My Radical Blogs

Wedding bands: Platinum Or White Gold?

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:06:59 +0000

There is a popular misconception that platinum and white gold are both lustrous cold white metals. If you have purchased a wedding band made from either platinum or white gold then you may think you have a white ring. Which do you prefer? Let’s look at the differences between them.

White gold – one of the most popular metals around these days when it comes to jewelry. However, white gold is not a natural substance. Pure gold is yellow and is far to soft to use as jewelry.

Pure gold is mixed with other metals to form a harder alloy that is then suitable for jewelry making. The quantity of pure gold in an alloy is measured in carats with 24 carat describing 100% pure gold. Once you create an alloy the purity drops so with gold, you end up with common alloys of 9 carat, 12 carat, 18 carat and 22 carat gold. Eighteen carat, for example, contains at least 75% pure gold.

Metals used to create jewelry white gold include copper, nickel, silver, zinc, and palladium. These metals also help to harden the white gold for jewelry use. The white gold effect is achieved through a bleaching process caused by silver or palladium. Some metals have a stronger bleaching effect than others, however they also have stronger hardening effects.

Wedding bands need to be hard so an 18 carat wedding band will have 75% pure gold, 10% palladium, 7.5% silver and 7.5% copper. A wedding band that is 18 carat white gold can be longer wearing than a yellow gold band of 18 carats. You can buy very cheap versions of white gold, however, they are generally made with inferior metals and don’t last as long as quality white gold.

Platinum – as precious metal, it is rarer and more expensive than pure gold. Platinum is much harder than pure gold and often needs to be alloyed to soften it a little for jewelry making purposes. Like white gold, platinum has various grades of purity and is actually a light grey in color – not white.

Since neither platinum or white gold are ‘white’, they need to be plated with a substance known as rhodium – this creates the brilliant white finish that both metals are famous for. Rhodium itself is rather soft and will wear away over a three to five year period. White gold wedding bands will eventually turn a dirty light grey in color as the rhodium wears off. Your platinum wedding ring will have a very light grey to off white look about it.

While platinum is far more expensive than white gold, they will both look like cheap metals once the rhodium plating wears off. Having your jewelry re-plated will bring back the brilliant white finish that white gold and platinum are famous for. Which is the better option for wedding bands, platinum or white gold? Because platinum was so expensive, metallurgists created white gold as an imitation. Today, white gold is popular for being white gold, not a platinum imitation. If you want the platinum look at half the price, you will only buy rubbish these days since gold has become so expensive. For anyone looking for the platinum finish, I suggest buying platinum.

If you like white gold as white gold, then make sure the alloys used are silver and palladium and not other cheaper metals. I like white gold wedding bands, not because it looks like platinum, but because it looks like white gold.

If you intend having a gemstone added to your wedding band, then the ideal diamond is one that is small and well cut. You can find both white gold and diamonds through many websites. Just be sure to check the quality of the products first.

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How To Explore BuyLowAuctions For Less Than $5

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:00:44 +0000

I signed up for trial offer with BuyLowAuctions for $4.95. I received 10 bid coupons with my trial order, but quickly upgraded to lots more for next to nothing. If you like auctions, you will like this. What a rush!

The BuyLowAuctions “stick” is that you never have to pay over $20 for anything….any they have $500 gift cards in the mix. Bids go up by a penny each bid, which makes for very interesting last 20 seconds. What intrigued me was that the bidding could go to $300 or $400 and yet the price would be $20….or less.

The BuyLowAuctions’ auction model is well thought out and very addicting so be careful….you might not get anything else done.

….OK. Got to get back to an auction that I’m watching.

Regards, RobertWStart
The Bob Start Blog

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Twitter Business Magic PLR

Les Scammell — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:30:39 +0000

Finally Increase The Response From Your Twitter Followers…AND Get Top Search Engine Rankings By Using This Simple Step-by-Step 6 Part Video Course with Private Label Rights!

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Cord Blood Banking For New Parents

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:58:00 +0000

We live in a strange world where sometimes ethics take over from common sense. I can fully understand the problems some people have with the concept of stem cells, particularly when they are collected from fetuses after pregnancy terminations.

Of course, if that pregnancy had been allowed to continue the resultant birth would have provided far more in the way of stems cells than that obtained through an unborn fetus. I am not advocating for or against terminations here, just stating an fact.

With every newborn baby comes an umbilical cord and placenta. These are full of blood that they baby no longer requires, blood that is full of stem cells. After delivery, the umbilical cord is cut close to the baby’s stomach. This is done once the baby has been successfully delivered and is no longer relying on the cord for food or oxygen. The opposite end of the umbilical cord is attached to the placenta and once that has exited the body, the whole lot is generally disposed of as hospital human waste.

The blood found in that umbilical cord is full of stem cells. Stem cells are actually the basic building blocks of human life. Once an egg has been fertilized, stem cells start the growth of every part of our body. In some strange way, each stem cell seems to have a particular role. It will become a heart, or a kidney, or anyone of the umpteen thousand other cells found in human body.

Scientists are now trying to find out exactly how stem cells work. Why does one stem cell develop into a kidney while another develops into a liver, or heart or another part of the body. More importantly, how can they encourage a stem cell to grow a new heart or kidney.

What is known is that children with some forms of leukemia have been treated with stem cells and had their disease reversed. There have been a few similar situations in adults. Scientist feel that with further research, they may be able to unlock the stem cell’s triggers, thereby regrowing nerves in para/quadriplegics, those with various diseases such as Alzheimer’s, motor neuron and perhaps even type one diabetes.

There is a lot of excitement over what stem cell therapy can do for those that are sick or impaired. Of course, like all treatments that involve the transfer of human tissue from human to an other, there are the problems associated with rejection and blood matching. Stem cells do at least have a lower rejection factor than more mature cells.

What has become a growing industry is that of cord blood banking for personal use. This is now big business with fees for this service running into thousands of dollars. The object of the exercise is to bank baby’s cord blood for future use. The theory is that if baby develops any serious problems in later life (like leukemia), they will have access to their own stem cells to help with the treatment. To date, hundreds of people have stored their baby’s blood, but few have found it necessary to make a withdrawal. For those who have, the results have been extremely good.

Should you bank your baby’s cord blood. It’s a personal decision and certainly for those that have a family history of medical problems, storing stem cells may offer some benefit into the future particularly as science finds new ways to use these cells. For the majority of people, it could be a waste of money. They may be better off donating their baby’s cord blood so that others can benefit from the research and the stockpiles available for treatments. The money saved could ensure your child received a decent preschool to college education.

With five kids we have learned a lot so when it comes to dealing with childhood problems we’ve seen it all. Visit our site if you would like more information on umbilical cord blood banking or childhood problems.