how much moolah are we talking about here? and weren't you worried the money would be teh fakeh?

I needz it, it's one of the few sci fi shows around nowadays

it's gone, you are a wreck
tears on your pillow, you just want it back

nanananana nana nanananana nana

you're supposed to inhale...

dating should lead to an actual intimate relationship that both parties acknowledge eventually, otherwise it retroactively ceases to be dating!

> The Yell wrote:

> So I've been dating my barber, or I thought I was, for like 2 years, and I was waiting to go out with her to dinner, and I let a customer get a haircut in front me, because I said I was waiting to take her to dinner.
And she said "Yeah he's taking me to dinner, we're just friends".

So... I guess that means we're not dating?

it's discrimination against other Europeans! This shall not stand!!

in a couple of decades south america will be chinese and you'll be glad the british have a foothold nearby X(

the falklands have some pretty good military infrastructure now, the royal navy isn't as big or powerful as it used to be, but the Argentinian military was reduced even way more. I heard that their military is weaker than it was during the first Falkland war because it got mostly stuck at the same tech level with less equipment. The UK has at least improved it's tech level even though it reduced its equipment.

In any case the Argentinian invasion of the Falklands was a surprise attack against tiny military defences with very little UK military assets around to reinforce against the initial wave, now there is a big ass military base on the islands that would not only pick up an invasion force but would also be very well placed to oppose a landing. And of course it's a safe bet that there are one or more UK submarines in the area at any time.

I resent any "science" which tells me I can't have my cake and eat it. X( I am however a very big fan of quantum physics.

mirrors

yes, it wouldn't make sense for energy since there are going to be much better alternatives (since we're just fantasizing I'll mention say a nuclear fusion for electricity purposes and a hydrogen fueld transport system). However we have a lot more uses for oil in our modern day economy than just energy. IF we ever run out of oil then we COULD consider synthetic oil for that purpose. In this hypothesis I'm not thinking about coal based synthetic oil mind you (which we're capable of producing already at a rather acceptable degree of cost and efficiency - thank you German engineers from WWII), but real oil produced synthetically from scratch with organic material. But before we reach that point we'd have to have depleted the vast amounts of low quality oil from tar sands etc. so it's not a big issue anyway I'm just saying that we could do it (we can make outstanding synthetic diamonds from scratch too).

> EmperorHez wrote:

> p.s. I wouldn't want to rely on synthetic oil. the resources put into producing it en masse probably wouldnt be worth it

it's like making batteries. the energy it costs to produce a normal AA battery is far greater than the amount of energy that AA battery will ever release.

**********

I would say that this strategy has a bit of everything. It's simply nice to have valuable and rare earth minerals which you know are only going to appreciate in value regardless of the reason for this increase. You give a scientist a rare earth element to play with and given time and resources he'll always come up with something that puts this resource to good use. In the short term of course I think it's pretty much a given that China is securing a resource base for its immediate expansion. It's not going to do them much good to own the resources only to have to sell them on to developed countries because they don't have the proper industries to use them themselves! China's immediate interest is to build its own industrial complex that rivals or exceeds any nation on the planet, not to become the new OPEC. Any advantage is of course an advantage they won't frown upon.

Re: Swift depreciation of oilIt seems people need some exposition as to why a swift depreciation in the price of oil is a possibility.

>In another thread, there was discussion on China's cornering the market of rare earth reserves.  Why are they doing this, I wonder?  It has been proposed it is to move their manufacturers up the supply chain so as to produce and distribute more finished products. 

But another potential reason for their interest in rare earths is that they could be positioning themselves for a coming paradigm shift away from a fossil fuel reliant economy to one based on alternative energy sources.  In particular, an economic distribution system based on electric rather than combustion engines, one which would rely on a new and improved ultra-efficient rechargeable "battery" technology, the production of which would require rare earths.

Electric engine utility trucks for inner-city and electric powered freight trains for inter-city transportation of goods will become the norm in such an economy, and a swift depreciation in the price of oil would result, in my opinion.

(Already today in major Chinese cities, there is a shift away from the use of combustion engines for, I would estimate, as much as 10% of inner-city distribution, mostly by electric bicycle / utility trucks).