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Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#381

Post by gmadsen »

joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

I has nothing to do with branding. It is entirely about price and false scarcity.

traditionally it was an important gesture that the man was investing a large sum of money into his soon to be wife

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#382

Post by cyberpunk »

Draken93 wrote: post #247
Jiejeing wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious, is the diamond thing a US-centric trope? I do not know anyone here who genuinely cares about that sort of thing, generally people want some discreet metal ring. It may be a precious ore to symbolize the commitment but otherwise I have not seen anything outlandish among my friends or family members who got married.

In Germany it is not a thing either. Discreet gold/silver rings are much more common. I like it, it is less decadent and you can wear the ring every day.

That's weird, all my SO's friends who are engaged/married here in .de got diamond engagement rings. They also wear a wedding band, and tend to only wear the engagement ring on special occasions..

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#383

Post by djdjdjdjdj »

toxik wrote: post #244
djdjdjdjdj wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not kidding? While I personally would find this very weird, from an infosec perspective, having a relatable backstory should make it easier for you in regards of infosec. With married status you can conceal things probably better than not.

If your threat model includes you disguising as someone else, sure. If your threat model includes crazy people stalking you, my decision is justified.

That is really unfortunate.

At least in germany you can go to the Einwohnermeldeamt (citizen Report office) and can request a blockage into your data. This should be enough for a stalker.

Are you allowed to decide what happens to your partner in case of an emergency? Or to decide for her if she is unable to decide anymore?

Also would you save taxes? Here our income is combined and divided 50/50. When I earn 100k and she 20k, we both pay taxes for 60k which comes to something like 100-200$ per month or 2-4% in savings.

If it is similar your stalker already hurts you on a daily basis.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#384

Post by smabie »

joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

everyone would prefer natural diamonds to artificial ones.

Why? Because natural ones are more expensive. It's literally like asking someone whether they prefer to have $20 or $40.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#385

Post by cyberpunk »

TekMol wrote: post #15
cyberpunk wrote: post #3

Married members of HN, what did you do if you think diamonds are utterly ridiclious however due to societal constraints some kind of ring is required for your SO?

Honest question: Why marry in the first place? Why practice a personal relationship in a way others have designed? Isn't it somewhat contrary to the theme of Hacker News? To me, the term "hacking" describes the habit of doing things in a more interesting/efficient/fun way than how they are usually done.

In germany at least there is quite the tax incentive.. Say you earn 150,000k, and your SO earns 30,000, then you pay tax at 180k/2(90k) levels instead of 150k levels....

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#386

Post by r0ze-at-hn »

kqr wrote: post #292
GordonS wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally fully agree, but unfortunately not everyone thinks as logically as you or I. I talked about this with my wife recently, and even though she had a vague idea of the horrors that mined diamonds bring, she'd still continue to buy/want mined diamonds. She sees mined diamonds as more "real", and finds it difficult to believe that her diamonds in particular would be part of the problem - as if it somehow would…

There's also a common line of reasoning that roughly goes "well this particular diamond has obviously already been mined, so no additional harm is caused by me wanting it." Obviously you and I see that even that line of reasoning alone jacks up demand for an awful business, but not all people have the capacity to reason that abstractly about how their behaviour plays a part in a very big aggregate. ---- My wife did g…

> we asked virtually every local jeweller to create something with a lab-created diamond (or even a different shiny rock entirely) and all of them -- to our astonishment -- refused.

ooooo now there is a signal. Putting in the time and effort to find/get a jeweller to make me a custom ring with a lab-created diamond when no one will. Unique, expensive. Not something he can just order from the internet.

Because lets just cut to the chase. The diamond is all about the story, the signal and what it represents, not what it is.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#387

Post by klmadfejno »

cyberpunk wrote: post #3

Married members of HN, what did you do if you think diamonds are utterly ridiclious however due to societal constraints some kind of ring is required for your SO?

Moissanite ring for Observationally, younger couples who have been dating longer tend to care less about rings. Older couples who have been dating less seem to care more.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#388

Post by lief79 »

cyberpunk wrote: post #3

Married members of HN, what did you do if you think diamonds are utterly ridiclious however due to societal constraints some kind of ring is required for your SO?

My wife understood my concerns, and she really wanted a diamond that was left to her by her grandmother. Easy compromise with a custom ring.

( I also managed to accidentally end two relationships that were already going in the wrong direction by casually mentioning my concerns about diamonds. At least I noticed how it was being interpreted the second time. 8-/ No complaints with how that accidentally played out. )

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#389

Post by smabie »

user-the-name wrote: post #202
coward76 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you rather buy a Banksy NFT Or JPG of a Banksy they are the same image at a fraction of the cost?

Given that NFTs are a scam that only exist to make fraudsters rich while helping pollute the planet, I would take the JPG every hour of every day.

I'll take the NFT.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#390

Post by EricE »

exoque wrote: post #355
GordonS wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally fully agree, but unfortunately not everyone thinks as logically as you or I. I talked about this with my wife recently, and even though she had a vague idea of the horrors that mined diamonds bring, she'd still continue to buy/want mined diamonds. She sees mined diamonds as more "real", and finds it difficult to believe that her diamonds in particular would be part of the problem - as if it somehow would…

>In the west, we are conditioned from an early age to believe that "diamonds are a girl's best friend", that women should accept nothing less that a "real" diamond, and that men should spend some silly multiple of their salary when buying such a diamond. In the west, the US or the anglosphere? Because I only know this from Hollywood movies.

Ha - Hollywood/Debears infected post-war Japan too:

https://danwin.com/2010/08/how-de-beers-diamonds-won-over-th...

The scope of their mass brain washing is indeed staggering. Heck I have a good friend in the jewelry business and we still get into heated discussions about how he feels there is nothing wrong and how he is providing value as an agent of Debears brainwashing. It is pretty disgusting.

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