this has me very worried

Afghanistan may have more than a trillion dollars worth of untapped mineral deposits, a spokesman for the ministry of mines has suggested.

The statement came after reports in the New York Times of the work of a team of Pentagon officials and US geologists.

They discovered large quantities of iron and copper as well as valuable deposits of lithium.

Anyone who doesn't know why I find this worrying news should Google the words "zaire mobutu minerals". Or just read this.

Countries with weak central governments, strong ethnic regionalism, and a tradition of warlordism, tend to do not so well when Western industrial nations find out they have rich mineral wealth. And that's assuming they're not already attempting to recover from decades of foreign occupation and civil war.

(no subject)

Interesting facts from ethelfleda

- In WW2 the merino and rabbit wool underwear provided to the Luftwaffe were the only uniforms of the German military to be moth-proofed. This is apparently to do with the attraction of moths to rabbit wool, and not some comment on the mothy-ness of pilots.

More at this post on taphonomy.

as someone said...

...in the thread where this was posted, isn't there probably a bank with a note for that car loan, and shouldn't they have asked for full payment up front? :-)

(no subject)

I love checking in on these guys from time to time, to see what they've been up to.

One of these days...

(no subject)

An excellent explanation of, well, just what it says on the tin


The non-fan’s guide to the World Cup