Massive lode of rare-earth metals found in Japanese waters

boing
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I think you may have gotten that a bit tangled (-: Tesla’s batteries don’t use magnets. (-:

But, yeah, current Tesla/Panasonic 2170 battery cells contain no rare elements whatsoever (older versions used some lanthanum). And Tesla doesn’t use permanent-magnet DC motors but, rather, AC synchronous motors – invented by Nikola Tesla – which don’t use permanent magnets at all.

ETA: I was wrong about the motors. The Tesla Roadster, Model S and Model X all use AC induction motors, but the new Model 3 uses a brushless DC permanent-magnet design, which will indeed use rare earths (mostly Neodymium, probably small amounts of Praseodymium, and possibly others) in its magnets.

Sorry about the misinfo.

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also formerly known as Marcus Island, which has changed hands a surprising amount since WWII.

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Well that’s nice and all, but have you ever tried mining under the ocean? I have, in Minecraft, and it’s really hard!

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as opposed to the common-earth elements: Warpium, Chineesium, Crappium, and Finc.

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Thanks for the reference, I was having a sense of déjà vu about this.

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Kind of everything comes in a semi-infinite supply, right??

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I don’t hate Americans but it would be some sort of justice for electing dRumpf, him backing out of the TPP and throwing the markets into years of turmoil if the current TPP signatories said “No thanks, we have enough players in the TPP for now.”

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Mathematically, sure. But when computer people talk about “forever” or even “lifetime” I’ve discovered that they mean a dramatically shorter period of time than I do.

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somehow all those manganese nodules turned out to be a Soviet submarine. I wonder what these rare earths will turn out to be.

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Do you mean it’s clearly contested Chinese property in Chinese waters?

(in 3…2…1…)

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Jalad and Daneel at Minamitorishima island, gathering and throwing salad at one another.

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Until Dyspropium is something you are moved to bored tears with in middle school, when you are 8, I think, is close to ‘forever.’

Schoolwasfinewemadedyspropiumanddiscussedlanthanidedeprecations.

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I like the evenly spaced stars on the sea chart. Maybe we get a little better rez, we see the note:
Yo past Japan. We heard you like rare earths without overdeveloping China? No problem!
-Love, future.

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Just as long as they don’t rouse Godzilla…

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Oh deer lord, this.
Whenever I see something peddled with a ‘lifetime warranty’ or ‘lifetime updates’ or something along those lines I throw up a little in my mouth.

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… aaand just like K-129 the penny just dropped. Good one.

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If the minerals are currently being created for an indefinite amount of time then you could conclude that this is semi-infinite.
Nothing that exists is really infinite. Do numbers that have never even been thought of exist?

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The reason why maganese nodule mining was such a great cover story is that it really was something people were already looking at in the early 70s.

OTOH, the search for the RMS Titanic was used as a cover story for finding the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion, so who knows.

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Yep.

“We’ve got a deal” already, said Steven Ciobo, Australia’s trade minister, who added, “I can’t see that all being thrown open to appease the United States.”

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You just have to reset your physics model to Dwarf Fortress mode.

Once you’ve done that a few pumps should be enough to keep your miners nice and dry.

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