Tokyo Steampunk, Hayao Miyazaki's NI-TELE Really BIG Clock. The term Steampunk was coined in April 1987 by the American writer Kevin Wayne Jeter, in a letter to the Locus magazine.
Defined as a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history and speculative fiction, steampunk is characterized by worlds using all kind of steam-powered machines, from trains to airplanes and even computers. Besides the steampunk stories and movies, many real-life steampunk objects were built by fans of this genre, some of them perfectly functional. Japan finds rare earths in Pacific seabed. 4 July 2011Last updated at 05:58 The number of seabed mining applications is a growing focus for environmentalists' concern Japanese researchers say they have discovered vast deposits of rare earth minerals, used in many hi-tech appliances, in the seabed.
The geologists estimate that there are about a 100bn tons of the rare elements in the mud of the Pacific Ocean floor. At present, China produces 97% of the world's rare earth metals. Analysts say the Pacific discovery could challenge China's dominance, if recovering the minerals from the seabed proves commercially viable. A map of future undersea mining facilities.