Rare metals today

In 2010 and several times since China has cut the supply of rare earth metals and since they control 90% of the worlds supply this has resulted in shortages and price hikes. In recent times China's need for these metals has grown to the point where they will no longer have excess supplies and exports may stop completely. They even warned that world that they would be using most of their own production and said they would put China first. While there is a lot of talk about the US getting their own supply not much has been done. It takes many years to get a mine going from scratch but there is a mine in California that went bankrupt and could be reopened and get production underway quickly but still no action. It represents a conundrum to environmentalist who believe that mining is bad but need these metals for wind mills and solar panels. It comes back to what business always faces and that is risk/return. While these people dither away the hours with endless meetings the problem gets more critical. These think tank experts always have trouble making a decision.

Thorium

China produces over 90% of rare earth metals which are used in electronics. Most modern military equipment require these metals so the national defense is threatened by not having a domestic supply. The refining of these metals requires many toxic chemicals but that is not the stumbling block as these chemicals can be controlled. The problem is caused by a by product metal called thorium. Rare earths are found mixed with thorium and thorium is radioactive. One solution to this problem is to use thorium in nuclear power plants. It is better than uranium and safer. It has fewer contaminated bi-products and is more prevalent in nature. The only drawback is that it does not produce plutonium as a by product which the government wants for nuke bombs. It is not necessary to set up a separate rare earth mine as most mines produce a bi-product that contains rare earths. These bi-products can be the raw material needed to produce rare earths. There are many ore mines throughout the western states that could be the sites of rare earth mines. The government seems unable to act and thus China continues to hold the advantage.

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At one time in the past, I foolishly suggested that all high school and college sports be inter mural instead of inter school. This way students would all compete instead of an elite few. Cost for transporting students from school to school would be eliminated and travel time saved. I was severely castigate for making such ridiculous suggestions and quickly dropped the whole idea. Turns out that people think competition for blue ribbons is a good thing even though it created losers along with winners. This is true not only in sports but in other walks of life such as entertainment and business but there is a limit. In a free market system someone can come up with a good idea that benefits millions of people but it better not enrich the originators too much. In the last century two men, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were responsible for the creation of millions of new good paying jobs and they were rewarded with millions of dollars. So far so good. Now comes Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon who owns $180 billion dollars in stock. This is deemed as too much for one person and ideas are presented on ways to get his stock. This change in attitude about rich people is part of the new push for socialistic ideas as presented by Bernie Sanders in the past two elections. The US could certainly take by force of law money from the rich and give it to the poor and almost everyone would be financially better off. This would be a win for some period of time but it would not last. As Margaret Thatcher once said, socialism is great until you run out of the other persons money. Going back to the sports analogy it would be like taking Patrick McHomes $50 million dollar yearly salary and giving one million to each of his 50 team mates. Sounds fair to me.

New ways

A few years ago the phrase think outside the box was used to describe ways to be different from the norm. Being normal is safe and where most people prefer to be but innovation comes from not be normal. To be different is to risk ridicule. There are many examples of abnormal behavior that resulted in people being laughed at or banished from a group but often times these same people are responsible for major changes in society. One recent example is Donald Trump. When it comes to politics he was outside the box on almost every issue and he suffered the consequences. He was an outsider who broke the norm almost everyday and was made fun of by all of the inside the box people. This is best illustrated by those who said he was un-presidential and he was but he caused people to think about politics in a new way and new ways are usually unwanted and sometimes dangerous.

Embargo

When Trump announced that the United States was energy independent and credited fracking, most Americans just yawned because they do not remember the 1973 oil embargo. In 1973 Egypt and Syria began an unprovoked attack against Israel. Israel retaliated with arms supplied by the United States and in 19 days the Arabs suffered a humiliating defeat. In response to this defeat Saudi Arabia instituted an oil embargo against the United States. The first effect was the price of gas increasing four fold and then many stations were out of gas. Long lines at gas stations were the norm and Americans who love their cars were angry and frustrated. This frustration is a minor problem compared to the threat posed to the national defense of the country. This threat no longer exist.

Change mind

Dr Fouci has come under attack for changing his mind on schools. A good scientist will answer every question with the preface, to the best of our knowledge this is what we think. When new information presents itself the investigator is obligated to take that into account. When I was in school there were laws in science but quantum mechanics called into question those laws. It is not just science but in all intelligent decision making that when new information is presented, it is only wise to reconsider previously held positions.

Hate crimes

In 2019 there were 953 anti- Jewish hate crimes in America and 176 anti- Muslim crimes. There is nothing in the news about this. The question is what if the data were reversed with Muslim crimes being 5 or 6 times more prevalent than Jewish crimes. Would that be in the news and if so why the difference. Could it be that prejudice against Muslims is a relatively new phenomenon whereas crimes against Jews have been going on for thousands of years. Does anyone care about these differences?