The diamond revealed its beauty within the Cullinan mine, located less than an hours drive North East from Johannesburg. The 507 carat diamond weighs about 100 grams (just over 3.5 ounces) and although big, it pales in comparison to the 3,106 carat Cullinan Diamond found in the same location. At almost 1.4 pounds, the Cullinan is over six times as big is the one in the picture.

Although large diamonds are extremely rare, South Africa’s Cullinan Mine seems to be that golden goose because it has produced a few golden “eggs”. The 507 carat rough diamond sold to the Hong Kong jeweler is the 19th largest diamond ever discovered. In fact when this diamond was found in September, it was accompanied by three other large diamonds ranging between 53 carats (1.87 oz.) and 168 carats (5.92 oz).

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The large Cullinan Diamond was cut into smaller pieces including the “Great Star of Africa” and the “Lesser Star of Africa”, which is now part of Britain’s crown jewels.

Just think…early in 2009 diamond prices fell by over 60% from its highs in June/July 2008. If you had $50 million dollars to spend on diamonds in 2008 you would have made a $20 million profit in less than two years. The diamond market is continuing to show signs of recovery so you could double your profit sooner than you think.

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For those who love to play guitar and even for those who don’t, Les Paul has died last night, Thurdsday August 12, 2009. Les Paul passed away due to problems he had with pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains New York in the United States. He was 94 years old.

Considered the “father of the electric guitar”, Les Paul invented the solid body electric guitar that used amplification in 1941. The solid body version of the electric guitar was his answer to earlier hollow-bodied guitars which suffered from distortion and feedback. Les was a great influence on other guitar legends such as Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.

Les Paul kept working on the solid body guitar until Gibson Guitar Corporation came out the Les Paul model, the corporations best selling electric guitar. The Les Paul model electric guitar is still held to a high esteem.

Just last year in 2008 Les Paul was still playing in front of audiences at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City. He was a huge idol to many people in the world of jazz and rock n’ roll. Other legends of our past that had Les Paul play for them include greats such as Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. Current greats in the guitar world that followed Les Paul were names like Eddie Van Halen, Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck and, my favorite, Eric Clapton.

Below is one of my favorite YouTube videos of Les Paul playing with another one of my favorite guitars, Chet Atkins. I love the way these two play together and I hope you do to.

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Now, I may not know how to play the guitar as well as Les Paul, but I am learning and I am enjoying it. I do know that my fingers are still killing me but it is still gratifying when you actually can play a chord that sounds good. Because of this I started a new site that I will be growing which you can reach at www.LearnGuitarGuide.net. Pretty soon I will add my blog and get a few guitar playing friends to contribute to the site.

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Even after forty years, Charles Manson is still very well known for all the death he caused in August of 1969. It was through Charles Manson that his “Manson Family” killed seven people. Although Manson had a small stature, being only 5 foot 2 inches tall, he commanded the will of others through a race war he called “Helter Skelter”, which was the title of a song done by The Beatles.

It wasn’t so much that the murders occured, but rather how they were killed. The seven people killed were done in such a bizarre and gruesome fashion, that Charles Manson went down in history with the likes of “Jack The Ripper”. But it is this fascination with the bizarre and the strange that Charles Manson is so remembered.

Charles Manson has been described as one of the most evil people on the planet and it’s easy to see why. The killers, under Charles’s orders stabbed the seven people with 169 stab wounds as well as seven bullet wounds. They then used their blood to write “anti-establishment” messages on the walls.

Of the seven people that were murdered, Sharon Tate was probably the most famous. Sharon was married to movie director Roman Polanski. Two other famous people murdered through Charles Manson included Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger. Jay Sebring was a famous hairstylist and Abigail was an heiress to a fortune built in the coffee empire.

The murders took place over two days in August 1969 and on the second night, a grocer and his wife were butchered in their homes in the Los Angeles California neighborhood of Los Feliz. Rosemary Labianca was found with 41 stab wounds and her husband Leno had a fork sticking out of his abdomen with the word “WAR” carved on it.

Even after all this time, you can still find t-shirts and posters of Charles Manson as well as twisted cartoon shows like “South Park” using Manson in one of their special shows. Many books and magazine articles have been written all in the name of Charles Manson. Even musical artists like Guns N’ Roses and Marilyn Manson used the evil of Charles Manson in their songs.

Manson did receive a death sentence for his crimes but it was automatically reduced to life in prison a few years after the murders took place.

According to one source one of Charles Manson’s “family” members, Lynette Fromme will be released on August 16, 2009. Another member by the name of Susan Atkins is set to be on parole on September 2nd, 2009.

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