Auction house Sotheby’s Dubai has unveiled a diamond that’s literally from out of this world.
Sotheby’s calls the 555.55-carat black diamond — believed to have come from outer space — “The Enigma.” The rare gem was shown off on Monday to journalists as part of a tour in Dubai and Los Angeles before it is due to be auctioned off in February in London.
Sotheby’s expects the diamond to be sold for at least 5 million British pounds ($6.8 million). The auction house plans to accept cryptocurrency as a possible payment as well.
Sophie Stevens, a jewelry specialist at Sotheby’s Dubai, told The Associated Press that the number five bears an importance significance to the diamond, which has 55 facets as well.
“The shape of the diamond is based on the Middle-Eastern palm symbol of the Khamsa, which stands for strength and it stands for protection,” she said. Khamsa in Arabic means five.
“So there’s a nice theme of the number five running throughout the diamond," she added.
Stevens also said the black diamond is likely from outer space.
“With the carbonado diamonds, we believe that they were formed through extraterrestrial origins, with meteorites colliding with the Earth and either forming chemical vapor disposition or indeed coming from the meteorites themselves,” she said.
Black diamonds, also known as carbonado, are extremely rare, and are found naturally only in Brazil and Central Africa. The cosmic origin theory is based on their carbon isotopes and high hydrogen content.
The make-or-break holiday shopping season was off to a strong start as of Black Friday, according to early online data and interviews with several analysts and early online statistics. On Thanksgiving day alone, consumers nationwide spent $1.75 billion online ー a striking increase of nearly 30 percent over last year, according to data from Adobe Analytics. The latest numbers are an indication that what was once a day-long Black Friday event, that then extended into a long weekend capped by Cyber Monday, has morphed into something altogether different.
Sandwiched between the massive Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday is a day for mom-and-pop shops to take a slice of holiday revenue from the retail giants. Walter Frye, a vice president at American Express, sat down with Cheddar to discuss how his company is working to raise awareness about the importance of shopping small. When a shopper spends one dollar at a small business, 67 percent of that dollar stays in the local community, he told Cheddar.
Amazon's decision to bring an HQ2 to Queens, N.Y., was met by considerable backlash. According to the director of the city's Riders Alliance, the frustration is largely about the subway's reliability ー or lack thereof. "We have enough space on our trains, but they're not reliable," Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director of the Riders Alliance, told Cheddar Wednesday.
Airports nationwide are gearing up for one of the busiest holiday travel weekends on record. But thrifty procrastinators take heart: there may still be some workarounds to help save money on holiday travel this year.
Condé Nast's shift to digital continued this week with an announcement that Glamour, the 80-year-old women's fashion magazine, would cease monthly print publication after its January 2019 issue. It follows similar moves by Teen Vogue and Self, other female-focused brands in the Condé stable. The vaunted magazine publisher lost $120 million last year amid a consolidation of its print properties.
The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line has been answering the questions of stressed-out Thanksgiving hosts for decades, but this year it is turning to Amazon Alexa to modernize how it helps with turkey prep.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018.
Home-builders were largely spared from the broader market sell-off early this week, but a mix of high home prices, rising mortgage rates, and low home-builder confidence are threatening the future of the housing market.
Gwenyth Paltrow's Goop brand is out with its annual holiday gift guide, with such practical ideas as 24 karat gold rolling papers and an entire Spanish village.
Dr. Karin Tamerius is the mind behind "Angry Uncle Bot," an interactive feature for the New York Times which simulates conversations between the user and their disagreeable relatives.
