But generally I think this is all good advice and good politics. It's not that diamonds have NO value -- their hardness alone guarantees that -- but the tradition is now a scam.

However, I don't think I could look at a diamond ring without thinking about people in Sierra Leone and other African countries with their hands and arms hacked off. Or the horrible conditions under which diamond mine workers live in South Africa, to this day.

quote:

---

One thing left out here: At the time he didn't buy me a diamond , Fang told me that the Russians had figured out how to manufacture diamonds (something to do with great pressure -- the product really is a diamond), and in a just world that's how we would now be getting all the diamonds we need.

---

Diamonds last forever because they are virtually unbreakable. That is a symbol of the kind of love a marriage should endure.

I can give up the diamond fetish so long as someone can offer a decent alternative.

quote:

---

Diamonds last forever because they are virtually unbreakable.

---

Oh, but it's easy to break a diamond. You can crush 'em to powder with an everyday claw hammer. Try it sometime.

quote:

---

I can give up the diamond fetish so long as someone can offer a decent alternative.

---

How about something that will actually hleave a lasting impression, rather than a hunk of rock? Say, a decent vacation with your significant other to someplace exotic that you've always wanted to see?

quote:

---

Oh, but it's easy to break a diamond. You can crush 'em to powder with an everyday claw hammer. Try it sometime.

---

quote:

---

Hey 'lance, you're right! Holy geez, am I in trouble now.

---

quote:

---

Really 'lance? Are you suuuure Diamonds can't be crushed? here I thought all along...

---

Actually, I'm sure diamonds can be crushed.

Diamond is the hardest naturally-occurring substance (I believe there is now a harder artificially-produced one, made from carbon and boron). But hardness is defined as resistance to scratching -- diamonds can scratch (almost) everything else, and (almost) nothing else can scratch them.

Resistance to crushing -- or compressive strength -- is another property again. I doubt there's any naturally-occuring mineral or rock that can't be crushed, given the right combination of heat and pressure. The only exception might be neutronium, found in the core of a neutron star, which is what you get, in principle, when a "black hole" undergoes final gravitational collapse (try wrapping your head around that one). It's so dense that there's not even any space left in the individual atoms -- electrons and protons have fused to form a solid mass of neutrons. But that doesn't exist at standard temperature and pressure. Luckily.

quote:

---

Neutronium - I always liked the idea of something that was so dense that if you had a matchbox-sized sample, it'd have more mass than the earth.

---

That's why I said it was "lucky" the stuff doesn't exist hereabouts, where "hereabouts" is defined as the neighbourhood within, say, 1000 light-years of the solar system.

As for me and the Divine Ms M., we exchanged non-matching gold bands, slightly confounding some family members, if not our friends.

[ August 14, 2002: Message edited by: 'lance ]

There is an alternative to diamonds. When we got wed I got Cara Sposa an opal ring from Consumer's Distributing.

I no longer have any diamonds but I have some other semi-precious stones in my antique jewelry collection. I also have a fur coat that I was given. I wouldn't buy either of these things for myself.

I presented it to my then wife as a "Ten year anniversary pre-diamond."

Gold is structurally useless - it's too soft. What it IS useful for is being a noncorroding conductor of electricity.

Holy cow I hope to whatever gods are out there this is a parody

[ August 30, 2002: Message edited by: Adam Smith ]

Can you believe this web-site?

[ August 30, 2002: Message edited by: skadie ]

quote:

---

Fang told me that the Russians had figured out how to manufacture diamonds (something to do with great pressure -- the product really is a diamond), and in a just world that's how we would now be getting all the diamonds we need. Does anyone know anything more about this situation?

---

FWIW, I haven't thought this through, so I don't know the answers. But I do know that these questions have to be answered. Well-intentioned policies often have unintended consequences that are worse than the problem that they were supposed to solve. For example, what are we supposed to do with all those newly-unemployed diamond mine workers?

[ 15 January 2005: Message edited by: Oliver Cromwell ]

quote:

---

Well-intentioned policies often have unintended consequences that are worse than the problem that they were supposed to solve.

---

Which ones, exactly? Anyway, I think if the demand for diamonds dried up, life would go on. It did long before anyone trumped up the value for this almost useless commodity.

Edited to add: Glad you're back, Oliver.

[ 15 January 2005: Message edited by: Hinterland ]

But boycotting diamonds may end up having little or no effect on the behaviour of the warlords - they may just decide to steal even more villagers' crops to feed their troops instead of selling diamonds. We could have undiminished violence, starving villagers and unemployed diamond mine workers, instead of what we have now.

As I said, I don't know enough to answer the questions I listed above, so I'm not saying that a boycott wouldn't be a good idea. But it would be nice if someone had given some thought to these sorts of questions before actually recommending a boycott.

[edited to add:]
Thanks - it's good to be back.

And everyone does understand that I really would like to see a reduction in violence in Africa, and that I want to see an improvement in the life of poor Africans, right? And that I'm only asking questions about the effectiveness of a boycott in achieving this goal?

[ 15 January 2005: Message edited by: Oliver Cromwell ]