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A guy called into NPR this morning and said he had a worlds almanac from 1967 with an article about Afghanistan's mineral riches.

• Groxx 16y ago
  Care to elaborate? Did it cover lithium / anything discovered, and not just theorized? Does anyone have a copy lying around they can check?
  • mahmud 16y ago
    I listened to said NPR programme and the guy speculated the resources might have been known all along, but only now did the (high) price of these minerals and the (low) cost of their extraction make them more attractive. I, personally, have a more cynical and conspiratorial view of things: I think the U.S. intelligence cooked up the trillion figure in order to wane the production of opium for at least a decade, by promising Afghans a better bounty and a reason to form national unity. Mineral extraction is an expensive undertaking that can't be done by stealth mobile units in friendly pockets; the whole country has to come together. What strengthens my suspicion is the U.S's willingness to announce this "finding", despite the possibility of undermining its presence there. The Taliban can always say the Americans knew about this all along and have fabricated excuses to invade us. $50 on longbet, with a 10 year maturity :-)
    • jseliger 16y ago
      I, personally, have a more cynical and conspiratorial view of things: I think the U.S. intelligence cooked up the trillion figure in order to wane the production of opium for at least a decade, by promising Afghans a better bounty and a reason to form national unity. A good rule of thumb: ignorance and incompetence explains well over 99% of the unfortunate aspects of the world and evil or deliberate planning well under 1%.
      • metamemetics 16y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlons_razor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlons_razor "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
  • deleted 16y ago
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