A few years ago I came across a set of cabochons that were made to look like alphabet sets, each one featuring squiggly lines on a translucent near colorless chalcedony.

I didn’t immediately think they were real, so I took a hard look at them and I couldn’t notice anything unusual about them and they certainly didn’t look dyed. A friend of mine is just absolutely fanatic about these sets and would tell me, “but DUDE, one of them sold at auction for almost $20,000!!”, so, his pricing of a couple thousand was very reasonable in his mind. Another dealer had two sets, sold one for a couple thousand and had the other one up on eBay. My wife, Brandy, actually made a banner for him, promoting the eBay auction on the front page of The-Vug.com, to which I received several emails asking why I would be promoting a fake on The-Vug.com.

I had to wonder then what I am being forced to wonder again now. Why would anyone think these are fake? How outlandish does it seem to have these crudely formed alphabet sets produced as fakes, to only release a small amount of them, always in alphabets, rather than beads or things spelled out? It would just seem to me that it would come to no surprise, lapidary items being handcrafted in such a manor would show signs of imperfection. Mass produced fakes, on the other hand, typically are made to impress, usually trying to get a consistent pattern. The odd shaped lines in the alphabet sets screamed “handmade” and not “hand-dyed”.

Many of you already know I have an art gallery in downtown Los Angeles, featuring artwork that highlights natural science and minerals that are nothing short of mouth watering! The minerals featured at the gallery are provided by the sponsors of the gallery and I hand pick many of them. This was the case when I put a set of agate cabochons in the gallery. For several months people were impressed at the fact they were hand carved out of natural colored agate. They didn’t sell, a sad fact for me, so they were returned to the owner.

A few months later, the alphabet cabochons were featured in the “Fakes, Forgeries and Scams” section of Mindat.org. A posting, indicating that the photos from the Zzyzx Gallery facebook account featuring the alphabet cabochons were man-made, not just polished into cabs, but infused with the color and shape of the letters.

Let’s just look at the facts.

A first hand account of the alphabet maker…

I ran into a guy who was cutting these letters and crosses from the criss-cross iron stains in river rolled agates from a remote mountainside in East Java.

I wrote a story about the guy and how these agates were formed. In 2004 and 2005, I collected some rough and set up a workshop in the town of Sukabumi, West Java and hired some kids to produce just crosses for the company Sajen which sells jewelry. Check out their web site, they are a real company.

None of my team were ever as good at selecting the agates with the right shaped lines to make letters. They messed up enough crosses that we never made a dime!

The website IndoAgate.com give this man’s words life, an article written by a geologist with decades of devotion into the region of Thailand and Indonesia

Notice how this set is so different than this set below? If you were going to fake something such as burning letters into agate cabochons, wouldn’t you be a bit better at conforming to a set standard?

Then of course, you can see the NATURAL agate rough for yourself right here…

The reason there are so few of these sets and why the command a price that when you really think about it, is WAY undervalued, would be because the producer of these is the man known as “Mr. Letterman”.

Now, you’ve seen the agate cab sets, the man who polishes them, the undyed rough agate these come from, the website that gives a great report on these agates and my first person verification that the agates I had in my possession did not show anything indicating that these were dyed or “burnt” on, as some individuals are claiming.

All I can say to the detractors now is, there is the proof, if you have to keep thinking it is a scam, maybe you should just look inside yourself for the greed factor.

Unlike these people decrying a “fake” I make sure to do my research first. Just blurting out things as “fact” doesn’t do any good when you have not given the story due diligence. I had exposed the “chinese charoite” a few years ago, but I couldn’t publish the story until I had the stones in my hands. Scratch test, simple proof. What the detractors of the agate cabs had not done was gather proof, but simply go on…a witch hunt.

Still don’t believe me? Go to Java yourself as you are invited in this quote below. Dig it.

In fact this Tuesday August 24th, I will be on a flight to Jakarta (TG433) and everybody is welcome to come on over. The letter guy will be meeting me in the town of Sukabumi, West Java, 5hrs into the mountains from Jakarta on the 25th and all the disbelievers can come along and take the 12 hour bus ride back to his village and watch him carve out letters from agates until their tongues fall out.

Or if they haven’t got any pocket change for a plane ride, email Randy Park at the Bangkok office of the GIA and ask him if the letter and cross agates are anything other than cut and polished agates.

Thats the best I can do you, come see for yourself!

UPDATE- August 25th 2010 -UPDATE

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0601-0650/sb_624_bill_20100816_amended_asm_v95.html

Check it out! All of the language about the “links” between serpentine always including chrysotile and the overdramatic links connecting chrysotile to mesothelioma.

It isn’t a victory, like the overbloated press releases the Pro-624 side pumped in late June. However, it is a fine start because now the bill is just a worthless piece of paper, using up tax payer money and the government’s time!

So, now all that is left is to stomp this bill into the ground!

What has to be the most inappropriately named article title, check out this post from Linda Reinstein at ADAO!

http://www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org/the-incontrovertible-facts-about-sb-624/

For the duration of this waste of time and money, Linda has cried out that “there is no doubt that serpentine was designated the state rock in order to promote asbestos mining forty-five years ago.”

Now, if you are a member of any rock and mineral club across America, you are well aware of the “politics” involved in mineral clubs and federations. Politics? You have to be kidding me. Our politics basically ends when it comes to a $1.00 increase to membership costs or who is bringing refreshments next week. Mineral groups are always simply groups of people who enjoy rocks and minerals, jewelry, hiking and social occasions. I think the most political thing I’ve ever heard in a mineral meeting was apathetic reactions to closures of land and the occasional squabble over election results.

So, if we just take a look at the bill, we can see that the writers were obviously on the asbestos industry’s dole! Oh, hold on, let me take off the blinders Linda is giving out. Oh, look at the bill, turns out it was actually written by, get this…

“The bill introduced by Senator Gibson was proposed by and has the support of the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies, and the ideas for a state mineral and rock have been endorsed by the California Academy of Sciences and the California Division of Mines and Geology.”

That’s right, this was a bill pitched by the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies! Oh No! There is a grand total of one line about the fact that there was a “newest…mineral industry –asbestos”

Let’s just pretend like it is 1965. If you were the first group in the united states to pitch the idea of a “State Stone” wouldn’t you pull out all of the benefits of the stone, regardless of the original intention? Why would mineral collectors and lapidary artists care about Serpentine? Would it be the sheer volume of great lapidary grade serpentine in the state, or would it be a secret mission paid for on behalf of the great and mighty ASBESTOS interests in the state? A very smart man I met gave me some great advice. If you hear hoofs in the distance, don’t think zebra, think horse. Yup, the most common answer is most likely the correct one.

BTW, did you know in the 50’s Kent cigarettes used the deadly amphibole Riebeckite in the filters? Yup. The biggest complaints were that you had to pull REALLY hard.

Enough of us being just upset about SB-624, it is just time to call them out for the lies.

With all of the evidence being put forth, the sheer amount of Geologists, Botanists and Learned men and women speaking out against this issue and the crazy amount of negative press and public comment, they STILL hold fast to this bill.

So, now let me tear it apart!

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) Serpentine was designated the official State Rock in 1965 and
is found in 49 counties in California.
(b) Serpentine contains the deadly mineral chrysotile asbestos, a
known carcinogen, exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer
mesothelioma.
(c) California has the highest rate of mesothelioma deaths in the
nation.
(d) California should not designate a rock known to be toxic to
the health of its residents as the state’s official rock.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature to remove serpentine as
the State Rock

Ok, step by step…

(A) Nothing to see here, just mentioning that Serpentine is found all over California.

(B) Makes the mineral family Serpentine guilty of ALWAYS containing Chrysotile. This is flat wrong. The wording is tricky. If it said “Serpentine sometimes contains Chrysotile” it would be right. Next wrong statement is that “Chrysotile asbestos” is a mineral. It is not. Chrysotile can also form in solid state, worthless and useless as an asbestos product. In addition, Chrysotile is often found as just small tiny veins in serpentine, not suitable for mining. There were only a handful of Chrysotile mines in California and this will combat the next line, “exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer mesothelioma.” which has been proven to be false. Here is why. Sometimes Chrysotile mines have impurities in the ore, in the form of tiny bits of Amphiboles. So, at those locations, small amounts of mesothelioma are found. However, at PURE Chrysotile mines, mesothelioma is absent. So, take your idea of “exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer mesothelioma.” and cram it, please.

(C) One of the biggest lies is right here on line C. California does not have the highest RATE of death from mesothelioma, we have the largest population and the largest QUANTITY of cases, but NOT the highest RATE, which is claimed by 25 MORE states. Lies…that are constantly pushed and published by ADAO and the other LAWYER funded asbestos/mesothelioma activists push. Like here…http://www.mesotheliomanews.com/2010/07/24/adao-supports-removal-of-serpentine-as-california-state-rock/
Lies Lies Lies!

(D) The only thing TOXIC about this rock is nothing that will affect the population of California. Yes, we have all kinds of poisonous minerals in Serpentine. That isn’t something to be worried about! Are YOU going to go blindly into a mine dump, break open a rock and drink the liquid mercury inside? I don’t think so. If you do, you shouldn’t be alive anyway, no big loss. But, by putting this into law we have just declared that Serpentine ALWAYS has Chrysotile in it and that Chysotile causes mesothelioma and is a hazardous waste item. Who does that serve? Asbestos litigation lawyers and hazmat cleanup crews! Who does it hurt? Not some big evil corporation, just towns, cities, schools, libraries, private citizens, etc.

(E) And it is the intent of the science and mineral enthusiasts to drag the supporters of this bill names though the dirt.

You can tweet about it, join the facebook group.

Here is a sample tweet, a rearranged quote from “The Lorax”…

#CASerpentine said “Please! I object in the name of the rocks!” The Romero replied “All complaints will be unread and filed in this box!”

So, work with us, defeat this bill and let’s never forgive or forget this midnight attack on our state rock! The only option is defeat and dismissing these organizations and politicians as hacks bought and paid for by people trying to take money from our public coffers!

On July 2nd I received an email from the office of Senator Romero, instructing me to call Linda Reinstein – bill sponsor and CEO of ADAO, the non-profit awareness group dedicated to stamping out Asbestos. I was being instructed to discuss this issue with someone who has all the information available, but cherry picks to prove her undeniable fact; Inhaled fibers can cause cancer. This is the fact I knew I was going to hear and indeed, while Mrs. Reinstein is a very nice lady, any scientific inquiry I gave her would be met with the reply, inhaled fibers can cause cancer.

I have a very simple theory that can be dis proven with an example. We have a list of “Asbestos Death” cases and we can trace these back to one thing in common…Amphibole Minerals.

Penge South Africa – Amosite – now a ghost town – thousands killed
Whittnoom Australia – Riebeckite – now a ghost town – hundreds killed
Libby Montana – Winchite or Sodic Tremolite – mines closed – hundreds killed
Armley Asbestos Mill – Processing Riebeckiete – Mill cleaned up – dozens killed, hundreds contaminated

In all of these cases you find blatant disregard for death. The miners and the people living in the community all talk about how the streets were filled with asbestos fibers, or how the kids used it in the sand boxes. The lack of understanding that amphibole fibers will kill, coupled with the breathing of almost unimaginable amounts of amphiboles, it shouldn’t be hard to understand why these are such well known asbestos tragedies.

So, just give me examples of mass deaths from Chysotile mining.

Simple. Science! Observations and theory! Here is my theory, Chrysotile is a safe mineral. Prove me wrong with the scores of dead chrysotile miners at the Atlas Mine! Should be simple! They just do not exist in any numbers higher than any other comparable occupation. Prove me wrong, show me all the dead people from walking around the clear creek management area.

Much like I can’t berate my mother for believing in angels, I didn’t even want to try to convince Linda of the science behind the issue. If you can picture someone with enough dedication to be an activist, you can almost be certain there will be almost nothing short of a life changing moment to make them drop their stead fast opinions. There was nothing I could say that would win Linda over to the side of reason. There was nothing to work with. It was one thing to lose the Clear Creek Management area outside of Coalinga California. My wife and I love to visit that area, collect rocks, hike and enjoy nature. The flowers and landscape are like nothing else I can describe, it is so beautiful. But when I made a motion to express my joy of that area, Linda hit me with the “I don’t care what you ATV riders want to do”. I’ve never been “ATVing” anywhere in California, but when we succeed in reopening that area I’m going to get a dirt bike and make it to those mineral deposits that were tucked away on the slick serpentine bike paths I could never get to in the car. The Ford Impala was always my favorite ride for navagating those roads.

So, yes, it was not a hostile conversation, but it was rather pointless.

I have asked for an actual meeting with Senator Romero, here is hoping she talks to me or someone else who opposes this bill, just for the sake of hearing from the opposition.

Let me say goodbye to this update with the note…when I first heard about this bill I flipped out, quite literally. I just couldn’t believe this could even happen and I wanted to know what I could do to fight it. There were just a couple of editorial pieces about the bill, mostly saying it was foolish to pass a bill like this while the budget was well overdue. But when I read the actual bill, I saw through the “humorous” notion and right to the heart of the evil behind this bill. I kept seeing scientific inaccuracy and then decided that I needed to drop everything and fight the bill. I wrote from the heart, a bit heated, a bit wild, but what I felt about the situation. It is my JOY that the bill can be stopped. I do feel like the bill is near unstoppable. The facts behind the actual science are enough to make most citizens fall into a deep slumber. Indifference.

If I can do just one thing, it will be bring attention to this bill in hopes that all of our voices can work together to extinguish this bill. I like Linda. Don’t get me wrong. I just wish she would accept the truth, if she can’t produce the chrysotile deaths.

PS – The representatives being contacted are calling this a “Non-Issue”. It is going to be a sad day when they understand they passed a time bomb into law. The extra costs just on construction alone are going to sky rocket in areas with serpentine rocks. The costs that will be handed down to the state of california because of the lawsuits and “cleanup” fees will make this little “non-issue” something that will come back to bite them. They keep acting like they already won. That there was no opposition to this bill. Well, since the bill was made 2 years ago and just waiting to be sprung on us, since we had no time to MOUNT an opposition, of course there was none! But, now that we see what ADAO and asbestos litigators were doing, we have to stop them. It is bad science and bad for our government! If you want to just take away Serpentine as the state rock and nothing else, it is a non-issue, but by adding all of the “findings” about mesothelioma and asbestos, you’ve made an issue worth fighting over!

I don’t want to live in an “Idiocracy”.

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“Article” on meteorite find in the UK

Is this a meteorite?

Check out this article…the meteorite is described as
“black with a shiny crystal-like gleam”
“thought it was a lump of coal”

Are we sure it is not just a piece of slag or maybe a tektite. Hey, good for the kid for finding a rock in the back yard, but did they verify the specimen with ANYONE else besides the parents and eBay? It doesn’t say so in the article. Sloppy reporting for sure!

Stuff tends to spread like wildfire on the internet, and anything that drags you away from Twitter or foxy bingo online (www.foxybingo.com) will usually be either something completely amazing or, as more commonly experienced, a complete and utter hoax. I genuinely worry about the people that fall for this stuff – if you’re buying meteories off the internet, then chances are you’re probably being scammed. I could go outside and buy some red sandstone, take a welder to it, and claim it was from Mars. Would I make a ton of money? Probably.

A year ago I posted that the Wikipedia article on Azeztulite had the best information. Unfortunatly during that time there have been dozens of edits, drawing the attention of others who wanted the entry removed to stop the fighting between the scammers and the mineral community.

Now the link for Azeztulite redirect to Charmstone. What is a Charmstone? I’ve delt with metaphysical believers for over 10 years, I’ve NEVER heard the word Charmstone. The idea of using the word “Charmstone” in this field is rather foolish, ill advised move when describing Azeztulite. Many of the e-mails from Metaphysical users who have thanked me for calling out this obvious scam. It isn’t a scam that is harming the mineral collecting community, it is targeting the metaphysical crowd. If you are metaphysical you have two options, understand the direct parallels from minerals and nature or be part of the group that believes whatever flash in the pan cure all comes out.

The crux of the matter is that we have a scam being used to seperate money from the uneducated. Wikipedia will no longer be a sounding off point for us as a mineralogical community to educate the public.

Oh well, it worked for awhile and the popularity of Azeztulite has been falling off the radar…

Here is the Charmstone page, now the redirect page from Azeztulite

This is what it USED to look like. It should have remained this way

Wikipedia is a great source of information, but they have failed the public on this one.

PS, looks like this is happening at an alarming pace in general, check out this article in New ScienceAfter the Wikipedia Boom

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On this page you can download the Fakes issue, Vol 1 #4 and read it FOR FREE. How great is that?

In the magazine you’ll find a story on the Arkansas Diamond Fraud and a whole issue devoted to fakes and forgeries in the mineral world.

So, no matter how you got here, from our parent site, The-Vug.com, from an article or newstory, Stumbleupon, or google, welcome to my site and enjoy the articles and public shaming of people who would try to swindle you out of your money.

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