Pearls and Pools: Olympic Swimmer Kathleen Baker

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Olypmic silver medalist Kathleen Baker in her signature pearl earrings

Lost earring found

On Sunday, August 7th during the preliminaries for the 100m women’s backstroke, American swimmer (silver medalist) Kathleen Baker lost one of her signature pearl earrings to Rio’s Olympic pool, the depths of which reach almost ten feet. Thankfully, a diver went down to search for the earrings, and ultimately recovered it from Baker’s lane around the 15 meter mark. 

The story has a happy ending, but it does bring up a few cautions for anyone who wears their jewelry swimming or who may be thinking of adopting some good luck swimming pearls of their own.  

The most obvious thing to consider is that jewelry can and will fall off. Earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings all have ways of finding themselves falling to the bottom of pools, lakes, rivers, and oceans all over the world. If you're lucky you will find them again, but more often the pieces are gone for good. 

Now you may say "but I can lose my jewelry on dry land as well!" I would agree with you, but there is a less obvious but possibly even more serious concern when it comes to swimming in jewelry. 

Pearls
Both natural and cultured pearls are covered in a luminous substance called nacre. In natural pearls this layer has built up over an immense amount of time and is incredibly thick (hence their high cost and relative rarity), in the more common cultured pearl the nacre present on the surface of the seed material (see image). The nacre contains some organic proteins and also calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate dissolves when it comes into contact with acid. Even mild acids (perfumes, lotions, hairspray, and makeup) can weaken the structure of the pearl’s nacre and eventually dissolve its beautiful shine. 

The chlorine used to purify water is actually sodium hypochlorite, the same stuff you find in household bleach. This particular type of chlorine is highly oxidizing, and has a tendency to destroy a pearl’s luster on contact. Over time the pearl's nacre will come off, leaving a cloudy surface; it may even peal off in layers while the inside continues to disintegrate (it's not pretty, trust me).

Precious Metals
So while all that is happening to your pearls, your metal is going through an equal amount of hardship. Chlorine can react with precious metals, including gold and silver. If you’re in the pool every day or cleaning with bleach products it can cause pits in the gold’s surface that look like little dents. Chlorine can actually break down gold jewelry to the point of disintegration. A gold ring, placed in undiluted bleach, can disintegrate within minutes of exposure. Stress corrosion cracking can also occur in any weak joints of the jewelry or areas where it has been repaired. In general, platinum doesn’t react with chlorinated pool water, but some platinum rings contain gold solder that can. 

But I have to wear it!
If you absolutely must wear jewelry in the pool then the best metallic material to wear is stainless steel, specifically type 316 stainless steel, which is resistant to chloride attacks from sweat and sea water. Titanium alloys also stand up well. If you are firmly on board the pearls-in-the-pool train then I suggest imitation pearls. There are various types of imitation pearls from plastic, to glass, or shell. The relative inexpensive nature of the imitations means your heart and your wallet wont break when an earring is lost or dissolved in the pool. 

No matter what your jewelry’s made of, one thing is certain: all of that sweat and chlorine will dull its brilliance, so make sure to clean it. Most colored gems can be cleaned in warm water with mild soap and a soft brush. Precious metals should be cleaned similarly. When in doubt about cleaning jewelry make sure you ask! Gemologists are here to help. 

Enjoy your gemstones and metals out of the pool. (Olympic Silver Medalist Kathleen Baker)

FTC to Crack Down on Influencer Posts

The US Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on ‘deceptive endorsements’ by Internet influencers who have been paid by brands.

By Sarah Frier and Matthew Townsend; editor: Emily Biuso. Source

Snapchat star DJ Khaled raves about Ciroc vodka. Fashion lifestyle blogger Cara Loren Van Brocklin posts a selfie with PCA Skin sunscreen. Internet personality iJustine posts Instagrams from an Intel event. Missing from their messages: any indication about whether they have been paid.

This uptick in celebrities peddling brand messages on their personal accounts, light on explicit disclosure, has not gone unnoticed by the US government. The Federal Trade Commission is planning to get tougher: Users need to be clear when they are getting paid to promote something, and hashtags like #ad, #sp, #sponsored — common forms of identification — are not always enough. The agency will be putting the onus on the advertisers to make sure they comply, according to Michael Ostheimer, a deputy in the FTC’s Ad Practices Division. It is a move that could make the posts seem less authentic, reducing their impact.

“We’ve been interested in deceptive endorsements for decades and this is a new way in which they are appearing,” he said. “We believe consumers put stock in endorsements and we want to make sure they are not being deceived.”

This means more cases like the one against Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc., which last month settled with the FTC over charges that it deceived customers by paying internet influencers such as PewDiePie — who has about 50 million followers on YouTube — to promote the video game Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor with positive reviews, without disclosing that they were paid and told how to promote it. In March, the FTC issued a complaint against Lord & Taylor for paying fashion influencers to create posts about one of its dresses on Instagram, without disclosing that the retailer paid them and gave them the dresses for free. Any compensation, including free products, should be disclosed, the FTC says.

Companies have been pouring marketing dollars into social media endorsements, paying everyone from a Hollywood celebrity to a mom who regularly Instagrams her baby snuggling with a puppy. Reaching consumers, especially 20-somethings, is increasingly difficult because of television’s waning marketing power. Social media is where those dollars are headed with brands already spending more than $255 million on influencer marketing every month just on Instagram, according to Captiv8, a company that connects influencers with brands.

Personal endorsements are as old as advertising itself, and there has always been abuse. So when the FTC highlights influencer marketing as having a disclosure problem, it can come across as unfair, said Stefania Pomponi, the founder of Clever Girls Collective Inc., a marketing agency that works with brands including Disney and Ford.

“We're venturing into a little bit of ridiculous territory with the FTC saying these things because influencers really want to follow the rules,” Pomponi said. “They want to do a good job — they want to be seen as useful to brands and don't want to do anything that would jeopardise their relationships.”

It's up to the FTC to be more clear and consistent about their policies and enforcement, she said. A lot of influencers think they are following the rules, but in fact are falling short. More than 300,000 sponsored posts on Instagram in July used hashtags like #ad, #sponsored and #sp, up from about 120,000 a year earlier, according to Captiv8. Ostheimer said that’s usually fine — unless it goes unnoticed.

“If consumers don’t read the words, then there is no effective disclosure,” Ostheimer said. “If you have seven other hashtags at the end of a tweet and it’s mixed up with all these other things, it’s easy for consumers to skip over that. The real test is, did consumers read it and comprehend it?”

Hashtags like #sp and #spon may not be fully understood, especially if they are buried at the bottom of a post, he said. And any disclosure would be better at the beginning. When it comes to video, the FTC calls for disclosure to be said out loud or displayed on screen. It can get even more complicated on Snapchat, where there's not an obvious place to put a hashtag, and the videos are only a few seconds.

Some advertisers say influencer posts do not deserve such careful disclosure, because they are not the same thing as a traditional ad. Lauren Diamond Kushner, a partner at Kettle, a creative agency in New York, has worked on influencer campaigns with brands including Sunglass Hut. She said the Instagram stars and YouTubers often only work with the brands that they genuinely like and use.

“I don’t know if I even think of it as an ad,” Kushner said in an interview earlier this year. “They say, ‘I’ll do this piece and I’m going to do it my way.’ Whereas if I’m scrolling in my Facebook feed and I see a big thing from H&M or whatever, that is an ad.” She likened influencer content to product placement — a basketball team wearing jerseys by Nike, for example.

The FTC disagrees. A character on a sitcom drinking a Diet Pepsi is not giving their personal opinion about the soda, and the actor is playing a character. The agency says the basic test is: If a consumer knew an endorser was compensated in any way, would that alter the view of the endorsement? In the overwhelming majority of cases, the FTC says yes.

Nicola Foti, who makes comedy sketch videos and has about 388,000 followers on YouTube, said brand deals are how he makes the bulk of his income. But he said he will only do them “as long as it’s something that I like or something that supports a product I like.”

“My audience is usually pretty receptive to anything I talk about brandwise because they trust that I’m not just selling them something I don’t care about,” he said.

One way of disclosing: tagging a brand and thanking them. “NEW VIDEO! SEX TOY UNBOXING thanks to @adamandeve!" read a recent tweet by Foti. The tweet does not hint at a brand deal, but the video, which has 25,000 views, displays "sponsored" on the screen within the first 30 seconds.

Nick Cicero, the chief executive officer of influencer marketing agency Delmondo, said the FTC has already changed some practices in the industry by bringing recent lawsuits. “For a lot of years it was really really loose, and you could get away with a lot more,” he said. Now he is telling all of his clients to use the hashtag #ad.

The FTC has been getting the word out with online webinars and guides, speeches and engaging trade associations. “We’re not calling up each individual ad agency,” Ostheimer said. It will also continue to go after the advertisers with legal action. While it has not charged an influencer for deceptive advertising, it has not ruled that out.

“We hope by bringing these cases that we not only stop the marketer and influencer who didn’t have adequate disclosures previously, but also get the message out that other companies should have clear and conspicuous disclosures,” he said.

In many cases, influencers are just following orders. When asked about her contracts with Intel, Justine Ezarik, otherwise known as iJustine, said, “Whatever the brand and legal tell us to do, we do to comply.” In most cases these days she will use #ad, #sp or say that she's “working with” or "partnering with" a brand. She will write about a sponsorship in the description of YouTube videos if she does not have time to address it on camera. Khaled is paid to rep Ciroc, and his representatives could not be reached for comment. Van Brocklin did not respond to a request for comment.

“It definitely is getting confusing,” Ezarik wrote in an e-mail. “The hardest part is when you only have 140 characters or a few seconds of a snapchat, how do you make the most of it?”

Japanese Emperor Akihito Indicates He Is Ready to Abdicate

Japan's Emperor Akihito waves to well-wishers as he and family members appear on the balcony of the Imperial Palace during the emperor's 81st birthday in Tokyo, in this Dec. 23, 2014 photo. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOKYO—Japanese Emperor Akihito signaled a desire to abdicate because of age and ill health, potentially ushering in the most significant change to the imperial system in the postwar era.

“When the emperor has ill health and his condition becomes serious, I am concerned that, as we have seen in the past, society comes to a standstill and people’s lives are impacted in various ways,” the 82-year-old emperor said in a 10-minute video message broadcast Monday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he took the emperor’s words seriously. The government is expected to open discussions on changing the law governing the imperial household, which doesn’t have any provision for abdication.

“Considering his majesty’s age and the burdens of official duties, we need to give thought to his majesty’s worries and contemplate what we can do,” Mr. Abe said.

The emperor’s remarks amounted to a valedictory address, summing up his nearly 28-year reign and describing the imperial role that he hopes to pass on soon to his elder son, Crown Prince Naruhito, who is 56.

It was only the second time the emperor has released such a video message. The first was to offer condolences after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.

He described a life of constant motion, traveling to “remote places and islands” across the archipelago and striving to “stand by the people, listen to their voices and be close to them in their thoughts.”

It was a job he said he no longer felt confident about doing “when I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining.”

In 2003, he was treated for prostate cancer. In 2012, he had heart surgery.

“I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being as I have done until now,” he said.

Emperor Akihito didn’t directly use the word “abdication.” But he left little doubt that was what he wanted, saying that alternatives such as having a regent perform his duties were unsatisfactory. Story continues here: Source

With Emperor Akihito looking to pass the chrysanthemum throne on to the next generation, we may be treated with a rare glimpse into Japanese Imperial succession traditions. 

Happy Birthday Lucy

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Incomparable comedian and actress Lucille Désirée Ball was born on this day in 1911. I think she is a wonderful example of when sentiment can make a piece of jewelry priceless. 
When Lucy married Desi they eloped to Greenwich, Connecticut.
Lucy wore a black wool suit and her wedding ring was a brass ring that was purchased from Woolworth’s because all the other stores were closed at the time. The brass ring was later replaced by a large cushion-cut diamond in a platinum setting (pictured). 
Lucy has this to say about that simple brass ring. 
“Desi later gave me a platinum ring, that little discolored brass ring rested among the diamonds and emeralds in my jewel case for years … After the short ceremony, we ate our wedding breakfast in front of a bright fire in the club’s lounge. Outside, a fresh mantle of snow hung on the pine trees. After all the indecision we’d been through, Desi and I were dazed with happiness.” [Source: Lucille Ball. Love, Lucy. 1996. pg. 110]