Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Ooooooo, maybe facebook is telling the future? I'm off to see what mine holds!

Geology nerd here. Diamonds are the least of jewelry store worries these days. Most diamonds come from Canada, Australia, Russia and a few other places. Diamonds are so heavily tracked and traced that it would not really be easy to end up with a conflict diamond unless you go out of your way to buy some grey market super high end enormous stone. The Kimberley Process actually helped a bit, and stone source identification techniques are pretty good and cheap these days.

It's everything else you need to worry about. Emeralds and tanzanite, for example, are both pretty horrible.

The movie Blood Diamond was a reasonably accurate portrayal of the diamond trade in the 80s/90s, but the industry has changed a great deal since and has cleaned up a lot.

I have some links that I can dig out of my lesson plans if anybody wants. The big problem today is coltan, but nobody wants to do anything about that because we all own electronics and nobody wants to mine the stuff in their own country.

I would love to learn more about this. I had no idea emeralds were high conflict.

Emeralds being high conflict makes sense and I'd love to have an emerald ring but I'm also ok with created stones but for some reason when I went searching online for created emerald-like stone rings, I couldn't find any.

When we bought my engagement ring, the process was pretty impressive, the individual diamonds had certificates showing origins/conflict-free status and such. Although I was never a fan of diamonds, I wanted something neutral so we did end up going that route.

Although someone did mention there are issues with diamonds in Canada in that they are often taken from native lands and the natives don't get anything for them. That seems pretty shitty to me.

I thought the Nunavut mineral rights had been worked out. I'd like to learn more about that.

It seems that the drug cartels have ultimate control over most of the emerald mines in Columbia. The major ones, if not all. Even besides that, emeralds are a wimpy gemstone: they crack easily, have flaws and are treated and oiled to look better--just across the board. Its hard to find untreated emeralds. May as well get lab created or a semi-precious green stone.

Great, another awkward phone call to mull over in my head for the next hours and days to come.

:( Whyyyyy can't I talk like a normal person. And I forgot to ask an important question and can't call them back.

The last I heard about Nunavut was through a vegan group on FB, and that diamond mining was rapidly decreasing the population of caribou.

Mining anything, anywhere is always crepe for the environment.

We should go harvest white dwarf cores for our diamond desires!

I'll point out though, that diamond mining isn't because of gemstones. Even if not a single gem diamond were ever sold again, all or most diamond mines would keep operating at full speed because their real bread and butter is the industrial grit. The gem trade is just icing (and not even applicable at some large mines).

Just got yelled at by a warehouse employee because I had to send a strongly worded email reminding them that we'd worked out where they'll bring me 5-6 boxes once a week (because a. I don't have quite enough time, b. having it come in one group once weekly will make everything smoother for advisors, and c. I don't have the strength to carry around boxes all the time) and they hadn't been for ages. Both my manager and another manager have said they have the bandwidth to take 5-10 minutes out of their day once a week to do this for me but he seems to think they don't.

Just, I hate being the object of other people's ire but seriously, he's throwing a fit at moving a few boxes once a week on a cart. NBD.

I think I've just spoken to the most unhelpful man I've ever spoken to. If the points in my email are for your client not you, pass it onto your client. It isn't rocket science! Jeesh.

Today's dragging.

Our funding is set for this year, but we've been warned that most state adult Ed programs will close or curtail next year if sequestration goes through because that removes much of our funding. (half)

Lovely. Let's kick the people who need ged and job training in the teeth. That'll help the economy and get people off assistance. Never mind MY job; my students all go on to jobs or better jobs.

LW, that gem/mining stuff is fascinating, thanks for sharing! That really sucks about your funding for next year, though. This is such a shitty time for education and it drives me UP A WALL. I pretty much hit my breaking point with my finances last night that made me want to scream and just shake the world as we know it with how absurd our prioritization of our resources can get, particularly with regards to education. If we aren't financing education, where will we ever get the money in the future to finance ANYTHING? If people can't get jobs, we are boned.

In other news, this bran muffin from Trader Joe's is an enormous disappointment. It is the quintessential stereotype of bran muffin and I am so sad now.

Haha, I swear they know things they shouldn't know. I am 100% sure I haven't talked about engagement rings, google searched for engagement rings, etc... But I get two ads, with very similar rings, which are to my taste (which is saying something because 98% of what's out there for fine jewelry I wouldn't wear regardless of ethical or environmental issues... I just don't like it.)

I hope it doesn't tell the future... I get lots of ads for organic meat and online dating. :/


I enjoy your geology nerdery, lw.

Me too, I get loads of recommended pages like Dairylea and other gross dairy things.

And diet websites, credit cards and online dating. Facebook knows me so well!

Somehow I get ads for Dr Oz which is funny because I hate him.

My best pal loves Dr. Oz...I just don't get it.

Ok. Today is the day. I'm putting in my notice. March 16 will be my VERY LAST DAY at the pizza place! Wish me luck!

Mine is credit cards, cars and photography. When I was doing online dating it kept bringing 'dating for the mature woman' sites up, cheeky croissants.

GOOD LUCK!

YAY THANK YOU!

Awesome! Sounds like a good decision.

I don't like cut gems much either. I have a bag of rough emeralds and I think those are beautiful. You can see how the crystals grew. I think they came from North Carolina. Thy are pretty but not remotely gem quality, though one or two might facet up ok, but that would be sad.

Dr office is taking forever today. I have things to do after this, plus work. Grrr

Usually they are very efficient.

i am trapped in this fiona apple album like an ant in a vat of hot caramel. i know i need to escape, but it's so good, and fighting it is so hard.

i see no reason for you to leave that vat!

I had fish lips last night! I am definitely allergic to something. My orthdontist used latex free gloves and sent me home with latex free elastics. So far so good- I mean, my lips are cracked, itchy, and a little swollen from yesterday still, so it's hard to tell- but I'm hopeful.

And already I've been warned twice from two different people about condoms. Oy.

I'm having a visitor this Friday, possibly for dinner too.

I'm looking forward to it, but it also means I have one evening to correct not keeping up with chores in the house.

(in the last 2-3 weeks I've been going to the gym 6-7 times a week and skipped a couple of cleaning jobs)