Tuesday, March 12, 2013


I teach some of the guys who build the machines that are/will be used to mine rare earths from the seabed. 

In other news, Ping tells me that the road outside her dad's factory may be widened (and the factory have to be relocated) in order to allow direct access from Miyako Jima airport across the massive new bridge and onto the soon-to-be-upgraded runway on Irabu island. Direct access for the American military that is, of course.

 伊良部島(右)及下地島(左)的航拍照片。

So maybe that Asia Pivot is going to be a biggie after all. And Okinawa will continue to bear the brunt of it. Though I do also teach a guy who is an intermediary between the local government and the U.S. Air Force and the military presence in Kyushu is also increasing.

Yeah, become a TEFL teacher. Live in the pulsing heart of geopolitics!

3 comments:

Phil Knight said...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard does a lot of shilling for alternative energy e.g. thorium reactors:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9784044/China-blazes-trail-for-clean-nuclear-power-from-thorium.html

and shale gas:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9639192/Europe-left-behind-as-shale-shock-drives-Americas-industrial-resurgence.html

Dunno about seabed mining. I saw a report on the BBC today. Not sure if it's desperation or something genuinely workable (like all these things I guess).

carl said...

well my understanding of the situation is that Japan has also been promised cheap LNG from the US in return for building its "defensive" capability up ie checking China...they are also investing heavily in solar so i guess a part of the plan is to get domestic power generation up and cheap imports of LNG then drive down the yen to the max to boost exports once they don't have to balance a devaluation against imported fuel costs.. if they switch the reactors back on too all the better i guess, short term they could well get a boom...

interestingly yesterday i actually taught the guys in Hitachi Rail who are going to be building the high speed rail line from London to Edinburgh, if that doesn't get canned...

good work on Strangled btw!

Phil Knight said...

Cheers Carl.

My basic position on technological answers to our energy needs is that they're probably investment scams first and foremost i.e. the more of a comprehensive "solution" it sounds, the more likely it is to be a con.

Tell the guys from Hitachi Rail that the London to Edinburgh line is probably going to be canned, btw.

It's a shame, really. It could have been called "The Fred Goodwin Line".