The lab-grown diamond market is poised to heat up, as the Wall Street Journal has taken notice of this shiny thorn poking at DeBeers’ side. Created stones from Gemesis, Apollo, and Chatham are now available in jewelry stores, albeit not (and perhaps never) a place like Tiffany’s. The Gemological Institute of America has finally consented to grade created diamonds, though of course clearly noting their manmade origins. The publicity around “conflict diamonds” has also benefited these companies. Actor Terrence Howard has plans to wear, and talk about, created diamonds when he presents at the Oscars. But will “cultured diamonds” reach the same level of acceptance as cultured pearls? DeBeers will fight against this possibility with all their might.

Pepsi is adapting to a new generation accustomed to dynamic images and rapidly paced media by redesigning their packaging to be…always redesigned. The Pepsi globe and lettering will remain constant but every few weeks the Pepsi-Cola background graphics will change. Unique web addresses on each design will provide access to exclusive online content. I get the sense that if it were cost-effective to make cans and bottles out of LCD panels or electronic paper they’d do it.

I don’t read Wired Magazine very thoroughly anymore, but as I paged through the January issue the words “Michael Nesmith” caught my eye (because, you know, The Monkees, oh and, well yes that “invented MTV” thing too). Using a database of over 3,000 organ tones, Nesmith has created Calvin (computer-aided live venue instrument) out of a Dell computer, six JBL speakers, and a subwoofer. Nesmith programs Calvin to perform complex pieces that are out of reach for the usual two handed, two footed organist. The organ sounds were recorded by a Hungarian company in Budapest cathedrals, stone wall reverb and all. Nesmith doesn’t mean for Calvin’s virtual pipe organ capabilities to put musicians out of work. He’s just wants to create inspirational music.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has followed the lead of the Academy Awards in ditching those hefty presenter gift baskets and coughing up back taxes to the IRS for years past (except 2006). Celebs needn’t worry about missing out. They can still load up on freebies at “gifting suites” where vendors typically pay thousands of dollars (plus the cost of merchandise) for a table, hoping to score a photo of a celebrity with their product.

Rumblings of a remake of The Prisoner have turned into solid news with UK’s Granada International and Sky One partnering with AMC in the US for a committed January 2008 premiere date. Further details are sparse.

Want a chandelier made out of Bic ballpoint pens? It’s $1000 in clear or orange pens. (via shiny shiny)

When our son first started talking I dutifully wrote down all the words he learned. I gave up soon after when I’d written down about fifty and he had started asking me the words for items. I could not keep up. Now that he’s in the stage of dealing with toddler emotions, I’ve thought about keeping track of which emotions he understands and can verbalize to us. This has got to be a more tractable task than potentially cataloging Webster’s sans definitions. Well, if you get to all the nuances of even the (disputed) basic list (e.g. liking a friend is different from loving mom) this may not be as simple as it seems. I think I’ll scale back to keeping a list of what vegetables he’ll eat.

The AT&T; logo rises once again on Monday when the Cingular brand goes the way of SBC in a marketing campaign with an undisclosed budget (an estimated $1 billion was spent on SBC’s changeover to AT&T; last year). In 2004, AT&T; Wireless (originally McCaw, bought and then spun off by the original AT&T;) was bought by Cingular, owned by SBC and BellSouth. Then SBC merged with AT&T; and bought BellSouth. SBC took the name AT&T; and then completed its BellSouth acquisition on December 29th, becoming the full owner of Cingular which is now taking the AT&T; name too. Confused? Don’t bother figuring it all out; it’s too complicated to turn up as a trivia question anywhere. (NY Times, Seattle Times)

It’s hard to drum up much sympathy for Steve Jobs right now (he’s having a killer MacWorld), but he’s lost his appeal to tear down the Jackling mansion in Woodside. A preservation group has been trying to save the historic home, built in 1925 for copper baron Daniel Jackling. Jobs can’t be ordered to restore it, but the court ruled that he can’t demolish it to build a new house. He was not able to convince the court that renovation was impractical and demolition the only alternative. Jobs actually wants a smaller home than the 30 rooms, 14 bedrooms and 13.5 bathrooms in the 17,000-square-foot mansion. And he’s willing to help pay expenses for someone to relocate it.

Most of us over here in Seattle have been busy watching white stuff fall from the sky, but there’s a comet to catch tonight instead. Comet McNaught, discovered in August 2006, will make a bright appearance in the west at sunset. The timing isn’t ideal but you can try to catch a glimpse of it at the horizon right after the sun disappears.