Tag: gold

Alien Gold-Diggers?

Posted by

If you are in the metal fabrication industry, Michael Tellinger might argue that you need to learn about him. He is none other than the organizer of South Africa’s first UFO Science and Consciousness Conference, which was held only a week or so ago in Johannesburg. Michael Tellinger might be described as the “Consciousness” part of the conference, since he seems to have an ability to just “know” random and completely unfounded “facts” without needing or even thinking about supplying the slightest iota of evidence to back up his own bizarre statements. In other words, he isn’t letting science get in the way of his conclusions at all.

Without offering any proof whatsoever, Michael has stated that he knows not only why aliens have been interested in Planet Earth for the last 300,000 years or so, but also what types of interactions they have had with Earth’s governments. And here’s how it connects to the metal fabrication industry: in the World According To Michael, he is the world’s foremost authority on Gold. He says that gold is not only the lure for aliens to this planet, but it is actually the reason we humans were created in the first place. Furthermore, aliens are to blame for the scarcity of this precious metal on our planet, and they have also been directly involved in lots of government-run transactions for the stuff. Here’s what he told the South African news station News 24: “There’s a battle for Earth by some interesting dark forces. All the governments in the world are puppets and instruments to implement the will of a small group of individals. The royal political bloodline [of aliens or humans?] goes back thousands of years”.

But that’s not all. Mikey claims that our own obsession with gold is a reminder encoded our DNA of our own genetic roots as Alien Spawn. In fact, when the aliens first same here in search of gold 300,000 years ago, they cloned themselves and – ta-daa – humankind was invented. Ever since then, they have controlled us and been in continuous contact with world leaders.

Another speaker at the conference was Laura Eisenhower, who claims she is the great-granddaughter of president Dwight Eisenhower. According to her, treaties between aliens and world leaders have been signed every decade. She told News 24 that “aliens have been working with governments for a while”.

Again, thanks to the “Consciousness” aspect of the conference, no proof was offered for any of these statements. So I suppose we are supposed to conclude from this that not only are aliens the most tenured government workers of all, but they are to blame for having stolen all of our gold, mismanaging politics and banks to create a global recession, and yet they are so smart that they have managed to do all of this (including signing treaties) without leaving behind a single shred of physical evidence.

Honestly, I hope the people who organized this conference get abducted when the aliens make official contact with us in 2012. I think we’d all benefit from that.

African Gold

Posted by

Illegal gold miners in Africa

Last week I told you about the shipwreck that they’ve discovered just a short walk from where I live. Although I don’t have too many complaints about staying on a beach on a Caribbean island, this is about to change. Africa, here I come.

My husband is already in Africa. He’s actually working on establishing a gold mine there. No one seems to believe this when I tell them, but that’s OK since the last thing I want to do is invite more competition. The place where he is has a lot of illegal mining activity. He went into the jungle recently and took some pictures of the miners.

Their current rate of progress is pretty dire: they work extremely hard to extract a pretty measly amount of gold per day (although in their country’s economy, it’s probably well worth the effort). However, their technology is so primitive that their most advanced (and pretty much only) piece of equipment is a shovel.

What they do is this: they go into the jungle and start digging. They dig holes into the ground as deep as 3 meters. While one person digs, the other person starts filtering the mud using water and basically a blanket. That’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s the same technique that the ancient Egyptians and other civilizations from thousands of years ago used. In fact, it’s the same technique that gave rise to the “Golden Fleece” of ancient legend.

They don’t cover up the holes once they’ve dug them. Then the rains come, and what looks like a puddle on the surface is actually a 9 foot-deep hole. It can literally be fatal to take a walk through the jungle for this reason.

The tribal chief, who owns the land, is not happy that the illegal miners are taking gold off his land without giving him a cut. This is why he is only too happy to welcome a few Westerners into his neighborhood who are willing to give him a percentage of what they extract from his land. This said, it’s not uncommon to have 3 different people approach you to inform you that they are the tribal chief and in charge of the land. In any case, it is also important to maintain extremely friendly relations with the illegal miners so that your high-tech equipment (and by “high tech”, I mean anything more advanced than a shovel) doesn’t “accidentally” break overnight when it is left on the premises.

It’s not quite as structured or regulated as doing business in the US, and it’s a tad more risky than working at a 7-11, but then again, it’s also a bit more interesting. For example, I just found out yesterday that in the particular area where my husband is doing business, there is no such thing as a legitimate business transaction if the mother of the businessman is not in attendance. In other words, if you think you just struck a deal with one of the locals, if his mom was not physically present in the room, it was an illegal transaction.

In the meantime, however, I’m still holding out for the (albeit remote) possibility of finding a gold bar right here where I am, in one of the most beautiful places in the world, washed up on my beach from the shipwreck. Wouldn’t that just be peachy.

Buried Treasure (really)!

Posted by

I live on a beautiful beach on an island in the Caribbean. It’s not always easy, but someone’s gotta do it. And yes, this is an actual recent photo that I personally took.

When a beach is your front yard, you get pretty familiar with the comings and goings of the boats in your neighborhood. In recent weeks, a new boat has been showing up about 100 meters out from the beach and about a 7 minute walk from my house. The boat says “Research Vessel” on it. Yesterday I found out why:

This boat has discovered a 200 year-old shipwreck which it is preparing to explore. This island is notorious for stupid political tangles, and when it comes to things like approving someone’s petition to explore an old wreck, things can get tied up for a bit since everyone wants a piece of the potential loot. Especially when it’s a known fact that this was a merchant ship which came here by way of Brazil. Back then, one of Brazil’s biggest industries and exports was its melting and casting of iron and metals, including silver and gold. Another treasure this shipwreck is rumored to possibly have is antique porcelain, which in addition to being very valuable is also extraordinarily beautiful.

So while the research vessel continues to vie for government approval to start the exploration of the shipwreck, a few of us beach dwellers are already plotting how we might take advantage of this unique situation. The fact that we know exactly where the wreck is admittedly presents a few temptations. One of the neighbors, who lives on the cliff above the location of the shipwreck, has already posted a sentry with binoculars so that he can track exactly when excavations begin, at which point he fully intends to go on an exploratory dive of his own under cover of night, to see what he can find.

As for the rest of us, there will most likely be a significant increase in foot traffic on the beach. I predict that most of us will increase our daily exercise regimen with the addition of several daily casual strolls along the beach, in hopes that we might stub our toe on a gold or silver bar just happened to have washed up from the excavation. I also plan on increasing my snorkeling activities dramatically. After all, one can hope and dream, and people who live on beaches in the Caribbean are already, for the most part, hopeless romantics (the rest are just good old-fashioned pirates).

I did a quick online search on buried treasure and found a link on “12 Real Life Buried Treasures”. Some of these treasures go back to the 1500’s and are worth many billions of dollars! So it can happen, folks. If it happens to me, I probably won’t tell you though.

-Anja Wulf

Gold: the original “Chick Magnet”

Posted by

Yummy, delightful gold

Gold has been making headlines again recently, due mainly to the fact that as the rest of the economy crashes and burns, the value of gold just keeps going higher. At over $1800 per troy ounce, gold is once again proving that when things go south, gold goes north.

But why is it that gold is so precious? Although it has plenty of uses, on a purely practical level, iron, copper or aluminum are far more practical. If you were stuck on a desert island with only one type of of metal to rely on for your survival, chances are you wouldn’t pick gold.

Of course, the fact that gold is rare plays greatly into its role as a “precious” metal. The world’s holdings of gold accumulated through all recorded history only amount to around 120,000 metric tons. Compare this to the fact that in 1995, the average hourly output of steel was 10,500 tons. Whereas the average increase in the world’s gold supply is only around 2000 tons a year, American steel increases by around 10,500 tons per hour. Another way to look at this is that the totality of all available gold would fit inside a cube measuring 60 cubic feet. Its value would be more than $1.4 trillion.

It makes sense then that gold became the first form of actual money. But this still does not fully explain why it has always been considered to be so very precious. Independent of location, culture or time, gold has always been revered by every culture that had any access to it as an extremely coveted commodity.

This could have something to do with the inherent properties of gold. Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. One ounce of gold can be drawn into a wire 50 miles long, or hammered into a thin translucent sheet 1000 times thinner than a piece of paper. Gold does not tarnish or corrode. Gold also occurs in a virtually pure state, whereas most other metals need to be extracted from ore-bodies. Gold has been found nearly everywhere in the world. Because it was first found in streams and rivers, the Egyptians thought it was a particularly dense combination of water and sunlight. The Incas called it “tears of the sun”. It is generally understood to be the first metal ever collected or used by humans. Its association with gods, immortality, power and wealth are common throughout history and to this day.

But this still does not explain why, in every place that gold was found, the humans decided it was very valuable. On a purely practical level, gold is not strong enough to use for weapons or utensils. Culturally speaking, this is in fact baffling, since the perceived value of nearly everything throughout history can be traced to its practical uses. With that in mind, why wasn’t iron or bronze the first form of money? After all, the discovery and use of iron helped create a quantum leap in human civilization, literally taking us out of the Stone Age.

The earliest texts and archaeological evidence prove that gold was not used for tools. In fact they prove the opposite: the first uses of gold were very similar to its predominant modern use: gold was used for ornamentation; or, in other words, jewelry. This makes sense, since both its properties and its appearance lend itself to such a thing. If I was a Stone Age Babe, I would definitely prefer a gold pendant over one made out of bones or teeth.

Historically and archaeologically, the common denominator of the uses of gold in human cultures has always come down to one simple concept: aesthetics. Gold is beautiful. Above its properties or its scarcity, this is the predominant fact that helps to explain its consistent role as a truly precious commodity. Turning it into money or a standard for world currencies came as an afterthought. Its original allure was the same that it has always been since: gold is really pretty. This also helps to explain why the concept of gold has also been equated with vanity and with greed: the concept of beauty has also been confused with these traits.

So call it vanity, or call it art appreciation. What is interesting here is that the role of gold throughout human civilization shows there is more at work in the human psyche than simply practical considerations. While it could be argued that the irreducible minimum of an appreciation for the “finer things in life” still aids our basest survival needs such as mating and procreation, this simply doesn’t jive with the subjective reality of our ongoing love affair with beauty. And while concepts of beauty have changed and varied through time and different cultures, gold seems to be one of those things that every human group has found to be very lovely indeed.

It could then be argued that the most valuable things throughout civilization, and indeed the human experience, are not the weapons and materials of war and “progress”, but rather those things that inspire us, even “for no good reason”.

It is nice to acknowledge this, as it proves that there is more that drives us than just our base animal instincts, as some would have us believe.

-Anja Wulf