How It's Made

From Xinhua:

Long gone are the days of tiresome manual labor; enter an era of automated machines in Xinjiang's cotton fields. Amatjan Mamat, a Uygur cotton farmer, tells the story of how he changed his skillset to match this evolving industry and make a tidy profit while doing so

A documentary on CCTV shows off part of an automated factory that is mostly done by robots and machines that makes cruise missiles. It has a nameplate capacity of 1,000 cruise missiles a day.

It is in Spanish but it is very interesting to see how they produce these type of plastic for Agriculture.

I found this article to be interesting as it talks a bit about methods of mining uranium, as well as talks about a current issue regarding a shortage of a necessary ingredient of that process (sulfuric acid), while also going over issues in how to transport uranium supply to the West in light of sanctions on transport routes through Russia and recent deals with China. In general the article is just stressing how precarious the West's supply of uranium from Central Asia may be, and highlighting that China and Russia are much better positioned to trade with that region. Also a mention of how France has been prompted to rely more on Central Asia for uranium in light of the instability of sourcing uranium from Niger.

• Kazatomprom, world's largest uranium producer, warns of production shortfall
• logistical issues, eg transport and shortages in sulfuric acid could take years to fix
• concerns long-term supply contracts prioritize Russia and China over the West

Kazatomprom is the world's largest and, arguably, most important uranium producer, accounting for 23% of global supply in 2022. To put in context, that's double the next largest producer, Cameco in Canada.

The company has now warned production will be 20% below levels allowed by permits in 2024, with production impacted possibly into 2025. The warning comes just as uranium prices are approaching historic highs with significant fallout across the global energy and nuclear sector.

Critically, as we'll get to shortly, Kazatomprom mines exclusively with in-situ leach (ISL) methods (or, in-situ recovery (ISR)), which involves dissolving the ore while it's still in the ground with acid and soda, and then pumping the solution to the ground where it can be recovered with no tailings, waste or disturbance on the surface. [...] The main problem, ostensibly, is that they don't have enough sulfuric acid, essential for in-situ leaching, to raise output levels. [...] The problem is so acute that Kazatomprom plans to construct a new sulfuric acid plant in the Turkestan region to produce 800,000 tonnes of sulfuric acid per year. However, it's only expected to be ready in 2026.

The deals between Kazatomprom and both Russia and China threaten to squeeze out Western access. [...] China has just signed a long-term contract to procure a significant amount of uranium — for domestic consumption, not for export. The West, we suspect, would also be reluctant to trade vulnerable supply chains through Russia for supply chains through China. [...] In the high-stakes Great Game of resource control in Central Asia, any sudden and severe tightening of global uranium supply threatens to expose the West's precarious position compared to its competitors.

A translated documentary on telegram showing briefly how Al-Qassam developed their missiles and rockets including how they're able to source materials for it despite a severe blockade.

The dystopian life of a modern mushroom...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/2274037

Excerpts:

Decades of sweeping industrial policies have afforded China a near-total monopoly over gallium, a critical mineral used to produce high-performance microchips that power some of the United States’ most advanced military technologies. Recent moves by Beijing to restrict the export of gallium have laid bare the need for Washington and its allies to de-risk their critical mineral supply chains.

China produces a staggering 98 percent of the world’s supply of raw gallium.

Gallium is primarily extracted from smelting bauxite into aluminum, through which trace amounts of gallium can be recovered.

While bauxite is abundant, its mining is heavily concentrated in a handful of countries, and Chinese companies are responsible for nearly all gallium extracted from bauxite.

The United States and other advanced economies purchase gallium from China and refine it further for use in commercial and military applications.

A 2022 analysis by experts from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that a 30 percent supply disruption of gallium could have cascading effects that cause a roughly $600 billion decline in U.S. economic output, or 2.1 percent of GDP. [...] The European Union and Japan have likewise identified gallium as a strategic raw material important for national security.

The Chinese government put this vulnerability on display in early July 2023 when it announced a slate of export restrictions on gallium metal and key gallium compounds (including GaN and GaAs) in response to recently implemented export controls on advanced chips and chipmaking equipment put in place by the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands. Within the first week of the announcement, gallium prices jumped 27 percent as global traders rushed to secure their supply.

Chinese companies, empowered by financial and political support from Beijing, have emerged as key players in the production of gallium-based chips. Innoscience, a leading Chinese manufacturer of gallium-based chips, operates two of the world’s largest GaN fabrication facilities and has expanded overseas with offices in the United States, Europe, and South Korea.

Losing ground to Chinese firms in the race for more capable and powerful compound semiconductors will put the United States on the back foot in developing next-generation technologies that will be crucial to military power and economic competitiveness. Beijing’s active role in creating a flourishing domestic ecosystem for gallium-based chips has already benefited China’s military development.

There are significant concerns that South Korea could end up losing its cutting-edge semiconductor technology as the US continues prioritizing the revival of its domestic semiconductor industry.

South Korean companies that invested in the US to build semiconductor factories will have to limit their manufacturing capacity at their Chinese factories to 5 percent or less for 10 years in order to receive US subsidies.

While the new regulations are less strict than the previously feared total ban on upgrading manufacturing facilities in China, the shackles being imposed by the US on the domestic semiconductor industry remain weighty.

On Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce announced detailed regulations of the guardrails concerning subsidies for semiconductors. Countries with semiconductor manufacturing factories in China will be able to expand production by up to 5 percent and companies will still be able to produce more semiconductor chips from one wafer through technological development.

...

The excessive information demanded as a condition to receive subsidies from the US, runs the risk that South Korea’s advanced semiconductor technology and business secrets could be leaked. There is even one clause that requires the return of certain subsidies if companies earn more than a certain amount in profits.

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Although the Biden administration emphasizes the importance of alliances through diplomacy and security, there has been a growing perception in the economic field that the US is causing damage to the alliance with its attitude of “America first” and protectionist policies.

the whole series is really interesting

Trying to learn more about the role of natural gas in this region due to the recent U.S. call for sanctions on Algeria. This video provided a seemingly decent overview, although I'm not very familiar with the region or this channel, so if someone spots major problems in their statements, please let me know.

Watch a big stone get cut in half

Source: https://eu.boell.org/en/shipping-setting-sail-challenges-for-sea-transport

Article seems to mainly be about the environmental impacts of maritime shipping, but I just thought the image was helpful for understanding the general picture of maritime shipping routes. I don't have a lot of knowledge on the topic atm, just sharing what I found while looking into the topic.

I found this one too:

The house is unusually high, with a raised up bed, and this is to protect the occupants from the occasional flooding of the river Tana. All the natural materials are gathered from within a few kilometers of the village. Essentially it is a bentwood frame lashed together into a gridshell. The whole structure is strong as it is a natural parabolic dome.

a multi-machine video. It's going very fast. sometimes too fast to be satisfying...

CW: there are dead animals in there. also the commentor doesnt mention what is this funnel in which some chicks are being dropped....

Edit: Here's a video of someone going up into a tower crane