Official "Science News" Thread - Page 47

cheesehead · 2012-04-29, 06:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaurV

In '99 the gold price rocketed to the sky and it is still doing so since. How could "selling" gold could do that?

Did you actually read the 1999 article I linked?

Gold price dropped immediately after Britain announced that it would sell half its gold.

How does

"The surprise announcement sent the price of gold plummeting more than $9 lower to $279.90 an ounce, close to the lowest level for 20 years."

and

"The shock hit share prices in gold-mining. South Africa's All-Share index fell by nearly 1 per cent, with AngloGold's price down nearly 5 per cent at 278.2 rand. The South African currency also weakened."

lead you to say that "In '99 the gold price rocketed to the sky"?

Was a drop of 3% "rocketing to the sky"?

Was AngloGold's price down nearly 5% a "rocketing to the sky"?

- - -

I referred to the British 1999 action in order to compare the effect of an announced sale of gold to the possible future arrival of a large gold shipment from an asteroid mining operation. Both involve selling gold.

That Vietnamese gold import ban isn't relevant to that.

cheesehead · 2012-04-29, 07:08

BTW, here's an informative report, just released earlier this month^*, about the feasibility of retrieving an asteroid:

"Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study"

http://kiss.caltech.edu/study/astero...nal_report.pdf

- - -

^* Perhaps Planetary Resources Inc. was waiting for that before making its own announcement, eh?

Spherical Cow · 2012-04-30, 23:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaurV

Did you google it? It is easy, copy/paste from my message, into firefox's search box.

Here it is what happened:

That produced market fluctuations from 2008.

In '99 the gold price rocketed to the sky and it is still doing so since. How could "selling" gold could do that?

Here are gold prices from 1995 onward (US$ per oz); I don't see any "rocketing to the sky" starting in 1999. (For the sake of clarity, these are monthly averages.) If there is a "rocketing" point, I would put it at mid 2005.

Norm

science_man_88 · 2012-04-30, 23:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spherical Cow

Here are gold prices from 1995 onward (US$ per oz); I don't see any "rocketing to the sky" starting in 1999. (For the sake of clarity, these are monthly averages.) If there is a "rocketing" point, I would put it at mid 2005.

Norm

I think what he's pointing to is no point after 1999 is lower so in a way the rising never stopped since 1999, it's just that it didn't always seem to increase.

Spherical Cow · 2012-05-01, 00:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by science_man_88

I think what he's pointing to is no point after 1999 is lower so in a way the rising never stopped since 1999, it's just that it didn't always seem to increase.

I think that would be a very generous interpretation. There is a very brief spike in October of 1999, when the monthly average went from $266 to $310 but then it drops back and is less than $310 for the next 30 months straight until April 2002. In April of 2001, it was clear back down to $260. I would call that spike from September 1999 to October 1999 a very short-lived, locallized fluctuation, not the start of any rocketing in price.

Norm

ewmayer · 2012-05-01, 01:39

Ah, yes, then-PM G-g-gordon "Goldfinger" Brown marking the multi-decadal bottom in Au prices by selling tons of the UK sovereign gold ... I remember it well. "Gilt by association" and all that.

------

Did exploding stars help life on Earth to thrive?

Dubslow · 2012-05-01, 02:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Did exploding stars help life on Earth to thrive?

"Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'."

I mean really, that's the crazy sort of science which is that much awesomer because of it. Really interesting. It is kinda scary how not-bad the correlation is (I wouldn't call it good, but this is where scientists translating it to "popular science" might call it "tantalizing", much like the Higgs reports of the last few months).

davieddy · 2012-05-01, 04:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Ah, yes, then-PM G-g-gordon "Goldfinger" Brown marking the multi-decadal bottom in Au prices by selling tons of the UK sovereign gold ... I remember it well. "Gilt by association" and all that.

------

Did exploding stars help life on Earth to thrive?

There are occasions when I think I am the only one who misunderstands you.

xilman · 2012-05-01, 06:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Ah, yes, then-PM G-g-gordon "Goldfinger" Brown marking the multi-decadal bottom in Au prices by selling tons of the UK sovereign gold ... I remember it well. "Gilt by association" and all that.

------

Did exploding stars help life on Earth to thrive?

By some coincidence or other, I was mailed a copy of the paper six days ago and was asked for comments.

in my view,Svensmarks hasn't made a particularly strong case and, also in my view, a far better proxy for SN activity in time and space is available than the open clusters he uses. To me, it seems that neutron stars should be better. The latter proposal is so obvious that I'm still trying to work out the obvious flaw which caused Svensmark to discount them.

Dubslow · 2012-05-02, 01:11

...engine for Skylon craft that can fly anywhere on earth in just four hours

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...ust-hours.html

Quote:

Critical tests are now being carried out to make sure the Sabre engine - a hybrid that can operate like a normal jet engine but then switch to rocket mode - is faultless before its developers Reaction Engines Limited (REL) based in Culham, Oxfordshire, can unveil it at the Farnborough International Air Show.

It's not a very good article, being guilty of popular-science-over-simplifying things and more than a few meaningless sentences of that nature, but still at least a little bit interesting.

cheesehead · 2012-05-02, 04:56

Pessimism about Planetary Resources Inc. from the Daily Mail:

"Hang on, do you actually OWN all those asteroids full of platinum? Legal expert says James Cameron's multi-billion space mining venture may be hit with lawsuits"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...-lawsuits.html

Be advised that some stuff in this article is dodgy.

One photo's caption is "Straight out of a sci-fi film: A scene from the movie Armageddon, where Bruce Willis's character is sent into space to mine an asteroid before it hits the Earth" -- Yes, but that's "mine" as in "place destructive explosive device", not "mine" as in "extract raw materials".

2012-04-29, 07:08	#508
cheesehead "Richard B. Woods" Aug 2002 Wisconsin USA 2²·3·641 Posts	BTW, here's an informative report, just released earlier this month^, about the feasibility of retrieving an asteroid: "Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study" http://kiss.caltech.edu/study/astero...nal_report.pdf - - - ^ Perhaps Planetary Resources Inc. was waiting for that before making its own announcement, eh? Last fiddled with by cheesehead on 2012-04-29 at 07:16

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2012-05-01, 01:39	#512
ewmayer ∂²ω=0 Sep 2002 República de California 10110101111111₂ Posts	Ah, yes, then-PM G-g-gordon "Goldfinger" Brown marking the multi-decadal bottom in Au prices by selling tons of the UK sovereign gold ... I remember it well. "Gilt by association" and all that. ------ Did exploding stars help life on Earth to thrive?

2012-05-02, 04:56	#517
cheesehead "Richard B. Woods" Aug 2002 Wisconsin USA 2²·3·641 Posts	Pessimism about Planetary Resources Inc. from the Daily Mail: "Hang on, do you actually OWN all those asteroids full of platinum? Legal expert says James Cameron's multi-billion space mining venture may be hit with lawsuits" http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...-lawsuits.html Be advised that some stuff in this article is dodgy. One photo's caption is "Straight out of a sci-fi film: A scene from the movie Armageddon, where Bruce Willis's character is sent into space to mine an asteroid before it hits the Earth" -- Yes, but that's "mine" as in "place destructive explosive device", not "mine" as in "extract raw materials".