Monday Business Edition

I have a Liberal Arts background, a History Major (also Methodist) like George Walker Bush.

And shucks, my discipline has no predictive nature at all-

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience. – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905

The hard sciences tend to rely on replicable independent observations supporting a predictive theory that can be tested by experiment.

You know, facts.

The social sciences have the luxury of being mostly observational.  If you’re honest.

Economics pretends to be a hard science, but it’s really just a bunch of assumptions represented symbolically so it can be disguised as Math.  It’s really as fuzzy as Philosophy.

Not so much a science as an argument.

Which brings me to this recent piece-

Academic Economists to Consider Ethics Code

By SEWELL CHAN, The New York Times

Published: December 30, 2010

Academic economists, particularly those active in policy debates in Washington and Wall Street, are facing greater scrutiny of their outside activities these days. Faced with a run of criticism, including a popular movie, leaders of the American Economic Association, the world’s largest professional society for economists, founded in 1885, are considering a step that most other professions took a long time ago – adopting a code of ethical standards.

The proposal, which has not been announced to the public or to the association’s 17,000 members, is partly a response to “Inside Job,” a documentary film released in October that excoriates leading academic economists for their ties to Wall Street as consultants, advisers or corporate directors.

…

Mr. Lucas added: “What disciplines economics, like any science, is whether your work can be replicated. It either stands up or it doesn’t. Your motivations and whatnot are secondary.”

Since economics emerged as a modern discipline in the late 19th century, its practitioners have resisted formal ethical codes, said George F. DeMartino, an economist at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

…

A recent paper (.pdf) by Gerald Epstein and Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that many financial economists who weighed in on the Wall Street overhaul signed into law in July did not prominently disclose potential conflicts of interest.

Frauds and charletans.  Confidence men and bunco artists.

When will we replicate the results enough?

Business News below.

1 US diplomats pushed Boeing deals: cables

AFP

Mon Jan 3, 1:10 am ET

2 Macau gaming revenue hits record in 2010

by Peter Brieger, AFP

26 mins ago

3 Spanish downturn ends immigrants’ dream of better life

by Elisa Santafe, AFP

Sun Jan 2, 5:39 pm ET

4 European debt crisis a boon for British blogger

by Daniel Silva, AFP

Sun Jan 2, 5:10 pm ET

5 Organic farming blooms in Serbia

by Stephanie van den Berg, AFP

2 hrs 59 mins ago

6 Spain holds Europe’s fate in its hands in 2011: analysts

by David Williams, AFP

Sun Jan 2, 5:24 pm ET

7 Merkel must get Germans to back sound EU

by William Ickes, AFP

Sun Jan 2, 1:56 am ET

8 Estonia rings in 2011 as 17th eurozone member

by Anneli Reigas, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 11:58 am ET

9 Bolivian president rescinds decree that raised fuel prices

by Raul Burgoa, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 1:21 pm ET

10 GM’s turnaround now fully in Akerson’s hands

by Joe Szczesny, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 12:32 pm ET

11 Tablets galore on tap at major CES gadget fest

by Glenn Chapman, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 11:57 am ET

12 Britain set for rocky economic ride in 2011

by Ben Perry, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 11:37 pm ET

13 Hungary, under fire over media law, takes over EU presidency

by Geza Molnar, AFP

Fri Dec 31, 6:38 pm ET

14 Asia factory output powers ahead but inflation worries

By Tony Munroe, Reuters

2 hrs 15 mins ago

15 Hyundai, Kia eye 10 percent 2011 sales rise after strong Dec

By Hyunjoo Jin, Reuters

Mon Jan 3, 2:40 am ET

16 Hangover or after-party for stocks?

By Edward Krudy, Reuters

Sun Jan 2, 11:30 am ET

17 CES gadget fest sizzle fizzles

By Gabriel Madway, Reuters

Sun Jan 2, 6:04 pm ET

18 Intel woos Hollywood studios with new microchip

By Noel Randewich, Reuters

Mon Jan 3, 12:20 am ET

19 Russian 2010 oil output hits post-Soviet record

By Vladimir Soldatkin, Reuters

Sun Jan 2, 6:54 am ET

20 Fiat Autos goes solo, spins off industrial unit

By COLLEEN BARRY, AP Business Writer

20 mins ago

21 Apple’s absence to be felt at CES gadget show

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

Mon Jan 3, 12:02 am ET

22 Cleaner tractors get cool reception from farmers

By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press

Mon Jan 3, 3:18 am ET

23 Singapore looks to tourism, casinos to fuel growth

By ALEX KENNEDY, Associated Press

24 mins ago

24 APNewsBreak: ND oil patch may double production

By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press

Sun Jan 2, 3:30 pm ET

25 ‘Coupon generation’ wields consumer power in China

By CHI-CHI ZHANG, Associated Press

Mon Jan 3, 12:00 am ET

26 Spending showdowns will test new Congress leaders

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

Sat Jan 1, 7:08 pm ET

27 Fans relieved to be able to watch Outback Bowl

By DANA WOLLMAN, AP Business Writer

Sat Jan 1, 5:47 pm ET

28 Baltic state of Estonia adopts the euro

By JARI TANNER and GARY PEACH, Associated Press

Fri Dec 31, 8:11 pm ET

29 Bonds’ dramatic year sets stage for higher rates

By Janna Herron, AP Business Writer

Fri Dec 31, 5:59 pm ET

30 US dollar seen rising in 2011 after rough 2010

By Paul Wiseman and Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writers

Fri Dec 31, 5:42 pm ET

31 Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf post small December sales

By SHARON SILKE CARTY, AP Auto Writer

Fri Dec 31, 9:31 am ET

32 Tea off: India’s farmers say climate changing brew

By WASBIR HUSSAIN, Associated Press

Fri Dec 31, 3:29 pm ET

33 Big changes possible for Atlantic City in 2011

By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press

Sun Jan 2, 7:12 pm ET

34 Mortgage lenders now advertising as crisis solvers

By JACOB ADELMAN, Associated Press

Fri Dec 31, 4:17 pm ET

Figures on government spending and debt

Associated Press

Fri Dec 31, 6:27 pm ET

Figures on government spending and debt…  The government’s fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Total public debt subject to limit Dec. 30	13,819,636,000,000
Statutory debt limit	14,294,000,000,000
Total public debt outstanding Dec. 30	13,871,130,000,000
Operating balance Dec. 30	273,904,000,000
Interest fiscal year 2011 through November	36,831,000,000
Interest fiscal year 2010 through November	35,889,000,000
Deficit fiscal year 2011 through November	290,826,000,000
Deficit fiscal year 2010 through November	296,650,000,000
Receipts fiscal year 2011 through November	294,912,000,000
Receipts fiscal year 2010 through November	268,857,000,000
Outlays fiscal year 2011 through November	585,738,000,000
Outlays fiscal year 2010 through November	565,507,000,000
Gold assets in November	11,041,000,000

Can you eat gold?

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

January 3 is the third day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 362 days remaining until the end of the year (363 in leap years). The Perihelion, the point in the year when the Earth is closest to the Sun, occurs around this date.

On this day in 1938, The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

March of Dimes is an American health charity whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

Polio was one of the most dreaded illnesses of the 20th century, and killed or paralyzed thousands of Americans during the first half of the 20th century. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis on January 3, 1938. Roosevelt himself was paralyzed with what at the time was believed to be polio, though recent examination has led some to suggest that this diagnosis might have been mistaken. The original purpose of the Foundation was to raise money for polio research and to care for those afflicted with the disease. The name emphasized the national, nonpartisan, and public nature of the new organization, as opposed to private foundations established by wealthy families. The effort began with a radio appeal, asking everyone in the nation to contribute a dime (ten cents) to fight polio.

“March of Dimes” was originally the name of the annual fundraising event held in January by the Foundation. The name “March of Dimes” for the fundraising campaign was coined by entertainer Eddie Cantor as a play on the popular newsreel feature of the day, The March of Time. Along with Cantor, many prominent Hollywood, Broadway, radio, and television stars served as promoters of the charity. When Roosevelt died in office in 1945, he was commemorated by placing his portrait on the dime. Coincidentally, this was the only coin in wide circulation which had a purely allegorical figure (Liberty) on the obverse. To put Roosevelt on any other coin would have required displacing a president or founding father.

Over the years, the name “March of Dimes” became synonymous with that of the charity and was officially adopted in 1979.

 1431 – Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.

1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

1749 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.

1777 – American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.

1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.

1823 – Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.

1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.

1861 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.

1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Choshu seize power.

1870 – The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.

1888 – The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.

1924 – British explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

1925 – Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

1932 – Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.

1933 – Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.

1938 – The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1944 – World War II: Top Ace Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.

1945 – World War II: Admiral Chester W Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan.

1947 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.

1953 – Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.

1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.

1958 – The West Indies Federation is formed.

1959 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. State.

1961 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.

1961 – The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, leaks radiation, killing three workers.

1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated.

1988 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century.

1990 – Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.

1993 – In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

1994 – An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkutsk, Russia, killing 125 people including one on the ground.

1994 – More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receives South African citizenship.

1997 – The People’s Republic of China announces it will spend $27.7 billion USD to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.

1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched.

1999 – Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.

2004 – Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people on board.

2007 – National Express has its worst ever coach crash just outside Heathrow Airport.

Holidays and observances

   Christian Feast Day:

       Genevieve

       January 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   Tamaseseri Festival (Hakozaki Shrine, Fukuoka)

   The tenth day of Christmas (Western Christianity)

Throwing Good Money After Bad



Demise of Iraqi water park illustrates limitations, abuse of U.S. funding program

BAGHDAD – In thespring of 2008, Gen. David H. Petraeus decided he had spent enough time gazing from his helicopter at an empty and desolate lake on the banks of the Tigris River. He ordered the lake refilled and turned into a water park for all of Baghdad to enjoy.

The military doctrine behind the project holds that cash can be as effective as bullets. Under Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq at the time, that principle gained unprecedented emphasis, and it has become a cornerstone of the war effort in Afghanistan, now under Petraeus’s command.

Remember Sarah Palin Doesn’t Believe    

 

How Assam’s tea is beginning to feel the strain of global warming

Lush green tea plantations, so bright they often look fluorescent, blanket the hills of Assam in northeastern India. Women plucking the leaves in black aprons with large baskets on their backs dot the gardens that contribute to India’s production of nearly a third of the world’s tea. But this picturesque industry that the British began in the early 19th-century faces a very modern problem: climate change.

Researchers and planters worry that a rise in temperatures and change in rainfall patterns are threatening the production and quality of Assam’s famous tea.

About 850 tea gardens in Assam produce 55 percent of India’s tea, but crop yields are decreasing and amid fears of a correlation with environmental change.

We’re Not Going To Play Along  



South Korea stands firm against North’s ‘adventurism’

However, the North should abandon its “military adventurism” first, he said.

Seoul would respond strongly to any threat against “an inch of our territory”, he said, but with sincerity, progress could be made.

Mr Lee’s New Year’s speech on Monday came two days after Pyongyang delivered a mixed message of openness to talks and increased military posture.

The US envoy responsible for policy toward North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, is scheduled to visit Seoul on Tuesday before going on to China and Japan.

Thank You For Not Smoking    



So long, smoke-filled tapas bars: Spain’s smoking ban begins  

Madrid

Spain’s reignas the last Western European haven for smokers ended Sunday as a new law came into effect banning smoking in enclosed public places.

Those caught smoking indoors or even in some open spaces like playgrounds will now have to pay a 30 euro ($40) fine and as much as 100,000 euros ($134,000) after being caught three times. Restaurant and bar owners failing to impose the new law will pay between 60 euros ($80) and 100,000 euros for each violation.

Many Spaniards are happy about the change, given the country’s reputation for smoke-filled tapas bars.

Who Needs Public Hospitals With 50 million Uninsured  

 

Florida’s new governor likely to target public hospitals

Florida’s government-owned hospitals will be in the political cross hairs after Tuesday’s inauguration of Rick Scott, once leader of the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain.

The governor-elect’s transition team has recommended creation of a panel to study whether government-owned hospitals — Miami-Dade’s Jackson Health System and Broward’s two hospital districts among them — are necessary.

“This is going to be a very hot topic during the legislative session,” said Barney Bishop of Associated Industries of Florida, lobbyists for the state’s large businesses.

War hero’s tour: A soldier adjusts to fame



Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration

It was years in the making, so Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta had time to talk with his wife about the “what if” question. He’d been recommended for the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration. If chosen, his name would be in headlines. His face in the spotlight. He’d be a celebrity.

And again and again, he’d have to tell strangers the harrowing story of a deadly ambush in Afghanistan.

“He was worried,” says Giunta’s wife, Jenny. “He didn’t know how he was going able to talk to people about it. He couldn’t even talk to me. He didn’t even talk to his parents about it. How was he going to talk to the world about it? How was he going to be OK with telling his story?”

Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope that 2011 will find you well and prosperous.  Last week we began to examine the so called Rare Earth Elements, which turn out to have lots of uses, many of them to do, oddly, with optics in diverse ways.  This week we shall finish up the series about them.

I reluctantly admit that I did not take as much time as necessary for the piece last week, mostly because even I did not understand just how important these elements are, both from a modern technological standpoint and also from an historical one for chemistry becoming a modern, “hard”, science.  First we shall look into some history, then finish up the elements themselves.

I was amiss for not explaining the origin of the term Rare Earth elements.  At the time that they were just beginning to be discovered, an “earth” was synonymous with an “ore”.  Thus, the Rare Earths were metal containing ores of unfamiliar elements then.  We are talking a timeframe of the early to mid 1800s.  It turns out that one of the first sources of these “earths” were found in Sweden, around a town called Ytterby.  Note that many of the names of the elements are derivatives of this name.

Actually, these elements are not particularly rare, although at the time of them being named, only a very few sources of ore were known, hence the name.  For example, cerium (the most abundant rare earth) is about as common as copper, so many of them are not really rare at all.  Now, some of them are comparatively rare in the ores, so several are not as common as others.

In my piece last week I was also amiss by not inserting a periodic table to help you visualize the electronic structures of these elements.  Here it is.  Notice that these elements occupy a single space on the main table, with a row near the bottom of it in group 3.  Note that some authorities include scandium, Z = 23, and yttrium, Z = 39 with the rare earths.  This is because their chemistries are similar to them, but because of atomic radius differences not as close together as what I consider to be the true rare earths.

The distribution of the various elements in the ores is quite interesting.  As I mentioned last week, their chemistries are extremely similar, so normal weathering processes do not separate them as efficiently as they separate, say, zinc and lead.  Thus, almost all rare earth ores contain all of the elements, but all of the different sources of ore have a unique fingerprint of their elemental composition.

Another interesting fact is that the ones with a Z that is even are almost always more common that either one before or after it with an odd Z.  This has to do with nuclear quantum mechanics, and it turns out for the heavier elements a general rule can be stated that elements with an even Z are, for the most part, more stable than those with an odd Z.  This gets even more interesting in that, on the whole, elements with an even number of neutrons tend to be more stable than those with an odd number.  Thus, heavier atoms with both an odd Z and and even mass number (required to be even if both the number of protons and neutrons are odd) tend to be the most unstable of all.  There are exceptions, but the trends are very clear.  That is why the rare earth elements are almost always found together, but in strikingly different quantities.

Let us look at a bit of history.  The rare earth ores are usually said to be discovered by Carl Axel Arrhenius (only a distant relative, if any at all to the great Swedish chemist, Svete Arrhenius, who live two or three generations later) in a mine Ytterby, Sweden.  This was an interesting material, and the chemists, such as they were at the time, tried to see what it was.  In time, this “earth” reached the renowned chemist, Johann Gadolin, who examined it in some detail.  Remember, one of those elements are named for him.  All of this was in a narrow calendar.  All of this happened from 1787 to 1803.

Well, what else was happening?  Something like the American Revolution, as I recall.  I firmly believe that Benj. Franklin was one the the driving forces behind these discoveries, since Franklin had the audacity to say “PUBLISH YOUR WORK, and I have a press ready.”

In any event, the samples finally came to my Ph.D. ancestor, Jöns Jacob Berzelius.  He did the best that he could with the technology at the time and found that the rare earth ore had at least two components, later to be found to be elements.  Now you see why this is so personal for me.  I just wished that Norm had done the certificate thing that Kuroda did.  I, with your help, will try to trace my Ph.D. all the way back to Berzelius, and send him a copy of what I intend to do on modern parchment.

In any event, as those ores were more and more examined, it turned out that they just were getting more complex.  I have had the same experience.  Sometimes it is just better to leave things alone, or to suffer things more complex than you really wanted.

Over 30 years later, Carl Gustav Mosander was keeping up with this work.  Whilst I have no direct evidence, he may have been a professor in my lineage.  Lineagolists, please help here.  Now there were six elements, and it confounded every chemist at the time.  How could those elements, with very similar properties, occupy the Periodic Table in the same place?  This is where we were in 1842, with six elements that could not be placed in the Table.  Yikes!

This continued to be the situation for decades, with new elements claimed and refuted and the exact number of the elements was not clear.  It was only after early quantum mechanics became developed that the number of lanathide elements was determined to be 15, since there are 14 f orbital electron spaces, which along with zero comes to 15.  Element 61 was not found until after the nuclear age, since it has no stable isotope.  This was another tribute to the genius of the Periodic Table, because in its essence it is but a reckoning of the electronic structure of the elements, and that electronic structure is the basis for all of chemistry.

Most of the problem in discovering the elements is that their chemistries are so similar that it is really hard to separate them.  That is also why they are always found together in nature, since natural processes also very inefficient at separating them.  When modern ion exchange techniques, which are incredibly efficient at separating materials with only very subtle chemistry differences, were developed in the 1940s the pure elements became available in quantities significant for exploitation.

Last week we got through terbium, so let us continue with the uses for the rest of the rare earth metals.

Dysprosium, Z = 66, comes next.  It is relatively uncommon, even for a rare earth, and has extremely valuable magnetic properties.  When used to replace part of the neodymium in rare earth magnets, it makes those magnets harder to demagnetize.  This is useful in high performance electric motors that are subjected to rigorous conditions, like electric automobile motors.  There will be an acute shortage of this element if hybrids and plug ins become popular, and likely other magnetic materials will have to be found to substitute for it.  It is also used as control rods in nuclear reactors since it is an efficient neutron “sponge”.  However, there are other good control rod materials, so I suspect that the magnetic properties of dysprosium will be of chief value in the coming years.

Holmium, Z = 67, is next in the series.  Like neodymium and dysprosium, it has extremely useful magnetic properties but is too rare to be used in really large applications.  It is used in solid state lasers, particularly for fibre optic communications because holmium based lasers are fairly efficient and operate in the infrared, commonly used for signal transmission.  It has also been used as control rods, but being even more expensive than dysprosium has mostly been replaced by cheaper materials.

Erbium, Z = 68, is even more useful as a laser material for communications because its lazing wavelength corresponds to the infrared wavelength where commercially produced fibre optic materials are the most transparent, thus reducing losses.  In addition, erbium is not as scarce as some of the other rare earths.  It also has another infrared line that is extremely strongly absorbed by water, making it ideal for laser surgery.  Formerly, most laser surgery was done with carbon dioxide lasers, but the modern YAG (yittrium aluminum garnet) crystal ones are simpler and more reliable.  When you see laser surgery on the TeeVee you also he a green or red spot where the surgery is being done.  That is produced by another, low power laser and is used just to assist the surgeon to see where the real, high intensity infrared laser is aimed.  It also is used as an alloying agent for some specialty steels.

Thulium, Z = 69, is the rarest of the rare earth metals.  Its principal use is in YAG lasers, and they laze in the infrared as well.  One of its lines is strongly absorbed by water, making it, like erbium, useful for medical lasers for surgery.  A very interesting use for thulium is that when exposed to neutrons in a reactor, it emits X-rays (actually, this is technically incorrect) with a useful lifetime of around a year.  This provides a source for X-rays in areas where electricity is not available for medical, dental, and industrial uses.  A thulium source consists essentially of a lead can with a lid that can be shuttered open and closed, much more compact than electrically powered X-ray sources.  The technical incorrectness arises from the fact that X-rays are not produced by nuclear transitions, gamma rays are.  X-rays are produced by electronic transitions.  However, the “soft” gamma rays emitted by a thulium source are of lower energy than some “hard” X-rays.  In terms of wavelength, X-rays and gamma rays overlap, so the terminology used should reference the process producing them rather than the use.  I should clarify the remark about rarity.  Promethium is rarer because it has no stable isotope and thus must be produced artificially.

Ytterbium, Z = 70, is also used like thulium for “X-ray” imagining purposes after being irradiated with neutrons in a reactor, but its greatest use is in optics.  It is utilized in high power near IR lasers for industrial use.  It also has the useful property of changing its electrical resistivity as a function of mechanical stress, making it useful for transducers that monitor stress.

The last rare earth element is lutetium, Z = 71.  Now, this is sort of an oddball in that its f shell is filled, so one could argue that since electrons can now go only into the next higher d orbital it really is a “regular” element.  However, I take issue with this viewpoint and consider it the last rare earth precisely because it filled its f orbital but since that is a nonvalence orbital that is still inner electron filling, just like the other rare earths.  Its chemistry certainly agrees with my view, and so does the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and I certainly do not want to argue with them.  There are not a lot of uses for lutetium, mostly because of its high cost and difficult metallurgy.  One major use is as the detector in PET scans, since cost is not much of an object for a device that requires an on-site cyclotron to make the imaging agents.

Just a word about PET (positron emission tomography) to let you know how it works.  Basically you take an imaging agent that has a radioactive nucleide that emits positrons.  The positrons, which are truly antimatter, immediately combine with regular electrons in your body and the two particles annihilate each other, producing a gamma ray.  These gamma rays are then detected and images constructed from the electronic signals.  It is almost like an X-ray, except the radiation comes from the inside of you, not passed through you from the outside.  The utility of PET is that, depending on the chemical in which the positron emitting nucleus is bound, different parts of the body can be preferentially imaged, depending on where the chemical is preferentially concentrated.  Most of the nucleides used only have a half life of a minute or two, so you do not stay radioactive very long.  That is also why you have to have a cyclotron on site, since the agents decay too rapidly to transport them off site, with very few exceptions.

This concludes our review of the rare earth elements.  As I said last week, these metals are becoming more and more important as new uses are found for them, and are already strategic materials.  This presents a geopolitical problem, since China produces over 90% of the rare earths (some figures are as high as 97%) used worldwide.  It the Chinese decide to limit production or restrict export, the entire developed world could be in trouble.  Look at the diverse uses for these metals, everything from cigarette lighters to lasers to phosphors to magnets to PET scanners.  For materials that many of you did not realize even existed, they are essential for modern life.

Fortunately, China does not possess over 90% of the world’s supply of rare earths.  The figure that I saw was around 35%, and in fact the United States has quite a good supply for critical uses.  It is not that most of the rare earths are actually rare (although as I have indicated, some are), but locations where they are found are extremely limited.  As I said earlier, “earth” meant ore at the time of the phase being coined, and there are only a very few ore deposits of them worldwide, but many of them are fairly extensive and were not found until long after the group of elements were named.

Well, you have done it again!  You have wasted many more einsteins of perfectly good photons (produced by rare earth phosphors if you use a CRT display but not a LCD or LED one) reading this common talk.  And even though Mark Steyn stops acting the buffoon when he reads me say it, I always learn much more than I ever possibly hope to teach by writing this series, so keep those comments, questions, corrections, and other feedback coming.  Remember, no science or technology related issue is off topic in the comments.  I shall hang around tonight as long as comments warrant, and shall visit again tomorrow evening after Keith’s show for Review Time.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Docudharma.com and at Dailykos.com

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Pakistan faces fresh political turmoil

AFP

10 mins ago

2 Pakistan government in crisis as coalition partner quits

by Hasan Mansoor, AFP

2 hrs 12 mins ago

3 A busy first day for Brazil’s new president

by Yana Marull, AFP

38 mins ago

4 Brazil’s first female president sworn in

by Marc Burleigh, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 6:47 pm ET

5 Brazil’s new president spends first full day in office

by Marc Burleigh, AFP

Sun Jan 2, 12:25 pm ET

6 Egypt minister pelted, fears of sectarian unrest

by Christophe de Roquefeuil, AFP

31 mins ago

7 Suicide bomber kills 21 at Egypt church

by Mona Salem, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 5:16 pm ET

8 Egyptians fear religious clashes after bombing

by Christophe de Roquefeuil, AFP

Sun Jan 2, 9:41 am ET

9 Spain’s bars and restaurants go smoke-free in tough new law

by Denholm Barnetson, AFP

1 hr 24 mins ago

10 Hasta la Vista: Arnie quits as California governor

by Michael Thurston, AFP

1 hr 13 mins ago

11 Ouattara ultimatum runs out as I.Coast’s Gbagbo defiant

by Thomas Morfin, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 5:12 pm ET

12 Nigerian leader vows to rid country of ‘terrorists’

by Ola Awoniyi, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 3:58 pm ET

13 Estonia rings in 2011 as 17th eurozone member

by Anneli Reigas, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 11:58 am ET

14 Bolivian president rescinds decree that raised fuel prices

by Raul Burgoa, AFP

Sat Jan 1, 1:21 pm ET

15 Hungary, under fire over media law, takes over EU presidency

by Geza Molnar, AFP

Fri Dec 31, 6:38 pm ET

16 Egypt holds seven for questioning after church blast

By Sarah Mikhail and Sherine El Madany, Reuters

37 mins ago

17 Obama aide: Debt limit fight could be "catastrophic"

By Caren Bohan, Reuters

1 hr 2 mins ago

18 Pakistan’s main government coalition partner quits

By Faisal Aziz, Reuters

52 mins ago

19 U.N. Ivory Coast mission to probe reported abuses

By Tim Cocks, Reuters

Sun Jan 2, 10:02 am ET

20 Russian 2010 oil output hits post-Soviet record

By Vladimir Soldatkin, Reuters

Sun Jan 2, 6:54 am ET

21 Republicans to enjoy new clout and face pressure

By Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan, Reuters

Sun Jan 2, 8:07 am ET

22 Obama’s New Year’s resolution? Fix the economy

By Jeff Mason, Reuters

Sat Jan 1, 3:17 pm ET

23 Estonia joins crisis-hit euro club

By David Mardiste, Reuters

Sat Jan 1, 8:50 am ET

24 Anadarko deemed a good fit for BHP amid bid talk

By Michael Smith, Reuters

Fri Dec 31, 4:06 pm ET

25 Skype could be designated illegal in China

By Terril Yue Jones and Jennifer Saba, Reuters

Fri Dec 31, 5:16 pm ET

26 GOP agenda: Major impact may be on 2012 election

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press

Sun Jan 2, 11:33 am ET

27 Navy to investigate lewd videos shown on carrier

Associated Press

11 mins ago

28 Probe of Egypt church bomb focuses on local group

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press

2 hrs 43 mins ago

29 Reports of sea lion shootings on rise in Calif.

By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press

Sun Jan 2, 1:46 pm ET

30 Apple’s absence to be felt at CES gadget show

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

2 hrs 43 mins ago

31 Visitors snap up 100 trillion Zimbabwe bank notes

By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press

Sun Jan 2, 2:07 pm ET

32 UN peacekeepers come under threat in Ivory Coast

By MARCO CHOWN OVED, Associated Press

2 hrs 47 mins ago

33 Spending showdowns will test new Congress leaders

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

Sat Jan 1, 7:08 pm ET

34 Scents latest weapons in fight against sea lamprey

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer

2 hrs 10 mins ago

35 Specter: A Democrat, and in between, a Republican

By MARC LEVY, Associated Press

Sun Jan 2, 12:55 pm ET

36 After storms, sun shines brightly on Rose Parade

By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press

Sat Jan 1, 5:48 pm ET

37 For once, snowstorm nearly shuts down nonstop NYC

By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press

Sat Jan 1, 4:48 pm ET

38 Schwarzenegger’s next act: return to LA, go green

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, AP Political Writer

Sat Jan 1, 3:09 pm ET

39 Braun left as main black candidate in Chicago race

By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press

Sat Jan 1, 8:54 am ET

40 Miller ending legal battle, conceding Senate race

By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press

Sat Jan 1, 4:22 am ET

41 Karzai rejects US request to replace minister

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press

Sat Jan 1, 4:10 am ET

42 Oil’s surge in 2010 paves the way for $4 gasoline

By CHRIS KAHN, AP Energy Writer

Fri Dec 31, 10:02 pm ET

43 Ex-SF crime lab tech won’t face criminal charges

By TERRY COLLINS, Associated Press

Fri Dec 31, 6:02 pm ET

Cenk Uygur delivers his opinion on what he thinks the top priority should be for Washington in the coming year. Will President Obama choose to focus more on job creation or deficit cutting to better serve the American public?

With the obstruction of a very united minority, there has been a great deal of debate about the filibuster and the reform of Senate Rule 22. In a New York Times op-ed, Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, recalls how in 1975 when he was a Senator, the Senate voted to reduce the number of votes required to end filibuster from 67 votes, a super majority, to the current 60 votes. Clearly, he states this was not enough. Filibuster threats and cloture votes blocked legislation nearly 100 times in the 111th Congress.

Mr. Mondale argues that essentially, these rules abrogate the Constitution which only requires a 67 vote majority for the approval of treaties, “in all other instances it must be assumed that the Constitution requires only a majority vote”. In other words, many of the Senate rules are unconstitutional and could be done away with on a simple majority procedural vote under Parliamentary rules. That was the “nuclear option” that was used as a threat by the Republicans to force the Democrats to capitulate when they were n the minority.

The Constitution is clear that under Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution: “Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings.” However, it is very explicit about the few instances where a super majority vote is needed, it must be assumed that the Constitution requires only a majority vote in all other cases.

Congressional expert and Washington University in St. Louis political science professor Steven S. Smith, has testified before U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration that there is an unhealthy exploiting of the Senate rules to block important legislation and limit debate. Prof. Smith also stated that

“wishing for better behavior” on the part of senators and their leaders won’t reverse the consequences of “two decades of intensifying parliamentary warfare” that has contributed to the demise of the appropriations process, more packaging in omnibus bills, and a shift of policy decision-making from committees to party leadership offices, among other changes

He proposed that these changes be made:

   (M)ore clearly protect each senator’s opportunity to debate and offer amendments;

   (L)imit debate on motions to proceed and combine and limit debate on the three motions to go to conference;

   (L)imit debate on appropriations bills and executive calendar business; and

   (W)here debate is not otherwise limited, allow a simple majority to eventually close debate.

On of the rules being considered is forcing the filibustering Senator to actually stay on the floor speaking for the duration of the filibuster, a la, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ recent 8 and a half hour tour de force on the Senate floor. There is also a need to end the policy of “secret holds” which prevents a bill or nomination from being considered even though it has cleared committee. The Democrats need to stand firm on rules reform, otherwise, we are in for an even more obstructive Senate in the 112th Congress.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

January 2 is the second day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 363 days remaining until the end of the year (364 in leap years).

On this day in 1962, the folk group The Weavers are banned by NBC after refusing to sign a loyalty oath.

The Weavers, one of the most significant popular-music groups of the postwar era, saw their career nearly destroyed during the Red Scare of the early 1950s. Even with anti-communist fervor in decline by the early 1960s, the Weavers’ leftist politics were used against them as late as January 2, 1962, when the group’s appearance on The Jack Paar Show was cancelled over their refusal to sign an oath of political loyalty.

The importance of the Weavers to the folk revival of the late 1950s cannot be overstated. Without the group that Pete Seeger founded with Lee Hays in Greenwich Village in 1948, there would likely be no Bob Dylan, not to mention no Kingston Trio or Peter, Paul and Mary. The Weavers helped spark a tremendous resurgence in interest in American folk traditions and folk songs when they burst onto the popular scene with “Goodnight Irene,” a #1 record for 13 weeks in the summer and fall of 1950. The Weavers sold millions of copies of innocent, beautiful and utterly apolitical records like “Midnight Special” and “On Top of Old Smoky” that year.

 366 – The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire

533 – Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy

1492 – Reconquista: the emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders

1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey

1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution

1791 – Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War

1818 – The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded

1833 – Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands.

1860 – The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the Academie des Sciences in Paris

1871 – Amadeus I becomes King of Spain

1900 – John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China

1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China

1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill

1920 – The second Palmer Raid takes place with another 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial. These raids take place in several U.S. cities.

1927 – Angered by the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, Catholic rebels in Mexico rebelled against the government.

1935 – Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh

1941 – World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales

1942 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history-the Duquesne Spy Ring

1942 – World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces

1945 – World War II: Nuremberg (in German, Nürnberg) is severely bombed by Allied forces

1949 – Luis Munoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico

1955 – Panamanian president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated.

1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.

1971 – The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic football match

 – President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo

1999 – A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, where temperatures plunge to 13 F (25 C); 68 deaths are reported

2001 – Sila Calderon becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico

2002 – Eduardo Duhalde is appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly.

2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.

2006 – An explosion in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia traps and kills 12 miners, while leaving one miner in critical condition.

Holidays and observances

   Ancestry Day (Haiti)

   Berchtold’s Day (Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Alsace)

   Christian Feast Day:

       Basil the Great (Roman Catholic and Anglican Church)

       Defendens of Thebes

       Gregory of Nazianzus (Roman Catholic Church)

       Macarius of Alexandria

       Seraphim of Sarov (repose)

       January 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   The first day of Blacks and Whites’ Carnival, celebrated until January 7. (southern Colombia)

   The first day of Riosucio´s Carnival, celebrated until January 8 every 2 years. (Riosucio)

   The ninth day of Christmas (Western Christianity)

   The second day of New Year (A holiday in Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine):

Bank Holiday, if it is a Sunday, the day moves to January 3 (Scotland)

       Kaapse Klopse (Capetown)

“What is a LEADER?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“A LEADER isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. It’s realizing that every experience develops some latent force within you.¹ You begin to understand that vision is the art of seeing the invisible² so that when you want to build a wagon, you don’t gather the other toys to collect wood or assign them tasks, but rather you teach them to long for ways to traverse the endless immensity of the backyard.³ Then you become a LEADER.”

_________________________________________________________________________

The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic happened to him. He longed to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him. It would take him time to learn how many cares disppear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone.⁹

_________________________________________________________________________

hoping that Margery Williams wouldn’t mind my re-telling of her most excellent story (and one of my favorites), The Velveteen Rabbit. The wonderful illustration is by William Nicholson.

¹ John R. Miller

² Jonathan Swift

³ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

⁴ Max DePree

⁵ John Luther

⁶ Philippians 4:8

⁷ Dag Hammarskjold

⁸ Victor Frankl

⁹ Coco Chanel

_________________________________________________________________________

“Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills — against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. ‘Give me a place to stand,’ said Archimedes, ‘and I will move the world.’ These men (and women) moved the world, and so can we all.”

^{Robert F. Kennedy}

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour: ABC News White House News correspondent, Jake Tapper, will be hosting This Week. He will have an exclusive interview with the president’s top economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee and actor, humanitarian, George Clooney with a message for the government of Sudan: “The world is watching.”

The Round Table guests, George Will, Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile, ABC News Political Director Amy Walter and National Journal Congressional Correspondent Major Garret discuss the incoming Republican Congress and its investigative agenda.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: This Week on Face the Nation, Representatives Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), and Rep.-elect Mike Kelly (R-Penn.) discuss what’s ahead for the new Congress.

The Chris Matthews Show: The Chris Matthews Show: This Week’s Guests Kelly O’Donnell, NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent, John Heilemann, New York Magazine National Political Correspondent, Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Senior Editor and Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst, will discuss:

What Must President Obama Do This Year to Get Competitive for 2012?

Year’s Resolutions for Palin and her GOP Rivals, for Hillary Clinton, and the Royals

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Oy. It’s all Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and how the Republicans will block everything and do nothing. I hope Obama has stopped taking this man at his word about cooperation.

At the Round Table, “Lurch” will be joined by  The New York Times’ David Brooks, The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, Yale law professor and author Stephen Carter, and BBC World News America’s Washington Correspondent Katty Kay, and Senator-elect Pat Toomey (R-PA). They will discuss the politics of the new year, the economy, our two wars, and even the politics of snow fall.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: A new year, a new Congress; we’re looking ahead to what’s in store. CNN Chief White House correspondent Ed Henry guest hosts.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine will join us exclusively to discuss President Obama’s next two years in office. Can he rise above a stronger Republican Party? Or will his spirit of compromise sink his hopes for re-election?

Then, the incoming chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, California Rep. Darrell Issa joins us. The last time a Democrat occupied the White House while a Republican chaired the committee, over 1,000 subpoenas were issued. Will Chairman Issa use his subpoena power to help enact the GOP agenda?

And finally, three distinct voices within the House Democratic caucus chart the course forward for a wounded party looking to regain some momentum in the new year. Reps. Jason Altmire, Elijah Cummings and Steve Israel will join us.

Fareed Zakaris: GPS: No information for this Sunday.

Nicholas D. Kristof: Equality, a True Soul Food

John Steinbeck observed that “a sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”  That insight, now confirmed by epidemiological studies, is worth bearing in mind at a time of such polarizing inequality that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 percent.

There’s growing evidence that the toll of our stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul. The upshot appears to be high rates of violent crime, high narcotics use, high teenage birthrates and even high rates of heart disease.

Jack Schafer: Floyd Abrams Whizzes on WikiLeaks

The First Amendment litigator disparages Julian Assange’s secret-busting enterprise.

Did an imposter steal Floyd Abrams’ identity and use it to sell an in today’s Wall Street Journal? That’s the only explanation I can come up with after reading the First Amendment litigator’s wacky battering of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange (“Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers”).

Abrams, who represented the New York Times in both the Pentagon Papers and Judith Miller cases, applauds Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg because he withheld four volumes of papers-while releasing 43-because he “didn’t want to get in the way of the diplomacy.” That is, Ellsberg didn’t want to interfere with ongoing and confidential negotiations to end the war. Continuing his “Ellsberg good,” “Assange bad” formulation, Abrams asks, “Can anyone doubt that [Assange] would have made those four volumes [of the Pentagon Papers] public on WikiLeaks regardless of their sensitivity?”

William Rivers Pitt: Over, Done, Finished, Out

Be careful what you wish for, right?

In my last column, I made the following half-witted comments: “Give me winter. Give me cold wind and snowstorms, bare branches wrapped in white, pink noses and boots and big coats with lots of pockets…We will eat, we will drink, we will be merry, and if the weather guys have it right, we will do it all surrounded by the first White Christmas I have seen in many a year.”

Ah, well…yes. The weather guys were indeed right, and I wound up trapped in New Hampshire for an extra two days until that “White Christmas” was finished with us. My mother’s house got buried under nearly two feet, and my home city of Boston fared little better.

Ellen Goodman: No Time for “Tirement”

Boston – When I retired from my tenure as a columnist last year, my daughter relayed the news to my grandson, who promptly picked up the phone and, in his most serious 7-year-old voice, said: “Grandma, I hear you’re tired.”

Well, not exactly.

My daughter and I struggled to hide our amusement from a misunderstanding that was not entirely linguistic. After all, retirement was once a matter of ‘tirement. It was the formerly new idea that we didn’t have to work until we dropped in place.

But writing, after all, is not heavy lifting. I wasn’t leaving one career to swoon into the hammock. I was rather thinking about renewal — tweaking and trying new things with my mind and fingers.

Now my un-tirement seems to be something of a trend. I am part of the first huge generation to pass the demarcation line of senior citizenship with the statistical promise of good time ahead.