Lithium Shortages in Future?

And we'll blame the electric vehicle industry if so? Sounds like the jury is still out on this one. The good thing about higher prices for operating the standard model is that you get innovation.

Electric-Car Race Could Strain Lithium Battery Supply - Cnet.com - 31 Oct 08

"Today, Toyota's Prius hybrid electric cars have nickel-metal hydride batteries. Because of improvements in weight and storage in lithium ion batteries, though, a number of auto manufacturers will be using them in plug-in hybrids expected to come to market in the next two years.

General Motors, for example, plans to use lithium ion batteries for the [Chevrolet] Volt and the Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid, both of which are expected in late 2010. Toyota, too, is planning cars with lithium ion batteries, but it is said to be researching zinc air batteries for vehicles as well.

Today, lithium is extracted from dried salt ponds or 'salt flats.' A briny liquid underneath the surface is pumped out and dried in the sun. The dried material contains lithium carbonate, which is later processed to make lithium. There are widely divergent views on whether the existing producers of lithium--most located in South America and China--can keep pace with an onrush of hundreds of thousands or millions of new plug-in hybrid cars in the next few years."

Lithium Shortages in Future?

And we'll blame the electric vehicle industry if so? Sounds like the jury is still out on this one. The good thing about higher prices for operating the standard model is that you get innovation.

Electric-Car Race Could Strain Lithium Battery Supply - Cnet.com - 31 Oct 08

"Today, Toyota's Prius hybrid electric cars have nickel-metal hydride batteries. Because of improvements in weight and storage in lithium ion batteries, though, a number of auto manufacturers will be using them in plug-in hybrids expected to come to market in the next two years.

General Motors, for example, plans to use lithium ion batteries for the [Chevrolet] Volt and the Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid, both of which are expected in late 2010. Toyota, too, is planning cars with lithium ion batteries, but it is said to be researching zinc air batteries for vehicles as well.

Today, lithium is extracted from dried salt ponds or 'salt flats.' A briny liquid underneath the surface is pumped out and dried in the sun. The dried material contains lithium carbonate, which is later processed to make lithium. There are widely divergent views on whether the existing producers of lithium--most located in South America and China--can keep pace with an onrush of hundreds of thousands or millions of new plug-in hybrid cars in the next few years."

Poll Junkies Sites

Only a few more days of clicking the browser refresh button. In my order of preference.

Pollster
FiveThirtyEight
RealClearPolitics

Poll Junkies Sites

Only a few more days of clicking the browser refresh button. In my order of preference.

Pollster
FiveThirtyEight
RealClearPolitics

Old Age Is For Babes

Would that we could all age so well.

Helen Mirren the Bikini Queen Reigns Supreme at 63 - Daily Mail - 21 July 08

And my fave on the other side of the chromosome fence.

Old Age Is For Babes

Would that we could all age so well.

Helen Mirren the Bikini Queen Reigns Supreme at 63 - Daily Mail - 21 July 08

And my fave on the other side of the chromosome fence.

This is SO Wrong

We Are Family - R&B Classics by Pat Boone.

They could effectively torture terrorists with this one. Ouch.

This is SO Wrong

We Are Family - R&B Classics by Pat Boone.

They could effectively torture terrorists with this one. Ouch.

Goddard College - Social Ecology Program - 1979

Thanks to quotamour, I ended up finding this clip of the school that I briefly went to school at (before this clip) and later taught at right around the time of this clip. This was also around the time of the back-to-the-land movement. Mother Earth News was a popular magazine among the youth as were the Whole Earth Catalogs and Coevolution Quarterly (later Whole Earth Review).

( Mega-rant with personal history behind the cut . . . )

Goddard College - Social Ecology Program - 1979

Thanks to quotamour, I ended up finding this clip of the school that I briefly went to school at (before this clip) and later taught at right around the time of this clip. This was also around the time of the back-to-the-land movement. Mother Earth News was a popular magazine among the youth as were the Whole Earth Catalogs and Coevolution Quarterly (later Whole Earth Review).

( Mega-rant with personal history behind the cut . . . )