Lithium Ion Battery Week

We have a story about Jim Wurth, who runs Start Pac, a maker of batteries and battery powered engine jumper boxes.  Mr. Wurth says you have to go to lithium iron phosphate batteries to prevent fires.  Wurth worries that additional restrictions on shipping lithium ion batteries by air will wreck his jumper box business, since the boxes run on lithium batteries. He also opined that Boeing needs to provide fireproof battery boxes to contain the fires and vent smoke and flames overboard.
 Moving on to the 787,  we hear that Boeing isn't talking about replacing the lithium batteries with something less flammable.  Boeing  is hoping for a small and easy change to the battery itself will solve the problem.  Boeing spent some time explaining to customers that one of the batteries didn't really catch fire, it just got very hot.  The customers revealed that better than 100 lithium batteries have been replaced, on a fleet of less than 100 aircraft. 
  There is an article dated lined Washington concerning FAA and NTSB reactions.  NTSB does allow that batteries should not burst into flames.  Well Duh!.  FAA is muttering about redoing certification testing, something that could drag out for months.
  There is yet another story about how both Gulfstream and Cessna had considered using lithium batteries and decided not to.
   And finally is a story about putting lithium batteries into the International Space Station in 2017.  Boeing has a $208.8 million contract to supply a mere 27 batteries.  That's about $10 million per battery.  SpaceX will sell you a whole rocket booster rated for 10 tons cargo to orbit for $10 million.  
  Finally we have some opining by Elon Musk.  He claims that Boeing's batteries is all wrong, and he has a replacement from his Tesla electric hot rod that will solve the 787 problems.

All this in today's Aviation Week.   The Journal has a story on page B1, front page of the Marketplace section.  The Journal merely says that the "root cause" hasn't been found yet.    Sounds like pressure for a fix is growing. 

The Green Meanies cut a deal with Mexico

You remember the Florida Green Meanies.  Used to come four to the cellopak, hard as rocks and about as tasteless.  NAFTA opened up the border to much better Mexican tomatoes, bright red, vine ripened, tasting like tomatoes even in February.  Grocery shoppers know the difference and overwhelmngly support good tomatoes from Mexico.
   Florida tomato growers lobbied for a new "tomato deal" with Mexico.  In return for continued imports of Mexican tomatoes, the Mexican agreed to raise prices on Americans, to keep the Florida Green Meanies in business. 

E-books, Kindle not required

Lots and lots of stuff is now in the web as Ebooks.  All sorts of pulp fiction from the 1930's is out of copyright and up on the web for free.  I have been building up a collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs and EE Smith stuff.  The E-book format supports illustrations.  The Ebooks mostly come with the original dust jacket art, or the original magazine art.  If you are into old things, free ebooks are there, where as used book stores are gradually disappearing.  Google will find anything, just search on the title or author and "ebook.  Ebooks may be your chance to read that favorite childhood book that you haven't been able to find in stores anymore.
   You don't need to buy an e-reader (Kindle, Nook, or iPad or tablet) to enjoy the goldie oldies.  An ordinary desktop or laptop will play them just fine.  You can download a reader program free of charge.  In fact you have a choice of reader programs and there are on line reviews of them.  There are several e-book formats, of which the .epub format is very common.  You can find a reader program for any format. 

Words of the Weasel, Leon Panetta

Panetta was on Meet the Press this morning.  He said the Iranians are not building a bomb, but they are "increasing their nuclear capability."   
   What's really happening is the Iranians are working on purifying fissionables to weapons grade but may not have not started fabrication of the subcritical masses, the implosion sphere, or the bomb casing.  Big deal. 
  But the first part of Panetta's statement "the Iranians are not building a bomb." is a clear falsehood. 

Fixing Childhood Obesity

Uncle Sam is going to ban soft drinks and greasy potato chips from school vending machines. Fruit cups and yogurt would replace mozzarella sticks and nachos in the lunchroom.   This is supposed to slim down chubby children.
   Where are these calorie plagued schools?
   My schools never had vending machines of any sort.  And I brought my lunch in a brown bag.  And for that matter, my children went to schools with no vending machines and I packed  brown bag lunches for them every day.
   Must be an inner city problem...

Lithium Battery life

All Nippon Airlways reports having replaced ten lithium batteries in 787's BEFORE the current battery fire disaster. 
  Wow.  Ten batteries in brand new aircraft.  That's 10 battery failures in a fleet of 17 aircraft over a period of a little more than a year.  We never had that kind of battery failure rate in USAF.  A plain old car battery is expected to last 4 winters.  These lithium batteries didn't even make it thru a single winter. 

Where has all the Gas Mileage Gone?

Wall St Journal was explaining about the differences between EPA fuel mileage and actual fuel mileage.  For instance Ford Fusion was EPA rated at 28 mpg, but Consumer Reports, and owners, reported actual mileage of 24 mpg.
   Talk about puny fuel mileage.  My '99 Cadillac DeVille (V8 boat) could do 32 mpg highway and 27 overall.  Why cannot a teeny weeny econocar with a wimpy motor do better than a full size Caddy with a real engine?  
    Ford could take lessons from Caddy.  I finally replaced the beloved '99 Caddy with a 2005 Mercury Grand Marquis.  Last of the Detroit V8 boats.  With exactly the same size engine, the Mercury can only do 23 mpg and has a lot less power than the Caddy had.