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Weather: Sunny. Highs in the mid 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Saturday Night: Clear. Lows in the lower 40s. West winds around 5 mph in the evening, becoming light and variable.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley: Flagler Beach Commission Chairman Scott Spradley hosts his weekly informal town hall with coffee and doughnuts at 9 a.m. at his law office at 301 South Central Avenue, Flagler Beach. All subjects, all interested residents or non-residents welcome. Today’s guest: Acting Police Chief Lance Blanchette.
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Wickline Park, 315 South 7th Street, featuring prepared food, fruit, vegetables , handmade products and local arts from more than 30 local merchants. The market is hosted by Flagler Strong, a non-profit.
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
Gamble Jam: Musicians of all ages can bring instruments and chairs and join in the jam session, 2 to 5 p.m. The program is free with park admission! Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach, 3100 S. Oceanshore Blvd., Flagler Beach, FL. Call the Ranger Station at (386) 517-2086 for more information. The Gamble Jam is a family-friendly event that occurs every second and fourth Saturday of the month. The park hosts this acoustic jam session at one of the pavilions along the river to honor the memory of James Gamble Rogers IV, the Florida folk musician who lost his life in 1991 while trying to rescue a swimmer in the rough surf.
| In Coming Days: December 14: Palm Coast's Starlight Parade in Town Center is scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 14 in Central Park, this year capping off the city's 25th anniversary celebrations. This festive parade will be a celebration of community traditions, featuring numerous community partners. Enjoy a delightful evening with food, entertainment, and fun for all ages. Don’t miss this opportunity to come together and honor the vibrant spirit of Palm Coast. Be part of this magical event and celebrate our community in style! Santa will arrive on a Palm Coast Fire Engine! There will be food trucks, Letters to Santa station, face painting, and kids crafts. |
Notably: I took this picture a few weeks back at Disney, our first trip there in a year, second in five or six years. My car was among those, so I shouldn’t be one to judge. But there’s still something arresting about this mass, which wasn’t even a third of the parking lot at MGM (as it used to be called): we are replacing species with cars, living with consuming. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration. For every car in that picture, a species has gone extinct at… I wouldn’t know what rate, but David Wallace-Wells tells us in The Uninhabitable Earth: “It has become quite common to say that we are living through a mass extinction—a period in which human activity has multiplied the rate at which species are disappearing from the earth by a factor perhaps as large as a thousand.” It’s too much to grasp one’s head around, though the picture above isn’t, not when we think of it as a corollary, not when we are the frogs in the slowly boiling water who, though we have brains, refuse to do something smarter.
—P.T.
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The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
A Christmas Carol at Athens Theatre
Al-Anon Family Groups
‘The Country Girl’ at City Repertory Theatre
Handel’s Messiah at Palm Coast United Methodist Church
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Flagler County Library Board of Trustees
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Nar-Anon Family Group
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
“What people are not seeing is that this is already a genetically modified environment,” he went on. Invasive species alter the environment by adding entire genomes that don’t belong. Genetic engineers, by contrast, alter just a few bits of DNA here and there. “What we’re doing is potentially adding on maybe ten more genes onto the twenty thousand toad genes that shouldn’t be there in the first place, and those ten will sabotage the rest and take them out of the system and so restore balance,” Tizard said. “The classic thing people say with molecular biology is: Are you playing God? Well, no. We are using our understanding of biological processes to see if we can benefit a system that is in trauma.”
—From Elizabeth Kolbert’s Under a White Sky (2021).
Pogo says
@P.T.
Today’s parking lot — tomorrow’s ocean reef.
Ray W, says
Two days ago, MIT News released an article about an entirely new battery design that is past the prototype phase; it is being tested in the field by potential customers.
Alsym Energy, co-founded by a 22-year veteran MIT professor whose interdisciplinary team specializes in studying “physicochemical and biological phenomena” and an entrepreneur, was formed for the purpose of developing an inexpensive nonflammable and nontoxic battery that can store enough electricity to power a family’s needs in a developing nation.
“We started out wanting to light up 1 billion people’s homes, and now in addition to the original goal we have a chance to impact the entire globe if we are successful at cutting back industrial emissions”, said the entrepreneur.
The battery is not for use in transportation settings; it is a stationary energy storage device.
Patents are pending, so the chemical make-up of the battery remains secret, but it uses neither lithium nor cobalt. One of the electrodes consists primarily of manganese oxide. The other consists of a different metal oxide. The electrolyte consists primarily of water.
The battery neither catches fire nor explodes, so battery modules can be packed closely together without requiring liquid cooling systems. According to the company, the battery can be manufactured at any current lithium-ion battery factory “with minimal changes and at significantly lower operating cost.”
A 20′ battery container stores 1,7 megawatt hours of electricity; it can fast charge in four hours and its discharge rate can be configured from two to 110 hours. The technology does not reach the energy density of lithium-ion batteries.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
American researchers continue to excel. Innovation continues to thrive. But what are these things worth if we do nothing with them?
Twenty years ago, we possessed the manufacturing capability to evolve into new industries. We could have led the world in battery manufacturing, but we ceded it all to China. Same for solar panel manufacturing. Same for wind power manufacturing. We just gave it away.
Ford’s CEO says we are years behind Chinese EV manufacturers. We are erecting trade barriers to protect our technologically deficient automotive industry. BYD just released a compact-class fully electric SUV that it sells for just over $13,000. American manufacturers have nothing even close to that figure.
Millions and millions of Americans think that tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back without the barriers affecting prices for all sorts of consumer goods. Maybe they are right. Maybe they are wrong.
Since economists say the American consumer will indirectly pay the tariffs by way of more expensive consumer goods, we may all have to pay more for certain items. No one knows if we can ever regain the ground we gave up. Perhaps the tariffs will be permanent.
Ray W, says
More on the MIT front.
After six months of testing, an MIT-designed solar-powered desalination device can produce up to 5000 liters of clean water per day from brackish water intruding into underground reservoirs. Instead of the more common reverse osmosis filtering system, the device employs electrodialysis, or “leveraging an electric field to remove salt ions through ion-exchange membranes.”
The device, 91% more efficient than traditional forms of solar-powered electrodialysis, uses half the energy of reverse osmosis systems when used with 2,500 ppm saltwater concentration.
And the electrodialysis membranes in the device last three times longer than the membranes used in reverse osmosis systems.
BillC says
Talk about conspicuous consumption! Justin Sun, is the person who bought the artwork for 6.2 million. In a statement, Sun said the piece “represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.” But he said the latest version of “Comedian” [the name of the work] won’t last long. ” I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture” Sun said. He’s right. Public relations bullshit has replaced rational values in decision making. Witness the election of the biggest bullshitter of them all- Trump.
Ray W, says
Even more from MIT.
A team of engineers from MIT collaborated with a Chinese engineering team to build an entirely passive solar desalination system that uses no electricity.
“The configuration of the device allows water to circulate in swirling eddies, in a manner similar to the much larger ‘thermohaline’ circulation of the ocean.'”
Sunlight heats the saltwater, causing evaporation. The “swirling eddies” keeps the remaining salt from settling to the bottom of the device, so salt does not build up; rather it can be flushed out of the system. The condensed water vapor is collected as pure water.
The smallest system, the size of a small suitcase, can produce “about 4 to 6 liters of drinking water per hour.” It is expected to last several years before requiring replacement parts.
“For the first time, it is possible for water, produced by sunlight, to be even cheaper than tap water”, said one of the MIT research scientists.
The process seems simple, if I understand it correctly.
Build a vessel with a tube protruding through the bottom of the hull. Place the vessel in salt water. The vessel’s weight displaces water as the hull settles. Water flows upward through the tube into an angled box that uses thermal energy from sunlight to heat the water. The angle of the box keeps the incoming water swirling in eddies. As fresh water evaporates, the remaining salty water becomes more concentrated. Concentrated saltwater weighs more than ordinary salt water, so it naturally flows downward out of the vessel, to be replaced with more fresh saltwater. No moving parts. No electricity. Just gravity and sunlight.
Build a larger vessel with 10 boxes and generate 40 to 60 liters of fresh water per hour at a cost cheaper than tap water as long as the sun shines.
Ray W, says
An Autoblog reporter, Stephen Fogel, writes of the American automotive sector’s competition with China.
Here are some bullet points:
– “The race is over and we have lost. As far as lithium-ion battery technology goes, the Chinese have won. They set their sights on a product that they could excel at and now they own it.”
– In 2001, the Chinese government made lithium-ion battery supremacy a feature of its Five Year Plan.
– After learning to build vehicles, China realized that their industry would not be able to “out-innovate” the West in ICE technology. “This led to major industry support for developing EV batteries in 2009. Over the next 15 years, the Chinese government, through grants, subsidized land and tax breaks, poured $230 billion into EV and battery development. (Before anyone reacts to this, $230 billion over 15 years comes to just over $15 billion per year, which is less than the estimated $20 billion per year that America gives to oil companies in tax breaks, subsidies, and other financial considerations.)
– Completely or partially owned Chinese firms will refine more than 90% of Africa’s lithium supply over the next 10 years.
– China’s current battery manufacturing capacity is already 400% greater than current worldwide battery demand.
– China’s excess manufacturing capacity gives its manufacturers a pricing advantage.
– “While it’s pretty much game over as far as liquid electrolyte lithium-ion batteries go, we should not give up. We should be building our own lithium-ion battery plants and supply chains so that we can provide our EV industry with a stable source of batteries that cannot be cut off for political reasons.
“The Inflation Reduction Act has already spurred a massive investment in American-based lithium-ion battery plants, making that goal a reality. Regardless, we should realize that lithium-ion batteries are reaching their performance limits and its time to go beyond them.”
– The next logical step in battery development is solid-state lithium technology. “… [W]e have not yet ceded development (of these batteries) to China.”
– “The next generation of solid-state EV batteries are the answer to many troubling issues we must live with in today’s electric vehicles. These solid-state batteries will charge faster, have more energy density and thus be lighter, and will be much safer than today’s lithium-ion cells, eliminating the possibility of thermal runaway. Even better, solid-state batteries need no graphite, which China has near-total control of.”
– “Just imagine and EV with 1,000 miles of range, a five-minute charging time, normal weight, and low fire hazard.”
– “The next race for solid-state batteries is on and we are not the only ones running in it. In addition to a Chinese-sponsored consortium including battery maker CATL and automaker BYD, Japan’s Toyota, Nissan and Honda, and Korea’s Samsung are also hotly pursuing solid-state batteries. The big challenges facing all solid-state battery developers are making them at large scale while bringing the cost down.”
“It’s now or never. The Chinese have eaten our lunch where lithium-ion batteries are concerned, but we still have a chance to grab the lead in the solid-state battery race. The clock is ticking…”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I think it likely that the professional lying class of one of our two political parties will continue their assault on the sensibilities of their followers. The gullible among us will not push back against the lies. Internal combustion engine development has had 135 years to mature. There are still efficiency gains out there, but few and far between.
Battery technology remains in its infancy, with much upside. Solid-state batteries promise longer range, lighter weight, greater number of discharge-recharge cycles and therefore longer life, less toxic recycling methods, and lower costs once economies of scale are reached. This future far outshines the more limited potential improvements in internal combustion engine design, even without factoring in the climate issues. Who knows whether the gullible among us will carry the day?
As an aside, it is estimated that there were some 500 Chinese EV companies building vehicles in 2019. By 2023, some 100 remained active. Some industry analysts think that as few as seven will remain by 2030. Competition has been fierce.
This is little different from the Japanese motorcycle industry after WWII. Out of the more than 100 companies in the early 50s, four remain.
Indeed, dozens of car makers existed in America prior to the Great Depression.
In my youth, some 14 brands were building cars and light trucks. Nine remain. American Motors dropped out in the 70s. Saturn was launched and then folded. Plymouth, Mercury, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, all have gone away in the last 20 years.
Among foreign makes selling here, Kia went bankrupt and was bought by Hyundai. Mazda dropped its Infiniti line. Mitsubishi stopped selling its light truck line in America. Suzuki is no longer here. Saab is gone, too. Hyundai has been building its new Genesis lineup.
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