the power can get one out of trouble. I think one is more likely to get in trouble with all that power;
You gotta know when to hold em,
know when to fold em,
know when to walk away,
know when to run…
FC
*19 M3 SR+ - you “want” that power at the onramps, you “need” that power at the onramps 
*
Oh I loved motorcycles as a young man especially while riding them in New Mexico without a helmet racing into a curve …ooo the adrenaline rush! Never felt so alive!
I drew my adrenaline rush activities at skydiving though. Something about stepping out of a perfectly good airplane relying on someone else’s chute packing skill. Nope.
My early days were running about on initially an old $10 barn find, a '47 350cc Royal Enfield thumper, tore it all apart, to replace the main drive pin, splitting the flywheels, etc… At about 16, I guess… Then on to a '53 Harley K-model 45" V-twin flathead, a '53 Triumph T110 650cc twin, but as marraige, work came along, none until my '76 Yamaha XT500, mainly dirt bike, rationalized as also a street ride… Still have it, kinda dusty out in the shop, needs a tune n tires, fork seals, bushings… I let my M/C endorsement slide on my last DMV renewal, don’t plan on riding at my age, probably OK, don’t care to be a donor of vitals anymore… Great times, knew all the local cops, played hide n seek with them at times, busted other times…
Inlaw’s Hayabusa was a beast, but he also had a 103" Harley, tired of the rumble, moved on… Sand buggy’s are his latest toy, an earlier ones front end broke at about 60 or so, end flips, rolls, broken wrist, cracked ribs, dislocated shoulder, out in the dunes. Now a newer one, wider, faster… and he’s only a few years younger than me! But a lot more disposable income… We’re going to their home in Carson City for Christmas, maybe have to see how it does in the Sierra snow!!
We all wear helps now, but mine is way outdated, the foam is coming apart, can’t justify a replacement… Can’t justify fixing up the XT500, either… Lotsa fun, tho…
weco
I’m no scientist but have been told that lithium mines totally destroy the planet in a way that oil does not. My friend tells me that this usually takes place in out of the way areas where it’s only a few locals who have their lives destroyed:
The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction
As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required could become a major issue in its own right
As the world moves towards electric cars and renewable grids, demand for lithium is wreaking havoc in northern Chile
The race is on to find a steady source of lithium, a key component in rechargeable electric car batteries. But while the EU focuses on emissions, the lithium gold rush threatens environmental damage on an industrial scale
This is what a lithium mine looks like; it just totally destroys the planet:
With the high demand for batteries the technology is advancing rapidly. Not just Tesla but other are working on the million mile battery. Say they only get to 25%, one quarter, 250,000 miles, at 7,000 miles per year that battery would be good for 35 years in the UK or good for 20 years in higher milage countries.
Dahn’s paper contrasts cells based on Li[Ni0.5Mn0.3Co0.2]O2 chemistry (“NMC 532”) to LiFePO4. The latter is the “Lithium Iron Phosphate” (aka LFP) chemistry that Tesla is currently using in Chinese-built standard Model 3 cars imported into Europe. The LFP chemistry has lower energy density than more widespread Lithium-Ion alternatives, but is cheaper, more durable, and allegedly safer, too. LFP can last up to 12,000 charge-discharge cycles, so beating it in this regard is no mean feat. Dahn’s NMC 532 cells showed no capacity loss after nearly 2,000 cycles. The paper extrapolates this out to imply a 100-year lifespan (they obviously haven’t been testing the battery that long).
read more
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=the+million+mile+battery&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
The Captain
Back in the mid 70’s I had a Kawasaki H2 750. That bike had expansion chambers, racing sprockets and was ported / polished. It was a quick little bike. I had it custom painted black with a Roman stiched seat. It had a Kawasakin 500 front end on it. That was one sweet bike and a fun ride…doc
stroll down memory lane
captainccs, I sincerely hope that all you say comes true.
However, all my life I worked on what the situation is and not what I would like it to be, and cetainly not on what someone else tells me that it is going to be.
When the car industry produces the goods I’ll no doubt buy one - probably won’t have any choice…but until then the jury is out.
You seem to be missing (at least) one main point. Oil is consumed for every mile traveled. Forever.
Lithium is mined and used, but not consumed. There are already several companies that will recycle the lithium from used batteries to make new ones.
Also, the conversion from combustion to electric enables the possibility of other battery chemistries and other energy sources.
I think the possibility of another war over oil is more likely than a war over lithium supplies. Cutting off oil tends to shutdown economies much more rapidly than lithium.
Mike
And here’s a copper mine:
And a coal mine:
And a diamond mine:
Bet you can’t tell which is which just by looking. Did I really label them correctly?
The reality is that open pit mining is the ecological issue, not strictly lithium.
–Peter
Answer key:
*How to Manage Heat Stress in Open Pit Mining Operations
*Open-pit mining - Wikipedia
*Open-pit Mining - Mining North Works
Hi Peter
I think the point that I was trying to make is that lithium does more damage to the environment than oil extraction. For example most of the oil in the UK comes from under the North Sea and is pipped ashore.
I used to live near an old oil field here in the UK. It is now a nature reserve, quite a beautiful country place:
Oil began to be pumped out of Duke’s Wood in 1939 after the site was identified as a rich source, and this stopped in 1958 when drilling at offshore sites in the North Sea became more popular.
A museum in memory of the history of the land that is now a nature reserve is located inside
Kelham Hall, Newark, where some former workers lived.
I’m aware that you could point to a derelict oil field that looks a mess, but generally oil extraction is far better than lithium extraction.
Spoken just like a oil company rep would say it. All open pit mines look ugly, is lithium that much different?
I’ve not heard of a lithium spill, but here is a short list of major UK oil spills that actually kill wildlife, shown with tonnage (source: Wikipedia)
Worldwide the list is 20x -100x as much
Spill / Vessel Location Dates Min Tonnes Max Tonnes Owner Link(s)
| Torrey Canyon | United Kingdom, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly | 18 March 1967 | 80,000 | 119,000 | [164][176] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinity Navigator | United Kingdom, Devon | 2 March 1971 | unknown | unknown | [286] | |
| Thomas W. Lawson | United Kingdom, Isles of Scilly | 14 December 1907 | 7,400 | 7,400 | [322] | |
| Hamilton Trader | United Kingdom, Liverpool Bay, Irish Sea | 30 April 1969 | 546 | 546 | [294] | |
| Sea Empress | United Kingdom, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire | 15 February 1996 | 40,000 | 72,000 | Seatankers Management | [164][176] |
| Gannet Alpha platform, North Sea | United Kingdom, North Sea, Gannet Alpha platform | 10 August 2011 – 13 August 2011 | 216 | 216 | Royal Dutch Shell | [101] |
| MV Braer | United Kingdom, Shetland | 5 January 1993 | 85,000 | 85,000 | [176] | |
| BP Clair production platform, North Sea | United Kingdom, Shetland, Clair platform | 2 October 2016 | 105 | 105 | BP | [53] |
Ha! The Keystone Oil Pipeline (yes, it already exists, the whole controversy was just about running a shortcut through some protected tribal lands and water shed areas) had an oil spill last week.
Keystone has been around since 2010. The controversy was about Keystone XL, a new larger pipeline.
DB2
The point is pipelines sometimes leak. I spent about two months investigating on a pipeline leak near Bird Creek, Alaska, along with I’d guess about 500 other contractors and I don’t know how many military personnel. I’m not sure how many acres of forest were bulldozed, but I can assure you mere trees did not stand in the way of the project. The remediation, which I was not involved with, went on for years.
You never heard of this? If not, I’m not surprised. I just Googled it and the results are so far down in the search rankings I didn’t see it. But I know it happened because I was there. Yet this was just one major pipeline leak. How many others haven’t we heard about?
Mike,
We are getting solar panels and as far as we can tell, unless your home is set up to be totally off grid, without any connection to the grid whatsoever (in the USA) there is zero chance of finding a way to disconnect from your local grid during an outage. IIRC, the inverters are where that failsafe switch exists. (?)
The utilities’ main reason for preventing you from using electricity from your own solar panels during a grid failure, is that if you make an error while the grid is down and still accidentally allow electricity to energize the grid from your solar panels, then a utility worker could mistakenly think that they are repairing a dead power line, and would be electrocuted by your solar electricity.
Does my explanation make sense?
jan
Hi jan,
You’re absolutely correct in your explanation of why a utility is concerned about “off grid” power generation.
We don’t have solar panels, but we have a portable generator which allows us to be “off grid” in the event of a power outage. This is accomplished with the installation of a “transfer switch” located within our main circuit panel where our power line comes into our home.
Actually - according to this linked article - I just learned that we do not have a transfer switch, we have an interlock device - slightly different, but accomplishes the same goal.
The transfer switch is one that ensures that the main breaker which connects us to the grid is in the OFF position in order to put the breaker switch for the generator in the ON position. So it is one (grid) or the other (generator) - never both.
Hope that helps!
'38Packard
As I said, Keystone pipeline has been around for a while. The new (proposed - in green) on the map is (was) for a shortcut through tribal lands and water shed areas. Yes, it was also larger, and therefore more likely to cause havoc if/when it failed.
A friend in Texas has lots of panels, a few batteries, and an automatic disconnect from the grid. And he’s already had enough short black-outs to verify it does indeed work. Says it is so quick they seldom notice when they go off-grid and power themselves completely.
Trains carrying oil aren’t great either.
A timeline of recent oil train crashes in the US and Canada | AP News
You’re obviously kidding! This is utterly ridiculous. The amount of environmental damage done by oil exploration/etc just in Nigeria alone is more than all the environmental damage of all lithium mines worldwide, and likely more than all the lithium mining for the next 50 years.
