A Riddle: "He buries gold, who hides the truth"

[Sigrun]

Pythagoras

An extremely interesting image, is it not?

This image, well it is like 'Where's Wally'

Can you count the symbols in this?.. Can you see the messages? There are many to find

Pythagoras, for a man, and a great man in his time. He was able to look back, to recent history, on many great, ancient civilizations, the fresh legends and the stories. he was able to view the foundations, to your world

A very wise proverb it is, this one. A key for you, from the past

Do you know what Pythagoras says here? .. It is simple..

"He buries gold, who hides the truth"

Here is a man, so long ago, with a very simple message and the esteemed hope that his words would flow down though time to possibly be understood in it's most basic presentation

Truth, simplicity and clarity

Ten fold, he was to any one of us, he was. A dreamer, a true visionary, a man of Maths. A world onto it's own

Living and breathing, on shall we say. A very different level to those contemporaries of his time

Many thought him mad in his endevours and his interpretation of what the world was to him

A man before his times you would say, if you truly understand and consider, that he was born in 600BC

A great man, you will agree, yes?


Well I ask you this, then

Where is all your gold?

Where is it.. do you know?

How much do YOU think you have all dug up, out of this Earth, since you first walked. Because that is when you started?

Makes you wonder, does it not?

Where oh where have the gold of the Aztecs and Incas gone, this alone is immense?

It is difficult to dissolve it, to destroy it, to simply remove it or to vaporise it.. it is, quite resilient

Where oh where is all the Earths gold gone?

This asset, that you decided was not required in 1946 when you dropped the 'Gold Standard', all the much better to allow your 'Global Market' to flourish and then reinforced and finalised in 1971

This is when the 'Bretton Woods system' was dropped.. 1971. I am sure by now that you have heard of this system. If not, you should. For those in the USA, 'Teddy' would be most dissapointed

It is a key in understanding what is happening in your financial markets now, today

Learn why they can not revert to this 'Bretton Woods system' and you will be far in front of 97% of the worlds population

Do you know your history?

Your ancient history, do you know your 'Sitchen', your 'Sumerian' your Mayan, your Hopi, your Hindu, to name a few?

Do you know your history of your Gold?

The knowledge, the legends, the folk lore, the artifacts, the signs and even today, now in your time

Do you see anything in the the symbols of the crops?

Do you feel anything at all when you view the crops and the designs?

Do you not see what is being presented?

Well stop now, if you do not..

Think back through your research, to all that you may have conducted thus far

What were they here for, these beings.. in the beginning?

Whatever be their name that you have chosen. These Anunnaki, These Thule, The Vril, The Elohim and all others?

Why did they come?

What was their purpose?

This goes back to, well beyond the Egyptians. Back to before the legends of the great deluge

All these ancient beliefs, it is simply, that you came from the gods, yes?.. somehow, however you like

Well why..Why did they change you, from what you where before. Why did they need you?

Why did they change you at all?.. Why did they make you 'In Our Image'

Where they gathering something. A resource possibly?

and.. how much of that resource exists. Here in the total Universe. Do you know how it is formed?

Do you know this at all?

Do you know that stars form it, this substance called Gold?

Do you the frequency of the creation of this substance?

Did you ever think that Gold is ... just maybe in this immense, immeasurable universe. One of the only substances that is absolute, proven to be finite..

It is the gold that you somehow, just maybe, seem to have .. LOST!

No more can be made

Where oh where can your elite have misplaced it. This precious resource since 1946?

Ask yourself. What was happening in the world at that time?

It is up to you, to consider, how long it has all been going on

Time is your own perspective. It is you that measures it. It is up to your own interpretation of, The World and what You are a apart of.. how big your world is.. in reality, which is yours alone

Limit this, and limit your own experience. Limit your own ability to, upgrade shall we say


Know this. Birth is never a pleasurable experience. For those actually 'going though it'



GOLD, yes. You remember now... that stuff?

How is gold formed? Where does it come from?

EVERY single piece of knowledge about this, well it is.. at your fingertips at this very moment.. right now

You all wish to join this discovery of the new world, Lets leap off into 'AQUARIUS' but are you really willing to exert yourselves to gain it?



Do you think it simply a key to own, to turn in the lock?.. it is not

It is up to you, through your own endeavors to learn what you have forgotten and un-learn what you have been convinced to accept

Do you understand this?

Find your gold people. It is 'The Golden Thread' that ALL search for

Where has it all gone?

Do you still have your 'Fort Knox' stacked to the ceiling with this shining substance?.. I think not

Try and buy it.. Just try and buy it in cold 'Hard BULLION' instead of a certificate, held by the Mint, the treasury, you will have great trouble, I can guarantee it

Look back to your early 1930's depression in the USA

Did you know that, to have it in your possession, was illegal in the USA. Try and get it today in the USA, you will be questioned and commanded to jump through many 'hoops'

So I say, for those that know their history and are just a little intrigued by this 'water color, theory, of Sigruns'.. research the stars that make it, look at the most powerful, those of the Supernova

How much was made in the beginning?

Where in the universe does it reside?

Make your own judgments to it's rarity.. and see if you can find it

Why do you love it so, this gold, you have all forgotten why. You just know, deep down that it is good to possess

and then, ask yourselves this

If you were to make it, sometime in the future, to a planet, with some basic lifeforms, like cattle and their was gold? A 'Gold Rush' on another planet that you could get to

Would you, possibly entertain the thought, that you would you want to take it?

It is cheap to mine, the profits will be great as we can genetically manipulate the structure of a being, .. he is quite basic. Like a pack animal you would say, or maybe like a slave..that exists on the planet, just so, you do not have to do the digging for the gold?

It is not so hard to imagine this, yes?

It is no major, leap of imagination

There is pillage of the lungs of your own planet, the oceans of your world, daily

And you do nothing about it. What would be the problem with a bit of genetic manipulation of some far off distant Neanderthal type creature

You are probably doing them a favor, in your mind, or at least that it the way that it would be presented in your media for your consumption

But I do hear you say. 'Sigrun, we would never do this'

Well then how quickly you forget your own past then, I would say

How many accepted what you did for over 1000 years, when you allowed this practice of slavery

Find the Gold, and you find the answer to this riddle, your own riddle.. it is so simple

YOU have been ripped off. It is almost laughable, maybe at a different time to now

It stares you in the face, it is all at your fingertips, but they know you so well. You are so easily entertained and distracted

Be a Pythagoras, be great, at the wrong time!

Sigrun

[Sigrun]

For fun Garfield

Why not research the Grandfather of the prodigal idiot, George W

He is a most interesting character

All this talk of Hitler recently

Prescott Bush was well involved in the background. Dig deeply and you will see a glimpse of the Illuminati at work

There were severe mistakes made and dissolving facts was far more difficult in those times

Sigrun

[Garfield]

[Sigrun]

Oh yes Garfield

As I have always said. You have more power at your fingertips right now than every before in all your history

You would say 'you have hit pay dirt', I believe

Sigrun

[coach]

wow on that video. i'm gonna blow up all my sites with that one! thank you!

and where is all the gold?

if i've pieced together the clues..every 3600 years, the annunaki (or others) orbit us and pick up the gold that they need for their own civilaztion. the powers that be know this so have been hording it until their return. what are they suppose to get in return for giving up the gold? do they get to leave with them?

now possibly the powers that be are reneging on this agreement? why would they do that? theres much more, but i'm not very good at expressing all my thots thru text..

more clues please :)

[Sigrun]

Let us 'break it down' Coach

It is for all. My apologies for bombarding you with my thoughts

Let us simply agree that there are serious suspicions that the Nazi's did indeed have access to alternative technologies

Alternative power technologies. In particular, anti gravity propulsion, dics. Yes?

No?... then why not go back in time and identify all the truly great minds that existed in the time between 1865 and 1935

Find me another time in all your history (and there is one, but barely recorded) that there existed on this planet any time that so many brilliant minds existed.. you will not

Research your Dutch newspapers 1946 - Dics, secret shipments, US ships and transportation back to USA

Research now the scientists that were brought back to the USA

Names that were recorded as 'ARDENT Nazis but brought back to the USA and changed to 'NOT Ardent Nazi'. It is a joke to believe it was not this way. You are here considering a decision for power. World power no less. Do you think that they would do this to attain the technology?

Wernher von Braun. This is the man that took the USA to the moon. This man gave you mans most powerful machine, the Saturn Rocket. A truly awesome power

A brilliant mind, not of his time (not of his time/being)

If you have researched enough in this area.. we move on

I do not need to give you information on this subject. You all decide what your perception is of Roswell, it is your choice

But, what you do need to decide is

If the disc fell from the sky. The question is. WHY?

There are multiple options

Were lifeforms aboard the craft?

Do you believe that one remained alive for another 5 years. Under the eye of a Lieutenant. Who maybe has come out to state this now? (Death bed confessions of many that know.. knew, many things are most interesting with Military personal)

Was it faked to upset the Russians that were rumored to have found 'something'?

Did it simply run out of fuel and nose dive?

What was it running from?

Did it just fall from the sky... Thunmmpfff?

Was it shot down?



It is 1947

All is still tense and radar is fully functioning at this time

There was panic.. mistrust and deceipt

They did not know what the Russians had in their own existence, what they had captured

Considering what they themselves had retrieved from the monstrous underground facilities of this regime. They did like to dig.. those Germans

You had also exploded nuclear weapons, so sadly

watch this video.. If you can. If you do not have tears of remorse, of pity and a wanting to be forgiven for it. then you have a lot of growing to do yet. I can already imagine the responses from some.

Watch it and know what this does

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF4LQaWJRDg




Cry, like I do when watching this. As it is truly shameful

So..

This is the Allied technology of the day, yes?

They had this ability to 'break solid matter apart, and in this releasing incredible untold energy'

This was done on a truly beautiful city

It was in fact, a beautiful city of wood



The US and UK followed a mechanical, atomic focus, yes?



The Germans followed a deep belief in these technologies, other technologies and a deep belief in the occult.. research your power brokers of the Nazi's and you find the occult. Why?.. What was the effect, on their focus? What was on offer?

So.. can we understand or at least acknowledge this?

Their scientists and their engineers were the best in the world and there is no doubt at all.. today. They are still the best. The most precise

They had the most capable rocket technology of the day, used later by the USA to take them to the moon

Some of the most inspired, intricate and advanced airplanes ever seen. There were many still in development. Flying wings, massive jet engines, disc's ... etc

This is a 1930's design Messerschmitt. Well, if you research. it is of course BMW. What a lovely logo they have.. Intriguing, yes?..Gee.. just like an ancient rounded.. symbol..

It is really up to each .. there are many rumors fact, fiction. The web is in overload with this subject.. but never mind

We move on..




So, the first choices.. you end up with

If one survived, like the web proposes..in 1952, at this time?

yes.. So let us go to Washington at this time. Mid year let us search. Was there anything that happened then? Check the papers.. follow the thread

Did the President of The United States Of America go onto National Television for a reason, sometime around.. August?

Did he actually admit, in an National address the existence of this 'reality', these UFO's, that had happened twice that month, over the capital? and did he even admit to the population that he thought, that they actually had always existed?

Gee what a silly old President he was hey. Going on like that. He must have been on drugs

Boy oh boy, what a dickhead he was

Just imagine the resources that had to be spent white washing all this shit up for the next 20 to.. 56 years. 'Hell.. we had to convince the world.. that, that just didn't happen'!

On the flip side, 'we have seen some great movies, don't you reckon'

Maybe if you go and find the 'Washington Merry Go Round' in the year of 1952

You will find something odd, but pretty much forgotten. It was not white washed. It was avalanched.. It simply slid off the front page. Gee, who can pull that string

Many countries of the world, some printed this.. many did not

What you find is up to you. It will depend on many things and you ability to allow your mind.. your imagination to expand, and to dig down when researching.. hunting

What is imagination? What was it back then ?

What was it to Tesla, Einstein, Wernher von Braun and many others in so many fields, from art to science to engineering and beyond

This was the renaissance.. for what?

Was it spiritualism, was it engineering finesse, was it a scientific explosion, was it a sudden realisation of the need to quickly, turn around and check the past? Archaeological pursuits were so popular and were well funded

The Dark Ages had finished. Full control by the Church had been lost

It was a time of consciousness expansion. There is no denying this. it has not happened ever since this time

Coach.. again.. I just felt like talking.. enjoy

Sigrun

[Chaska]

#1 - I can see brass or gold math machine that spins and it measures something
#2 - Connecting or alignment of the stars, coming together
#3 - Obviously a face, but the other from afar looks like gold bars

[Marley]

IMF Sells Gold to India, First Sale in Nine Years (Update2)
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A By Sandrine Rastello and Kim Kyoungwha

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund sold 200 metric tons of gold to the Reserve Bank of India for about $6.7 billion, its first such sale in nine years.

The transaction, equivalent to 8 percent of global annual mine production, involved daily sales from Oct. 19-30 at market prices and is in the process of being settled, the IMF said in a statement yesterday. The average price to India, the biggest consumer, was about $1,045 an ounce, an IMF official said on a conference call. Gold for immediate delivery gained 0.2 percent.

“The fall in the U.S. dollar seems to be pushing all the central banks to strengthen their portfolio with gold,” said N.R. Bhanumurthy, professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in New Delhi. “Gold is a safe store of value compared to the U.S. dollar.”

The IMF sale accounts for almost half the 403.3 tons that the Washington-based lender in September agreed to sell as part of a plan to shore up its finances and lend at reduced rates to low-income countries. Asian nations, which have amassed stockpiles of foreign currency reserves since the 1998 financial crisis, have shown increased interest in diversifying out of U.S. assets as the dollar loses value against other currencies.

Gold for immediate delivery gained to $1,061.60 an ounce at 3:42 p.m. in Singapore and was about $9 below its record $1,070.80 an ounce reached Oct. 14.

Concession Lending

“The most important thing is that people want gold even at these prices,” said Ghee Peh, head of mining research, with UBS AG in Hong Kong. “There’s good support for prices for now” from the IMF’s disposal of bullion, he said.

Proceeds from the sales and other IMF resources as well as individual contributors would help pay for discounted interest rates on loans to low-income countries, the IMF said in July. It plans to grant as much as $17 billion in extra loans to poor nations through 2014. The 403.3 tons the IMF agreed to sell amount to one-eighth of its stockpile.

“This transaction is an important step toward achieving the objectives of the IMF’s limited gold sales program, which are to help put the fund’s finances on a sound long-term footing and enable us to step up much-needed concession lending to the poorest countries,” IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss- Kahn said in an e-mailed statement.

Reserve Management

The gold purchase was done as part of Reserve Bank’s foreign exchange reserves management operations, the central bank said in a statement on its Web site today.

India’s foreign-exchange reserves advanced $684 million to $285.5 billion in the week ended Oct. 23, the central bank said Oct. 30. That included foreign-currency assets of $268.3 billion, gold reserves of $10.3 billion and the special drawing rights with the IMF.

“There seems to be consensus among the central banks that it’s better to cut down on currency holdings and diversify into assets like gold, which has upside potential,” Krishna Reddy, a precious metal analyst at Way2Wealth Commodities Pvt. said in Mumbai. “The Reserve Bank of India gold purchase is a clear reflection of this belief.”

China, the world’s biggest gold producer, has increased reserves of the metal by 76 percent to 1,054 tons since 2003 and has the fifth-biggest holdings by country, Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said in April.

The nation may purchase some of the 403.3 tons of gold being offered by the IMF, Market News International reported in September, citing two unidentified government officials.

More Sales

The lender has said it is ready to sell directly to central banks and later make transactions on the open market if necessary. The IMF official declined to say yesterday whether other central banks have expressed interest in purchases.

The IMF, which helped shore up economies from Pakistan to Iceland over the past year, has sold gold on several occasions. The last transaction was authorized in December 1999 and took place off-market between then and April 2000.

“Gold production has been declining for the past seven years, while demand, particularly the investment demand has been growing steadily,” Way2Wealth’s Reddy said. “Central banks and even ordinary investors want to own more gold.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Sandrine Rastello in Washington at [e-mail]; Kyoungwha Kim in Singapore at [e-mail].

Last Updated: November 3, 2009 02:59 EST

[Marley]

Factsheet

Gold in the IMF
September 18, 2009

Gold played a central role in the international monetary system until the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in 1973. Since then, the role of gold has been gradually reduced. However, it is still an important asset in the reserve holdings of a number of countries, and the IMF remains one of the largest official holders of gold in the world. Consistent with the new income model for the Fund agreed in April 2008, on September 18, 2009, the IMF Executive Board approved gold sales strictly limited to 403.3 metric tons, representing one eighth of the Fund's total holdings of gold. Resources linked to these gold sales will also help boost the Fund's concessional lending capacity.


How the IMF acquired its gold holdings
The IMF holds 103.4 million ounces (3,217 metric tons) of gold at designated depositories. The IMF's total gold holdings are valued on its balance sheet at SDR 5.9 billion (about $9.2 billion) on the basis of historical cost. As of August 28, 2009, the IMF's holdings amounted to $98.8 billion at current market prices.

A portion of these holdings was acquired after the Second Amendment of the IMF's Articles of Agreement in April 1978. This portion, amounting to 12.97 million ounces (403.3 metric tons) with a market value of $12.4 billion as of August 28, 2009, is not subject to restitution to IMF member countries (see below), unlike gold the IMF acquired before 1978.

The IMF acquired the majority of its gold holdings prior to the Second Amendment through four main types of transactions.

•First, when the IMF was founded in 1944 it was decided that 25 percent of initial quota subscriptions and subsequent quota increases were to be paid in gold. This represents the largest source of the IMF's gold.
•Second, all payments of charges (interest on member countries' use of IMF credit) were normally made in gold.
•Third, a member wishing to acquire the currency of another member could do so by selling gold to the IMF. The major use of this provision was sales of gold to the IMF by South Africa in 1970–71.
•And finally, member countries could use gold to repay the IMF for credit previously extended.
The IMF's legal framework for gold
Role of gold. The Second Amendment to the Articles of Agreement in April 1978 fundamentally changed the role of gold in the international monetary system by eliminating the use of gold as the common denominator of the post-World War II exchange rate system and as the basis of the value of the Special Drawing Right (SDR). It also abolished the official price of gold and ended the obligatory use of gold in transactions between the IMF and its member countries. It furthermore required that the IMF, when dealing in gold, avoid managing its price or establishing a fixed price.

Transactions. Following the Second Amendment, the Articles of Agreement limit the use of gold in the IMF's operations and transactions. The IMF may sell gold outright on the basis of prevailing market prices, and may accept gold in the discharge of a member country's obligations (loan repayment) at an agreed price, based on market prices at the time of acceptance. Such transactions require Executive Board approval by an 85 percent majority of the total voting power. The IMF does not have the authority under its Articles to engage in any other gold transactions—such as loans, leases, swaps, or use of gold as collateral—nor does it have the authority to buy gold.

Restitution. The Articles also provide for the restitution of the gold the Fund held on the date of the Second Amendment (April 1978) to those countries that were members of the Fund as of August 31, 1975. Restitution would involve the sale of gold to this group of member countries at the former official price of SDR 35 per ounce, with such sales made to those members who agree to buy it in proportion to their quotas on the date of the Second Amendment. A decision to restitute gold requires support from an 85 percent majority of the total voting power. The Articles do not provide for the restitution of gold the Fund has acquired after the date of the Second Amendment.

How and when the IMF has used gold in the past
Outflows of gold from the IMF's holdings occurred under the original Articles of Agreement through sales of gold for currency, and via payments of remuneration and interest. As noted, since the Second Amendment of the Articles of Agreement, outflows of gold can only occur through outright sales. Key gold transactions included:

• Sales for replenishment (1957–70). The IMF sold gold on several occasions to replenish its holdings of currencies.

• South African gold (1970–71). The IMF sold gold to member countries in amounts roughly corresponding to those purchased from South Africa during this period.

• Investment in U.S. government securities (1956–72). In order to generate income to offset operational deficits, some IMF gold was sold to the United States and the proceeds invested in U.S. government securities. Subsequently, a significant buildup of IMF reserves prompted the IMF to reacquire this gold from the U.S. government.

• Auctions and "restitution" sales (1976–80). The IMF sold approximately one-third (50 million ounces) of its then-existing gold holdings following an agreement by its member countries to reduce the role of gold in the international monetary system. Half of this amount was sold in restitution to member countries at the then-official price of SDR 35 per ounce; the other half was auctioned to the market to finance the Trust Fund, which supported concessional lending by the IMF to low-income countries.

• Off-market transactions in gold (1999–2000). In December 1999, the Executive Board authorized off-market transactions in gold of up to 14 million ounces to help finance the IMF's participation in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Between December 1999 and April 2000, separate but closely linked transactions involving a total of 12.9 million ounces of gold were carried out between the IMF and two members (Brazil and Mexico) that had financial obligations falling due to the IMF. In the first step, the IMF sold gold to the member at the prevailing market price and the profits were placed in a special account invested for the benefit of the HIPC Initiative. In the second step, the IMF immediately accepted back, at the same market price, the same amount of gold from the member in settlement of that member's financial obligations. In the end, these transactions left the balance of the IMF's holdings of physical gold unchanged.
The IMF's strictly limited gold sales approved in September 2009
On September 18, 2009, the Executive Board approved the sale of 403.3 metric tons of gold (12.97 million ounces), which amounts to one-eighth of the Fund's total holdings of gold. In accordance with the priority of avoiding disruption of the gold market, the Executive Board adopted modalities for the gold sales consistent with guidelines it had earlier established (see below).

This decision is a key step in implementing the new income model agreed in April 2008 to help put the IMF's finances on a sound long-term footing. A central component of the new income model is the establishment of an endowment funded by the profits from the sale of a strictly limited portion of the Fund's gold, being the gold the Fund has acquired after the Second Amendment of the Articles. In July 2009, the Executive Board agreed that resources linked to gold sales would also help boost the Fund's concessional lending capacity.

In August 2009, the European Central Bank and other central banks announced the renewal of their agreement (Central Bank Gold Agreement) on gold sales, which are not to exceed 400 metric tons annually and 2,000 metric tons over the five years starting on September 27, 2009. The announcement notes that sales of 403 tons of gold by the IMF can be accommodated within these ceilings. This ensures that gold sales by the Fund would not add to the announced volume of sales from official sources.

Executive Board guidelines for gold sales
The IMF's Executive Board has reaffirmed the long-standing principle that the Fund has a systemic responsibility to avoid causing disruptions that would adversely affect gold holders and gold producers, as well as the functioning of the gold market. To that end, in February 2008, the Board endorsed the following guidelines to govern the envisaged gold sales:

(i) Sales should be strictly limited to the amount of gold that the Fund has acquired since the Second Amendment of the Articles of Agreement (12,965,649 fine troy ounces or 403.3 metric tons, which represent one-eighth of the Fund's total holdings).

(ii) The Fund's gold sales should not add to the announced volume of sales from official sources.

(iii) The scope for sales of gold to one or more official holders should be explored. This would be advantageous because such transactions would redistribute official gold holdings without changing total official holdings. There would also be the practical advantage that the Fund could receive sales proceeds earlier, thereby beginning to generate income from an endowment sooner.

(iv) Absent sufficient interest from other official holders to purchase gold directly from the Fund, phased on-market sales would represent the most appropriate modality for potential gold sales. This would follow the approach adopted successfully over a number of years by current Central Bank Gold Agreement participants.

(v) A strong governance and control framework, together with a high degree of transparency, would be essential for gold sales conducted by the Fund. A clear, transparent communications strategy, including regular external reporting on sales, should be adopted, in order to assure markets that the gold sales are being conducted in a responsible manner.
http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/gold.htm

[Marley]

Galactic Gold: A Valentine Story
by Robert Krulwich

February 14, 2007
Ever wonder where the gold in your wedding ring came from? This Valentine's Day, we ask Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium, to explain the history of the rare element.

In the Beginning

According to Tyson, author of Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandries, all gold on Earth started out in the center of a star; he says stars are "in the business of cosmic alchemy."

When the universe began, there were only two kinds of atoms: hydrogen, which has one proton, and helium, which has two protons.

The problem was that hydrogen and helium couldn't combine to make a new kind of atom of three, four or five protons. The two atoms resisted each other because they were the same charge.

Unless, of course, it got very, very hot. How much heat would it take to get two protons to sit together?

About 10 million degrees, Tyson says. And that's where stars come in.

Fiery Fusion

Stars like our sun are so hot that protons collide with such force and have no choice but to combine. It's called fusion. Inside the sun's furnace, protons turn into heavier and heavier atoms: Hydrogen atoms combine to become helium, and then those helium atoms combine to become carbon.

"It keeps going," Tyson says. "Carbon and oxygen and nitrogen and silicon, and [fusion] just plows its way up the periodic table of elements."

Carbon has six protons, nitrogen seven protons, oxygen eight protons. A hot star can cook all the way up to iron, a 26-proton atom. But that's where it stops.

"When you reach iron, nobody can do anything… It's dead matter. You can't fusion it. You can't fission it," Tyson explains.

Once a star has converted all its atoms into iron, it's out of fuel.

"That's a bad day for the star," Tyson says. "And at that moment, the entire star collapses, and in that collapse, the star reaches stratospheric temperatures and blows its guts to smithereens."

The Collapsing Star

A collapsing star is called a supernova. The explosion is so powerful and cataclysmic that you can see it across the universe.

Supernovae outshine whole galaxies, because the atoms inside are colliding furiously, creating intense heat — hundreds of millions of degrees.

Only in a supernova is it possible to create atoms with 30 protons, 40 protons, 50 protons or even 60 protons. Nature prefers even numbers for stability, but every so often, the star will forge an odd-numbered atom, a real rarity: gold!

Gold is a rare, odd-numbered atom with 79 protons. For every single gold atom in the universe, there are 1 million iron atoms, Tyson says.

A Long Journey

After the explosion, those few gold atoms are cast deep into the universe where they sit in empty space for eons. Eventually, some of the atoms may join a cloud. That cloud may condense into a planet.

Once inside a planet, some of the atoms may make it near the surface where we can come and dig them up.

So every atom of gold in your wedding ring was forged in a collapsing star, and then traveled across the universe to get to your finger. All the gold we wear and all the gold we give has made this same journey.

So how many miles and how many years are represented in a ring?

Calculating the path from several supernovae around our galaxy back to our solar system, Tyson concludes, all told, it's a journey of 3 million light years.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7397200

[Claven]

I find it very interesting that we have both been drawn back to this discussion on the same day. Your explanation as to the value of gold from as an intergalactic hot commodity is more understandble as it is a rare element within the universe.

Looks like we (earth) have a larger share than others. If I lived on another planet that needed gold for renewing a light source, amidst lack of a illuminating sun, my eyes may evolve larger to accomodate seeing in lower light levels...interesting thought when coupled with recounts of alien appearances and their severely lager eyes.

I wonder how our financial markets will fare as the USD plunges...and those with paper wealth attempt to convert...maybe also the reason for recent Bildaberg Conference...stockpiles of gold for what who is coming soon...to collect their rent...as well to form new alliances perhaps...