Happy Birthday Chrystal, been a while.

Just watched The Hobbit, an unexpected Journey, best movie ever!

We haven't been on in a couple of years, but in discussion we decided to hop in and say "Hi".
Bonnie and I are doing very well, living together now.

Wait, I distinctly recall going on a mission while in Vermont to get the good stuff.... So now, Canada?!?

Aww

Funny that we have that in common, no problem communicating or being out-going, but default to quiet environments (home) by preference, preferably together.

I've only met one, she's sitting across from me right now.

I've only met one, she's sitting across from me right now.

NO!!

Slim....

Cheap labor isn't rare.

Thinking, No, I didn't fly 7,000 miles to Kazakhstan for the tourist sites, honey.

Happy birthday Merry.

I'm here for the hors d'oeuvres, and if I'm being honest, the service ain't that great.

Condolences Larsi, keep with the forum, you brighten this place.

Elon Musk just announced Tesla's eliminating the need for rare Earth elements, and many have discounted the announcement as hype to boost Tesla stock.

It isn't - A new breakthrough allows cheaper fabrication of a long known iron alloy, iron nitride, that yields a magnet more than 2X the strength of neodymium at half the cost and that cost will go down once fabrication is streamlined.

China has the global monopoly on rare Earth's and has been saber-rattling with Japan and Taiwan over territorial rights where major sea deposits lie.

Neodymium accounts for over 90% of global rare Earth demands, but iron nitride will also replace other rare Earth's.

American ingenuity is still alive and well.

China can stick to making trinkets for now.


Great video on the topic, I'm a big "Two Bit Davinci" fan, Ricky Roy's great - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xInA76a1eVs

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Hot

Finding a show/movie both Bonnie and I like, that we talk about for weeks, months after.

Median wage is $54K/yr, the average person works 45 years = $2.4 mil.

Even on a flat monetary level, $5 million is insane.

The counter, there is absolutely no denying America did horrific things to African-Americans up to the mid 17th century and then continued to repress them after.

A more sensible approach might be free college for all descendants, along with shelter/food during college, maybe interest free home loans after college.

There is absolutely no denying the residual effects of descendants of slavery, but $5 million is just insane.

The better, more sensible approach is to pay to elevate those descendants to where they would be, had they migrated here like the rest of us.

Thinking I always get touch of melancholy when the plane departs and we can't text.

There's no debate that he'll be indicted, the charges, though, are relatively lesser compared to what's in the pipeline in Georgia and the DOJ.

Right now the republican GA senate is attempting to create a law that allows them to over-rule their own prosecutor so they can stop their own DA, similar to what's going on in Israel right now, but I highly doubt it'll get past SCOTUS, similar attempts have been shot down in the past by SCOTUS.

"We're all pretending we've got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it's been is too tough to digest," he wrote. "But come on. There really isn't an upside to Trump."