July 31, 2016

If anyone wants a copy

it's (still) on the wayback machine. Download and share. Or rightclick on the image below and save.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160529203240/http://www.melaniatrump.com/my-world/

July 30, 2016

Wall Street Journal: Extreme Testing for Hydrogen Cars

Wall Street Journal, HILARY POTKEWITZ July 27, 2016

Jackie Birdsall pushes vehicles to their limits for a living.

As a senior automotive engineer for the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car, Ms. Birdsall, 32, and her Los Angeles-based team hit the road a few times a year for a couple of weeks of rigorous testing.


Jackie Birdsall, senior automotive engineer for the Toyota Mirai hydrogen-fuel-cell car, is responsible for testing the company’s prototype hydrogen-powered vehicles. PHOTO: JOSEPH PHILIPSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Their typical destinations include California’s Death Valley, where summer temperatures routinely top 115 degrees Fahrenheit, and Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, where winter temperatures can hover near 20 degrees below zero.

In addition to the usual auto tests, such as speed, handling and weathering the elements, Ms. Birdsall has been subjecting the vehicle’s hydrogen cylinders to high pressure, blunt impact and open flame...snip

...Most car makers use the same extreme test sites. “There’s one hotel in Death Valley, and you’ll walk in and see a table of Germans and a table of Japanese, and we all know we’re there doing the same thing,” Ms. Birdsall says...

...Toyota released the first U.S. model of the Mirai in October 2015 in California, and Ms. Birdsall is currently working on Toyota’s next generation of fuel-cell vehicle...snip
Read More: http://www.wsj.com/articles/extreme-testing-for-hydrogen-cars-1469639681

Toyota Mirai 120° hot weather testing in Death Valley, CA

Toyota Mirai -30°C cold weather testing in Yellowknife, Canada






In Death Valley, Hydrogen is #1

July 22, 2016

Toshiba to build Japan’s largest hydrogen fuel production system

HydrogenFuelNews.com, 18 July 2016

Company to develop new hydrogen production system for inexpensive fuel and energy

Toshiba Corporation has revealed plans to launch Japan’s largest hydrogen fuel production system, relying on new alkaline water electrolysis technology. The endeavor aims to enable the production of inexpensive, high volume production of hydrogen, thereby making it more accessible to those interested in using fuel cells to generate electricity. Once completed, the new system will be able to produce enough hydrogen in one hour to power two vehicles equipped with fuel cells.



Toshiba has managed to create an inexpensive hydrogen production solution

The new system will rely on an alkaline solution to act as the electrolyte needed to trigger hydrogen producing chemical reactions. This means that the new system will not make use of precious and expensive materials, allowing the hydrogen fuel production process to be more financially viable. Using alkaline electrolysis has allowed Toshiba to scale up the system without the system itself becoming too expensive.

Fuel cells are beginning to gain more support

Toshiba has begun to show strong interest in hydrogen fuel, noting that it has begun to prove its value in terms of energy production. The company notes that the growing popularity of stationary fuel cells and fuel cell vehicles are evidence of the increasing viability of fuel cell systems. Hydrogen fuel production...snip
Read More: http://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/toshiba-build-japans-largest-hydrogen-fuel-production-system/8529596/

Toshiba Unveils Largest Alkaline Water Electrolysis Hydrogen Production System in Japan

AzoCleanTech.com, July 14, 2016: Toshiba Corporation, a leader of the development of technologies for the low carbon hydrogen economy, today unveiled Japan's largest alkaline water electrolysis hydrogen production system*1, pointing the way to low cost, high volume production of hydrogen for various applications. The system can produce approximately 100Nm3/h of hydrogen in an hour, an amount sufficient for two vehicles powered by fuel cells...snip
More: http://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=23494

Opening of the Toshiba Hydrogen R&D Centre, Tokyo Japan

日本では、水素がナンバー1であります

July 20, 2016

Monsanto's Roundup Weedkiller Linked to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and ALS

A new study reveals that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's popular herbicide, alters DNA function that correlates to a number of diseases.

Alternet, July 19, 2016

A review of the scientific literature links glyphosate, one of the most popular weed killers in the U.S. and the active ingredient in Roundup, to a wide range of diseases through a mechanism that modifies DNA functioning, adding a new even more troubling dimension to the herbicide’s cancer classification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. According to the most recent review, Glyphosate pathways to modern disease V: Amino acid analogue of glycine in diverse proteins, conducted by independent scientists Anthony Samsel, Ph.D. and Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), glyphosate acts as a glycine analogue that incorporates into peptides during protein synthesis. In this process, it alters a number of proteins that depend on conserved glycine for proper function. According to the authors, glyphosate substitution for glycine correlates with several diseases, including diabetes, obesity, asthma, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson’s disease, among others.



Glycine, the smallest amino acid commonly found in proteins, has unique properties that support flexibility and the ability to anchor to the plasma membrane or the cytoskeleton. This new direct biological evidence, taken together with correlational data, make a compelling case that glyphosate action as a glycine analogue accounts for much of glyphosate’s toxicity, according to the study. The authors find that glyphosate, as an amino acid analogue of glycine, may be incorporated into polypeptide chains during protein synthesis. In doing so, it has an impact on the structure and function of the proteins. Proteins fold up, and glycine is a small molecule that is often found at the folding places. Since glyphosate is much larger, it prevents the protein molecule from folding properly, leading to the disruption of function of many proteins with essential roles in metabolism and regulatory processes.

The article cites a number of ways that this affects humans and other organisms. According to the study, the consequences of this action can lead to impaired fatty acid release leading to obesity, impaired insulin receptor response leading to diabetes, impaired one-carbon metabolism leading to neural tube defects and autism, impaired cell cycle control during DNA synthesis, and disregulated phosphorylation cascades leading to cancer, lung disorders, and autoimmune diseases.



Stephen Frantz, Ph.D., a pathobiologist research scientist explains it like this: “When a cell is trying to form proteins, it may grab glyphosate instead of glycine to form a damaged, mis-folded protein. After that it’s medical chaos. Where glyphosate replaces glycine, the cell can no longer conduct business as usual causing unpredicted consequences with many diseases and disorders as a result.”...snip
Read More: http://www.alternet.org/food/monsantos-roundup-weedkiller-changes-dna-function-causing-chronic-disease

July 18, 2016

Energy.gov: Washington D.C. Showcases Cutting-Edge Hydrogen Fueling Station Demo

July 11, 2016, Energy.Gov

The greatest innovations in the world can only have so much impact on a laboratory bench. It’s crucial to bring new ideas out into the world to demonstrate their power. Henry Ford famously said that if he had simply asked his customers what they wanted, “they would have said a faster horse.” It wasn’t until Americans saw firsthand what automobiles could do that they began to demand them and change the face of transportation forever.

Today, a new generation of transportation pioneers is hard at work reshaping transportation through the development of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, or FCEVs. The benefits of the technology are clear. They can fuel in just minutes for a more than 300 mile driving range. You never need to change the oil. And, other than water, they offer completely zero emissions from the tailpipe with no compromise in performance. Because a fuel cell can be more than twice as efficient as an internal combustion engine, you can get much farther on a tank of hydrogen than with a tank of gasoline. (And the journey will be much quieter along the way!)

The technology has made enormous strides over the past several years, with the cost of hydrogen fuel cells dropping by 50% since 2006 with the help of research and development efforts backed by our office and our collaborations with industry partners. That’s why nearly every major automaker is now actively pursuing the development of FCEVs...snip

...I was proud to attend the official opening of the station today, along with a range of dignitaries and partners from the National Park Service and industry, including several key automakers. This collaboration will showcase cutting-edge hydrogen generation technology and provide opportunities to demonstrate FCEVs at federal agencies and throughout the surrounding region. The station is supported by Proton OnSite – an innovative company based in Connecticut that manufactures hydrogen generators and other gas products – and their corporate partners SunHydro and Air Products. The station incorporates DOE-funded electrolysis technology advancements....snip
Read More: http://energy.gov/eere/articles/dc-showcases-cutting-edge-hydrogen-fueling-station-demo



To learn more, visit the homepage of our Fuel Cell Technologies Office.
http://energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/fuel-cell-technologies-office


Even in DC, H2 is #!

July 18, 2016

Solar-powered desalination produces energy

Chemistry World, 5 July 2016, William Bergius

Over 300 million people worldwide rely on the desalination of seawater for their daily water needs, even though it is an energy-intensive and expensive process. But what if you could use desalination to make energy instead of consume it? A research team from Singapore has done just this, designing a prototype solar-powered reactor that converts seawater into clean drinking water and hydrogen fuel.


The proposed mechanism of photothermic catalysis

Desalination is up to 10 times more energy intensive than obtaining drinking water from local fresh water supplies, but in dry coastal regions it is a necessary option. Current methods involve heating water under vacuum to evaporate and distil clean water, or reverse osmosis, which involves driving pressurised salt water through an ion-blocking membrane. If we could desalinate seawater at a lower energy cost, our oceans could become an almost infinite source of clean water, as they contain 97% of the world’s water.

Ghim Wei Ho and her team at the National University of Singapore have developed a new material which could reverse those energy costs. Their nanocomposite consists of silver nanoparticles suspended in tiny particles of silica, all coated in a titania shell. They carefully designed this elaborate morphology to take advantage of the properties of each component and synergistic effects between them...snip

...Ho is excited about the synergy between photocatalytic and photothermic properties. ‘This work defines the forefront of plasmonic photothermic technology, which is vastly untapped and has broad implications in other fields.’ Her team have already built a prototype solar reactor which, when filled with seawater seeded with the new material, condenses the resulting steam into clean water and collects the hydrogen separately...snip
Read More: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/06/solar-powered-desalination-produces-pure-water-hydrogen

Dalam Singapore, hidrogen adalah nombor satu

July 17, 2016

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Calls for Real Food Transparency for American Consumers

Rep. Gabbard has co-sponsored H.R.913 - Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act

A BILL
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require that genetically engineered food and foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients be labeled accordingly. https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/913/text

Published on Jul 14, 2016: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Calls for Real Food Transparency for American Consumers

Tulsi on GMO's last July



More Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/tulsipress/videos
Official House Page: http://gabbard.house.gov/
#Tulsi2020

Related: I Used to Work as a Scientist with GMOs—Now I'm Having Serious Second Thoughts About The Risks

July 17, 2016

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Calls for Real Food Transparency for American Consumers

Rep. Gabbard has co-sponsored H.R.913 - Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act

A BILL
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require that genetically engineered food and foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients be labeled accordingly. https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/913/text

Published on Jul 14, 2016: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Calls for Real Food Transparency for American Consumers

Refreshingly consistent: July 2015-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard calls for labeling of GMO food on the House Floor



Published on Jul 23, 2015: Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) calls for common-sense labeling of GMO foods and urges colleagues to vote against the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, also known as the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act, which would roll back years of progress in ensuring that food with genetically engineered ingredients is properly labeled.

"The DARK Act actually stands in direct contradiction to the wishes of almost 90% of Americans across the country. This legislation makes a mockery of transparency and leaves U.S. consumers in the dark."

More Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/tulsipress/videos
Official House Page: http://gabbard.house.gov/
#Tulsi2020

July 15, 2016

Electric cars, not so green after all

(Should read: Battery Only Electric Cars, Not So Green After All)

By Laura Millan Lombrana, Bloomberg

Tesla Motors and General Motors’ Chevrolet are preparing to bring out mass-market electric cars next year. If you plan to buy one and help save the planet, people who live near the Atacama salt flat ask that you spare a thought for the flamingos.

The vehicles will be powered by rechargeable batteries containing lithium, a silver-white metal found in brine deposits under the world’s driest desert in northern Chile. The 1,200-square-mile Salar de Atacama is also known for wild flamingos, who feed and breed in its lagoons. Some locals say that miners sucking water out of the earth to get to the lithium are starving the long-legged birds in the process.


A worker cleans a pipe at a brine pool of the Rockwood lithium plant on the Atacama salt flat. Photograph: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters

“They are pumping up an absurd amount of water,” says Rolando Humire Coca, a biochemist who heads the Naturalist Society of San Pedro de Atacama and is a member of Chile’s National Institute for Human Rights. “If they keep using the same methods to extract water, the consequences will be disastrous. All forms of life will be destroyed.”

Satellite images indicate that some lagoons and meadows in the salt flat are shrinking or drying up, while the Chilean Forestry Commission has recorded a drop in the flamingo population. A parliamentary commission set up this year to look into the depletion of water resources across the country has yet to draw any tie to the lithium miners, leaving it to the local community to try and drum up interest in the fate of the flamingos.

The activists have asked the congressional commission for more research into the impact on water resources as they see their ancient way of life disappearing, while the companies say their own monitoring systems show little to no impact...snip
Read More: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/218050/electric-cars-not-so-green-after-all


The good stuff: a worker showing a sample of lithium carbonate processed from the Rockwood Lithium mine. Photograph: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters

UK Guardian: How South America's lithium triangle is gearing up to feed our battery addiction

23 March 2016: ‘White petroleum’ powers everything from electric cars to mobile phones, and half the earth’s resources come from the salt flats of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia

Far from the soy and cattle that dominate its vast fertile pampas, Argentina harbours another valuable commodity that is rocketing in price and demand and luring newly welcomed foreign investors.

Lithium, the so-called “white petroleum”, drives much of the modern world. It forms a small but essentially irreplaceable component of rechargeable batteries, used in consumer devices like mobile phones and electric cars. It also has pharmaceutical and other applications. Over half of the earth’s identified resources of the mineral are found in South America’s “lithium triangle”, an otherworldly landscape of high-altitude lakes and bright white salt flats that straddles Chile, Argentina and Bolivia...

...Chile, though, is popular with investors for its free market credentials, while the dry desert climate is “perfect” for lithium production, said Brian Jaskula, a US Geological Survey mineral commodity specialist. The key lithium site in Chile is the vast Salar de Atacama salt flat, where local firm SQM and foreign-owned Rockwood have operations. SQM was privatised in the 1980s during General Augusto Pinochet’s regime and a former son-in-law of the late dictator owns a controlling stake. But it is on uneasy terms with the current leftist government. In the last two years, it has run foul of authorities over market manipulation and dubious tax invoices, and is in arbitration with economic development agency Corfo over royalties...snip
Read More: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/23/battery-lithium-south-america-chile-argentina-bolivia

This article doesn't even mention the fact that most people charging their battery only electric cars are using electrons generated by burning coal.

Hydrogen > Lithium Batteries. Greener, cleaner and you don't need to pump water out of salt flats

July 15, 2016

Consumer Reports- Tesla's Autopilot: Too Much Autonomy Too Soon

Consumer Reports calls for Tesla to disable hands-free operation until its system can be made safer

By Consumer Reports July 14, 2016

Following a series of crashes, one of which was fatal, Tesla Motors, the automaker known for its high-performance electric vehicles and envelope-pushing technology, is now under intense scrutiny for the way it deployed and marketed its Autopilot driving-assist system.



The company’s aggressive roll-out of self-driving technology—in what it calls a “beta-test”—is forcing safety agencies and automakers to reassess the basic relationship between human drivers and their increasingly sophisticated cars. Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent a letter to Tesla requesting detailed information about Autopilot, including any design changes and updates to the system, as well as detailed logs of when the system has prompted drivers to take over steering...snip

...The Florida crash has prompted investigations by NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Tesla failed to tell investors about the crash in a timely fashion.

While the exact cause of the fatal accident is not yet known, the incident has caused safety advocates, including Consumer Reports, to question whether the name Autopilot, as well as the marketing hype of its roll-out, promoted a dangerously premature assumption that the Model S was capable of truly driving on its own. Tesla’s own press release for the system announced “Your Autopilot has arrived” and promised to relieve drivers “of the most tedious and potentially dangerous aspects of road travel.” But the release also states that the driver “is still responsible for, and ultimately in control of, the car.”...snip
Read More: http://www.consumerreports.org/tesla/tesla-autopilot-too-much-autonomy-too-soon/

Road and Track: Now a Third Tesla Crash Is Being Blamed on Autopilot

BRIAN SILVESTRO JUL 11, 2016

...Since the system was not designed for roads without adequate lane markers, it's possible that the Autopilot system may have disengaged on the fly due to lack of visual data. It's also possible that the driver was not paying attention when the car disengaged Autopilot, and was not able to react fast enough to avoid the crash...
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a29913/yet-another-tesla-model-x-crash-blamed-on-autopilot/

SEC Investigating Tesla for Possible Securities-Law Breach

Authorities probing whether auto maker should have disclosed Autopilot-related crash to investors

WSJ July 11, 2016

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Tesla Motors Inc. breached securities laws by failing to disclose to investors a fatal crash in May involving an electric car that was driving itself, a person familiar with the matter said, heightening scrutiny of how the company handled the information...

...The SEC is scrutinizing whether Tesla should have disclosed the accident as a “material” event, or a development a reasonable investor would consider important, according to the person familiar with the matter. The SEC’s inquiry is in a very early stage and may not lead to any enforcement action by regulators, the person said....
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-investigating-tesla-for-possible-securities-law-breach-1468268385