[ExI] it won't work, but i have a better idea

[spike at rainier66.com]

OK well, dang.  That was a disappointment, but with a fun twist.  Read on
please.

 

I saw the article which said China is clamping down on exporting rare earth
metals, but the article made it sound like China was the only source.  It
isn't, but while I thought it was,  I came up with an idea: buy at a bargain
that windfarm out off the coast of New Jersey that we are told POTUS shut
down when it was 80% complete (with no explanation for how POTUS could shut
down a power facility) then mine the generators for their rare earths.

 

Turns out that idea was flawed on multiple levels: the permanent magnets in
those generators contain neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.
The chips contain neodymium, dysprosium and yttrium.  But the price of the
two elements they have in common, the neodymium and dysprosium, comes
nowhere near the cost of extracting them from defunct generators, for China
is not the only source of these materials.  The USA has mines too, and those
are cranking up to meet the need.  Furthermore: that windfarm is going
forward using alternative funding sources.  It is not clear why that idea
was not imagined previously, but who am I to question?

 

So.   No rare earth recovery for the spikeman.

 

But I came up with another idea.  The environmentalists hate the idea of a
windfarm out there off the coast (recall the Life cereal that Mikey liked
which was the only exception, for when it comes to power generation
environmentalists hate everything.)  The contention is that offshore wind
power is bad for whales.  So.  Offshore windfarms are bad for whales.  But
why?  The only thing I could think of was that migrating (or breaching)
whales would slam into them, presumably slaying the beast.  I am no expert
on whales, but I would think they would survive such a collision.  They can
go fast I understand, for we have seen them leap from the water.  If they
land upon a turbine tower, it is easy enough to imagine the encounter as
being lethal for the hapless cetacean.

 

In any case, if the wind turbine towers slay whales, one might suppose it
would result in whale carcasses, for the towers are still there whether or
not they are producing wind power.  OK then.  The idea.

 

You have perhaps seen those wood chippers which the tree trimmers use to
convert enormous branches into mulch.  What if. we had something analogous
to one of those rigs, but which was mounted underneath a boat.  Then imagine
a whale is slain by apparent collision with the tower.  

 

Now we have a huge whale carcass at our disposal and a whale chipper mounted
under our boat.  We place a net around the periphery of the windfarm, which
we stock with shrimp hatchlings.  Then we grind the hapless cetacean and
dump the disgusting glop into our shrimp pen, feed the little tasties on
whale chips, where they grow big and expensive.  A single whale could
perhaps feed a flock of shrimp for a month.  A shrimp grows from hatchling
to ebi nigiri in only 4 to 6 months, so all we would need is that many whale
carcasses, which we get free.  We scoop out the biggest ones and sell them
on the open market, we make a fortune. 

 

spike

 

 

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