I'am Of The Stars!

Only a few years ago, if you were to hypothesise that all heavier elements came from large explosions in the heart of stars, you'd have likely have been put away into some form of mental asylum. Its only been in the last ten years or so though that Science has begun to start catching up with the idea that our existence and the rest of the cosmos are intrinsically linked, in more and more startling ways.



Early Mars was a lot like Earth.


On my last blog I showed an interest in the discoveries happening on Mars with the Discovery rover that was dropped there last year. In a short space of time we have had some pretty startling discoveries regarding what Mars was like many years ago, and I am actually considering putting money down in a betting shop to say that we'll find evidence of life having once existed on Mars in the next few decades.
The reason for this should be obvious if you've been paying any attention to the scientific discoveries on Mars for the past few years. First and foremost is the knowledge that Mars was once much warmer back in the solar systems early years and a lot wetter with an active geology. This would have provided a thick atmosphere, and a warm and wet environment in which life can form and propagate. What is as important would have been the magnetosphere, which like on Earth shields life from harmful radiation.

Evidence of this period of Mars' history has recently been proven with the finding of ancient dried up riverbeds that contain rounded pebbles as well as clay which contains complex chemicals important to life's development.

Then, it was only last week that the news was released about how Mars' atmosphere was once comprised of a large proportion of oxygen. Now on Earth the oxygenating of our atmosphere has been believed to have been almost entirely the work of marine and basic plant life, although this BBC article goes into detail about how oxygen may have formed on Mars through different geological processes involving the breaking down of water and the loss of hydrogen over time due to the smaller gravitational influence on Mars as well as the greater radiation due to a less effective magnetosphere.

Nevertheless, this oxygen became embedded inside the rocks on Mars (hence its red 'oxide' colour) and combined with the chemicals left inside the clay which we have found, this still could have left a chance for life to have formed all those years ago.

What is interesting is the information that came out of NASA last year in November too, which at first implied that they had found something of real significance, and then appeared to play it down a few days later. This could have been simply a misunderstanding or incorrect data, but there is always the chance that they were warned off sharing news of proof of life if perhaps they deemed the world was not ready.

Other than that though there is still the possibility of proof of life from Mars. There is a chance that many meteorites found on Earth proven to have been ejected from Mars in asteroid collisions possibly have evidence of fossilised single-celled life-forms inside the rock. The argument is still on going but it begs deeper questions.



Image of what may be fossilised single celled life from Mars.

Mars formed and developed a warm and wet environment long before Earth had stopped being a raging ball of death and inferno, therefore it is conceivable that Martian life formed way before Earth even had a chance. Take this into consideration when looking at these Martian meteorites that have landed on Earth over the years and it doesn't take a great leap to hypothesise that perhaps all life on Earth was in fact seeded here from Mars. This would have to question our understanding not only on our own existence, but would challenge our understanding of exactly what determines 'extra-terrestrial', if indeed life is transported amongst different planetary objects on the back of travelling meteorites.

Lastly, there is the idea that life first began forming up to ten billion years ago, which would predate both Earth and Mars by double, and if true would once again make the idea of life on Mars having once existed that much more plausible. Whilst this does remain an unproven idea (it used Moore's Law usually used to explain the acceleration of technological development) there may be some credibility owed to it seeing as it was only last year that Scientists say they discovered basic sugar molecules floating around a young distant star, which is a basic building block of life.

Now recently, even the BBC has been writing on the possibility of this being true, all with some hilarious comments being left by fundamentalist Christians who seem to be unable to comprehend the massive time scales being considered here.

The idea of panspermia it seems, or at least some aspects of it, has an increasing amount of credibility, and in that case, life on Mars really doesn't seem all that far-fetched after all and in fact I have a huge suspicion that they've found something on the red planet that they don't want to release all the facts about straight away.

In other news linking our home with the rest of the Solar System and beyond, the Daily Mail has this week released a story talking about how Human Civilization may have been sparked by our social adaptations in the aftermath of a meteorite which supposedly hit Quebec almost 13,000 years ago. Whilst this may explain the mass extinctions of large Mammals such as Mammoth, it doesn't really explain how agriculture would have been successful for primitive societies with a dusty atmosphere and low temperatures.

Had the meteorite have landed at around that time though it would certainly be around the time of the first civilizations such as the monuments of Gobekli Tepe (built around 12,000 years ago) which is now more or less considered to be the most puzzling yet important finds of human history.

Then again that asteroid may well have been a massive out of control spaceship from another world who's inhabitants decided to bestow to mankind technologies and knowledge of agriculture!

The True Value Of Gold

Since ancient times, mankind has associated precious-metals with wealth. Today, despite having a world economy based on mathematical impossibilities and endless perpetual environmental and sociological damage, Gold (and to a lesser extent Silver) is still the material which men seek to hold onto to secure wealth in hard times.

Gold has been a symbol of power and wealth since
time immeasurable.

Over the past decade or so, Gold has risen from a fairly modest average of $400USD an ounce in the early 2000's to a phenomenal high last year in 2012 to nearly $1900 USD an ounce. This increase far surpassed inflation rates and was predominately linked to the failing world economy and insecurity in the world. This year in 2013 however, Gold's price has shrunk back down to $1200USD an ounce, levels last seen in 2010.

These price fluctuations however are a killer, precious metal prices are more or less unpredictable and tend to go up in panic buying stages depending on how the economy is doing, making profit off of buying and selling stock can therefore be very difficult, if not impossible, unless you buy a substantial amount of stock.

What is worrying however when it comes to the precious metal sales, is the Charlatans who whip up economic concerns in order to shift vast amounts of silver and gold bullion to concerned members of the public who only have their families survival at heart. Just think for yourself a moment people: if you was adamant that the world as we know it was about to end, and silver coins would prepare you for that, why would they be selling it to you for FIAT paper in the most dangerous economic times? You know the answer, I'm sure, its a scam! We've all seen the adverts on programmes headed by people such as Alex Jones, and it may seem like they are offering great free advice, but they have their own families mouths to feed too, don't be sucked into their exaggerated doom-porn news stories, and don't be fear mongered into parting with your cash over it either.

Speaking of scams, the hundreds of 'Cash for Gold' shops that exist today are yet another example of how we are being ripped off. The prices they offer may seem a good deal at the time, but I expect most people do not stop to check that morning how much the average ounce of Gold costs to check and make sure that they are getting a good deal. Which I promise you, you aren't.

Gold Prices 2000 to 2013.

Of course if you looked at the date at which the price of Gold suddenly went flying up the graph and the approximate date in which a surge in 'Cash for Gold' companies began trading, you will see that it is more than likely a way of keeping Gold prices artificially high. I mean, even Gordon Brown sold off all the British Gold reserves for the thieving banks to steal and swallow, suspiciously around the same time that a lot of 'Cash for Gold' companies started, and world prices began to shoot up. Get the public to sell low and sell back at exorbitant levels to keep investment artificially high for the bankers who have been practically given it.

Ok, lets keep this simple. So you sell your Gold to someone at 'Cash For Gold', and they then bag it up and sell it onto the mint for a profit who then melts down your family heirloom in a massive forge, increases the fineness and then creates large Gold Bullion bars. Who do you think buys the Gold? That's right, generally the Government or Banks for 'investment'.

Why?

Because the global financial elites need to make sure they've sucked every bit of value out of the world, I mean you only need to read my last article about Libya to understand how vulnerable any financially secure group or Government is. The emerging globalisation that is coming to a head in our lifetimes is as clear as day. It will be a world free of national borders, where the bankers call all the shots, and they need to make sure they've cleaned up before they begin implementing a combined 'World Bank' protocol which is essentially the financial takeover and blackmailing division of the UN (check the 'World Banks goals with the UN and you will see they are more or less carbon copies of one another.) On the face of it, their goals seem very honourable, yet the road there is by misleading and blackmailing the world into submission to gain unification. Once the world is unified, it would be very difficult to change the way in which things work because they will control every aspect of health, education and materials.

So what would I suggest? I'm not a prophet, but I currently see the world torn at a crossroad right now. On the one hand we might see a controlling world 'Nanny' state where we are all equal so long as you agree with our new 'banker-come-technocrat' leaders, or on the other hand, we might end up with Western Civilization crippled, putting us back to the Victorian times. Either way, you can't eat Gold, and although I may see buying small amounts as a long term retirement investment worthwhile, I certainly do not see any point in buying the stuff like it was going out of fashion.

If you seriously think that the world as we know it is about to collapse, you would do much better buying water filtration systems and solar panels and son on, sitting starving in a room full of Silver and Gold bullion doesn't sound like the best survival tactic to me.

That said, I am no prophet, and I have no crystal ball, I would just urge people to look at the wider picture before committing vast amounts of financial assets. One thing that is known to us though, is the past, and recently scientists have found out why Gold and other precious metals are so rare to begin with.

According to one science report, after observing the aftermath of a binary neutron Star collision, it appears that that is where heavy metals come from, meaning all of the jewellery that we wear today was forged in an extremely violent explosion in space. Which is pretty cool. Of course we are all made of star dust, but the rarity of precious metals is because these events are, well, rare!
 
To make the existence of Gold and other heavy metals here on Earth even more extraordinary, those that we do find here today came to Earth when our planet was still a molten ball of fire, and asteroids full of these heavy metals collided with the young earth and were essentially 'folded into' the planets architecture, instead of forming naturally like other minerals and metals found today.

Some companies however are now considering getting out into space and extracting Gold and Platinum from nearby asteroids, something exciting and of course ironic, seeing as the genesis of mankind is steeped in the existence of Gold and Silver for currency.

If Gold and Platinum really is as rare in space as it is on Earth, it might of course mean that future transactions with Alien races may be settled in those rare materials, a interesting notion which makes certain theories on the real reason mankind exists on planet Earth at all, a tiny bit more credible perhaps.