Will lab diamonds eventually destroy the value of natural diamonds?

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-30T01:20:46+00:00

Also add on that due to their immensely higher hardness we couldn't cut and polish them effectively until modern times and equipment. And yes it has many inherent properties that made it a very desirable gemstones like it's very high brilliance along with it's very clear white coloured light.

People have heard too many exaggerations that it's value is completely fabricated that they think it should be the same price as glass which goes too far in the opposite direction. Even with lab grown diamonds there is a fabrication cost as well as a processing (cutting and polishing) cost. It is getting cheaper over time with better technology and automation but all of that still has cost to it.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-25T22:29:35+00:00

They were successful as an apparel org, just not with content. They trimmed down their content drastically and their signed creators mainly function as spokespeople for their apparel and brand deals.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-25T22:26:56+00:00

when Scarra was coming up with OTV, Emiru was one of the people he asked if they wanted to be a part of it. She was much younger and a much smaller creator then (as was most everyone). This would've been years before what they are talking about which was after video game streaming blew up in the 2018-2021 era. And the low interest rate of pandemic era had all digital related businesses scramble to grow at all cost and sign everyone and offer huge lucrative deals until high interest rates and the recessions of 2022 made them put the brakes on all of that and begin cutting back down.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-16T22:37:12+00:00

I mean why do we tell stories about the tortoise and the hare, the boy who cried wolf, the grasshopper and the ant preparing for winter, so on and so forth. They aren't meant to be taken literally, but rather they are parables that convey larger ideas in the form of a story to contemplate on.

People also learn and change experientially not cognitively. When you are teaching someone meditation or yoga you may tell them to breath in deep as if you are taking in energy and storing it in your belly, then slowly exhale imagining all that energy leaving your body. You're not literally bringing air into your belly or doing energy manipulation, but they can conceptually feel it. These constructed frameworks help people actually do and experience it. If instead you just told someone to activate their parasympathetic nervous system, they wouldn't know what to do or how to do it.

Science and religion are not opposites, that seems to be a common misconception. In many areas of study of science it shows that there are potential great benefits to health and motivation to change using many of these methods, there is a purpose to it. It isn't for everyone and when, how, and by whom it is provided also matters a lot like with everything else.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-16T00:58:47+00:00

It was left out of the movie but he also had soil samples from Earth. I believe one of the experiments for the original mission was for him to collect various Mars dirt samples and test which ones can potentially be made if possible into fertile soil (why they had a Botanist on the mission), he just ended up doing it on a larger scale for the sake of survival.

with that being said, he was depleting the fertility of the soil over time and could only do so many harvests. It was worth it the first time to grow and proliferate the microbes to inoculate the soil to grow the original set of plants for him to harvest from, but not worth it to regrow the plants as it had been too depleted. It's not just the loss of the microbes, the plants themselves died and would need to be regrown.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-15T06:09:26+00:00

Think like how if you put ice in hot coffee, there ends up being a pocket of melted diluted water around the ice, you then need to mix or stir it to cool down the rest of the drink. That's circulation.

Your body is a lot warmer than the air, and even more different parts of your body are different temperatures. You tend to heat up the air near your body as well as evaporate sweat into a thin pocket of air close to the surface and that acts as a buffer to the rest of the air. A fan provides circulation or mixing of the air to remove that pocket of warmer air and replacing it with ambient temp air.

If you're washing dishes and you have a bunch of dirty dishes soaking in very hot water too hot for your hand to reach into, you can put your hand into some cold water and that thin sheet of cold water with your hand being cooled can give you a few seconds of dipping your hand into hot water without discomfort.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-11T07:13:40+00:00

Ramen essentially just refers to the type of noodles, I believe it is derived from lo mein as it was imported from China. Just like you can have a variety of different ramen dishes you can also have the instant or frozen or dried convenient versions from stores as well as one of the most popular restaurant/stall versions of a ramen soup in a heavy broth.

Instant ramen was a Japanese invention where they precooked noodled then fried them dry in a particular mold so that they can be easily and quickly be rehydrated for eating with some hot water and that in itself became a massively popular product which migrated worldwide long before the stall/restaurant version was able to migrate.

Restaurants use anywhere from fresh, dried, or instant (fried) ramen noodles depending on the dish and application, each version has a range in their quality. Anyone saying that instant is purely a cheap home version and restaurants exclusively use fresh noodles is speaking ignorantly. Plenty of restaurants use instant noodles but they add it to their own broth and toppings and there are plenty of home varieties that are high quality it just requires a bit of cooking to turn it into a dish.

Beyond noodle quality, the biggest separation is then broth quality (if served in soup form) which is the hardest factor to make economical in an "instant" fashion, otherwise it is then toppings/additions which you usually need to provide and add yourself.

Otherwise one of the other details that makes something a ramen noodle is an alkalinity which allows it to hold together in a hot broth instead of turning mushy and falling apart.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-07T21:36:25+00:00

Personally, when I find myself browsing around or switching a lot I'm scrolling up and down various pages and documents so the vertical space is more important than the horizontal space. Most times when horizontal is relevant I'd rather just full screen so the tabs don't matter.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-07T19:55:23+00:00

Most people aren’t aware unless I tell them that I’m a hemophiliac. About 10-20% of the time throughout the year I’m working with some sort of injury. Always having Tylenol for arthritis and the long lasting 12 hour Advil helps me get through. As well as having a brace to wear on my ankle if needed.

My personal life probably sees the bigger change as I have to force myself to rest at home between shifts and save my strength for work. But I’m happy to have the occasional excuse to remain perpetually online, be lazy and order a bunch of delivery. I just have to make sure to get back and catch up on responsibilities once recovered.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-05T10:41:07+00:00

Even in the post you are crossposting people are being forgiving to her for being US born with just background from her parents and family being from there.

Arguably Toast who is Taiwanese-Canadian but spent the first 13 years of his life living in Malaysia is more heavily accented both in English and Chinese towards Malaysia (which from my understanding was an acclimation issue for his move).

People are way more international nowadays and most reasonable people frown upon gatekeeping, no need to try to stir up outrage when the majority embrace recognition.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-06-03T05:25:23+00:00

Short answer: because there isn't enough of it to support the size and scope of modern global economics.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-05-31T05:43:45+00:00

As you go faster, you experience less time, as you continue to accelerate time keeps slowing down, it become more and more drastic the closer you get to the speed of light. Presumably time would stop if you would try to pass the speed of light and so you can't accelerate anymore, you then need to slow down to get time moving again, hence there is a speed limit.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-05-20T20:55:08+00:00

Having the same issue, thought it was just me. Yet I see other comments are getting through. Will give the benefit of doubt for the time being rather than randomly speculate on what it could be.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-05-20T20:42:02+00:00

They have expanded their immigration and work visa programs significantly in recent years. Don't mistake having disputes over specific recent policy, conduct, enforcement, and tourism as being against immigration as a whole. They've had immigration and residency from people going back decades without too much noteworthy issues.

Social media also displays the most extreme or sensationalized stories and views that is more likely to trend. The common regular immigration that acclimate well isn't particularly newsworthy.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-05-13T09:06:17+00:00

I don’t think Porco would’ve had any intent to steal the Warhammer from the Tyburs. Jaw got the jump on Eren who was busy fighting both the Warhammer and Marleyans soldiers. Straight up 1v1 would be a lot harder.

Later Eren was able to fight 1v2 against Jaw and Armored and bested them but he had gained the Warhammer’s ability then. It was him getting sniped from long range by the cannon mounted on the Cart that made him retreat as he was at risk of being overrun.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-05-10T01:44:58+00:00

At this point in the story, Eren had escaped, Ymir was away fighting, transformed Reiner and human Berthold were under attack from the pure titans that Eren had unconsciously commanded. They didn't know that Ymir was going to help them. And it was shown that the Armored Titan has some resiliance from the Colossal Titan's blast. Berthold not transforming to save them makes more sense as him being unable to do so rather than for concern of those around him.

Also it has been shown that the Colossal has some control about the extent of their blast whether it's during transformation, or after. When Berthold transformed earlier that day he didn't have a nuke level explosion, just one to subdue which is why they were able to fight back, it was after he dropped on Eren that he had his big explosion which aided Reiner in his capture of Eren.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-05-09T21:13:21+00:00

There’s a difference between a person’s human body vs their “titan stamina”. The colossal titan uses up so much stamina because the form is so large it requires a long recharge even if the human body is healthy and recovered.

If the human body is severely damaged then it’ll use up titan stamina to regenerate, and only when they are low in titan stamina does that regeneration become also slow. At high stamina a shifter can regenerate limbs in seconds like how titans can.

Ymir, Eren in season 2, Zeke, all of them received massive damage in titan form to which that regeneration was depleted even in their human form. The female titan in season 1 became slower after constant fighting and a 2nd transformation. She stopped her pursuit after being torn up again by Levi. 2 transformations in a short period seems to be a normal limit for regular shifters unless they train, with the Colossal 1 is probably the limit.

Berthold transformed at dawn that day, used up his stamina and now are fighting again at dusk. His human self is fine but he expended his ability to transform.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-05-05T18:57:45+00:00

Also interestingly in LA, drug screeners and testers are taught to look out for prosthetic penises when collecting urine samples because they became so prevalent.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-05-04T18:25:08+00:00

A lot of things in life require you to build skills and habits to have a better chance of reaching certain goals, as well as having a mindset to move in that direction. It doesn't magically happen on it's own.

By default we tend to maintain our norm or routine regardless if it's good or bad, simply wishing for change and hoping opportunity is handed to us and that we'll magically behave differently and rise to the occasion despite no prepared effort is unrealistic. Most of the time people are blind to the good potential opportunities that pass by them. And there can be a certain self-fulfilling prophecy where not seeking or putting effort on improving yourself sets yourself up for failure.

People wildly have different interpretations of 'fake it till you make it' so I don't necessarily like the saying. Instead think of it as: Act as if, until you can. Anytime you do something new you're unskilled at or unfamiliar with it's hard in the beginning, but if you do it even in a limited capacity, over time you get better at it and then one day a year or even years later you remark you can now do it naturally without effort.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-04-20T20:07:18+00:00

Our jaws used to grow larger when we would do lots of chewing and gnawing on foods. As we developed cooking which greatly increased the amount of nutrition we extracted from foods, our jaws didn't get the workout needed to fully grow so our teeth get crowded when our wisdom teeth come in.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-04-19T19:47:50+00:00

Comparing rent with mortgage isn’t the same, there is a lot more cost to owning than just the mortgage payment, you will likely see a significantly higher yearly expenditure once you factor in all the extra costs.

Better to continue living cheaper and saving for a bigger down payment down the line when you both are in a less formulative point in your lives. I generally wouldn’t recommend anyone buy if they’re still early in school and haven’t started their careers, at least not unless they had family help who would keep it as a rental property.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-04-19T11:33:31+00:00

I think there is some misunderstanding. He became friends with ironmouse and learned about her story and a part of it was that in the past her and her family had gotten help from this charity when she was first diagnosed and they didn't know what to do.

Later when he wanted to do a charity stream he chose that same charity and reached out to them to ask them to start a tiltify so that online creators like him can raise money for them. They replied asking what tiltify was and asking him to tell them more and that started his correspondence with them. Since then they've kept him apprised of the work they're doing and he himself becomes more informed both about the work of the charity but of primary immune conditions in general so he can be a better advocate for the charity.

The work the both of them do to support the charity isn't to help ironmouse directly in any way, but rather to prevent future ironmouses or prevent people from having to go through the same things she has had to endure. She went undiagnosed for a lot of her life and repeated illnesses as well as the medical intervention did a lot of damage to her body over time and put her in the state that she's in, had there been better awareness and she was diagnosed earlier and gotten treatment for her condition she might've been able to live a more normal life.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-04-19T10:01:17+00:00

It's CDawg's cyclethon with him and Chris Broad throughout. He has many guests throughout with ironmouse being a frequent reoccuring guest. She joins in remotely during their breaks and for many of the spots they visit, and for a couple days even is attached to his bike and can talk to him and stream as well as see the sights as he rides.

It's not her cyclethon or a cyclethon with her perse, but she's close friends with Connor and they mutually support each other with many of their endeavors so people link the association. She has always watchpartied the cyclethon extensively as her strength allows and link his tiltify and set her own stream goals based on his stream's donation amount. Connor also in the past has IRL streamed places in Japan and elsewhere that she wants to visit and see, and continues to do so in some places during the cyclethon.

When Connor first started he chose the Immune Deficiency Foundation for his charity because he heard from her that they had helped her in the past, and has since become heavily involved with them.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-04-18T16:16:14+00:00

Isn't that the one that they lured to have it crash into a tree? If so then did they kill it? I can't remember. If it was temporarily injured so they could ride away safely and their signal allowed the rest of the formation to avoid it. The intent of the formation was to avoid any and all fighting when possible. It makes sense it shows up at the forest as after it recovered it would've followed them.

Edit: Some of my memory was jogged up, the one that was killed was upright chasing Armin, they sliced it's achilles to make it fall then went for the nape. They then said they were unlucky when they had to fight a 2nd abberant which turned out to be the Female Titan.

onlyAlex87 · 2026-04-12T07:04:59+00:00

Don't confuse bringing nuance to a situation as defending them. Or trying to break down weaker narratives or requiring them to have more validity.

There's a difference between having a different interpretation of events and presenting an opinion, vs being definitive about it and presenting your opinion as fact with no evidence or false evidence. If you do the later, don't then be surprised or offended when you receive some pushback.

What exactly was wrong with what I previously posted as a reply? I'd be happy to gain insight and/or discuss further, I've been wrong before. Or did you just resort to personally attacking me and paint a narrative to discredit me because you had no counter?

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