Human Impressions

Diamonds! Sparkling, Beautiful and Bloody

hhallman@octanecorp.com — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:12:00 GMT

They are every bride’s dream and are so sought after people are willing to pay absorbent amounts for very small qualities. Poets and bards have glamorized these tiny powerhouses in word and song throughout history. No, they are not celebrities, although they have been in movies, and they are not rock stars even though they are rocks. Marilyn Monroe said it best in her movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with the famous song Diamonds are A Girls Best Friend.

Over $8 billion of Diamonds are mined every year. Approximately 250 tons of ore must be mined and processed to produce a single one-carat, polished, gem quality diamond. 100 million carats are mined each year, but only a quarter of these will be considered gem quality. That is one reason diamonds are so rare and expensive.

Diamonds are not all glamour and glitter. Diamonds are used for certain industrial applications and in some areas of the world children and adults under extreme conditions mine Diamonds. These are called Conflict Diamonds or Blood Diamonds.

Diamonds are found all over the world, but 80% of all diamonds come from just seven sources: Angola, Australia, Botswana, Namibia, Russia, South Africa and Zaire. Most Blood Diamonds come from Western Africa and other worn torn areas. Blood Diamonds may be forever but the lives lost mining them are not.

Most modern mines operate under strict environmental standards, but not all. In conflict areas and in some old mines these standards are not in place.

I was wondering how much ore has to be processed to generate one year’s supply of diamond gemstones. We know that it takes about 250 tons of or to get one carats gem stone quality Diamond. And, of the 100 million carats mined each year 25 million carets are gem quality. So if we times 25 million carats times 250 million tones we get 6.25 Quadrillion tons of ore. This can’t be correct, but that’s what I get from the figures I found.

Just as a frame of reference, the Hoover Dam is 6.6 million tons. Therefore, it would take about 905 Million Hoover Dams to equally the ore removed to find 25 Million Carats of Diamonds.

Crappy Catalogs

hhallman@octanecorp.com — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:13:00 GMT

Figures I have seen indicate that approximately 20 billion catalogs are printed and distributed in the U.S. every year. That’s about 60 catalogs for each person in the U.S. If my own mail is any indication, I would say that is accurate.

It would be funny if it didn’t affect the environment so much. Computers and the Internet were supposed to take us into a paperless society, but it seems we use more paper than ever. When you consider that online sales in the U.S. were $4.5 billion in 2007, you wonder why we need so many catalogs. I am not sure we need them all but I know why they are printed. This statement by a marketing research company says it all.

Marketing Vox
“The paper catalog is still the largest revenue generator — some 50 percent of sales in both 2007 and 2008 — among all channels used by companies that sell goods to consumers and businesses from a remote location, though web sales continue to grow, a new study finds.”

I think it is safe to say that most of the catalogs printed are pretty much tossed before they are read. You would think the catalog-marketing folks would find it more cost effective to be more discerning with their distributions. Perhaps we need an opt-in list as we do with email, or maybe there is a better idea for the use for all those catalogs.

What if we had the catalog people print catalogs on a soft paper using soy ink. That way we could recycle the paper by using it as toilet paper. They did that a hundred years ago using the regular paper, but hey were hardier people. They also used corncobs. Yeiks!

I think I am on to something here. J If all catalogs (except Victoria Secrets catalogs that must be preserved) were printed on toilet paper and used for that purpose we could save on land fill, the cost of toilet paper (value added for Sears and other catalog providers) and about 11 tons of CO2 emissions per year used to create the paper for the catalogs.

This could revolutionize the catalog business. Instead of people complaining about receiving so many catalogs they will be happy to receive them and it will give people something to read while doing their “business”. Alternatively, we could just start using the Internet to order online, or actually go to a store and experience the fun of shopping and get some exercise at the same time.

I am told that 3.6 million tons of paper is used to print the 20 billion catalogs distributed in the U.S. That’s 15 Million trees. So, what does 3.6 million of paper look like anyway? Let’s use the Sears Tower as a comparison. After all Sears started the catalog biz so it is only fair we use them.

The Sears Tower is 1,454' tall and was the largest building in the world for 22 years. It weighs 222,500 tons. So, it would take over 16 Sears Towers to equal the paper we would save by not printing catalogs.

Global Warming is Something to Sneeze About!

hhallman@octanecorp.com — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:27:00 GMT

Weed season just started and I must admit I am feeling the effect. It seems to me that my allergy symptoms get worse every year. My initial thought was that this was my imagination. That was until I saw a show on CBS.

It turns out that researchers have found a connection between Global Warming and the increase of allergy suffering. As the temperature rises (even a little) weeds flourish and year after year there are more. They must be happy and horny weeds because they are certainly spreading a lot of pollen around.

Another factor is the more weeds the more weed killer that will be used. This is not a good thing for our ecological system. If just small increases in global temperature can melt ice caps and pollute the air with pollen, what can we expect in the future when temperatures rise even higher? I cringe to think about.

Anyway, all this allergy talked got me thinking about the social economic effect of this increase. I found a report called State of World Allergy Report 2008. According to the report, worldwide asthma rates have increased 50 per cent each decade for the last 40 years. Along with this increase comes death and suffering.

And listen to this. Approximately $20 billion are spent globally each year in relation to allergic rhinitis; a figure that includes the costs associated with medications, lost work productivity, and physician consultations. Imagine $20 billion just for Hay Fever.

Ummm, I wonder how many bales of hay $20 billion would buy in today’s market? I am not saying hay is the sole cause of Hay Fever because any pollen, dust or even air pollutants can cause allergic reaction . I am just saying hay seems to be more interesting then dust. After all, you can take a roll in the hay, but I never heard of taking a roll in the dust.

My research says the cost of a bale of hay is between $2 to $10 depending where you live. I think we will average it out and say $6 bucks. So, $20 billion can buy about 3.3 billion bails of hay. Now the average size of a bale of hay is about 24”X24”X36” and it weighs about 65 pounds. By the way, there does not seem to be a standard size for a bale of hay so I took an average.

The Grand Canyon is about 10 miles wide at its widest by about I mile high. We could build a wall from tip to tip; bottom to top that is 14.6 feet wide in the Grand Canyon with the hay bales we purchase with the money we spend annually on easing the symptoms of Hay Fever.

Don’t ask! I have no idea where this comparison came from. It just showed up in the deep recesses of my mind as I suffered from a hay fever headache.