I suspect that in thirty years, diamonds will be sold a lot like the way the colored stones are now. You can buy huge, perfect gems-- sapphires, rubies, topaz-- right off eBay. They're cheap enough that my eighteen-year-old has a little wooden chest filled with them.. yarrr! Meanwhile, the "real", mined stones all sell with Certificates Of Authenticity, for just as much money as they used to.

One interesting aspect of that is that my wife's heirloom jewelry has lost all its value. The pieces were made during the 20s, with perfect, matched sapphires set in white gold-- beautiful stuff-- but since we don't have continuous documentation proving that THIS item here in the hand is the same one as THAT item on the insurance list from 1925, jewelers won't pay more for it than for modern pieces with lab-created stones. Ah, well, she'll just have to keep wearing it.

I have been responsible for feeding goats in the past. I believe that this gives me at least a small base of knowledge in the field of goat aesthetics.

Those are some of the ugliest damn goats I've ever seen.

But without clones of myself, how will I manage the brain transplant? I'm going to have to go back to that "kidnap some rich guy's heir" notion, aren't I...

The nosie-engines on the real ekranoplan are only run during takeoff; they provide extra lift partly by blowing air over the top surface of the wing. Presumably, on this conceptual design only the outermost engines would keep running once the beast was off the water and into ground effect.