Diamond

But can you take a break? Can you take a

break after the Blue Diamond? You find me a Blue Diamond and I won't get on there again.

Okay.

But now the Diamond auctioners are DMing me to do collabs.

No, and you're like

doing this thing now where you feel like they're like shouting you out.

We see

you.

The crime is like as old as time.

Diamond doesn't cry.

Got it.

But the added layer to it I feel like is new.

Craziest theft cases in Central Florida.

So the theft.

Again, Diamond does.

Sadly, in this society, there are thefts all the time.

Scarcity Theater Brand Markup A salary rule invented to make guilt feel like romance.

And a showroom culture that treats carrot weight like a personality test.

Diamonds themselves are still worth wanting.

They're hard, bright, and still the mainstream symbol for a reason.

The expensive part that deserves side-eye is everything around the stone, the mind premium you didn't ask for, the trend silhouette that ages in 18 months, and the quiet suggestion that love should hurt your bank account or it isn't real.

Your eyes love cut, proportions, and how the ring sits on their hand.

Trap B, Trend Cloning The ring that dominated your feed last spring is already halfway to dated.

Diamonds don't go out of style.

Every critical stage of the animation should a clear view that stays for at least one second, and two if it's intricate.

Diamond's strong because of its crystal structure, I think.

What's the crystal structure look like, anyway? Let's look at the Wikipedia page.

There's a nifty little animation.

From ABC Audio, this is Heist at the Lourdes.

Episode four, Diamonds Are Forever.

Now, before we dive into the seedy underworld of illicit diamond sales, there is one theory that we haven't talked about yet, and I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't give it just a little airtime.

It's the private collector theory, or as I like to call it, the doctor no theory.

I got really excited and I thought, oh, let's get my bike back.

And then when I went to the pound to get it, it was literally just like it was a frame because of the supply chain issues during the pandemic that selling my gears and brakes and whatever else was actually more lucrative than selling the whole bike.

So I think that's probably the same thing that would be happening with the Diamonds.

To me, at least, it's kind of a horrible thought that these items that played such a role in French history, however small, might be broken apart.

The second type is giant covalent structures, also called macromolecular structures.

Diamond and graphite are the classic examples, and we'll come back to those in a moment.

In a giant covalent structure, every atom is covalently bonded to several other atoms in a massive three-dimensional network.

There are no separate molecules, it's one enormous structure.

I am interpreting it a lot of Heth-Bennethytoiledraventos-like carbon atoms in a tetrahedral arrangement.

This creates an incredibly strong, rigid, three-dimensional giant covalent structure.

Diamond is the hardest natural substance, has a very high melting point, and does not conduct electricity because all electrons are used in covalent bonds.

There are no delocalized electrons.

Episode 4.

Diamonds are forever.

Now, before we dive into the seedy underworld of illicit diamond sales, there is one theory that we haven't talked about yet, and I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't give it just a little airtime.

It's the private collector theory, or as I like to call it, the doctor no theory.

And then when I went to the pound to get it, it was literally just like it was a frame.

Because of the supply chain issues during the pandemic, selling my gears and brakes and whatever else was actually more lucrative than selling the whole bike.

So I think that's probably the same thing that would be happening with the Diamonds.

To me, at least, it's kind of a horrible thought that these items that played such a role in French history, however small, might be broken apart.

And we're going to go from the founding of the diamond industry in South Africa, the De Beers cartel, the De Beers empire, if you will, all the way through the current day, and how that empire, which lasted for more than 100 years, has been radically disrupted yet again by a new technological change, by the adoption en masse in the world of lab-grown diamonds.

For this research, I've pulled on a lot of resources, but three books in particular, which we'll be going through at length.

This is The Last Empire, De Beers, Diamonds, and the World by Stefan Confer.

We have The Rise and Fall of Diamonds, The Shattering of a Brilliant Illusion, The Men, the Giant Cartel, The Inspired Campaign that Convinced the World Diamonds Are Forever, An Artificially Maintained Illusion of Value Now in Danger of Total Collapse by Edward J. Epstein.

Interestingly, this book was published in the 80s, and he said the collapse of the De Beers empire is imminent, it's happening any day now in the 80s.

He was off by about 40 years.

So he was accurate, but his timeline was a little inaccurate.

And then my favorite, certainly the most artistically written of these three books, Tom Zollner, The Heartless Stone, A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit and Desire.