Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods. That makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells. Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tonnes annually in several years unless...

Q Is it true that there's something in turkey that makes a person sleepy? If so, what is it? A If eating turkey makes you sleepy, then Swiss cheese will make you sleepier. That's because the essential amino acid tryptophan, said to cause sleepiness, is found in turkey, but also in other protein foods -- sometimes in larger amounts. For example: • 100 grams of roasted turkey contain 0.333 grams of tryptophan. • 100 grams of Swiss cheese contain 0.401 grams of tryptophan. • 100 grams of roasted pork loin contain 0.341 grams of tryptophan. Tryptophan is used to produce...

Last week, the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District voted to place yet another multi-billion bond measure on the ballot. This $3.8 billion proposal is, of course, on top of the $9.5 billion in bonds that have been approved since 1997, the most recent, less than 18 months ago. Of course these figures do not include interest on the bonds which nearly doubles the taxpayers' obligation. It will be very interesting to see if voters, once again, allow themselves to be fleeced. To put into perspective the magnitude of these multi-billion dollar bonds, all one has to do...