Australian armour, rare earth OPEC & modern weather forecasting
Great links, images and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
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Sidney Nolan First-class marksman 1946
Australian armor: The armor of the Ned Kelly Gang - for reference
In 1879, Australian bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelley devised a plan to create bulletproof armour and wear it during shootouts with the police. He and other members of the Kelly gang had their own armour suits and helmets crafted from plough mouldboards, either donated by sympathisers or stolen from farms. The boards were heated and then beaten into shape over the course of several months, most likely in a crude bush forge and possibly with the assistance of blacksmiths. While the suits successfully repelled bullets, their heavy weight made them cumbersome to wear, and the gang debated their utility. … News reports of the armour caused a sensation throughout Australia and much of the world. It has become a widely recognisable image and icon, inspiring many cultural depictions and cementing Ned Kelly as one of Australia's most well-known historical figures. … There are two main theories for the inspiration for the armour. One is that members of the gang had witnessed performers wearing Chinese armour during a carnival procession through the streets of Beechworth in 1873. The gang also had a network of Chinese sympathisers, and Byrne, who grew up near Chinese camps on the goldfields, was reported to have been fluent in Cantonese. The other theory is that Ned got the idea from his favourite book, R.D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone (1869). Set in 17th-century England, the novel is about a family of outlaws, and in one part describes them on horseback wearing "iron plates on breast and head".[1] Another story is that Ned saw and drew a suit of armour during a visit to the Melbourne Museum. What is widely accepted is that the idea and decision to wear armour was Ned's
Source: Wikipedia
Quite the hike! US real rates.
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Rare Earth OPEC?
Indonesia banned exports of raw nickel in 2014 -> $15bn of FDI in processing, primarily Chinese. Now it has banned exports of nickel & bauxite. Export ban on copper concentrate in '24. EU challenged at WTO & won an initial hearing. Indonesia appealing.
Key corporate producers of vital materials for energy transition.
But talking about a rare earths OPEC can seem a bit out of touch with reality because of this
Source: FT
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Balassa-Sauelson
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Modern weather forecasting
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French surprise
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1970s Romanian chic
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Bantu expansion
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Sidney Nolan, Myself, 1988, Courtesy of Sidney Nolan Trust
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