Number 6. American Rare Earths dot com. Rare earths discovery could be world leader.
Well, there goes the neighborhood.
American Rare Earths Inc. has discovered a deposit of rare minerals in Wyoming roughly 10 times the size of any other deposits in the world. They found 2.3 billion metric tons of unobtanium after digging a hole a quarter mile deep.
Deposits of neodymium and praseodymium could be processed and sold for use in various applications. Rare earths are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, robots, drones and computer chips. Currently, much of the world’s production of rare earth minerals is controlled by other countries, including China. The U.S. is forced into doing business internationally to keep up with these items.
Now, cowboys in southeast Wyoming will rule the roost. Their only concern is how to limit production so they don’t destroy the market before they can afford to buy new saddles and new Ford pickups.
As I think about it, I’m pretty sure my great-grandmother homesteaded land there in 1864. Her name was Moira Silver Eagle O’Malley Ghormley, a descendant of slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. She was also handicapped, had PTSD from Civil War service as a nurse, and was an early champion of women’s suffrage.
If I search for it, I think I can find a deed around here someplace.
Number 5. MSN dot com. Supreme Court emergency decision to end firearm permits nationwide.
I know you are just as anxious as I am to read this article, but it has disappeared from MSN’s website. Here is a screen clip of the clickable headline:
If you are reading this on a mobile phone, and the font is too small, it says:
Supreme Court Emergency Decision To End All Firearm Permits Nationwide Gets Put Into Motion. The plaintiffs then resubmitted the application to Justice Clarence Thomas, who referred it to the full court… This case comes at a time of heightened debate over gun control and Second Amendment…
And this is what briefly flashes on the screen when you click that headline:
And then you get a new search page, as promised, which makes no mention of SCOTUS or Clarence Thomas or firearm permits.
I read the article earlier this week. The gist is that a plaintiff named Srour had filed suit against the state of New York for not granting him a concealed carry license. Mr. Srour was denied because he is not a resident of that state.
Justice Kagan reviewed the case and denied it. (I am actually not sure how this all works.) Mr. Srour appealed her review; his appeal was heard by Justice Thomas, who accepted the case and forwarded it to the full Supreme Court. Presumably that means it will be on the docket next year. Given the complexion of the Court, it is likely a decision would invalidate New York’s denial of the permit.
That would prohibit every state from denying concealed carry permits, which would be de facto nationwide concealed carry.
Which would be a big change.
But the article has disappeared from MSN, and I cannot find other references to it.
Maybe I dreamed it? (Or it could be that AI cowboy I have been impersonating is playing tricks on me.)
Stay tuned.
Number 4. Carscoops dot com. Ford pumps the brakes on EV battery orders.
(Clever headline, but who pumps the brakes anymore? Or even knows what that is, or why it was done?)
Not so fast there, Wyoming cowboys!
All those chunks of rare earth that you were planning to sell to the auto industry for their new electric vehicles may be in much less demand than you think.
It seems that Ford has lost $100,000 per EV sale so far this year. That would be the BAD news. The GOOD news is they didn’t sell nearly as many as they planned.
There is a lot more in this short article, mostly describing the voodoo economics that analysts use to either explain why sales are good when they actually stink, or why sales have tanked even though people are still buying. The interpretation depends on who is reading the entrails. But a $100k loss per car is probably bad in anybody’s book.
So at this point, Ford has reduced their orders for EV batteries. They still have contracts in place, but the outlook is maybe not as rosy as it was a year ago.
Give it time. Somebody will figure out how to shame us into buying electric cars. Maybe, if the Wyoming cowboys find a few hundred million tons of copper in them thar hills, we will be able to build enough chargers to make them all run.
Number 3. Blink Mobility. The Impact of vandalism at charging stations.
EV drivers have it bad enough, what with half the country making fun of them, and forcing them to take stoical refuge in the admiration of the other half, who laud them for investing considerable cash into saving Mother Earth through gasoline avoidance.
Driving an electric vehicle sounds like it would be entertaining, as long as the battery has a good charge. For those of us who get nervous when the gas gauge dips below the 3/4 full mark, exercising your EV battery to near depletion must be gut-wrenching.
And now, vandals are hitting your charging stations.
Multiple incidents of charging cords being stolen have sprung up across the country. In Oakhurst, California, a new high-speed supercharger station with 8 stalls lost all the power cords one night, each cut close to the base. The entire charging facility was out of business until repairs could be made.
Going out on a limb here, I suspect you cannot get a replacement power cord for a V3 Supercharger stall at Walmart or at Batteries Plus.
In Cincinnati, power cords were also stolen, then replaced, and then stolen again in the same week.
Besides raw “We hate you because you support the Green agenda” ideology, there may also be an economic dynamic to this vandalism. Each large-capacity charging cord may contain up to two lbs of copper wire. At a commodity price of $4.00 per pound, each cord could be worth as much as $8.00.
Do the math. For 8 charging stations, that’s $64 per theft. If you operate in an EV-friendly city, you could make several hundred bucks each week. You would, of course, have to drive your gas guzzler to the stations, so you would need to net out the cost of your dino fuel.
And while we are at it, EV charging stations are not the only target for the copper harvest. In Oakland, the city-owned power cable that connects the electrical box to the traffic lights at the 12th Street/16th Avenue intersection keeps disappearing.
In this case, there is a strong suspicion that the local homeless population is to blame.
Choosing to forfeit the battle, the City has now replaced the darkened traffic lights with 4-way Stop signs. But the depressingly entertaining dimension is where the new Stop sign is mounted.
Because the lights were suspended from a tall curved arm above the intersection, City workers decided that was a good place for the Stop sign.
It hangs aloof, 20 feet above the pavement. Odd place for a Stop sign, but I suppose that’s where drivers are accustomed to finding the red light.
As an intriguing footnote, the article reports that enterprising homeless persons have jimmied the traffic light electrical box, now without it’s aerial power cord, to provide free electricity at ground level for phone chargers.
Don’t you love American ingenuity?
Number 1. Just the News. Illinois legislators change “offender” to “justice-impacted individual”
Nothing says love and care for your fellow man like using the right label.
Illinois House Bill 4409 aims to eliminate the social cost of assigning a pejorative term like “offender” to someone who has, ahh, offended. Instead, once the justice system has worked its process, and a, ahh, person has been deemed guilty, the law would require that they be referred to as a “justice-impacted individual.”
Because, you see, the legal system will definitely have an impact on the individual, and thus the person is justice-impacted.
I supposed this would be comparable to calling a person in a car crash a “dashboard-impacted individual.” Or a shooting victim a “lead-impacted individual.” (Or maybe a “jacketed hollow-point penetrated individual.”)
And by the way, if the law passes, every Illinois state document identifying an offender will have to be re-published with corrected language. Cost estimates run to many, many thousands of dollars. Because crime has seriously increased in Illinois since 2019, the re-printing could be referred to as “language-impacted non-budgeted expense.”
And just for fun, and because my mind is a little warped heading into a holiday weekend, I challenged ChatGPT to come up with other labels in a similar vein:
Car crash victim: Road-impact casualty
Shooting victim: Bullet-impact fatality
Tornado victim: Storm-impact casualty
Drowning victim: Water-impact fatality
Mugging victim: Crime-impact casualty
Snow ski death: Slope-impact fatality
Bullfighter gored by a bull: Horn-impact casualty
Mountain climber who fell: Cliff-impact fatality
Skydiver whose parachute failed: Freefall-impacted person
Okay, enough of this! As Cowboy Roy might say:
Thanks for joinin’ us for That Old ‘Gator News Roundup for Friday, May 24, 2024. Y'all have a real fine weekend; fly them U.S. flags high and proud on Monday, and God bless the USA!
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