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Weather: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 87.
- 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:
The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. every first Wednesday of the month at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For details about the city’s code enforcement regulations, go here.
The Flagler Beach Parks Ad Hoc Committee meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd St, Flagler Beach. The Committee’s six members, appointed by the City Commission, provide recommendations related to the maintenance of existing parks and equipment and recommendations for new or replacement equipment and other duties as assigned by the City Commission.
Conversations in Democracy: An open, freewheeling discussion on topics here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
Bingo Night at Palm Coast Elks Lodge 2709, 53 Old Kings Road North, Palm Coast. Doors open at 4:30 p.m., first draw at 6 p.m.
The Circle of Light Course in Miracles study group meets at a private residence in Palm Coast every Wednesday at 1:20 PM. There is a $2 love donation that goes to the store for the use of their room. If you have your own book, please bring it. All students of the Course are welcome. There is also an introductory group at 1:00 PM. The group is facilitated by Aynne McAvoy, who can be reached at [email protected] for location and information.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 1 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
The Flagler County Republican Club holds its monthly meeting starting with a social hour at 5 and the business meeting at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, 55 Town Center Blvd., Palm Coast. The club is the social arm of the Republican Party of Flagler County, which represents over 40,000 registered Republicans. Meetings are open to Republicans only.
Notably: I’m bewildered why this is not a bigger story than it’s been for the last 121 years. Why it isn’t an annual, global commemoration. Why J.D. Vance is not today at the Vatican marking the occasion with the pope, or at least lecturing him about it. It was on this day in 1905 that the New York Times on its front page reported the end of hell. The end of everlasting punishment. The story was datelined Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where Pawtucket Congressional Church had made the discovery, and recorded it in its articles of faith. According to the Times, the church’s articles had previously stated: “We believe in the resurrection and in a general judgment, when a final separation will be made between the righteous and the wicked, the former to enter into everlasting life, and the latter to go away into everlasting punishment.” Then came this: “Announcement was made to-day that the Pawtucket Congregational Church, of which the Rev. Frank J. Goodwin is pastor, besides making changes in the form for receiving members, has eliminated from its articles of faith a statement of belief in eternal punishment.” The previous statement was replaced with this: “We believe in the resurrection and the life everlasting.” Period. End of story. Just don’t ask what kind of eternity. (“We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast, vast!,” Dostoevsky wrote. “But why must be vast? Instead of all that, think of it as a little room, like a bathhouse in the country, black and grimy and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is? I sometimes fancy it like that.”)
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.
May 2026
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Palm Coast’s Loop Road Groundbreaking
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Democratic Club Meeting
Community Preparedness Workshop
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series
‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,’ an FPC Production
‘The Curious Savage” at Daytona Playhouse
“Once on This Island,” At Limelight Theatre
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Disaster Preparedness Expo
Flagler County Cultural Council (FC3) Meeting
Friday Blue Forum
For the full calendar, go here.
One possibility we didn’t consider was that God is the ultimate ironist. Just as scientists set up laboratory experiments with rats, mazes, and pieces of cheese placed behind the correct door, so God might have set up His own experiment, with us playing rat. Our task is to locate the door behind-which eternal life is hid-den. Near one possible exit we hear distant ethereal music, near another smell a whiff of incense; golden light gleams around a third. We press against all these doors, yet none of them yields. With increasing urgency—for we know that the cunning box we find ourselves in is called mortality—we try to escape. But what we don’t understand is that our non-escaping is the whole point of the experiment. There are many fake doors, but no real one, because there is no eternal life. The game thought up by God the ironist is this: to plant immortal longings in an undeserving creature and then observe the consequences. To watch these humans, freighted with consciousness and intelligence, rushing around like frantic rats. To see how one group of them instructs everyone else that their door (which even they can’t open) is the only correct one, and then perhaps starts killing anyone who puts money on a different door. Wouldn’t that be fun?
–From Julian Barnes’s Nothing To Be Frightened Of (2008).
Dennis C Rathsam says
What is more important, a little pain at the pump, or Iran having long range missiles with nuclear warheads?
Jim says
Okay, Dennis. Out of curiosity, what’s changed since Trump said he’d bring prices down by half? Iran has had the nuclear materials since Trump canceled the agreement in his first term. Iran had long range missiles in Trump’s first term. And, if I’m not mistaken, Trump stated flatly that he had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capability on June 22, 2025. Yet here we are, 8 months later and now Iran is allegedly on the brink of having a nuclear bomb. The Iranians are damn good if they got from obliterated to nuclear capable that fast, wouldn’t you agree?
It just seems to me that whatever bullshit Trump throws out there, you catch it and cheer while crap piles up on you.
Just for giggles, were you happy to hear that Trump’s beautiful new ballroom (which I’m sure you’ll get an invite) will now be built with our tax dollars and NOT by donations as Trump promised? Oh, and Trump says he’s raised $350m for that project. Wonder where that money is going now? And I see we’re putting up $1B to cover the costs. As Trump said, we can’t pay for daycare but we do have money lying around for his ballroom.
Grab a big spoon, sir. More delightful inedible crap is headed your way. Enjoy the delicacies!!!
Dennis C Rathsam says
Iran did not have the capability to hit America in TRUMPS 1st term! Prices, gas & taxes were coming down, soon after TRUMP was ellected. The inflation rate was less than 3 %! TRUMP took out scum of the Middle East. No democrat had the balls, Obama was too busy kissing desert ragheads,He shipped billions in cash, so more Americans can die! TRUMP, & BIBI took out the whole IRAN commanders like ducks on a pond. And U have the balls to bitch!
Jim says
Sorry!
Fact: Inflation at start of Trump’s second term: 3%
Fact: Inflation during Trump’s second term: 2.6% to 2.7%
Fact: Price of gas at start of Trump’s second term: $3.00/gallon
Fact: Price of gas in January 2026: $2.81. (Meaning that in 12 months, it dropped a whopping $0.19 per gallon!)
Fact: Price of gas in Palm Coast today: $4.50! (Meaning that’s $1.50 ABOVE the price of gas when Biden left office. Trump drops prices like he manages casinos….)
Fact: Not all Iranian commanders have been taken out. Maybe you haven’t noticed but they are still shooting rockets, missiles and drones at us and their neighbors. Now, maybe it’s just a bunch of privates who have “gone off the reservation” and are just randomly shooting at whoever they want whenever they feel like it but most likely, there are COMMANDERS who are giving the orders. Plus, it all the commanders are gone, who do you think Trump is negotiating with?
Dennis, I know you think the sun shines in Trump’s buttocks and that’s fine for you. If you think Trump is making the world a better, safer place, good for you! I’m sorry that I’ve offended you for simply pointing out things that make normal people wonder what exactly the Great One is doing.
And I DO have balls to bitch! I find burying my head in the sand to be counter-productive. But you go ahead. Maybe you won’t have to swallow so much of Trump’s shit as he throws it your way!
You have a very nice day!
Skibum says
So now, YOU are some armchair nuclear expert? Since you want everyone to believe your bullshit, why don’t you take a second to try to explain your definition of “OBLITERATED”.
We were oh so close to being annihilated by Iran’s make believe nuclear weapons, but that was before the bombing of their underground bunkers, so we were all told their nuclear ambitions were “completely obliterated. But wait, then they apparently just mouthed “abracadabra” and presto, the entire world was in danger just a few months later, huh? Is that how easy weapons grade nuclear production works despite complete obliteration???
While YOU may be foolish enough to keep being lied to and brainwashed again, and again, and again, and again, and still again by a convicted felon sex abuser con man… the sane among us laughs in your pitiful face at how utterly STUPID maga mush brains are. YOU are the easy pickings that con men like your dear leader love to target… to him, you are nothing but what con men call “a mark”.
Pity, pity, pity.
The dude says
Why do I care if Iran has a weapon a number of other countries has? What are they building a bomb big enough to take the whole country out at once? Man are you MAGA morons gullible.
Why wasn’t any of this mentioned during the 2024 campaigns?
Iran
Arc de Trumpy (vanity project)
Kennedy Center (vanity project)
Ballroom (vanity project)
That list right there is billions and billions of $$$, and it’s all either impulsive decisions to distract from the Epstein files, or straight up vanity projects for the diaper don.
How are the prices of eggs, beef, gas, and really anything else doing? None of them are better than when President Biden was in office, they’re all much worse.
You elected and cheer for a demented, addled moron. What does that say about you?
Ed P says
You know what bewilders me?
Our inability to address the social pain coming our way due to the fiscal irresponsibility that Congress down to our local leaders have pursued for the last 30 years.
Budgets at all levels have ballooned beyond sustainability. Deficits are everywhere but being ignored.
People are demanding more for less. We want it for free. Personal responsibility has evaporated.
It’s OUR problem, why doesn’t everyone hear the alarm bells even if they’ve been blind to all the red flags over the last 30 years?
Socialism isn’t the answer.
Pierre Tristam says
Just for kicks, Ed P, can you cite one program, just one, that you find unsustainable at each of our major local governments: Palm Coast, the county and the school board.
Ed P says
Hello Pierre,
I certainly don’t have a monopoly on answers but will point toward a few warts that should be examined. It’s not one single program that pushes us into unsustainable territory but the expectation that everything can continue status quo.
2019 Flagler county budget was $196.1 million. The 2026 budget is $338 million. Can we sustain that growth?
Teacher head count is down, student head count is flat. Test scores are suspect. A mandatory 4% school department budget is instituted. So do we need the 3 new facilities for schools given we have a county deficit, beach nourishment remains unfunded, and the state is pushing to 1/2 homesteaded real estate taxes all while property values begin to drop?
Fire and rescue budget in Flagler county has increased 80% during the same time frame. Doesn’t Palm coast has a fire department? Typically, 1.7 million a year is uncollected for ambulance service. There is $10.3 million uncollectable amount listed on county budget dating back to 2018. Collection efforts might need a review.
Not a big fan of a Flagler County helicopter. Why is the sheriffs budget deemed untouchable?
How sustainable are the lost lawsuits, like captains barbecue, A1A marina issue, school system fishing scheme…? Theses are unexpected occurrences that need to budgeted.
On the federal side of things, the U S national debt held by the public surpassed 100% of GDP last year month. This is the first time since WW2.
It’s our elected leaders jobs to decide which reductions must be conducted but I would suggest that they start looking sooner than later.
Cut backs with improved efficiencies are necessary.
We have a unsustainable spending problem.
Pierre Tristam says
EdP, the easiest thing in the world is to say: spending is out of control. I hear it every day at government meetings and every other minute from candidates for office. The moment you ask either to cite specific examples they know of to cut, they d what you do: dish out more figures, more generalities, more great-sounding wailing wall stuff, but no concrete examples. I asked you for just one example from each local government. You couldn’t do that much, the helicopter generality aside. Would you cut the county’s helicopter? It’s separate from the sheriff’s. Would you have the sheriff cut his? Would you cut his deputies’ ranks? The Captain’s lawsuit was settled a couple of years back for $800,000. That’s a one-time payout. The ambulance payouts are an issue in every one of the country’s 3,000 counties. It’s part of the junky health care system we have and that millions can’t afford, and it’s the same reason 10 to 20 percent of bills aren’t collected by local hospitals, which is why they make the rest of us pay more to compensate. Again, even if you had 100 percent payments, you wouldn’t make a dent in the sort of budget increases you’re complaining about. Palm Coast budget? School budget? Nothing? No ideas? Clearly you’ve bought into the Ingoglia alchemy. I prefer my numbers more concrete and my reasoning less disingenuous. Since we’re already going in circles, I’d rather stop here, as this is budget season and I have work to do.
Ed P says
Hello Pierre,
I am not a resident of the city of Palm Coast, I live in the county. I focus my comments in my community specifically or nationally. Or haven’t you paid attention?
Unlike the gullible among us, I don’t have enough information to suggest specific programs that should be cut. While I am not advocating elimination of specific programs, I am pointing toward specific areas that a reasonable budget reduction could occur,
You are being very short sighted in your analysis pointing to an areas of savings or requesting a sacrificial program that will save the day.
It’s been 30 years since Congress produced a constitutionally required on time budget. Continuing resolutions are the norm.
Flagler county’s budget bloat didn’t occur overnight.
A reasonable reduction across the board is not draconian and I am a proponent that the sheriff’s and Schools’ budget can no longer be viewed as sacred or untouchable.
Mandatory spending items must see reasonable reductions. Every department need to realistic. Salary reductions or forgoing annual increases for performing county employees is counterproductive and will not save the day either. Head count is a different story and should be addresses.
So, please carry on with your work.
Pierre Tristam says
I generally don’t pay attention to you because debates with you is like watching eels wrestle: you remain this site’s reigning champ of the disingenuous. “Budgets at all levels have ballooned beyond sustainability,” is how you started. Your words. I asked you for examples–just one example. Couldn’t deliver. You mention again the sheriff’s and school budgets. What one program would you cut out of the schools? And were you aware that in inflation-adjusted dollars, our school budgets have declined? No, of course not. That’s the thing: everyone bitches and moans about alleged runaway budgets. No one can give concrete examples of what they’d cut. Parroting talk show morons and passing it off as reasoned debate. Not my thing.
Sherry says
“Watching eels wrestle”. . . LOL! The perfect description! Thanks for the laugh, Pierre!
Jim says
Ed P, I agree with you that spending/debt is out of control.
I don’t see many on any side of the aisle getting concerned about it.
I do see some root causes that should be addressed if things are to change:
1. Eliminate PAC and personal financial contributions to all candidates in all elections. Set a limit of $1k/person (or corporation) per election per candidate.
2. No more gerrymandering of districts. Turn it over to a non-partisan commission in every state. Allow redistricting only after a census and require that to happen within a set time period. Require redistricting to take into account population, geography and mutual interests (when and if applicable). Compare a revised district proposal to voting trends and, if the new district heavily favors any party, it should be invalid.
3. Do not allow any Congress member to invest in any stocks or bonds for the duration of their term. Require their investments to go into a blind trust and not be run by a spouse or other family member.
I’m sure there are many other thoughts people might have to add to this but that’s a start. The problem is that I don’t expect any congress member to agree to vote for any of these recommendations. This would just take money out of their pocket as well as put their congressional seat at risk in every election. Who wants that? Randy Fine will be elected into Congress again in this election and I don’t know of a thing he’s done for this district. But I know his seat is not at risk.
As far as your other comments, there’s some truth to your statements. I do not agree that personal responsibility has evaporated. I personally don’t know anyone that is spending themselves into bankruptcy just because they “deserve” all their toys. I do know of people who do that – you can watch YouTube or listen to some of the news services – and get more than a stomach full of those kinds of people. I don’t think they are the majority.
I think the vast majority of Americans want a decent chance at a mid-class life if they are willing to put in the effort. Some may even exceed and move into the “upper class” (I hate that term). But what I also see is prices going through the roof, wages continually falling behind and a system that isn’t working for many.
As far as socialism goes, I’ll say this. We should have a health care system that provides care for every citizen of this country. There may be some costs to the individual but it should be the same for each of us. No one should face financial ruin because of a health issue. We currently have Social Security and Medicare which I guess fall into Socialism but I don’t see anyone saying they’ll not participate in those programs because they morally object to them.
And, finally (everyone cheer!), I think we need to tax the rich! Yes! I think that the Elon Musk’s, Jeff Bezo’s, Mark Zuckerberg’s et. al. of the nation should pay taxes just like the rest of us. I know the argument that the rich pay more actual dollars than the vast majority of the rest of the country combined and I say that’s a bullshit argument. Simply put, if person X makes $100,000/year and pays $15k/year in taxes, person Y who makes $1,000,000/year should pay around $150,000/year in taxes. And Musk, et. al. should be paying in the billions. And don’t tell me that’s not fair. If we expect person X to live on the $85k he/she has left, the poor ol’ person Y ought to be able to struggle along on $850,000 per year. And if person Y can’t do it. well, cry me a river….
America is supposed to be the land of opportunity. Only the rich define opportunity as the right to exploit all of us so they can keep their money.
You may or may not agree with anything I’ve said here. But, answer this: In the November election, will you be voting for Randy Fine and Ashley Moody? If so, do you think that’ll lead to more fiscal stability at the national level? I’m not saying their opponents will do any better but I do go with the saying “Only a fool does the same thing over and over and expect different results” applies.
The truth is that we’ll continue to vote in the same useless tools and we’ll continue to complain about what’s happening. Until it becomes more important to each of us that our “representative” is doing what is best for the congress and his/her district, nothing is going to change.
Pogo says
Or this
“What you have made me see,’ answered the Lady, ‘is as plain as the sky, but I never saw it before. Yet is has happened every day. One goes into the forest to pick food and already the thought of one fruit rather than another has grown up in one’s mind. Then, may it be, one finds a different fruit and not the fruit one thought of. One joy was expected and another is given. But this I had never noticed before–that the very moment of the finding there is in the mind a kind of thrusting back, or setting aside. The picture of the fruit you have not found is still, for a moment, before you. And if you wished–if it were possible to wish–you could keep it there. You could send your soul after the good you had expected, instead of turning it to the good you had got. You could refuse the real good; you could make the real fruit taste insipid by thinking of the other.”
― C.S. Lewis
Eleanor Coyne says
I hope people will remember this at the mid term elections!!!!
Skibum says
And what he has actually succeeded in doing is drastically reducing people’s ability to afford that gasoline for their cars, electricity for their homes, and groceries for their tables. Yes, AFFORDABILITY is a huge concern for everyday Americans, as his war of choice with Iran is causing prices across the board to soar higher and higher. Even our nation’s farmers are stressing out because the critically important source of fertilizer is severely limited, as that as well comes by transport ships from the Middle East.
So what is the convicted felon in the WH’s most pressing priority right now? His big, bodacious ballroom, which previously he bragged about not costing taxpayers even one cent, then had his republi-con congress write up a bill to make YOU and I pay the $400,000,000 cost, and now… NOW he is openly saying that it may cost U.S. taxpayers 1 billion dollars to complete!!!
So many scams, so many lies, so many con jobs from the con man-in-chief who we need to 86 from office! 8647
Sherry says
Thank You Skibum!
Ray W. says
When then-candidate Trump, as depicted in the editorial cartoon, made his energy cost promises, he knew or ought to have known that there existed a multi-year queue of already constructed electricity generating plant capacity awaiting connection to our nation’s grids. The issue wasn’t a lack of available power. Rather, the issue was a lack of available specialized high-voltage transformers to link the power plants to their grids and a shortage of high-voltage transmission line capacity to bring the power to customers.
I have commented on the far-sightedness of the Texas legislature of the early oughts. In 2002, ERCOT transformed its business model to a free-market energy distribution network. At around the same time, the Texas legislature mandated that high-voltage transmission power line corridors were to be built from arid, sparsely populated West Texas regions into the more densely populated East Texas. By 2013, the corridors were complete. Today, vast numbers of windmills and solar farms and battery energy storage systems based in West Texas send electricity to Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth and Austin at comparatively low cost.
So, I recently came across an explanatory Morning Overview article about deficiencies arising in American transformer supply chains.
The author premises the story on the fact that for more than a decade, U.S. electricity demand was static. Five years ago, a “mid-sized electric co-op” could order a batch of 25kVA pole-mounted transformers and the batch would ship in weeks. By 2024, the back-order time to ship transformers had grown to 18 months. Five years ago, grids needed to be maintained, but not necessarily expanded. Several years ago, however, in part because of data center power demand increases, American grids began facing rising levels of transmission congestion. The answer was to expand grid transmission capacity, expand grid connections and improve grid efficiencies. These expansions and improvements placed demands on transformer manufacturing capacity. But Texas had already expanded its grid transmission capacity and it had fixed the connection problem.
The reporter, relying on data provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, framed his assessment that the “U.S. distribution transformer” manufacturing capacity must increase by between 160% and 260% by 2050, because of three factors. First is the need for electrification of transportation and buildings. Second is the need to improve extreme weather resiliency. Third is the need to interconnect rooftop solar, battery storage systems and utility-scale renewables.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Energy’s research department reported that, in the reporter’s words, a “large share” of the national grids’ transformer base is “aging out”, i.e., reaching the transformer design limit of 30 years.
This meant that not only must transformer manufacturing capacity expand to meet a rising demand for new transformers but it must also meet a rising demand for replacement transformers.
So, here’s the two rubs, per the reporter:
Transformers need highly specialized steel, called “grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), a type of steel produced in only a few mills located across the globe. Trump-era tariffs have increased the cost of making or importing that specialized type of steel.
And, for decades, utility companies have been special-ordering batches of transformers made specifically to their power plants’ unique specifications, meaning that few transformer manufacturing standards exist. In essence, right now, there are thousands of different transformer types, according to different voltages, hanging methods, insulation needs and types, and connector arrangements.
In response to the standardization issue, the federal government is moving toward both standardizing transformer types and expanding American transformer manufacturing capacity, using money from Biden-era congressional stimulus spending bills. Who knows how many of the subsidized manufacturing startups will succeed!
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I haven’t forgotten President Trump’s declaration via executive order that there exists a national electricity emergency. And, he was both right and wrong in his declaration. Any FlaglerLive reader can check on the length of the queue of new power plants awaiting connection to grids. The emergency was not the supply of electricity; it was and is the shortage of transformers that allow connection of available electricity supply to the grid.
I have used this example before. Years ago, a natural gas pipeline was built across the west coast of Florida. Duke Power had purchased the Crystal River nuclear power plant. The reactors had long been closed, but a number of on-site coal-fired power plants were still operating. The plants were closed and partially dismantled. New gas turbine power plants were built and connected to the existing grid. The value of the location was not in the coal-fired power plants; it was in the grid connections. No queue to wait behind. Build the gas-fired plant and hook right up.
But every FlaglerLive reader needs to understand that the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two parties is lying about the cause of the electricity supply emergency. There exists right now multiple sources of electricity supply awaiting connection to the grid. Coal is not the answer. Transformers and grid transmission line capacity is the answer.
Ray W. says
An Interesting Engineering reporter discussed a report release issued by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers who worked to resolve a long-standing conundrum in battery theory, in which conundrum a thicker electrode on the one hand permits storage of greater quantities of ions and electrons, but, on the other hand, due to “dead spaces” inhering within the thicker electrode material, ion and electron flow speed was impeded, meaning slower discharging and recharging times. A thinner electrode offers reverse qualities.
By definition, positive and negative electrodes interface with an electrolyte, either liquid, semi-solid, or solid, to enable electron flow between a battery’s anode and cathode.
One of the LLNL researchers and a co-author of the report said:
“In conventional slab-like [electrode] designs, a lot of battery material becomes underutilized because ions cannot reach deep regions efficiently, creating dead zones and concentrated resistance losses near interfaces.”
By use of a new 3D-printing process, the LLNL researchers were able to successfully deposit a thick base layer of “porous graphene oxide” material, covered by a layer of gold, creating a thicker electrode. This new thicker electrode chemistry utilizes an “interlocking finger” geometry that provides to stored ions and electrons “numerous entry and exit points for transport”, i.e., increased ion and electron flow speed through the thicker battery electrode material. Dead spaces within the new thicker electrodes have been eliminated or reduced in number. Electrode energy storage capacity by volume have doubled.
In the reporter’s words:
“The optimized electrodes eclipsed both 2D models and previous 3D printed versions, delivering superior storage capacity, lower resistance, and a robust lifespan exceeding 7,500 cycles.”
As an aside, a graphene oxide gold-plated electrode uses no toxic materials. No lithium. No cobalt. No nickel. Graphene, being a form of carbon is completely recyclable. So, too, is gold.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
More American innovation. More American ingenuity.
Doubling a battery’s storage capacity by volume means that an EV battery can hold the same charge in an electrode of much smaller volume. A 7,500 cycle lifespan means a longer lasting battery. Improved ion and electron flow speed at lower resistance means quicker power discharge and recharge times at lower heat.
Step-by-step, newer and newer battery chemistries continually offer better performances across a number of design metrics. This is not going to end anytime soon.
Ford’s CEO explains that EV batteries are at their Model T stage of development, nowhere near their theoretical performance limits. Ford is working toward releasing in 2027 a domestically manufactured mid-sized EV pickup truck that will sell for $30k; its lithium manganese-rich battery chemistry is expected to outperform every mass-produced EV battery chemistry currently available.
Ray W. says
Time for the end of the month update of DOW performance by president. After 16 ends of the month since President Trump was inaugurated, here are the figures:
Obama – up 26.7%.
Trump (1) – up 22.9%.
GHW Bush – up 22.8%.
Trump (2) – up 13.5%.
Biden – up 10.0%
GW Bush – down 8.8%.
Reagan – down 13.5%.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Yahoo Finance covered a speech given by St. Louis Regional Fed President Alberto Musalem to a gathering of Mississippi bankers.
He told attendees:
“The risks have been shifting to more risk on the inflation side than employment side. … There are very plausible scenarios under which the economy would require to keep the policy rate at its current level for some time.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Reuters reports that for calendar year 2026, Chinese demand for diesel fuel was originally projected to drop by a certain percentage. Then came the onset of the Iran War.
GL Consulting, according to the story, originally projected a 4.1% drop in Chinese diesel fuel demand. Now, the revised figure is a 4.3% demand drop. Rysted Energy originally projected a 4% drop in Chinese diesel fuel demand. Now, the revised projection is a 5% drop.
At the same time, demand for new electric heavy-duty trucks is expected to increase. At current Chinese diesel fuel prices, up 27% since onset of war, GL Consulting claims that total operating costs for a new electric heavy-duty truck (purchase price, electricity use, maintenance and repair, replacement parts, etc.) over one million kilometers (621,000 miles) is expected to be half the total operating cost for a new diesel-powered truck.
In 2024, electric heavy-duty trucks comprised 20% of the Chinese market. In 2025? More than 25% of the market. Who knows where 2026 will end up?
Most of the electric heavy-duty trucks currently sold in China are used for short-range routes between industrial zones and distribution points. But sales of longer-range electric heavy-duty trucks are increasing, too.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
On August 30, 1935, Huey Long was shot and killed in Louisiana’s State House.
12 days later, Winston Churchill wrote:
“The Louisiana Dictator has met his fate. ‘Sic simper tyrannis”, wh means so perish all who do the like again. This was the most clownish of the Dictator tribe. Let us hope that more serious tyrants will also lose their way. I do feel that if the L of Nations pull this off & stop the Abyssinia subjugation, we should all be stronger & safer for many a long day.”
The Churchill family biographer, Martin Gilbert, published in 1976 this footnote about Huey Long:
“Known as the ‘Kingfish’. Born in Louisiana. A traveling salesman at the age of 19. Barrister. Member of the Louisiana State Railway Commission at the age of 25. Elected Governor of Louisiana, 1928. Governed dictatorially, and by means of the State Bureau of Criminal Investigations and the State Militia. Built 5000 miles of roads, and relieved 70% of Louisiana’s population of direct taxation. Planned to abolish poverty by granting ‘every deserving family’ $5,000 unencumbered by debt, and limiting all personal fortunes to $3 million.”
Make of this what you will.