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It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

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Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#61

Post by dghughes »

Analemma_ wrote: post #36
Razengan wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always preferred "Terra" or "Gaia" to "Earth." It could be a preference from video games, or maybe it’s because the common usage and being a synonym for ground and dirt has made the word seem ”low-brow” and the alternatives classy, exotic or poetic, and if their popularity was reversed we would think "Earth" was a classier word, but still. “Terrans” will always sound better than “Earthlings” however. :)

I think this is just one instance of a near-universal perception among English speakers that Greek/Latin words ("Terra") sound more sophisticated than Anglo-Saxon ones ("earth"). It's hard to hypothesize about whether this could be reversed in an alternate universe because this tendency goes back many centuries: for a loooong time Latin was the language of the scholarly and political elite, whereas Anglo-Saxon Old En…

>for a loooong time Latin was the language of the scholarly and political elite

French was too for hundreds of years even up until now and maybe for the EU again after Brexit.

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#63

Post by khedoros1 »

brudgers wrote: post #55
IgorPartola wrote: post #9

Book recommendation: The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert Heinlein. One of the things handled in the plot is the fictional assertion that the moon is covered in diamonds.

Seeing the story about water on Luna reminded me of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress . And now the public library copy is on my desk.

I'm reading some more recent short stories right now that take place in several moon colonies. They talk a lot about the scarcity of water.

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#64

Post by Animats »

cm2012 wrote: post #15
Animats wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CVD diamond synthesis has become so effective that it's embarrassing.[1][2] The diamond gem industry made a terrible mistake. They promoted "flawless" diamonds as the most valuable. Now they're up against a process borrowed from the semiconductor industry, which makes flawless crystals in bulk. DeBeers keeps trying to maintain the distinction between natural and synthesized diamonds, but it's coming unglued. They kee…

Synthetic diamonds are not available to consumers much cheaper than real ones.

Look on Alibaba. Cubic zirconia by the metric ton. CVD and HPHT synthetic diamonds, polished, in bulk. (Be careful that you don't get cubic zirconia when you order diamonds, though.)

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#65

Post by tinfins »

remarkEon wrote: post #46
tinfins wrote: post #32

There's an old sci-fi short story about a planet with diamond rains. I wish I could remember the name - Google is failing me right now. I think I read it in one of those yearly compilation books.

Is this a thing in Ringworld? Been a long while since I read that one but I seem to recall diamond rain in that one.

I don't remember that in Ringworld, but that was the first real sci-fi book I read! Still one of my favorites.

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#66

Post by tinfins »

AlphaWeaver wrote: post #38
tinfins wrote: post #32

There's an old sci-fi short story about a planet with diamond rains. I wish I could remember the name - Google is failing me right now. I think I read it in one of those yearly compilation books.

One great place to identify stories is the Science Fiction and Fantasy StackExchange site. They have a tag specifically for story identification, and they're very good at finding stories, common and obscure alike. I'd suggest you check it out if you'd like to find out exactly what it was.

Thank you, posted it. No luck so far, but someone linked me to another person asking the same question with a better description of the story.

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/168074/does-anyone...

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#67

Post by JBReefer »

obastani wrote: post #23
cooper12 wrote: post #17

Can someone explain a concept to me? I never understood how gold rushes were profitable. If you suddenly found a mass quantity of a "rare" material, wouldn't it no longer be valuable since its value depended on its scarcity?

A "gold rush" probably didn't make gold abundant -- it was just enough to make a few people rich.

Generally people that sell inputs like shovels, jeans, and land. Prospectors generally lose money.

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#68

Post by lvkleist »

int_handler wrote: post #42
Analemma_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is just one instance of a near-universal perception among English speakers that Greek/Latin words ("Terra") sound more sophisticated than Anglo-Saxon ones ("earth"). It's hard to hypothesize about whether this could be reversed in an alternate universe because this tendency goes back many centuries: for a loooong time Latin was the language of the scholarly and political elite, whereas Anglo-Saxon Old En…

There is a similar reason for why English swear words sound Germanic: http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/06/swear-words-etymo...

Such an interesting article. Churchill was known to take advantage of this in his speeches, for example in (parts of) the famous "We shall fight them on the beaches": https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/97665/did-the-we...

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all. - Winston Churchill

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#69

Post by trumpownsyou420 »

int_handler wrote: post #20

Can we officially rename Uranus to Caelus? Uranus (more accurately, Ouranos) is a Greek god. Besides Earth, all the other planets are named after Roman gods, thus Uranus should be named Caelus to be consistent.

gonna call it your ass, ya fuggin slut

Re: It rains solid diamonds on Uranus and Neptune

#70

Post by Casseres »

tinfins wrote: post #32

There's an old sci-fi short story about a planet with diamond rains. I wish I could remember the name - Google is failing me right now. I think I read it in one of those yearly compilation books.

Without giving anything away, you might be interested in Outcasts — a 2011 British television science-fiction drama serial. Unfortunately it was cancelled after one season.
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