Saddam's golden gun

A GOLD-plated assault rifle, once carried by one of the late Saddam Hussein's palace guards, will go on display at the Australian War Memorial.
The eye-catching weapon was today handed by army deputy chief Major General John Cantwell to war memorial assistant director Nola Anderson today for permanent display in the new post-1945 gallery.
War Memorial senior curator Nick Fletcher said this is a fully functional Iraqi-manufactured Tabuk, a version of the ubiquitous Kalashnikov AK-47.

"The great attraction is that it's gold plated. It's a genuine full-on shiny gold gun," he said.
"I gather it's because it was one of the guns carried by Saddam's personal guard," he said.
"It's an interesting item. We think it's going to make a good exhibit. I think it says a few things about the excesses of the Saddam regime that will speak to people."
Just how many of these were made isn't clear. Mr Fletcher suggested perhaps a few hundred at most.
This one was found by soldiers of the US Army's 101st Air Assault Division in operations in the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

The Most Expensive Bike In The World

When this pedal of this bike hits metal — it strikes 24-karat gold. Scandinavian design team AURUMANIA (which means preoccupied with gold) debuted the Gold Bike last September, a luxury item touted as the world’s “most lavish and expensive bike.” Just 10 of the gold bikes were made and come outfitted with a hand-stitched, brown leather Brooks saddle. Oh, and each bike is “generously” bespeckled with more than 600 Swarovski crystals. The ticket for this ride only costs a little over $100,000.

Apple Gold 3G iPhone

This bullion beauty is the most decadent iPhone add-on since the $1,000 I Am Rich app. For two Gs, you can dress your 3G in a deliciously crass case that packs more karats than Bugs Bunny's lunch box (24 to be exact). But there's more to it than just dipping your mobile in molten shine like broccoli in Velveeta. Custom electronics maker Computer Choppers first coats the original plastic case in copper to patch any dings, then nickel-plates it to keep the copper from leaching into the gold finish. A notch in the base for the antenna guarantees reception. Available in yellow or rose gold, chrome, copper, or platinum. Just don't lose it!

Solid Gold Remote Makes Me Sick, Mad

Denmark's Lantic Systems have just released a solid f'ing gold remote control that's "designed for operating home media and automation systems including video, audio, internet, CCTV, alarm, lights, curtains, air-conditioning and even navigation systems." It costs -- sit down -- are you seated? $55,000! It doesn't even come with a damn display! OMGWTFBBQ!?!? As an added bonus for anyone that buys one I'm going to throw in a solid suede size 12 up your ass for having too much money and not spending it on booze and hussies like a normal person. Damn I'm spitting mad about this.

Buildings of Disaster in gold

showed a limited gold-plated edition of their Buildings of Disaster series at Design Miami earlier this month.
Buildings of Disaster are architectural miniatures of infamous buildings including the Neverland Ranch and New Orleans Superdome
The eight buildings are: Neverland Ranch, WTC 9/11, OJ Car Chase, Pentagon 9/11, Watergate, Oklahoma City Federal Building, Unabomber, and Waco, Texas.

How to Buy Gold

If you do not buy gold or gold jewelery very often it is important that you know how to buy gold to ensure you get exactly what you want and at a good price as well.So it is important that you understand the key factors when it comes to buying gold and gold jewelry.When buying gold jewelry these key factors are:
Karatage, or how much gold is there in a gold piece?
Gram weight. Simply how much does the piece weigh?
Design. Is it the right design for you?
Craftsmanship. Is it well constructed and tastefully made?
Price and purchase. How much is it and is it good value for the price?Karatage, sometimes called karats is the amount of gold contained within a gold piece. This is how it is measured. Gold is very often mixed with other metals, such as silver, nickel, zinc etc, to help it last longer and be more durable. Gold is a very soft metal and pure gold can be distorted and wear away quickly especially if it is used a lot.10k gold is only 41.7 percent gold. 18k is 75 percent gold and 24k gold is considered pure gold although it is measured as 99.99 percent gold since it is considered impossible to obtain pure gold.All gold pieces should have the Karatage stamped on it somewhere.Gram weight is the next important key item. How much does the gold item weigh? The higher the gram weight the more gold it contains, keeping in mind the Karatage, and the more expensive it will be. The more value it will have as well. This can be easily noticed with gold bracelets.You might see two gold bracelets with the same Karatage. Say 18k. but one is chunky and the other is wafer thin. The gram weight of the chunky is going to be much more than the wafer thin bracelet although the proportion of gold to other metal remains the same, there will simply be more of it.The design is next in line when considering buying gold in jewelry form. An antique design piece of gold jewelery is likely to be worth more than a new piece as it has an additional value of age, uniqueness and possibly rarity. Decorative gold tends to cost more as there has been more work put into it.The Craftsmanship and quality of the gold is very important. Most of today’s gold jewelery is manufactured on machines but hand made pieces are still available and will cost proportionally more as a result. The quality of manufacture will show in how the gold is fabricated, including any fastenings and setting for gems etc. A quality gold piece will last for years with good and careful handling.Price plays an important part and understanding the above will help you to be able to work out a good price for a gold jewelery piece. Many discounts are offered by dealers and jewelers so it pays to be wary and really find out what is being offered. Remember that the dealer is still making a profit on discounted items so how much are they really worth?It is probably a good idea to have in mind what you want before you start looking. Get a good clear picture in your mind of the karat, weight, design and craftsmanship and design you want within your budget and then go seeking that.The golden rule of course is to do your due diligence and know what you want and you will then really know 'how to buy gold'!

For The Ladies: Golden Girl 24 Karat Facials

Are you an independently wealthy woman? A gold(!) digger? Do you like blowing wads of cash? If so you may want to consider this 24 karat luxury facial treatment. For about $360 you can get an 80-minute gold leafing of your face.
Ron Razeggi, U.S. chief operating officer of the manufacturer, UMO, said: "The skin tries to reject the gold because it's a foreign object. In order to do that, it builds new cells.
"Right now, the body produces new cells every 28 days. But this accelerates the cell-building and, as a result, it firms and tightens the skin."
Well there you have it ladies, straight from the jackass's mouth. In all honesty though, if you're a woman and reading this website I'm confident you're already beautiful inside and out (not to mention intelligent and complete with a great sense of humor) and don't need this crap. Besides, you don't even get to keep the gold after the treatment.

Super Talent's Pico-C 8GB USB thumb drive: solid gold

Yes, Flash is expensive but this Super Talent Pico-C solid gold Flash bling thing is just ridiculous. For $599 you get 8GB of solid gold thumb drive.

Oh, and an 18-carat gold key chain, encryption software and a black velvet-lined case. The kicker, for the prize bling nerds is a limited edition Serialised Certificate of Authenticity. For businesses that want to wade straight into deep recession-denial, the six hundred greenbacks includes their logo or some text - say 'I'm a dickhead' - laser-etched into the solid-gold surface.
It's the kind of flashy rubbish found in the pages of airline in-flight catalogues, along with the 24-hour wall clocks, titanium golf tees with GPS locator, and pet shampoo/conditioner dispensers.
Super Talent make speedy flash drives, but we think this one is going to move pretty slowly. At a time when you can get 8GB of Flash in your average store for around $35 or less - say $4/GB - Super Talent's marketing droids have come up with flash priced at $75/GB.

The Real Price of Gold

Like many of his Inca ancestors, Juan Apaza is possessed by gold. Descending into an icy tunnel 17,000 feet up in the Peruvian Andes, the 44-year-old miner stuffs a wad of coca leaves into his mouth to brace himself for the inevitable hunger and fatigue. For 30 days each month Apaza toils, without pay, deep inside this mine dug down under a glacier above the world's highest town, La Rinconada. For 30 days he faces the dangers that have killed many of his fellow miners—explosives, toxic gases, tunnel collapses—to extract the gold that the world demands. Apaza does all this, without pay, so that he can make it to today, the 31st day, when he and his fellow miners are given a single shift, four hours or maybe a little more, to haul out and keep as much rock as their weary shoulders can bear. Under the ancient lottery system that still prevails in the high Andes, known as the cachorreo, this is what passes for a paycheck: a sack of rocks that may contain a small fortune in gold or, far more often, very little at all.
Apaza is still waiting for a stroke of luck. "Maybe today will be the big one," he says, flashing a smile that reveals a single gold tooth. To improve his odds, the miner has already made his "payment to the Earth": a bottle of pisco, the local liquor, placed near the mouth of the mine; a few coca leaves slipped under a rock; and, several months back, a rooster sacrificed by a shaman on the sacred mountaintop. Now, heading into the tunnel, he mumbles a prayer in his native Quechua language to the deity who rules the mountain and all the gold within.

Gold May Not Protect You From Inflation

If you think gold is a sure fire defense against inflation, think again. Lots of people have been intrigued by gold’s recent price increase — at least until recently — and it’s being heavily marketed as a way to protect against inflation. But history does not bear this out. You should be skeptical of salesmen spinning stories about gold and its mystical wealth preservation powers.

Think about this, if gold were a guaranteed hedge against inflation, why did the price of gold fall from about $850 in January 1980 to about $250 in 1999? If you bought gold at $850 in 1980 during the last inflationary panic, you’d have waited about 28 years (until 2008) for it to regain its initial value. Not much of an inflation hedge.

Instead of thinking of gold as a direct inflation hedge, in modern markets it may serve more as a “financial panic” hedge. Investors were panicked about a financial collapse in the early 1980s and also today, and gold rose during each of those panics. But when the panic subsides, gold also tends to lose its luster.
There’s nothing wrong with owning gold. But consider that if you own a diversified portfolio of stocks, such as the S&P 500, you have ownership in mining and other companies that derive their earnings from the commodity markets. If commodities are doing well, those companies are often doing well. So you have some skin in the

Gold, Gold, Gold!!

I decided to post about gold, considering we don’t have any specimens at UPJ, and you never know when you might come across a seam and hit it rich. Gold is not only a mineral, it is a rare earth element, and a metal. This means that a sample of entirely pure gold contains ONLY atoms of gold, no atoms of any other element, whereas a mineral is a mixture of many various elements. Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. A single ounce, just over 28 grams, can be beaten into a sheet nearly 5 meters on each side! This gold sheet is only a few atoms thick. Gold has been praised for millenia for its beauty and malleability, making it useful for jewelry and decorations. It’s atomic number is 79, and it’s atomic mass (the number of protons and neutrons) is 196.966

How to Make Convincing Fake-Gold Bars

The "masterminds" behind the false-gold scandal at the Ethiopian central bank might not have gotten caught if they'd used Theo Gray's formula

On Wednesday, the BBC reported that millions of dollars in gold at the central bank of Ethiopia has turned out to be fake: What were supposed to be bars of solid gold turned out to be nothing more than gold-plated steel. They tried to sell the stuff to South Africa and it was sent back when the South Africans noticed this little problem.
This is an amazing story for two reasons. First, that an institution like a central bank could get ripped off this way, and second that the people responsible used such a lousy excuse for fake gold.

How About A Gold & Diamonds Macbook Pro

Computer Choppers just finished work on a 24k Gold and Diamonds Macbook Pro. If you can't tell what that is from the name or picture, you may be stupid. Or an a-hole. Unlike these guys, who went the extra mile and paint matched the keyboard and re-etched it. Good looking. No word on what one would cost, which is probably good, because I'm sure it's more than I've got. Which at the moment is a pocketful of unwrapped mints.

Gold Pills Are, Um, I Don't Even

hese $425 capsules are dipped in and filled with 24-karat gold and you're supposed to eat them to "increase your self-worth". Which isn't true, because if you do ingest them you'll just be increasing your "self-stupidity" and "self-flushing-money-down-the-toilet". I'll kill you if you buy them. Just down a jar of gold glitter if you're that hell-bent on having gold shit, it's a lot cheaper. My fiancé demanded I buy her a capsule, because she thinks she's all high-class and can just waste my money. Well she'll be getting the gold glitter treatment, because I sure as hell am not paying for these. She hasn't noticed the diamond in her engagement ring is just a piece of glass from a broken windshield, so I think I'll be fine.

Gold...always believe in?

Athletes who win gold at this summer’s Olympics will have an incentive to skip the lap of honour and run straight to the bank. Gold’s price has moved back above $900 an ounce this year, from less than $300 ten years ago. The once forgotten metal is back in demand – from savers and investors worried about inflation, and a growing number of industrial users who target its material properties as much as its symbolic asset value. Because mining activity was run down during the long price slump, the upturn in demand has quickly run up against a limited supply.
In China, India and the Middle East, as Max Flint discovered on his trip to Dubai for The Money Programme, gold’s attraction as a safe store of wealth has never really gone away. Given the scare stories circulating about the state of some banks, particularly in China, it’s unsurprising that many households still prefer to keep their savings in a jewellery box than a bank vault. Some analysts lucratively anticipated the emerging world’s gilt-edgedappetite a decade ago.
Elsewhere in the world, gold’s decorative role now competes with some fast-growing industrial uses – as a component in electronic circuits, catalyst for speciality chemical production and air filtration, corrosion protector, and upmarket dental substitute. Industry absorbs little more than 300 tonnes from an annual world consumption of over 4,000 tonnes, but it means those stocking up at the souks and bazaars have some powerful corporate buyers to haggle against.

Gold

Gold has a very special place in human history. It has been treasured since ancient times and was the first metal used by humans, with simple gold ornaments among the earliest known metal objects. In early times, alchemists would spend their entire lives trying to turn other metals into precious gold! Gold has changed where and how people live. Many towns have been developed by the wealth from mining gold. There are also many 'ghost towns' - when the gold supply ran out, people simply deserted the area.
Gold has also featured in many myths and legends. King Midas, King Soloman, and Jason and the Argonauts were all legendary gold seekers! Even fairytales often mention golden objects such as eggs or harps, and most people have heard of the golden pot at the end of the rainbow. Even today, achievements are rewarded by gold medals, and we associate the word gold with greatness - as in 'golden rules' or 'good as gold'. Gold has always been, and still is, a very important metal. Its rarity and unique properties make it one of the most prized and useful metals.

American Buffalo gold bullion coins

The American Buffalo gold bullion coins are struck by the United States Mint's facility at West Point and have the distinction of being the first pure gold (.9999 fine, 24-karat gold) coins ever struck by the U.S. Mint for public sale as an investment product. Production of these coins was authorized by the Presidential $1 Coin Act (Public Law 109-145, dated December 22, 2005) and provides for gold bullion to be minted in the form of $50 legal tender coins, conveying that the content and purity is guaranteed by the United States Government.
According to the official U.S. Mint press release on June 20, 2006:
"This American Buffalo Gold Coin will appeal to both investors who choose to hold gold and to others who simply love gold," said Deputy Director David A. Lebryk during the ceremonial striking at the United States Mint at West Point, where the coins are being produced. "These classic and beautiful American Indian and buffalo designs by James Earle Fraser [a student of Augustus Saint-Gaudens], which have been American favorites since they were first used in 1913, recall a golden age of coin artistry."
[These bullion coins] portray the images of the revered Buffalo Nickel of 1913, Type 1. The iconic James Earle Fraser image of an American bison graces the reverse (tails side), and Fraser's classic design of an American Indian is featured on the obverse (heads side). The American Buffalo Gold Coin has inscriptions of the coin's weight, denomination and gold content incused on the reverse (Buffalo side) in the design area commonly known as the "grassy mound."