Rare earth elements with exotic names such as europium and tantalum are crucial for future technologies such as hybrid cars, but their scarcity could thwart innovation.

But more common metals used in the tech industry could fare better, even if their prices rise due to worldwide demand. For example, lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars and smart phones won't run out anytime soon because there is an overabundance of lithium, Jack Lifton, an independent consultant for U.S. rare earths, told the Gold Report during a December interview.

Other important elements tracked by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS):

Iron and steel make up about 95 percent of all the metal produced in the United States and worldwide, and find uses in thousands of products. These are the least expensive of the world's metals.

Aluminum is the second most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust, just behind silicon. Its light weight, durability, corrosion resistance and malleability make it the most widely used metal after iron.

Copper has one of the oldest lineages of any metal, and has served as the foundation for many ancient civilizations. It still represents the third most-used industrial metal because of its thermal and electrical conductivity characteristics that make it highly useful in power transmission, telecommunication, and many electronic products.

Gold is still coveted for its monetary value and for jewelry, but it is also an excellent electrical conductor. As an industrial metal, its applications include computers, communications equipment, spacecraft and jet aircraft engines.

Silver has been used for thousands of years to make ornaments, utensils, and coins. Of all the metals, pure silver has the highest reflectivity, and the highest thermal and electrical conductivity. As a result, silver has many industrial applications including mirrors, electrical and electronic products, and photography.

Niobium and Tantalum find uses in a variety of high-tech applications. Niobium (also known as columbium) shows up in jet engine components and rocket subassemblies, while tantalum is used to make parts for cell phones, pagers, personal computers and automotive electronics. The U.S. currently imports both resources from countries such as Brazil, Canada and Australia.

• 10 Profound Innovations Ahead
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• Shortage of Rare Earth Elements Could Thwart Innovation

To support electric vehicles like the Leaf, which will be available in Houston toward year's end, the city and Reliant are working to create an infrastructure that places charging stations in convenient locations. Reliant will also be developing a system of support, including home assessments, for people installing home charging stations. The stations will be compatible with other plug-in vehicles as well.

It was a media cage fight, televised every weeknight at 8 p.m. But the match was halted when the blood started to spray executives in the high-priced seats.

For years Keith Olbermann of MSNBC had savaged his prime-time nemesis Bill O'Reilly of the Fox News Channel and accused Fox of journalistic malpractice almost nightly. Mr. O'Reilly in turn criticized Mr. Olbermann's bosses and led an exceptional campaign against General Electric, the parent company of MSNBC.

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I don't know if Kevin has applied this or not but a new BIOS update is now available for the MSI Wind that adds some pretty cool features along with the upgrades we normally expect from such beasts. This official BIOS update enables overclocking the CPU at those times when performance is critical. Said overclocking is achieved simply by the Fn+F10 combo and toggles among three different clock speeds (8, 15, 24% bumps). We'll have to weigh in with Kevin to see how the update works on his Wind.

(via engadget)

UPDATE: there is an excellent tutorial and review of the update on the Electric Vagabond.

...Google+Microsoft+Intel. In other words, the U.S. government has shoveled the equivalent of the entire core of the tech industry into Iraq. The Web is starting to bubble with interesting conversation about the cost of the war and how that money could've been otherwise spent. This has been touched off by government figures that show the U.S. has appropriated $523 billion for the war -- and the book The Three Trillion Dollar War, by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. As you might guess, the book says the war's real cost to the U.S. alone is more like $3 trillion. (The authors point out that for that, we could've given every one of the 24 million pre-war Iraqis a check for $250,000, essentially buying the country's allegiance one person at a time.)

Whatever figure you pick -- $523 billion or $3 trillion -- the obvious point is that the money could've been invested in technology that would do far more to secure the nation's future. Like, what if that had been spent on building nuclear power plants and electric cars? Could the U.S. have vastly accelerated its independence from Middle East oil? Not to mention what that would do for global warming. The latest Wired argues that nukes are the only way to save the planet.

It's all a moot point, of course. The investment opportunity is gone, the money dispersed to military personnel, defense contractors and all that. (As if, just coming off Memorial Day, the dollars even matter compared to the loss of life and other casualties.) But the debate needs to happen. Maybe it will help encourage better decisions going forward, and it's an interesting question of whether new technology can sometimes solve the same problem as a war.

The Tesla Roadster is now street legal! The electric car, developed here in Silicon Valley, has passed the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and dozens of other federally mandated tests for mass production automobiles. Included in the testing? Front, side and rear crash tests; tests to ensure adequate windshield defrosting and rear-view mirror visibility; Department of Transportation-compatible head- and taillights; and working seat-belts and airbags. Oh yeah, and they had to get approval from the EPA too. If you're on the list to buy one of these things, you're one step closer to giving those emissions-producing 911 drivers the finger as you zip up the 101.