There has recently been a bit of a brouhaha over the so-called “rare earth metals,” China’s control of them, and fears that they may restrict supplies to the rest of the world.  Before I get to what I really want to talk about, I want to say that the name “rare earth metal” is a terrible one.  These minerals are only rare in comparison to other ( Read more... )

I went downtown today with James, Lindsey, and Matt.  We visited the Silk Market (where I bought my Robe of Awesome +5 a couple weeks ago) and the China Military Museum.  Of note is the extremely nice Weiqi (围棋) set I bought.  Weiqi is known by its decadent, Japanese name Go, but I prefer the Chinese, for obvious reasons.

But the Military ( Read more... )