Rare metals shortage could threaten high-tech innovation
Take gallium as an example. Gallium is a small byproduct of mining bauxite and zinc, but it has become a critical component for technologies such as lasers, energy-efficient LED lighting and solar panels. The metal has also become a replacement for silicon in faster microchips powering the latest generation of smartphones.
From 2007…
A Metal Scare to Rival the Oil Scare
Armin Reller, a materials chemist at the University of Augsburg in Germany, estimates that in 10 years the world will run out of indium, used for making liquid-crystal displays for flat-screen televisions and computer monitors. He also predicts that the world will run out of zinc by 2037, and hafnium, an increasingly important part of computer chips, by 2017.
And this…
A Rare-Earths Opportunity
China risks paying a hefty price to defend a failed policy.
Rare earths are an essential ingredient in many electronics, and China controls 95% of the global market. The wider crackdown on exports to all countries since 2010 seemed to be aimed at forcing manufacturers to move operations to China to ensure a stable supply, in the process transferring technology.
Any president, concerned with the welfare of the nation and in promoting American self-sufficiency, would warn us off the likely dead end of electric cars. But this president is more interested in political sufficiency and Union political contributions.
From the WSJ, Best comment of the week (no, not from here, no one ever comments here).
Bradley A. Smith takes more than 1,000 words to agree with the Citizens United decision (“The War on Political Free Speech,” op-ed, Jan. 23). The Supreme Court opinions on both sides span 183 pages. Opponents have filled the airways and Internet with countless ramblings criticizing the majority. “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech” is 10 straightforward words. There are zero words in the Constitution granting Congress the power to regulate corporate money in elections.
Am I to assume that law schools focus on advanced creative writing and skip basic reading comprehension?
Bryan Shaw
Austin, Texas
Romney wealth would surpass most presidents
WASHINGTON – Just how rich is Mitt Romney? Add up the wealth of the last eight presidents, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. Then double that number. Now you’re in Romney territory.
How did that happen? He seems to spend all his time running for President?
Conn. home invasion, Second killer sentenced.
How does a man move on with his life after losing his wife and daughters to two ruthless home invaders who tormented, then killed them?
For more than four years, a nation both disgusted and captivated by a chilling crime in prototypical suburbia has wondered that. Only one man — Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor — can provide the answer.
On Friday, with the second killer sentenced to death and the book closed after two long, graphic trials, Petit gave a clue as to how he copes with pain he has been forced to revisit continually in court…
A needle in his arm is Wrong. He should be burnt at the stake at the Superbowl Half-Time Show.
How I woke up to the untruths of Barack Obama
The President’s State of the Union address was as weaselly as any politician’s could be.
“This is the sub-prime house that Barack Obama built”. As a rising young Chicago politician in 1995, no one campaigned more actively than Mr Obama for an amendment to the US Community Reinvestment Act, legally requiring banks to lend huge sums to millions of poor, mainly black Americans, guaranteed by the two giant mortgage associations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
As I said, may this be the last SOTU we hear from this liar.
On the North River 