Does anybody else find "rare earths" (稀土) a funny word (short for "rare earth minerals" or "elements")? In Europe last week I saw a guy in a baseball cap that said "there is no planet B." The earth is rare indeed -- we have only one! - ThreadSky

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social • 16 days ago

Does anybody else find "rare earths" (稀土) a funny word (short for "rare earth minerals" or "elements")? In Europe last week I saw a guy in a baseball cap that said "there is no planet B." The earth is rare indeed -- we have only one!

Reposted from Judah Grunstein

In her WPR column yesterday, Mary Gallagher detailed just how China cornered the market on rare earths, which is very similar to how it cornered the market on EVs.

China's mass and state-party system essentially allow it to corner the market by breaking the market.

Comments

deflatermaus.bsky.social•16 days ago

"sparse dirt" not quite as poetic

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

Trump shaking Zelenskyy: you're not being very NICE to me! I want your SPARSE DIRTS! THANK for your attention to this matter!

deflatermaus.bsky.social•16 days ago

sparse dirts, an old fashioned term we used to have, we had this beautiful word, 'sparse dirts' and now it's gone. Everyone says rare earths. I'm using the word again. When you buy lanthanum, when you buy samarium, that's sparse dirts.

ajaanmark.bsky.social•16 days ago

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

ah so sparse dirts is what happens when all you eat is hamberders :-(

ajaanmark.bsky.social•16 days ago

😳

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

another "lincoln as bizarro trump" convergence

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

I'm curious about the origins and meanings of "weaponized interdependence" -- it seems like policyspeak of rather recent vintage, and deriving from PRC(+EU+USA) policyworld.

https://pollution.sustainability-directory.com/term/weaponized-interdependence/

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

Does "weaponized interdependence" work grammatically similarly to "instrumentalized religion," i.e., you have the good, pure thing ("interdependence" "religion") that strategic actors ruin by tethering it to competition and capitalism?

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

"hey! couldja stop beating these plowshares into swords!? we're gonna run out of plowshares if you keep doing that!"

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

"weaponized interdependence" perhaps less useful than the language of "cornering the market": not about taking advantage of innate structures of cooperation, but about setting the terms of what a market and what "reliance" looks like

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

i wonder if it isn't 75% of what you learn in business school: "duh, corner the market." The other 25% is the entrepreneurial dark arts, where the market's already cornered, create a market niche out of thin air

aohsusometimesy.bsky.social•16 days ago

"Adam Smith in Beijing"? Deng Xiaoping in Washington

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply