Author: EconLearner

Critical minerals and rare earths in US-China trade. gettyThe US currently leads the European Union in efforts to reduce dependence on imports of critical minerals and will depend on external sources for raw materials in the long term. In a new special report called “Critical raw materials for the energy transition—not a fixed policy,” the European Court of Auditors revealed that the EU is hampered by difficulties with mineral processing and delayed mining projects.The study, which focused on the raw materials necessary for EU states to increase energy independence, provided a broad reality check on the state of vital minerals.”EU…

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Current Climate brings you the latest sustainability business news every Monday. Sign up to get it in your inbox.An exploration well at Zanskar’s Big Blind site in Nevada.ZanskarIinterest in geothermal energy recently it has focused on companies using new techniques to artificially cheat this carbon-free source of electricity out of the ground. Fervo Energy, for example, drills horizontal wells to access hot rocks thousands of feet underground, which can heat the water it pumps to generate steam to power a turbine. Zanskar Geothermal, a Utah-based startup, believes that using AI-based analysis to find geothermal wells in the wild is a…

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Spotify appANDREW WILLIAMSSpotify has launched a major fitness category, which precedes a partnership with Peloton that gives subscribers access to over 1,400 workout videos. Fitness videos are joining podcasts and audiobooks as another content stream to prevent competition and declining subscribers.The videos are accessed as part of Spotify’s new Fitness hub. You can access the Spotify app either by searching for “fitness” in the search bar or by tapping the Fitness shortcut in the search tab. Many of the sessions are full video workouts and subtitles are also offered. Or if you’re already well-acquainted with the movements involved, you could…

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The ubiquity of social media applications makes them fertile ground for researching the dynamics of modern life. Kellogg faculty explored the good and the bad of social media—from misinformation and bias to business models and influencer marketing—and how those characteristics reflect and shape the offline world. 1. Politics is everywhere… except your phone In the weeks leading up to an election, it often feels like we can’t escape the political news. But Kellogg’s Guy Aridor and their colleagues found that most people’s smartphones are immune to politics—even during a US presidential race. The researchers used an app that tracks how…

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Neodymium is a magnetic chemical element belonging to the rare earth group used in magnets.gettyThe US government is offering companies $24 million to prototype and test projects that recover vital rare-earth minerals from scrap to turn into advanced magnets.The grants are offered in the first part of the US Department of Energy’s Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator funding notice. Applications are submitted until June 25.Rare earth minerals for use in magnets have been identified as being of particular interest by the US government in collaborative industry projects to develop technologies in high impact areas. The idea is to promote a…

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Facade of the Marriner S Eccles Building of the United States Federal Reserve Bank on a bright and sunny day in Washington, DC, United States, July 24, 2017. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)Getty ImagesThe Federal Reserve does not “print money” to “earn” the debt of the US Treasury. The view assumes that a creation of the federal government could finance the same government. If the Treasury relied on the Fed’s so-called “printing press” to stay afloat, then the Treasury would have no debt. This is because no one buys income streams from the Treasury, rather cautious investors buy income streams…

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You experience commitment in the present before you ever set it in the future. These three signs make it visible, according to psychological research.gettyIt’s instinctive to organize relationships into three distinct timelines: past, present, and future. The past is behind us. the present unfolds in real time. the future holds everything to come. We tend to put the most weight on the present and the future, yet we still struggle to decide which deserves more attention: living fully in the moment or commitment to what lies ahead.In romantic relationships, this tension becomes particularly intense. We want to be present, to…

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SOCORRO, NM – 1999: These twenty-seven mobile antennas, known as the Very Large Array (VLA), receive radio signals, some extremely faint, from around the world, 1999 near Socorro, New Mexico. The VLA is a radio telescope built by the National Science Foundation and launched in 1980. This facility has allowed scientists to gather detailed images of natural cosmic phenomena such as the birth of new stars, galactic collisions, our own solar system, and even the suspected black hole at the core of our Galaxy. The questions that man has tried to answer by looking at the heavens with such powerful…

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