As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms. That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down. Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer. There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution. It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.

Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online. Pearls Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials. Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated. Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre. A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.

Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online. Pearls Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials. Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated. Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre. A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.

I¡¯ll probably be remembered for the pies, and that¡¯s all right,¡± Sales said in a 1985 interview.

Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926, in Franklinton, North Carolina, where his was the only Jewish family in town. His parents, owners of a dry-goods store, sold sheets to wholesale pearl earrings the Ku Klux Klan. The family later moved to Huntington, West Viriginia.

His greatest success came in New York with ¡°The Soupy Sales Show¡± ¡ª an ostensible children¡¯s show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kiddie fare. Sales¡¯ manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.

Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers¡¯ purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.

The cast of wish pearl jewelry ¡°Saturday Night Live¡± later paid homage by asking their audience to send in their joints. His influence was also obvious in the Pee-Wee Herman character created by Paul Reubens.

Sales returned from the Navy after World War II and became a $20-a-week reporter at a West Virginia radio station. He jumped to a DJ gig, changed his name to Soupy Heinz and headed for freshwater pearl strand Ohio.

His first pie to the face came in 1951, when the newly christened Soupy Sales was hosting a children¡¯s show in Cleveland. In Detroit, Sales¡¯ show garnered a national reputation as he honed his act ¡ª a barrage of sketches, gags and bad puns that played in the Motor City for  pearl jewelry wholesale seven years.

After moving to Los Angeles, he eventually became a fill-in host on ¡°The Tonight Show.¡±

He moved to New York in 1964 and debuted ¡°The Soupy Sales Show,¡± with co-star puppets White Fang (the meanest dog in the United States) and Black Tooth (the nicest dog in the United States). By the time his Big Apple run ended two years later, Sales had appeared on 5,370 live television programs ¡ª the most in the medium¡¯s history, he boasted. He had a pair of albums that hit the Billboard Top 10 in freshwater pearl jewelry 1965; ¡°Do the Mouse¡± sold 250,000 copies in New York alone.

Sales remained a familiar television face, first as a regular from 1968-75 on the game show ¡°What¡¯s My Line?¡± and later appearing on everything from ¡°The Mike Douglas Show¡± to ¡°The Love Boat.¡± He played himself in the 1998 movie ¡°Holy Man,¡± which starred Eddie Murphy.

He joined WNBC-AM as a disc jockey in 1985, a stint best remembered because Sales filled the hours between shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern.

Sales is survived by his wife, Trudy, and pearl earrings two sons, Hunt and Tony, a pair of musicians who backed David Bowie in the band Tin Machine.

Washington - Once again the US finds itself hostage to Iraqi politics ¨C this time as a result of a standoff among Iraqi political parties over an overdue election law.

Without the legislation, parliamentary elections set for next January could be put off ¨C which in turn could stall US military plans to accelerate troop withdrawals once the freshwater pearl necklace election milestone is passed. The US has about 125,000 troops in Iraq, but President Obama wants the number to drop to 50,000 by August.

The situation, which caught Obama administration diplomats off guard as they have focused attention on Afghanistan and the electoral crisis there, is reminiscent of the stalemate the Bush administration faced in 2007 concerning a series of ¡°benchmark¡± laws the US Congress sought in return for continuing support to Iraq.

At that time, US diplomats spoke of ¡°two clocks¡± in the two capitals to explain the discrepancy between Washington¡¯s demand for quick political action and Baghdad¡¯s refusal to be rushed.

The two clocks are on freshwater pearl jewelry display again, with US diplomats including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton imploring Iraqi leaders to pass an election law. For their part, some Iraqi politicians say it is Americans and not Iraqis who feel a need to hurry on legislation that cuts to the heart of Iraq¡¯s power struggles.

The election law should have been approved by Oct. 15 in order for elections scheduled for Jan. 16 to go forward, according to the Iraqi constitution.

Holding up passage of the law are two political issues that have the freshwater pearl strands potential to remake Iraq ¨C or tear it apart.

One concerns the ethnically-divided northern city of Kirkuk and how to apportion its national political representation between Kurds, who claim the oil-rich city as part of their region, and Arabs.

The other issue is about how to settle the debate between the traditional power brokers who want to continue with the system of political party lists used in the 2005 election, and  wholesale pearl earrings newcomers who favor an open-list system allowing voters to choose individual candidates and not just a party.

On Wednesday night, a deadlocked Iraqi Parliament decided to turn the problem over to a special council of political leaders, and try again to pass a law next week.

As frustrating as the stalemate may be for the US, some Iraq specialists say it would be shortsighted for the Obama administration to press for passage of any election law just to keep to a troop withdrawal timetable.

¡°An attitude of, ¡®Let¡¯s just accept a closed list [system] and get this over with¡¯ could leave us with bigger problems down the road,¡± says Wayne White, a former State Department Iraq policy expert. He says not opening up the Iraqi Parliament to the ¡°fresh faces¡± many voters seem to akoya pearl necklace want could perpetuate a corrupt and ineffective power structure that has hobbled Iraq and the US project there.

¡°The US has had it with tarnished elections,¡± he says, pointing to Afghanistan¡¯s tainted presidential vote. ¡°We should be pressuring for the open list.¡±

The US is in good company supporting an open-list system since Iraq¡¯s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani spoke out last year in favor of the system, says Mr. White, now an freswhater pearl necklace adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

But neither may be a match for Iraq¡¯s traditional political power brokers. ¡°They¡¯re trying to run out the clock so there¡¯s no alternative but to fall back on the closed list,¡± he says, ¡°It¡¯s pretty shameful.¡±