<p>Ruby is my birth stone, do I count as rare?</p>
<p>I have enjoyed the info on stones though, forgot all about the server.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 11, 2012 1:36 PM, "Michael H. Warfield" <<a href="mailto:mhw@wittsend.com">mhw@wittsend.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
On Wed, 2012-01-11 at 12:16 -0500, Jim Kinney wrote:<br>
> On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Scott Castaline <<a href="mailto:skotchman@gmail.com">skotchman@gmail.com</a>>wrote:<br>
><br>
> > If you're my age you probably wouldn't live long enough to do that<br>
> > much laundry & dishwashing. You might have to get her a rock along<br>
> > with all of that, after all diamons are a girl's BF, aren't they?<br>
> ><br>
<br>
> She's a geologist and knows the true value of diamonds (nearly as common as<br>
> sand) so I'm off the hook for that :-)<br>
<br>
No joke. If it wasn't for some crazy monopolies (DeBeers) diamonds<br>
would be about $5 a caret.<br>
<br>
> Emeralds and meteorites, however...<br>
<br>
Rubies are great too. Natural ones have to occur in unnatural<br>
conditions that include moderately rare chromium while excluding much<br>
more common iron from the aluminate base mineral.<br>
<br>
Even more rare is Alexandrite where some (but not all) of the chromium<br>
is replaced by beryllium. Still fluoresces red under a black light like<br>
any ruby (it's ruby at heart) but is a somber red under incandescent<br>
light while green or blue under indirect sunlight and purple under<br>
direct sunlight (thanks to that fluorescence). Natural stones are<br>
insanely expensive. Some high quality Brazilian stones I was looking at<br>
were $10,000 USD for 0.9 caret stone - LOOSE! The center stone in my<br>
wedding ring was dug out of a lab, not out of the ground and has<br>
outstanding color change to it. :-P<br>
<br>
They call that effect trichroic (three color) or dichroic (referring to<br>
any mineral or mirrors that separate colors). Tanzanite is another<br>
dichroic but its color changes from blue to purple with the angle of the<br>
light hitting it. That's the other two stones in my wedding ring.<br>
That's my only puzzle ring with stones. The other two are just plain<br>
gold.<br>
<br>
> --<br>
> --<br>
> James P. Kinney III<br>
><br>
> As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to<br>
> consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they<br>
> please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.<br>
> - *2011 Noam Chomsky<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a><br>
> *<br>
><br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | <a href="tel:%28770%29%20985-6132" value="+17709856132">(770) 985-6132</a> | mhw@WittsEnd.com<br>
/\/\|=mhw=|\/\/ | <a href="tel:%28678%29%20463-0932" value="+16784630932">(678) 463-0932</a> | <a href="http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/" target="_blank">http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/</a><br>
NIC whois: MHW9 | An optimist believes we live in the best of all<br>
PGP Key: 0x674627FF | possible worlds. A pessimist is sure of it!<br>
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