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I don't know if it ever made it to the market, but a wristwatch powered by temperature variations of the air would be really cool. (Its inventor, Steven Phillips, died in March, 2004, and I can no longer find his shop, the Budapest Watch Company of Guilford, Connecticut, on the web.)

Well, I wasn't trying to "fool" him into getting a Canadian diamond, I was simply illustrating the route that I took.

I do agree with the Windsor-poster that the dealers are leveraging off of the artificial price inflation that DeBeer's has created. I had researched the prices pretty hardcore and the one I ended up with was right on par (CCCC and price) with the bluenile.com selection. So, not necessarily a ripoff, unless you consider all natural diamonds to be so...

I guess, if one is looking for value for the size and wants a unique bending of the light with the look of a diamond, maybe that moissanite is a good way to go.

As for the whole bloodless diamond concern, I believe that there is an effort underway to circumvent the inclusion of blood diamond in the wholesale supply...

I was at a gem conference this spring and listened to a diamond. Very interesting hearing what the gemprint sounded like. An interesting point was that the better cut, the better the "music" was. Patterns really are pleasing.

A floor wax and a dessert topping, from the SNL Skit

I think society has you a bit trained about what is acceptable. I put it simply: Diamonds are murder. Diamonds support terror.

So-called conflict diamonds are re-sourced via Amsterdam, just like oil from Iraq was re-routed via Turkey. Diamonds only have value because of their monopoly status, too. Please think of this before committing to diamonds.

Much better to go with semi-precious stones. Can you imagine the trouble over losing a ring worth over $1000? It still surprises me that this is often the most expensive item a person wears. Certainly there are more useful things one can buy or do to show one's devotion.

Paul Krugman wrote a nice article about this "gold bug" in Slate a while ago. Whatever you may think of him personally, the article sets forth the considerations crisply.

Anyone who feels paper money has no intrinsic value is encouraged to mail it to me. I'll pay the postage. And just try buying lunch with gold bullion. There are hardly any employed economists advocating gold or the gold standard, but it is worthwhile to discuss why these are inferior forms of money.

Think of your paper money as shares of stock in America Inc. If you don't believe in American solvency, consider that the rest of the world does. Two thirds of American currency is in circulation overseas, and America attracts trillions in foreign investment. I'm bullish on it, and note that gold has been a consistently lousy investment since the 80's, underperforming even inflation by failing to appreciate at all (the chart is not in constant dollars). Also, don't forget to deduct transportation or storage costs like that safe deposit box. Paper money did the same if you stuffed in under the mattress and failed to invest it in at least a passbook savings account or insured CD -- either of which handily outperformed gold.

Is De Beers illegal? Well if they are not why don't they operate in the United States?
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/yourbusiness/stor ies/debeers/
http://www.professionaljeweler.com/archives/news/2 000/020300story.html