For Toyota, it was worse than a distraction. The last family CEO, Akio Toyoda, put at serious risk Toyota's position as one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world with his insistence on hydrogen ICE and further hybrid development over BEVs. Toyota was responsible for proving that hybrids were workable and that batteries could be a critical part of a car, but he was willing to throw that away that tech and position lead because he was still stuck on ICE vehicles. Toyota is years behind its primary competitors on BEV development and production. For example, it sold only a few hundred in 2021 and 25,000 in 2022 across all makes and models; the Chevy Bolt line alone has had sales near or above that level since 2017, and the numbers have been consistently going up since a low in 2019, with 2023 tripling 2019's numbers to around 50,000, and that's just one line. It was reported in 2022 that Toyota was scrambling to line up battery production for 2024 or 2025, having trouble doing so because so many other manufacturers had locked in multi-year deals, and Toyota was having to pay a premium to get even limited allocations.

Toyoda stepped down as CEO in April 2023, taking up the role of chairman of the board. In June, a number of shareholders made it clear that they weren't happy with the direction and speed of the company. While the entire slate for the board was overwhelmingly approved, Toyoda received less than 85% of the vote. While he still clearly won, the fact that as chair he got seven points less than the next (and 10+ points fewer than the rest) doesn't look good for him. In 2022, he got 95% of the vote as an ordinary board member and the chair that year got 91%. Several major shareholders explicitly said that the company's failure to pursue BEVs with the same vigor as its competition was the reason they voted no for him this year.

And that should have been the GM Bolt line, of course, as the Volt was killed off a few years ago.

You're focusing on lithium chemistry while researchers are working on alternative chemistries. Swedish company Northvolt announced a sodium-ion battery last week that has no nickel or cobalt and has a specific energy of 160 Wh/kg, similar to some of the better LFP batteries (which also don't use Ni or Co but do, of course, use Li). They're primarily aimed at grid-level installations, but there's little stopping them from being used in vehicles or building batteries. Chinese battery company CATL has been producing sodium-ion batteries for a few months, most of which are destined for one of the Chinese EV manufacturers. These two may be among the first out of the gate, but they certainly won't be the last. None of the materials used are significantly geo-constrained: Northvolt's uses sodium, iron, hard carbon for the anode, and Prussian white ("a fully reduced and sodiated form of Prussian blue") for the cathode.

Both have touted the lower cost per kWh against lithium; traditional NMC lithium chemistry is still around $140/kWh and LFP is around $100/kWh, but sodium ion is expected to come in between $40-$80/kWh (CATL is currently toward the high end and expects to hit the low end within the next 2-3 years). While NMC lithium will likely retain its position at the high end, sodium could fill the vast majority of today's uses at lower cost, lower environmental impact, and lower geopolitical impact. LFP batteries are or will soon be available in a number of cars (Tesla Model 3, Fisker Ocean, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Kia EV4, Volvo C40, the next generation of the GM Volt line, and various models from MG, and that's just what I could find with a couple of quick searches). Some of these depend on the exact configuration, with high-end versions sometimes going with NMC lithium, but if the cost of the battery can be knocked down by half (or more) for most uses while not fueling localized slavery and resource wars, everyone wins.

Your points about renewables and batteries is supported by this recent article discussing the nearly 70 planned gas power plants worldwide that have been paused or cancelled due to the economics of batteries rapidly improving. That's a small dent in the scheme of things (20 are expected to come online in 2024-25 in the US alone), but it does point to a difficult future for the technology. Work on sodium-ion grid-scale batteries has the potential to further harm the economics of gas plants, and other tech such as the iron oxide flow batteries being tested in the field could make for sharply lower battery costs. The power company in Sacramento, CA, already has some in isolated testing with plans to connect to the grid soon, and they expect to ramp up rapidly from a few megawatts to 200 MW just for the current installation if it works out. They could then scale up as needed to the gigawatt range.

Glyphosate was developed and tested by scientists, specifically by Henry Martin, who worked for Cilag in Switzerland, though it wasn't published. Another scientist, John Franz at Monsanto, independently rediscovered it and found it effective as an herbicide.

It may not be the job of these specific scientists who wrote the report to develop an alternative, but it is absolutely the job of *some* scientists to develop alternatives, not least because of the approval process, which requires scientific studies. What's more, there's a ton of money in it while it's under patent (especially if it results in a ban of glyphosate), and then there's a bunch more for the genes that limit its effectiveness in crops, as we saw with Roundup-Ready seeds.

A few products get hit with that, but they're fairly rare. Usually, those protesting the bans do so because it will cost them more to use a viable alternative. This might be because of the need to reformulate, use of less efficient alternatives (e.g., rice starch instead of titanium dioxide), or, for herbicides and pesticides, because it requires a greater volume, higher application frequency, or multiple products for different conditions where one product currently does the job well.

There are four criminal cases against Trump. Two are federal (DC and Florida) and two are state (NYC and Atlanta). There's one major civil case against Trump, and that's a state case in New York. Which cases were filed by Republicans? And where do you get 70 cases?

"Now"? Physician assistants have been around since the 1970s. They are quicker to turn out than doctors, work under guidance from physicians, and at $120K a year make about half of what physicians make (around $250K based on median pay). They have at least a bachelor's degree plus extra courses and training, and most have master's degrees.

As the population ages, they will become even more necessary as the doctor:patient ratio gets ever more skewed and medical school gets ever more expensive (in 2022. The average medical student graduated with $250K in school-related debt, and they don't start making "doctor" salaries until after residency, which lasts 6-10 years, during which they make between $40K and $80K in most cases. PA starts looking like an attractive career path, as they can do many of the common things that doctors can do like order and interpret test results, do physicals, prescribe common medications, and perform some basic procedures. The AMA and other physician groups are pushing back on expanding what PAs are allowed to do, trying to protect doctors from the competition, but with full medical training taking 14-18 years (including pre-med) vs. 6-7 for a PA, something will have to give. Either medical training will have to get a lot cheaper (and doctors will have to make a bit less than they would have) or PAs will get to do more, with more getting trained.

It's not so much that he didn't finish the wall. The one he picked was designed by a company that had no experience building secure border walls and touted its height and that it would be hot in the sun as deterrents. DHS rejected it but Trump overrode DHS and ordered it built. They got $2 billion to build less than 100 miles of walls over four locations. Within weeks of walls going up, people were simply cutting through it in minutes with angle grinders. It happened at least 3,271 times between 2019 and 2021.

I don't think any of the charges were filed by Republicans. Special prosecutor Jack Smith has apparently taken pains to remain publicly politically independent for a very long time. AG Garland is regarded by some as a moderate conservative and by others as a moderate liberal. He, too, seems to have tried to remain publicly politically independent. The criminal charges in New York and Atlanta were filed by Democrat district attorneys. The civil case over the Trump Organization was filed by a Democrat state AG.

Both Fani Willis and Letitia James used their promises to go after Trump for political fundraising, something that many legal scholars believe crossed ethical lines. I think both cases are solid, but I also think that both should recuse themselves from further involvement because of the fundraising. Neither will because both want the glory.

There's decent money in betting that Ramaswamy is angling for the VP slot. Of those still in the race, he is closest to Trump (and further to the right on some things).

Biden was Obama's VP. The highest Hillary Clinton got was Secretary of State, putting her fourth in line after Biden, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate President pro Tempore.

If you have status, the major chains (and maybe some of the minor ones) allow you to request it ahead of time. You may be automatically assigned a better room, or you can often chat through the app or website. Chatting through the app or website is also a way to make requests even if you don't have status. I managed to get a slightly better room and some chocolates when my wife and I stayed at a nice hotel for our honeymoon. We didn't have any special status, and they didn't charge us for either. Other times, when I did have status, I was able to make requests upon landing at the airport so I wasn't on the phone while trying to navigate the airport and get my rental car.

But if you're just checking in to a highly standardized chain like Hampton Inn where upgrades aren't really a thing, it's sometimes nice to be able to pick everything out ahead of time, walk in, go straight to the room, and collapse on the bed without interacting with anyone. Even then, nothing really prevents you from stopping by the front desk to ask for extras.

I have a couple of pounds of sodium in my pantry, and another couple of pounds of chlorine. I'm not worried about it, though, because they're bound together and cannot react in a dangerous way. Sodium batteries are similar. Their battery chemistry is different from lithium-ion, making them far safer, including not being self-sustaining when it comes to fire.

That 75-year supply is rapidly expanding, too. A couple of months ago, Lithium Americas Corporation announced that it may have identified a single deposit with 20 million to 40 million tons of lithium bound in illite containing 1.3% to 2.4% lithium in an easily mined near-surface location near the Nevada-Oregon border. There is a problem in that local indigenous tribes consider the extinct volcano sacred, but if that can be accommodated, it would be up to twice what Bolivia has in known deposits (which are apparently not as easily processed as illite) and perhaps provide some indicators for other places that might be rich in lithium.

OTOH, sodium batteries are still going to be important and will extend the effective lithium supply by offsetting the need for its smaller atomic cousin. TFS makes it sound like they're still in the experimental stage when China's CATL was to begin to mass produce them last month with densities of 160 Wh/kg, which isn't far behind LFP. They're already aiming for $40/kWh, which would sharply undercut a lot of batteries out there. CATL is just the first out the gate, though, and others will join them by next year.

I was there in the LA Basin during the 1970s and 1980s. We spent so many days indoors without recess or PE that the kids became difficult to handle. As the first regulations kicked in at the beginning of the 1980s, there was a lot of backlash. People fought against catalytic convertors, mileage requirements, and phasing out of leaded gas.

But the politicians (even the Republicans of the time) went with it, and things got better. It was slow at first, but then things seemed to kick in really fast. In 1981, we had 160 Very Unhealthy or Hazardous Air Days. In 1986, it was 140, then 113 in 1989. But in 1990, it dropped to 89, then 60 in 1995. In 1996, it dropped almost in half to 32 days, and it's never hit that mark since. From 1997 to 2022, it's only been above 20 twice. For 15 of the last 16 full years, it's been single digits, with four of those being a single day and three more zero days.

Every time I hear someone talking about loosening emissions restrictions, I think about those days growing up, of my brother sucking on an inhaler all day to quiet his asthma, and I just shake my head.

You want hydroxyfluorapatite in your teeth as it's more resistant to acid and physical wear. You do not want it in your bones because it weakens the structure and makes them more prone to fracture. (I've also seen suggestions that it makes them less flexible and that also decreases fracture resistance, but I can't find scholarly literature on that.) The excess fluoride that creates the mineral or sheds from it can also cause ossification of tendons and ligaments, making for a lot of joint pain, and may also cause apoptosis in osteocytes responsible for maintaining the bone.