CHINA: Rare Earth Elements, Global Trade and China

Interesting look at the global trade in rare Earth elements (REEs) and China's impact on the industry.

Understanding China's Rare Earth Metals Market: What Changing Regulations Could Mean

Read more: http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/commodities/articles/Understanding-China2527s-Rare-Earth-Metals-Market/2/8/2013/id/48000#ixzz2KQrx7aoC

ANTHRO: Pandering To The Sensationalist Masses

Time magazine has some interesting articles, but this one just seems beyond the pale with its blan=tent pandering to the Discovery Channell/TLC/History Channel crowd.  Cryotozologists, Sasquwatchers, astronuts and other conspiracy theorists will love this outrageous treatment of what is an uncommon but neverthless fairly well-document practice uncovered by bioarcheologists the world over:  head-wrapping.

 

Ancient Conehead-like ‘Alien’ Skulls Unearthed in Mexico

 

ANTHRO: Food Shopping, Grocery Stores, and The Culture Of Consumption

Grocery stores fascinate me for many reasons.  Here is an academic treatment of grocery shopping by some obscure little university  reasearch lab:

Grocery Shopping Psychology
http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/research/grocery-shopping-psychology.html

The Cornell Food & Brand Lab

In addition, some less academic, more "popular" treatments:

How Grocery Stores Use Psychology to Manipulate Consumers
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-grocery-stores-psychology-manipulate-consumers-6693388.html?cat=46

How Grocery Stores Get You To Spend Your Money Even When You Think You Are Being Thrifty!
http://www.moneymatters101.com/savemoney/gstore.asp

GEO: Immigration reform bill likely in the Senate. What will the House do?

This from "politico":

Senate group reaches immigration deal

Illinois senior senator and co-sponor of the DREAM act Dick Durbin (top- second from left) is among the so-called "gang of 8".
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/senate-group-reaches-immigration-deal-86793
 

And from the New York Times (some multimedia here as well):

Senators Offer a Bipartisan Blueprint for Immigration

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/us/politics/senators-agree-on-blueprint-for-immigration.html?_r=0

 

GEO: Citizenship exam- Are you smarter than an immigrant?

Take the us Citizenship test at the Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0104/Could-you-pass-a-US-citizenship-test/Who-signs-bills?cmpid=prc:ctzn:d&nav=448128-csm_quiz-rcPromo

You must get 58 out of 96 questions correct in order to pass.
92% of immigrants seeking citizen pass the test, although they are given an oral exam where they must answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly to pass.

INDIA: The largest Single Gathering of People on the Planet is a Hindu Ritual

The World of the Kumbh Mela: Inside the Largest Single Gathering of Humanity

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/01/15/the-kumbh-mela-inside-the-worlds-single-largest-gathering-of-humanity/#ixzz2I9IMtbVA

Update:  (Feb. 10, 2013)

 

 

Pilgrims Killed in Crush to Get Home from Indian Festival

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/02/10/pilgrims-killed-in-crush-to-get-home-from-indian-festival/#ixzz2KifccrMu

GEO: General Government Debt as Percent of GDP by Country

Really cool site with lots of.... wait for it.... charts and maps!  Woo Hoo!

Can't vouch for the accuracy though- caveat emptor.

Check this one out on Government debt as a percentage of GDP:  On the website, you can roll over countries for more info.  AWESOME!  Also some cool links to check out for other data sources.

http://chartsbin.com/view/2108

GEO: Separatist movements outside the US

The separatist grumblingsin the United States, which looks a lot more like political sour grapes and knee-jerk, cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face talk radio cannon fodder than a bona fide political movement, could do well to look around the world where Separtist dreams have at least a snowball's chance you know where in passing:  places, like Spain, Canada, The UK... and even there it's not looking bloody likely.

Take Spain, for example.  They have much more of a gripe with the Spanish Government than, say, Texas does in the US.  The Catalan region pays out WAY more than they get in from the federal government, whereas Texas just about breaks even.  More to the point, the Catalans have their own language, whereas in the US much of the US would like to pretend that Texans speak a different language, but Texans are more likely to claim they speak "American" than "Texan."  That doesn't help the separatist cause much.  But sit back and watch the wacky hijinks ensue if a movement to declare "Texan" a language ever unfolds.  It will be almost as wacky as a movement to get Texas to secede (while the capital, Austin, wages a counter-movement to remain part of the US- I couldn't make this up if I tried, people).

Voters in Spain's Catalan region punish leader who called for independence referendum

http://news.yahoo.com/voters-spains-catalan-region-punish-leader-called-independence-073013214.html

Resources: US to become a top producer of oil in the next 5 years? China and global coal consumption.

The US is already a top oil producer.  We just don't have the huge proven reserves of other countries, like Iran or Saudi Arabia.  That being said, our technology is indeed increasing our reserves, both potential and proven.  The question is, at what point will our technology run out, and we will be left with stones from which we can get no lifelblood for a fossil-fuel economy.  And, at what cost to our environment at teh regional and global scale.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/business/energy-environment/report-sees-us-as-top-oil-producer-in-5-years.html

China and global use of coal:
http://science.time.com/2013/01/29/the-scariest-environmental-fact-in-the-world/?xid=newsletter-weekly

GEO: Dependency Ratio in one Graph

Here's a shiny little graph that lets you see how dependency ratio is slated to look in selected countries in the future. 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/11/06/164408156/old-people-versus-babies-in-one-graph?sc=nl&cc=pmb-20121108

Ask yourself- what is this likely to mean?