Originally posted by RJHinds
Apparently I know more than you do about the construction of electronic circuits. 😏

Then you should know that silver, as a component in electronic devices, is not always ideally replaced with gold. For one thing, gold costs a LOT more than silver. If we substitute all the silver used in electronic components, the price of electronic goods would soar far above the lowered prices we've seen in the past as new technology advances. For example, I know that Monster Cable makes some of the best stereo wire for audio products, but because they use gold contacts, they price themselves out of the "Kmart" crowd of buyers and their product is seen as expensive.

And I'm not even talking about applications where silver is preferable for technology reasons, since I don't know that much about it. I do know that silver use in electronic products is so widespread that it is causing worldwide supply of silver to diminish, which was my original point.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Then you should know that silver, as a component in electronic devices, is not always ideally replaced with gold. For one thing, gold costs a LOT more than silver. If we substitute all the silver used in electronic components, the price of electronic goods would soar far above the lowered prices we've seen in the past as new technology advances. For exam ...[text shortened]... ead that it is causing worldwide supply of silver to diminish, which was my original point.

Copper is the metal most used as I understand it. However, many electronics are silicon now. I guess you have heard of Silicon Valley. 😏

Originally posted by rwingett
Originally mankind was more of a scavenger/gatherer than a hunter/gatherer. Having mere hand axes did not lend itself to big game hunting. Mankind's original sin (metaphorically speaking) was technology. He ate from the tree of knowledge. Improved weapons made it possible to effectively and actively hunt big game. The result was the extermination of the meg ...[text shortened]... no longer. Mankind was expelled from the Garden because the very act of being human was a sin.

I'm skeptical that Clovis people were the cause of the extinction of the North American megafauna. Around the same time there was the Younger Dryas stadial, a very abrupt return to ice-age conditions that seemed to also spell the end of the Clovis people themselves (or at least their know-how). Clovis people were heavily concentrated in the mid-Atlantic region of the continent (and also were in areas such as Clovis, New Mexico), but Clovis points are found in the ground only under a very thick stratum of sediment indicative of enormous dust storms originating in northern Africa. Plant life -- and thus the food supply -- would have suffered enormously in a very short time.

From Almighty Wikipedia:

The Younger Dryas saw a rapid return to glacial conditions in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere between 12.9–11.5 ka BP, in sharp contrast to the warming of the preceding interstadial deglaciation. It has been believed that the transitions each occurred over a period of a decade or so, but the onset may have been faster. Thermally fractionated nitrogen and argon isotope data from Greenland ice core GISP2 indicate that the summit of Greenland was approximately 15 °C (27 °F) colder during the Younger Dryas than today. In the UK, coleopteran fossil evidence (from beetles) suggests that mean annual temperature dropped to approximately 5 °C (41 °F), and periglacial conditions prevailed in lowland areas, while icefields and glaciers formed in upland areas. Nothing of the size, extent, or rapidity of this period of abrupt climate change has been experienced since.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas

Originally posted by Suzianne
Then you should know that silver, as a component in electronic devices, is not always ideally replaced with gold. For one thing, gold costs a LOT more than silver. If we substitute all the silver used in electronic components, the price of electronic goods would soar far above the lowered prices we've seen in the past as new technology advances. For exam ead that it is causing worldwide supply of silver to diminish, which was my original point.

I think whats going on with metal prices is they are rising to a point where it is very econimical to recycle them, why you see more copper theft these days. I'm not sure if this means we are running out? there are some metals lanthanides i think where theres only a few kg on earth.

There was a report on the news tonight about the UK having to ship more gas / coal in and our energy bills will rise. I didn't mean to be too mocking about turbines before, I think all these eco home improvements are quite cool, and could very well pay for them selves.