The Russian Institute of Geology and Mineralogy announced an allegedly previously undisclosed 60-mile-wide field of "trillions of carats" of impact diamonds caused by a metor strike into graphite rock in Siberia. The media is reporting that
this has been known about since the 70s but undisclosed, but this is misleading. As detailed by Vishnevsky
[academic summary PDF], for example, the presence of large amounts of impact diamonds within the impactites was very well known; it is perhaps better to say that the market-distorting sheer yield of the field (around an order of magnitude of increase over known reserves) had not previously been discussed. The diamonds produced by such high temperatures and pressures are around twice as tough as normal diamonds, and the extreme hardness and compartively cheap availibility is likely to hugely widen the usage of
industrial diamonds even setting aside the gemstone issues. This does however put the
2011 sale of the Oppenheimer family 40 per cent stake in De Beers in an interesting light, especially as the field at once offers the prospect of huge diamond stones whilst devaluing De Beers' existing stockpile hugely.
posted by jaduncan
on Sep 17, 2012 -
50 comments
Current TV
previously & previously, the media company founded by Al Gore after the 2000 election, has picked up the kinds of in depth long form journalism being rapidly dropped by major networks, but has been tantalizingly unavailable for those without cable; until now. They have been putting their Vanguard episodes up on their website and on YouTube.
[more inside]
posted by Blasdelb
on Apr 30, 2011 -
24 comments
Parachuting through the Austrian night sky to land on the roof of an castle to steal the
Star of Empress Sisi is just the start of the adventures depicted in a fantastic
article in Wired on the exploits of one Gerald Blanchard, Criminal Mastermind.
posted by Cobalt
on Mar 24, 2010 -
13 comments
The Hope Diamond
glows red when exposed to ultraviolet light. In itself, this is an interesting way to determine the provenance of a particular gem.
[more inside]
posted by Araucaria
on Jan 8, 2008 -
55 comments
The White Diamond was one of three documentaries released in theaters this year (in the U.S.) by legendary filmmaker
Werner Herzog (the others being the more widely seen
Grizzly Man, about a man who studied bears in Alaska, and
Wheel of Time, about the practices and rituals of devout Buddhists). In
The White Diamond, Herzog introduces us to
Dr. Graham Dorrington, a professor of aeronautics who is obsessed with weightless, floating flight, and who is testing the design of a new airship in a large hangar outside of London. Herzog and Dorrington travel to the rainforest of Guyana, where Dorrington hopes to fly the small dirigible over the jungle’s canopy and study the innumerable plants and animals living there with the hopes of finding new species and potentially discovering plants with pharmaceutical and healing benefits – a practice he calls “canopy prospecting”. [more inside]
posted by billysumday
on Nov 10, 2005 -
14 comments
Neil Diamond on MySpace "I sang Cracklin Rosie at Kareoke last week and was then inited[sic] to a threesome. Thanks Neil. Your songs are magical." Neil Diamond has 9981 friends.
posted by srboisvert
on Nov 6, 2005 -
44 comments
Diamonds , a symbol of love for a large part of this century. Yet there is an underlying monopoly who have socially engineered the whole entire idea that a "Diamond is Forever". Does your notion of a diamond change knowing that a consortium is ensuring that their Monopoly is Forever?
posted by mutantdisco!
on Aug 14, 2002 -
105 comments
Most Valuable Object in the World The Supreme Purple Star - as it is being called - is a deep purple diamond, turning to crimson when rotated in the light. Diamonds come in a
rainbow of colors and are called "
fancies" in the trade. Some are
beautiful, others
less so. This one is the only one of it's kind, and has been pronounced "priceless". The speculation, of course, is that the owner is looking to sell it.
posted by Irontom
on Jun 17, 2002 -
20 comments
