While we engage in petty bull****, China has

[Hauldren Collider]

Negative legal consequences of getting involved, according to something I read recently.

China hasn't figured out Good Samaritan laws yet? That's just pathetic.

EDIT: Beaten by Dauphin

[notyoueither]

There's a lot they have not yet figured out.

[Dinner]

Um, how could helping an injured man be risky? Sounds more like they simply lack human compassion. ****ers.

Did you see the video of the kid getting run over by two different cars? The kid was like 2-3 years old, wandered away from his mother, and a white van left a loading dock and ran him over, the driver stopped when the kid was under the car, saw he had ran over him, and instead of helping the wounded child he hit the gas and runs over him with the rear tires. Four or five people walk by seeing the wounded child on the ground but ignore him instead of helping then a second car drives over the child splatting him like a bug, that driver stops sees what he did and then drives on like nothing happened. Even Chinese bloggers commented that modern Chinese don't give a **** about strangers in need.

[Felch]

I don't see how apathy towards strangers indicates an end to reverence for ancestors.

[Elok]

My wife tells me that not helping strangers is actually a pretty longstanding value in much of Asia--supposedly it's related to Buddhism somehow, helping someone makes them permanently involved in your life. Or something. Yeah, I don't get it either.

[notyoueither]

Apropos for this thread.

[Tupac Shakur]

There wouldn't have been any delays if you dumb**** Canadians had just routed the Keystone XL along the route followed by the existing Keystone pipeline instead of trying to cut across the largest aquifer in North America.

[notyoueither]

Apparently it is the cost. Perhaps now TransCanada's customers will agree to pay more for the more expensive line.

I'd actually prefer upgrading and refining to be done here rather than shipping raw material to Texas.

[Traianvs]

If the Bolivians ever got their collective head out of their collective ass then they'd quickly become the world's largest supplier. The problem is the current government of Bolivia is insane and keeps nationalizing, without compensation, foreign owned companies in Bolivia so no one wants to invest in Bolivia. Sadly, Bolivia doesn't have the capital or the skills to develop their REE resources on their own so they just sit there while the people get poorer and poorer. If they got rid of their worthless President and enacted laws to protect property rights then they'd likely see a flood of foreign money & expertise flooding in which would result in these resources being utilized, employment greatly increased, and tax revenue hugely increased. That remains a what if though since Morales is a dumb ass.

On what planet have you been living? Their resources were plundered and they got nothing in return before the nationalisations. Their 'Cien Porciento Estatal' is an experiment. Let's see how they manage, and then judge, shall we?

Back in the eighties the Lithium Corporation of America bought a concession of the Salar de Uyuni salt lake, despite it being a 'Reserva Fiscal' back then. After protests from the local population the corporation was driven out eventually, insisting this time they would profit from its resources, instead of the pillaging they suffered throughout the centuries before.

Companies are invited to collaborate in a committee, with an eye on future investments of course. Until the Bolivians manage to produce lithium carbonate and potassiumchlorate themselves, no property of foreign companies is allowed. Otherwise they would lose the risk of losing a stable and promising source of revenue yet again.

Let's just see how it turns out first.

[Felch]

Why not just sell leases to extract the resources? They can set their own price, and make money that way.