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	Archive through March 21, 2025	25		04/07 10:37am

My yahoo has started yelling at me because of ad blockers, most of the time I'm only on long enough to delete or skim an email, but if I linger it takes my view away and tells me that I'm violating their terms of agreement. Whatever, lol.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, March 21, 2025 - 02:36 pm: Edit

I watch more YouTube than live TV and pay for the ad free version.

By John Williams (Johndw) on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - 01:38 pm: Edit

I use Opera/Brave browsers, I use "uBlock Origin" extension in both browsers. I'm able to watch youtube without ads quite comfortably.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - 10:47 pm: Edit

I think an "infrastructure ceasefire" may have been the only deal Trump could get, but it works entirely to Putin's favor. The Ukrainians were dismantling the Russian oil industry; the Russians were blowing up apartment buildings. "I'll stop killing your kids if you stop costing me (Putin) money because a lack of money is going to force me to a deal faster than a lack of kids is going to force Ukraine to a deal."

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Monday, April 07, 2025 - 10:37 am: Edit

Videos out (believe animation) of what is being called a new Motorcycle, reality is a mechanical horse sic ......
Four legs, controlled similar to a m/c....
Very interesting concept, if it works as portrayed....
Runs, jumps etc....
Model shown seats two, have to wait and see, then hope my ship comes in (Lottery)....

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 26, 2025 - 04:44 am: Edit

I watched a video today which says that new silver-carbon batteries will actually make electric cars work. A car with such a battery could drive 900 miles and recharge in 9 minutes.

Each car would need a kilo of silver, which today would cost $1133.

To continue current EV production would consume 2/3 of silver production (newly mined). That silver already has uses and buyers so this would provoke a hot bidding war for the available supply.

This could triple the current $33 per ounce cost of silver.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, April 26, 2025 - 09:52 am: Edit

On the plus side, if demand for silver goes up, that would seem to indicate the price of the materials used in EV batteries should decline, which would result in a lower commodity price (reflecting the reduced demand for those materials.)

The markets should be able to handle such changes, after all, in the industrial age, wood was replaced with iron , steel, advanced steel alloys etc.

I wouldn’t expect anyone to go into debt speculating on the future price of silver… but no doubt a few hearty souls might try it. Just remember, precious metals Silver, Gold Platinum etc. have a significant variance pattern with a number of very large players making money (or losing it) on a daily basis.

Use caution!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 26, 2025 - 10:33 am: Edit

If silver went to $100 per ounce I suspect new mines would open, but that would take years. The point is that these new silver-carbon batteries are an order of magnitude better than Lithium-ion, which was itself revolutionary. Battery powered screwdrivers became a practical thing only with lithium ion batteries. So did smart watches and cell phones. What happens when they all get replaced with silver-carbon? You might have a cell phone you charge once a month, or a power tool that a carpenter charges once a day instead of using a new battery every hour. Green energy power grids might actually work with silver-carbon battery banks.

But suddenly diverting that much of the silver supply to a purpose that doesn't exist today is going to mean other people using silver have to find something else to do their thing with. We all noticed the lithium-ion revolution (and lithium production still cannot keep up); get ready for another one.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Saturday, April 26, 2025 - 11:20 am: Edit

I suspect that various batteries will come to dominate.

So Silver Carbon if you really need to get fast recharge. 900 miles is just probably not needed; I suspect that you'd get the 300 mile pack (saving money AND lightening the car). Take 15 minutes every 3-4 hours to charge up, get a fresh coffee and get out of that seas.

Solid State for that middle of the road performance.

Lithium for lower end stuff (like tablets or watches)

Remember just about no one drives over 400 miles a day without taking a meal break.

I can see recharge stations combined with diners. Maybe with scenic walk so you can stretch your legs. And a place for Fido to do his business.

etc.

By John Wyszynski (Starsabre) on Saturday, April 26, 2025 - 10:30 pm: Edit

EV get roughly 4 miles/KWh, give or take. For 900 mile range, you need a 225 KWh battery. For 9 minutes you need would need a 1500 KW feed (aka 1.5 MegaWatts). Basically recharge stations will have to be colocated with electrical substations.

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Saturday, April 26, 2025 - 11:46 pm: Edit

Everyone knows cars need 1.21 gigawatts, and where are you going to get that?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 02:09 am: Edit

Links to silver-carbon battery info. It seems I typoed the range (600 not 900).
https://chargedevs.com/newswire/samsung-researchers-describe-all-solid-state-battery/
https://www.goldenstatemint.com/blog/samsungs-silver-solid-state-battery-technology-1-kilogram-of-silver-per-car/
https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-presents-groundbreaking-all-solid-state-battery-technology-to-nature-energy
https://talkmarkets.com/content/news/silver-demand-to-soar-with-breakthrough-of-samsung-silver-solid-state-battery?post=459058
https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2024-08-19/silver-set-soar-samsungs-solid-state-battery-breakthrough-analysts

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 05:03 am: Edit

Toyota's working on a new copper-fluoride solid-state battery as well that looks promising. Reduced weight ratio (courtesy of being solid-state) and faster charging (courtesy of increased ion transfer via the new copper nitride cathode).

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 08:35 am: Edit

One key question needs to be asked about every new "game-changing" battery chemistry. What's the lifetime? i.e., how quickly does the capacity decline with the number of discharge-recharge cycles? That has been the death-knell for any number of promising battery designs.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 10:01 am: Edit

With Japanese engineers supposed breakthrough with hydrogen engines, what affect will that have with the EV market, especially Semi type trucks when they hit the market....

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 10:25 am: Edit

Not much in the U.S., Bolo. Long story short, the limiting factor with hydrogen is a refueling network, which is a bit more complicated than installing charging stations. Toyota really tried to push their hydrogen fuel-cell Mirai a decade ago, and while it's a going concern in Japan (where there was a funded network built out), they never got beyond California in the U.S. (where there is not).

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 - 10:49 am: Edit

Hydrogen isn’t that much of a limit.

Splitting H2O into gases (hydrogen, oxygen) is easy.

Storing it safely isn’t quite as easy.

If you have access to water, you can make hydrogen. Few years back, an Iowa farmer (and part time inventor) started converting tractors, pickup trucks, and cars into hydrogen fueled vehicles.

What killed it was the lawsuits filed to “protect” everything from public safety to the environment.

Biggest complaining group turned out to be other Iowa farmers that feared the impact on corn sales for ethanol production.

Go figure.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, April 28, 2025 - 10:54 am: Edit

I remember some dude that built his own methane digester for his horse poop. It was used to run his tractor.

IIRC I remember something about people using coal gas (???) to run cars in WW2. They'd have a big balloon of low pressure gas on the roof?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, April 28, 2025 - 01:09 pm: Edit

I once saw a 1917 U.S. Army truck in an auto museum… might have been in Montana in 1987-8…

it had a device mounted on the Drivers side, used to convert wood chips (or other organic material) into a flammable gas.

It didn’t have any tubing to connect to the engine, just a detachable pressure tank used to collect the gas over night.

IIRC, there was a note posted next to the exhibit sign, basically said “finicky”.