It has the penetrative force of a piece of heavy industrial equipment, something with a diamond bit or tempered-steel blades.

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He also remarked on how the tree had become a bit of a 'diamond' on the local landscape.

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Oil companies retreated a bit, with BP, EOG Resources, Transocean and Diamond Offshore pulling in after a nice three-day up move.

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The SPDR Diamond Trust ( DIA), which tracks the Dow Industrials, looks a bit more positive, as it has a much lower concentration in the financial sector.

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But there was a little bit of respite in what has become almost the national sport of bashing Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays.

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He was warning Mr Diamond that if Barclays' money-market and treasury dealing desks did not show a bit more discretion in how they borrowed and how much they were prepared to pay to borrow, they risked spooking investors to such an extent that they might find the market became closed to it.

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The man paid in cold hard cash, and after a tedious 40 minute purchase process that involved a bit of activation, some nice tutorials, a quick address book sideload from his old Touch Diamond and whole lot of peripheral upsell, Alfredo was one of the world's first satisfied Pre customers.

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