“You can’t just shoot a hole into the Moon.”

MISSION OBJECTIVE: Shoot a hole into the Moon.

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/eare-earths-mine-usa-china

Most rare‑earth ore occurs as a geochemical stew, so producers must grind, acid‑leach, and solvent‑wash huge volumes of rock before they bottle a kilogram of oxide. The solvents themselves are toxic; the tailings ponds can leach heavy metals; and any thorium or uranium hitch‑hikers raise radioactivity concerns.

Open‑pit mines also chew through landscapes, consume prodigious energy, and disrupt local water tables. In short, the elements may not be geologically rare, but clean, socially acceptable production sites are. That scarcity, not crustal abundance, keeps supply tight and prices volatile.

That’s an excellent point.

I don’t really know what the launch detection sensors’ capabilities are. However, there’s probably a detectably different spectrographic signature from solid fuel rockets like ICBMs versus Neutron’s methalox.

What energy company is a natural monopoly?

edit: are you talking about utilities that produce and distribute energy, or the companies that provide fuel for them? Because a case can be made for mining operations like Exxon & etc to be subject to market competition, whereas natural monopolies like your local electric utility should be publicly owned, i.e. owned by the government, and not have ownership shares traded privately or in public markets.

Its inefficient for natural monopolies to not be owned by the government. Privatization increases cost and decreases quality of service.

Its inefficient for natural monopolies to not be owned by the government. Privatization increases cost and decreases quality of service.

DOOM

Fuck your Blue Key.

1st person > 3rd person

Souls-likes suck.

Also, it can get under your fingernails and burn for WEEKS.

Yeah, that’s the fast & easy way to do it, but you should cut the tops & stems off first, IMO. If the vinegar does not get into the peppers, they can grow fuzzy on the inside.

If you have access to a well ventilated* kitchen, you can make your own hot sauce that can be better than anything store bought. Remove the seeds** and then fry the shit out of the peppers until they start to pop and blacken, caramelizing the sugars. Then pour in a bit of water, just enough to almost cover the peppers, and when the water has evaporated the peppers will be mush. Throw the pepper mush into a blender with just enough salt & vinegar to suit your taste.

Sweet, mild peppers like red jalapenos make a good sauce with very little vinegar. I like to dilute the more intense peppers with extra vinegar until the sauce isn’t overpoweringly hot.

*seriously, don’t try this unless you’ve got a good exhaust fan or can do it outside

**wear gloves

Aviassembly.

Its fun in the way that building airplanes in KSP is fun. The game is small, and the physics are simple, but for $10 its a good value.

that number needs 2 more zeros

PlanetSide 1, the MMOFPS that was the former record holder of “Most players in an online FPS battle,” which was eventually surpassed by PlanetSide 2.

In its heyday it was a fascinating sociology study.

During EU prime time, players would self-organize into squads of about 10 players. They would apply light pressure to the entire map simultaneously. Territorial gains would be made by attacking undefended bases.

During USA prime time, players would self-organize into platoons of about 30 players. They would press a few strategic locations with medium force. Territorial gains came from fixing operations (using a small force in an easy to defend location to keep a large population of opponents busy) and local numeric superiority at lightly defended bases.

During Chinese prime time, players would group up into a singular mass. Everyone just ran face first into the meatgrinder. No territorial gains were made.

There are no minable deposits of rare earths anywhere. That’s why they’re called rare earth elements. Nowhere on Earth are there geologic processes that concentrate them into ores. The only way to get them is to process absolutely enormous volumes of dirt, at great expense in terms of energy used and pollution created.

Every country has them.

Who sells it is a question of which country is willing to render some portion of their territory uninhabitable for the foreseeable future, while also making a larger portion of their territory sick and dirty.