Nepenthe

On the fifth day the scientists who studied the rivers were forbidden to speak or to study the rivers. The scientists who studied the air were told not to speak of the air, and the ones who worked for the farmers were silenced, and the ones who worked for the bees. Someone, from deep in the Badlands, began posting facts. The facts were told not to speak and were taken away. The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent. Now it was only the rivers that spoke of the rivers, and only the wind that spoke of its bees, while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees continued to move toward their fruit. The silence spoke loudly of silence, and the rivers kept speaking, of rivers, of boulders and air. In gravity, earless and tongueless, the untested rivers kept speaking. Bus drivers, shelf stockers, code writers, machinists, accountants, lab techs, cellists kept speaking. They spoke, the fifth day, of silence.

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John Atkinson, the genius behind Wrong Hands

Portugal Gemas Esta é uma variedade muito especial e valorizada de safira que foi primeiramente descrita no Sri Lanka e que junta na sua cor uma proporção muito particular de vermelho e amarelo. Segundo Richard Hughes (um dos maiores especialistas em safiras no Mundo), o nome deriva de uma corruptela de o sansrito/cingalês “padmaraga” (padma = lotus; raga = color), em alusão à cor  da flor de lotus. Saber que tonalidade se pode enquadrar na designação padparadscha gera, por vezes, controvérsia, até porque não existe grande consenso na definição desta variedade. Os laboratórios gemológicos mais importantes definem-na como de cor pastel entre o rosa e o laranja. Hoje em dia, as safiras padparadscha ocorrem não só no Sri Lanka, mas também no Vietname, Tanzânia, Malawi e Madagáscar, sendo ocasionalmente aquecidas a baixas temperaturas para melhoramento da cor. Os seus valores de mercado, que variam com a qualidade da cor e com a dimensão, são elevados, podendo atingir as...

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