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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E. Charters who wrote (16162)	7/14/2006 1:42:10 AM
From: Gib Bogle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78418

Ah, I see. I was wondering how a coffee filter would fit the conversation. I was, foolishly I suppose, in retrospect, quite interested in exploring those peculiar effects. In some sense I peered into the void, and I'm not sure I ever fully recovered. A slight overdose of reality, unfiltered. Burroughs hated the psychedelics. He didn't even like to smoke pot. The opiates - ah, that's another story altogether. My brief experience with opium helped me to understand addiction. I realized that I was one of those people for whom the opiates really work well. Actually at that time I believed everyone would find them pleasurable, but later I discovered that there are people who hated having to take morphine, for example. So there must be quite a lot of variability in brain chemistry. Speaking of filters, the opiates are filters for pain, both physical and psychic. Which reminds me that in his last years God himself - I mean Beethoven - denied himself laudanum to treat the terrible pain of his illness, because he preferred to have the pain and his ability to compose, over no pain and no creation. Now, if I was Beethoven, I'd do the same.

To: E. Charters who wrote (16162)	7/14/2006 11:25:06 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 78418

Microbes may have the Midas touch MERAIAH FOLEY theglobeandmail.com Associated Press SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Researchers in Australia have uncovered evidence that a tiny microbe may have the Midas touch of Greek legend, capable of turning dust to gold. Findings reported in the July 14 issue of the U.S.-based magazine Science suggest a bacteria known as Ralstonia metallidurans may play a key role in forming gold nuggets and grains. A group of scientists led by German-born researcher Frank Reith collected gold grains from two Australian mines more than 3,000 kilometres apart, and discovered that 80 per cent of the grains had the bacteria living on them. “What we found out suggests that bacteria can accumulate this gold,” Mr. Reith told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his Australian office on Friday. Mr. Reith said Ralstonia metallidurans act as microscopic soil scrubbers, soaking up heavy metals in their dissolved form and converting them into less toxic, solid forms. “Heavy metals are toxic, not only to us but also to microorganisms, in elevated concentrations,” he said. “It appears to be that the organism can detoxify its immediate environment of this toxic mobile gold and in this way gain a metabolic advantage,” he said. “That's why it would be present on these gold grains.” Many scientists have questioned the possible microbial role in forming gold, maintaining instead that gold grains were either remnants of larger pieces or formed through chemical processes. Mr. Reith said his findings provide the strongest evidence yet that bacteria could play a key role in creating solid gold, although the exact mechanism is not yet known. “What we just wanted to show is that microorganisms are capable of contributing to the formation of gold nuggets and before that was always doubted,” Mr. Reith said. “I'm not saying that the organisms are the only way how gold nuggets in soils can form, but it's one of the ways.” But home-alchemists be warned, pouring a bucket of Ralstonia metallidurans on your backyard won't create a gold mine. “You have to have gold there first. If you don't, bacteria can't create gold,” Mr. Reith said.