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29 Dec 2010 09:55

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World: Not willing to share: China limiting exports of rare earth minerals

China produces 97 percent of the world’s rare-earth materials, used in all sorts of ways. But now China doesn’t want to share so much anymore – and other countries are pissed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Dec 2010 01:14

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Biz: After spurning Google, Groupon plans massive financing round

  • $950
    million     the amount in financing that the IPO-pondering Groupon wants
  • $7.8
    billion     the value of the company based on that financing round source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Dec 2010 00:50

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U.S.: Virginia has laughably awful history textbooks, just an FYI

  • mistake A Virginia-oriented history book called “Our Virginia: Past and Present” suggested that African-Americans fought for the South in the Civil War, causing a huge uproar over the claim, which has long been refuted.
  • f*#&-up A study of the history book by professional historians found that there were many obvious facts that were simply wrong in the book and others with the same publisher. The book, by the way, was not written by a historian. Oops. source
  • » A couple random examples: Peer reviewers found that “Our Virginia” and other books from the same textbook publisher said that the U.S. entered World War I a year earlier than it actually did, that Civil War soldiers commonly wore full suits of armor, and that New Orleans began on a U.S. harbor (instead of a Spanish one). It’s a book so good, it makes you feel dumber when reading it.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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