Free Republic

Silver has been used for thousands of years as ornaments and utensils, for trade, and as the basis for many monetary systems. Of all the metals, pure silver has the whitest color, the highest optical reflectivity, and the highest thermal and electrical conductivity. Backstory. Whenever you read some precious metals expert discussing the industrial uses of silver, here is the typical spiel that goes: "Silver is essential in jewelry, electronics, medical, solar, electric vehicles, and Green Energy storage systems (i.e., batteries)." Very good, Captain Obvious, but it's my fervent belief that military and aerospace usages of silver gobbles as much...

The quality of mercy is always strained, but snake oil comes raw and unfiltered, harvested from ever more lethal snakes. You might think the accounts of the suffering of those stricken with the Ebola virus would soften the hearts of snake-oil salesmen. But the more horrific the suffering, the more inspired the sales pitches. The con men are flooding the Internet and some homeopathic health stores with tonics and elixirs that boast of miraculous powers to prevent or cure sickness from the Ebola virus. The grim fact is that there is neither a preventative nor a cure. Josephine P. Briggs,...