I was lookin around and saw this :]
Birthstones are rubbish.
Nah, most birthstones are pretty valuable.
Birthstones are rubbish.
Actually, this silly concept makes it quite easy for me to find jewelry for a few people. As there's reasons that jewelry makes an easy gift for me to give, I appreciate the tradition. 'Course bein' useful to me does not non-rubbish make ...
The most common stone for "Virgo" (my starsign) for example is Jasper, which is worth roughly "squat".
I guess you lot have a different kind of focus when it comes to these traditions
Plus, Doctor Who already won the race to find a diamond planet (Midnight). Evidently it has a sapphire waterfall.
Peridot is actually a really neat-o lookin' rock.
And have you been to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History? The gem/rock section is pretty cool. Even though they have a pillar of malachite that looks like a geoduck...
Just like how there are thousands upon thousands of writings in the world and there are only how many base plotlines? 5?
People being uncreative is one thing. But if there lives and exact copy of me in Brazil or China simply because he was born on the very same day, the very same hour as me, I'd be greatly surprised.
The world is much more complicated and random than we can imagine. That's why I choose not to trust a half-time horoscope writer or a group of stars (that only make a group when looked at from Earth's perspective) directly affecting my life.
Or well, just take any school year, high school and earlier. Most people in such a group have the exact same Chinese zodiac sign, but does that mean they all have the same basic personality?
And have you been to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History?
While there be sure to visit the Behring Hall of Mammals, the Hall of Human Origins, the Butterflies + Plants gallery, and the Korea Gallery, all of which were designed by the firm for which I work.
Just like how there are thousands upon thousands of writings in the world and there are only how many base plotlines? 5?
No, not at all like that in any way.
While there be sure to visit the Behring Hall of Mammals, the Hall of Human Origins, the Butterflies + Plants gallery, and the Korea Gallery, all of which were designed by the firm for which I work.
Nice work. I enjoyed the Hall of Human Orgins and the Hall of Mammals.
... If you abstract one of the two far enough, and squint through your eyes at the other one, you'll be able to fit the square in the circle.
Your method takes too much time. Just stuff the damn square into the circle and get over it.
Duh-duh-duh!
Mine's amethyst, which is not one that I like. And I only wear one piece of jewelry and find even that annoying when I notice it. I hate wearing jewelry. So it doesn't make buying me presents any easier.
I have no idea what my wife's is, nor my daughter's. I guess I could look it up.
I don't believe in astrology or any form of fortune telling, but it's kinda neat. I enjoy knowing that I'm year of the Dragon in Chinese astrology, for example. Most people think I'm a snake when I give my birth year, but I just squeaked into Dragon before the lunar new year. One of my father's uncles had a friend on the ships who, as a wedding present, gave him and his new bride each a beautifully illuminated horoscope, taking into account the exact details of the time of their birth and location and everything (in other words, not at all like the supermarket/newspaper horoscopes). That friend was later known as Brother 12, and local legends still tell of the gold he buried around Vancouver Island after he tried to found a utopian commune.
True story. You could look it up.
I have no idea what my wife's is, nor my daughter's. I guess I could look it up.
What month(s) are they?
thats neat!! so you get annoyed at your wedding band?
Yep. Mostly used to it now, after like... 8 years. Still annoys me occasionally; however, I still never take it off unless I'm doing martial arts or something really really dirty with no gloves.
I have no idea what my wife's is, nor my daughter's. I guess I could look it up.
What month(s) are they?
My wife is May, so emerald. My daughter is October, so opal. Yes, I can google things. I actually have gotten emeralds for my wife in the past. My daughter is too young for jewelry at all, so no opals for her yet. My son was born on the exact same day as I was (Feb. 16), although 32 years later, obviously. So he's amethyst like me.
I'd probably look good with opal jewelry, but you know what they say about people who wear opals who aren't born in October...
I'd probably look good with opal jewelry, but you know what they say about people who wear opals who aren't born in October...
I don't.
Do I want to know?
I hate wearing jewelry of any kind. Outside of occasionally wearing a crystal on a leather thong around my neck, the closest I ever come to wearing jewelry is when I put on my Eddie slingshot and rings when I'm at a Rocky Show...
...It's usually jewelry (or at least... eyecandy? more general term. applies to lots of things) once it gets to the point where it's main value lies not in what it does but what it looks like and/or how others perceive it. A regular watch isn't very jewelry like, but there's many watches that are simply more of an eyecatcher then a timekeeper.
A fair point. My watch, then, is jewelry. Heh.
There goes the price of diamond; right down into the toilet.
Actually the price of diamonds is incredibly artificial. There's a ****load of 'em out there. Thing is, DeBeer's owns most of 'em and very, very tightly controls the release of 'em in order to keep the value - and therefore their price - as high as possible. There was some kerfluffle a bit back after Russia had DeBeer's over to help 'em set up a mine and then, as Russians are wont to do, kicked 'em out and took the mine. After that, they threatened to start releasing diamonds on their own which would, of course, make DeBeer's take a hit. I guess they haven't done it for whatever reason, but yeah, diamonds? More common than we're lead to believe.
Oh god I said shinies.
Unfortunately, it doesn't really work like that - it's fairly easy for experts to tell the difference between natural and manufactured diamonds. Thousands of years at fluctuating pressure levels versus a much greater but steady pressure over a very small amount of time alters the structure of the resulting diamond. Man-made diamonds have fewer imperfections, which means that large natural diamonds without flaws are much rarer.
Most man-made diamonds are worth so little that the metal files I use on my miniatures are tipped with them. Only the man-made diamonds that are used in high technology due to their perfect crystaline structure are worth anything because they're much harder to manufacture.
Even though you will never be able to tell the difference unless you are an expert at diamond-studying.
That will never cease to amaze me, you know. So a diamond is valuable only because it's naturally formed, but a more perfect diamond is worth less because it was man-made.
Even though you will never be able to tell the difference unless you are an expert at diamond-studying.
Scarcity. People want the rare, the exclusive. If everyone has it, why would you want it? In the case of natural diamonds the rarity is artificial but it's still there. Er, perceived to be there. But yeah, it boils down to paying more to have something someone else doesn't. Status.
Ah well, to each their own
I have no real love for shiny rocks or other useless trinkets. I do like some other pointless gadgets though... like the beautiful dice I ordered for my girlfriend's birthday (which was over a month ago, curse you shapeways and your delays) and which I shall be giftwrapping shortly 
But at least they serve some practical purpose, and they're made from something practical rather then expensive... stainless steel
I am ashamed to admit that my two primary dice sets are made of low-grade shiny rocks: jade and blue jasper. I am who I was told to be.
My own dice are all regular one-color plastic... pretty standard stuff. We've only gotten one guy in the group with special dice so far, and his are plastic but adorned with tiny dragons. And thus hard to read. Ah well; he seems to like them.
I am ashamed to admit that my two primary dice sets are made of low-grade shiny rocks: jade and blue jasper. I am who I was told to be.
Kick-ass dice are exempt from any sort of "I'm a sheep because I bought shiny things" stigma, because you bought them because they look cool/ they're unusual and not just because they were expensive or hard to acquire.
Kick-ass dice are exempt from any sort of "I'm a sheep because I bought shiny things" stigma, because you bought them because they look cool/ they're unusual and not just because they were expensive or hard to acquire.
Fair point. *removes sheep costume*
I think mad jack has a point there. Also girlfriend loved the dice. Now we just have to wait until she can try them, it'll be a while until our next gamenight :/
Cool.
I haven't played in a long, long time. It's my fault, though, cuz I'm DM. It's hunting season so my weekends are all booked up (oh, and I had an assload of work to do on my kitchen, too). I can't let my dad go alone, you know. Plus I like going. Anyhoo, we'll probably start back up next year sometime. Maybe early/mid January.Do you hunt anything large enough to make dice out of?
Cuz those would be some kickass dice...If you're artsy enough I think you could make some very awesome dice out of bone... not like most that are made out of a solid chunk of bone but really crafted from different bones. I'm not sure if they'd stand up to serious use though, they might snap. And they'll definately not be balanced, but then most bone dice aren't.
If you've ever noticed, any bone dice you buy are smaller than regular standard-sized plastic rpg dice. There aren't actually very many bones in an animal that are thick enough to make regular-sized dice out of, since bones aren't solid all the way through - the marrow on the inside is way too soft to make anything other than soup out of it, lol. So you'd need things like kneecaps, hip bones, shoulderblades or ball joints unless you used something big like a horse. I'm guessing the commercially-available bone dice are probably made of cow bone.
One of the things on my stuff-I'll-do-when-I-hit-the-lottery list is to buy a piece of whalebone and carve me some scrimshaw dice.
The observation is very much theoretical. There is little that they know about the planet aside from:
A) It's there.
b) Mass.
c) general composition.
They are guessing that, with such a high content of carbon, in balance with its mass, that it would form a diamond core. However, chances are, that this is not the case. However, it has the potential to have it - which is pretty cool regardless of how you slice it.
And its general composition says it is a gas giant this means GAS and the last i checked diamonds didn't come in gas form. Now they did mention core so sure maybe there could be some carbon in the core but to make the connection that some carbon in the atmosphere means it has a carbon core is quite the stretch. Its core is most likely metallic hydrogen which is a liquid state of hydrogen where it acts like a metal when it is at a very high temperature and pressure. And at such extremes the carbon will more than likely be a liquid not a diamond.
If you want to see a diamond out in space then look for a supernova remnant. Some of them are huge masses of (what is thought to be pure) carbon spheres the size of the earth or a bit smaller. Yeah a diamond the size of the earth.
anyways it is annoying when reporters that seem to know crap about science try and report scientific findings. they always much stuff up.