milan in 2004, and its second hotel is to open this summer in Bali.
Bulgari products have been sold in Japan since 1987, and Tokyo-based affiliate Bulgari Japan Ltd. was established in 1991. It runs 33 stores–including new stores opened last autumn in Ginza, Tokyo, and Shinsaibashi, Osaka–and it accounts for 26 percent of the group’s worldwide sales.
Francesco Trapani, chief executive officer of the Bulgari group and chairman of Bulgari Japan Ltd., says the firm’s success is thanks to high expectations in Japan.
“As Japanese people are very quality-conscious, we release new products or test new distribution channels here,” he said. “We plan to open a new type of shop in the near future.”
February 27th, 2006
Sisters’ art adds flair to fiesta
By ELLENA FORTNER
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
A beat-up Volkswagen Rabbit was a source of continual arguments between sisters Tara Martinez Brezic and Jeannette Martinez Youle when they were teenagers in the early ’90s.
So was the telephone. And clothes.
“We had some knock-down, drag-out fights,†said Brezic who, at 34, is four years older than her sister.
Youle agreed. “We hated each other,†she said with a smile.
But creating jewelry from beads and crystals has healed those childhood rifts.
Working under the name The Gypsy Wagon, the sisters are displaying their wares at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center on Lake Grapevine as part of the hotel’s Riverwalk Fiesta. Every weekend for the next two months or so, the flair of San Antonio’s signature River Walk makes an appearance at the hotel, with entertainers, face painters and mariachis
The Rowlett sisters now see those fight-provoking personality differences as assets.
“She is the most head-strong,†Brezic said.
Youle agreed. “I don’t take no for an answer,†she said.
Brezic said the differences don’t stop there.
“We have different styles, too. She’s more feminine. I like my jewelry more bold, more chunky,†Brezic said.
“And I like anything with bling-bling,†Youle said.
They credit their success, in part, to both of them having el ojo, which is Spanish for “the eye.â€
“You have to have the eye,†Brezic said. “It’s not ugly, it is just different.â€
While the women have shown items at several festivals, including GrapeFest, the opportunity to sell at the Gaylord Texan has given them a confidence boost, they said.
“Someone came up the other day and said, ‘I am wearing your stuff,’ †said Brezic, who quit her sales job in January to concentrate on creating and selling the jewelry full time.
All the stones used in the pieces — from Australian crystal to various types of stones — are hand-picked by the sisters.
Having previously taken a beading class together, they use their own inspiration for the trinkets.
“Every Saturday at her house, it is time for sisters to get together,†said Youle, who is a probation officer.
Now, instead of a small Volkswagen, the sisters travel in a 2003 Yukon sport utility vehicle, which serves as the “wagon†in their business’ name.
The gypsy part of the name harks back to when they were young and would dress up in necklaces, bracelets and anklets — the more jewelry the better.
Their father always laughed at the adornments.
“He said, ‘You look like a bunch of gypsies,’ †Youle said.
February 27th, 2006
Vendor’s mall to open in Shelbyville
By Terri Miller/Sentinel-News Staff Writer
From jewelry and shoes to furniture and heirlooms, finding the perfect bargain might have just gotten a little easier.
Next Friday, Big Time Bargains & Bingo will open its doors in the Midland Shopping Center in Shelbyville. Owner Harry Vinegar has operated a bingo hall from that location for some time, and said he recently decided to relocate his Dixie Highway vendor’s mall to a 17,000-square-foot space next door.
“I found a better lease rate here,” Vinegar said. “And I thought it would do well, since Shelbyville is really growing.”
A teacher-turned-entrepreneur, Vinegar launched his shopping extravaganza in Louisville about a year ago, and so far has seen success. Locally, Big Time Bargains & Bingo will offer booths stocked by 120 different and unique merchants.
“We sell everything, but we’re more of a retail establishment than a bargaining store,” Vinegar said. “Some items are pre-owned, but the majority is new merchandise — candles, leather, ceramics, pictures, tools, handmade purses — our vendors are free to sell almost anything.”
What his business will not offer, Vinegar said, is anything illegal or in “bad taste.”
Not only will the mall offer Shelby County’s shoppers somewhere new to shop, it will also offer those wishing to earn extra income or launch their own business an easy, flexible way of doing so, Vinegar said.
All that is needed is to rent a space.
“For $110, you can literally be in business for yourself,” Vinegar said. “Where else can you start up and have a month-to-month lease? We have parents who want to sell gently used clothing, teachers who want to earn some extra income, even a minister who brings back items from his mission trips and sells them to raise money to fund more missionary work. Every booth is different.”
One vendor sells nothing but socks, said manager Marlene Mouser. “And everybody needs socks,” she said.
Vinegar said each vendor designs and stocks their space, and Big Time Bargains & Bingo’s staff provides the security and maintenance for each booth.
“We track the items sold and help them keep up with their inventory,” he said. “At the end of each month, they receive a check. It’s great for those who have other jobs.”
It’s also a great way for churches, schools and non-profits to raise funds, Vinegar said, since a space can be rented for just one month. Those from a service industry, such as car dealerships, may rent spaces as well.
“It’s a place for them to set up a table and greet people,” Vinegar said.
While many of the spaces are already rented, there are a few still available. Vinegar and Mouser plan to open an eBay store in the mall sometime in the near future as well.
Mouser said she hopes combining the mall with the bingo hall will help draw customers.
“We’re hoping that the bargains will help the bingo, and the bingo will help the bargains,” she said. “A lot of bingo players show up early to browse the mall.”
Big Time Bargains & Bingo opens March 3. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday noon to 8 p.m. For information, call 647-3244.
For the bargain hunters, Vinegar advises allowing plenty of time to view the entire mall.
“There are just so many things,” he said.
February 27th, 2006
Women Now Flaunting More Bling
(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Giant jewels, decadent diamonds, bodacious bling, you expect them on movie stars and socialites, but now the not-so-subtle status symbols are finding homes more than ever in our area, according to this article in Philadelphia Magazine.
Amy Donohue Korman the Sr. Editor of Philadelphia Magazine said, “Women wearing more jewelry than ever before, bigger jewelry, particularly big diamond engagement rings.â€
Just look around, women in the Delaware Valley are flashing fingers adorned with multiple karats.
Jeweler Jeff Kellmer said these days he rarely uses fractions when dealing diamond engagement rings.
“In our New Jersey market that one to two karat is about the average. Here in our Haverford store, it seems like it’s crept up to the two to three karat range.
He said one customer spent $100, 000 for a Sapphire ring, more than three times his budget.
Kellmer told CBS-3, “He wanted to spend 30, but he needed to have that one stone; it
just spoke to him.â€
Or was it more about what that expensive gem would say to those around him? Who knows? But there’s no doubt a $100, 000 ring makes quite a statement.
I can’t say for sure, but even if I had six figures laying around, I don’t think I’d spend it on jewelry.
But it’s okay for a girl to dream, right?
“Oh my gosh, it looks magnificent on you,†complimented Kellmer.
It better! It’s a 31 karat Aquamarine for $19, 000.
Maybe a bracelet’s more my speed.
CBS-3’s Susan Barnett said in shock when she heard the price of the bracelet, “$265, 000….$265, 000!!!!â€
The salesman asked, “Would you like to take two?â€
Surely though there’s someone out there who can afford it, even two of them, but hopefully they’re not living in your neighborhood or mine, because gigantic gems like these take keeping up with the Jones’ to a whole new level.
February 27th, 2006
Winter Olympics Tough Sledding for NBC
AP via Yahoo! New
NEW YORK - Halfpipe star Shaun White showed up for an interview with NBC’s Bob Costas as an Olympic champion, the pressure lifted from his shoulders and clearly juiced by his new jewelry.
So “The Flying Tomato” decided to test the power of a gold medal by trolling for a date with skater
Hey, what’s the worst that could happen? Chicks dig a little bling, right?
White’s interview shortly after his gyrating ride to gold was a memorable television moment precisely because it was everything that NBC’s prime-time Olympics coverage mostly wasn’t — fun, spontaneous and infused with personality.
NBC’s Turin experience was by no means a failure, financially or aesthetically. But it failed to absorb American television viewers, or even distract most regular fans of “American Idol” or “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Maybe that was a reality NBC couldn’t change; its executives couldn’t heal Michelle Kwan’s injury or force Bode Miller to ski better. Turin still offered lessons NBC can learn.
“Maybe the (Turin) games will go down in history as the games that didn’t make sense,” NBC’s Jimmy Roberts said in a report Friday, itself an attempt to come to grips with the games’ lack of impact.
It helped no one that so many highly touted U.S. athletes largely washed out. Look what an attempt to be playful and spontaneous did for snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis. Even athletes who won — think Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis — hardly came across as likable.
Except for White and Cohen, few memorable characters emerged for the American audience over the two weeks.
That’s partly NBC’s fault. In contrast to past years, when broadcasters were criticized for relying too heavily on cringe-worthy “up close and personal” interludes, the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Viewers rarely felt that they knew this year’s athletes.
When Ted Ligety won his skiing gold medal, he was a complete mystery to Bode Miller-obsessed NBC and to viewers. That shouldn’t happen when no prime-time events are shown live.
Some of the segments that were done were so stylized that they looked beautiful but didn’t say much. A brief profile of ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto referred to her decision about whether to skate for the U.S. or Canada, but didn’t explain it. Another interlude on Russian figure skater Irina Slutskaya raised her mother’s health problems, then left viewers hanging about whether she survived.
NBC’s breakout Olympics star proved to be a familiar one: 76-year-old figure skating analyst Dick Button.
Button was marvelously lyrical, the best in Turin at taking the technical aspects of a sport and describing them in ways non-aficionados could understand. NBC on the fly added him to all figure skating coverage, and what could have been a horribly crowded four-person crew worked smoothly.
The games were sumptuously photographed, and NBC responded adeptly to breaking news. Costas’ interview with Jacobellis after her disastrous snowboard slip was a model in sensitive persistence.
Otherwise, Costas’ performance as host was as muted as the games themselves. Same with feature reporter Roberts, often NBC’s MVP, who seemed to struggle to find interesting stories.
As it did for the Athens Summer Games in 2004, NBC and its cable partners saturated viewers with, on average, more than 24 hours a day of coverage.
This requires meticulous advanced planning but also enforced sports segregation. Long before many athletes arrived, their competition was judged not ready for prime time. Hockey and curling fans could get their fill, for example, but they were mostly cable sports. If your only exposure to the Olympics was NBC at night, you wouldn’t know these athletes were there.
When both the U.S. and Canadian men’s hockey teams were eliminated on Wednesday, it didn’t merit prime-time discussion. No interviews, no highlights, no analysis. If they were pushed aside for compelling alternatives, fine, but it was a dull night that proved to be NBC’s lowest-rated of the games to that point.
NBC’s executives undoubtedly have reams of research to explain how they were presenting the sports most people wanted to see at a time most people were watching. But that example symbolized how viewers could never expect the unexpected. The telecasts all began to feel the same. That’s a fatal flaw when hundreds of other entertainment choices are a click away.
How people experience the Olympics is changing, and it’s also changing NBC’s business. A decade ago, NBC earned three-quarters of its Olympics revenue from prime-time advertising; now that’s down to 45 percent, said Randy Falco, NBC Universal Television Group president.
“We wish prime time would have performed at the high end of our expectations but we have added programming and content that was very well received and very successful and can be studied as a template for the future,” he said.
Dick Ebersol produces NBC’s Olympics coverage, and he learned from the master, the late Roone Arledge of ABC. Arledge was largely responsible for turning the Olympics into anticipated television events.
Ebersol is a strong defender of the “plausibly live” prime-time coverage that lets events unfold as if viewers had no other way of finding out what happened. But as sports writer Frank Deford pointed out last week in an NPR commentary, the Olympics TV blueprint seems to be getting stale.
“Unless somebody figures out how to update Arledge, the winter Olympics will just continue on as another musty old show, struggling to keep (audience) share and to stay off cable,” Deford said.
The entertainment world is much different than when that Olympics blueprint was drawn — it was before cable, before the Internet.
NBC’s challenge is to update it before Beijing in 2008.
February 27th, 2006
The planner
San Jose Mercury News
Jewelry Designer Personal Appearance. Meet designer Robin Rotenier and view his spring collection of silver and gold pieces from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday on Level One at Neiman Marcus Stanford Center. Information: Call (650) 329-3300.
Harker School Fashion Show Fundraiser. See Harker students, parents, alumni and faculty modeling spring’s hottest fashions Friday at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, at 170 S. Market St. The cost is $85 per person for the 11 a.m. luncheon and $175 for the dinner gala. Clothing provided by Bloomingdale’s, Stanford Shopping Center. Proceeds benefit the Harker School Scholarship Fund, continued training and education for faculty, and the Science and Technology Center
February 27th, 2006
A ‘gem’ of a show: Fossils, fascinating jewelry among items for sale, on display
Jackson Clarion-Ledger
he Mississippi Gem and Mineral Society’s 48th annual Gem, Mineral, Jewelry and Fossil Show could be its biggest one yet.
Annual gem shows on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in New Orleans are not being held this year because of Hurricane Katrina, said Sharon McClanahan, the show’s chairwoman. Our show “is expected to draw from and serve all of Mississippi and Louisiana,” she said.
The show usually is held in the A&I buildings on the Fairgrounds. This year it had to be relocated to the Trade Mart to accommodate expected crowds.
There will be plenty for rockhounds (those who collect rocks and gems), lapidaries (those who make art and jewelry out of precious stones) and the just plain curious to do and see.
There will be educational demonstrations in flint knapping, seed beading and glass beading as well as working exhibits in silversmithing, gemstone faceting, cabochon cutting and stone carving.
Fossil lovers will want to check out the specimens that will be on display - and also for sale - a museum-quality 30,000-year-old, 9-foot-tall, prehistoric cave bear skeleton from the Ural mountains of Russia and a complete 6-foot-tall mounted Psittacosaurus dinosaur skeleton, which is more than 95 million years old.
One lucky attendee will win a 65 million-year-old, 5-inch dinosaur egg as a grand prize, with other prizes to be awarded every half hour.
The show also will feature competitive and noncompetitive exhibits, informational displays, children’s activities, a raffle and a “rock food table,” an intriguing display that features a multi-course meal made entirely from rocks and precious stones.
The show has appeal for craft enthusiasts as well as 24 dealers and artisans from the South and across the country will be on hand to sell and show their wares.
Lil McKinnon-Hicks, who is a member of the Mississippi Gem and Mineral Society, said she first attended the show three years ago and, through the help of the demonstrations, began trying her hand at silver smithing. She is now an accomplished jewelry artisan.
Said McKinnon-Hicks: “The fact that I found somewhere that someone would teach me, that was a wonderful thing.”
February 27th, 2006
