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Old Lithium Metal batteries were replaced by The shorter life Lithium-ion type because of safety issues

True techie stuff but a different approach to Lithium batteries could drastically increase charge size, battery life and safety.

Manufacturers swapped to the Lithium-ion batteries when the plain metal batteries started catching fire.

If the breakthrough is real we could see a doubling of current mobile battery life. Implications for the economics and usability of EVs are profound.

Still a lot of work to be done but breakthroughs like this tend to be fast tracked to market 

https://techxplore.com/news/2018-08-battery-breakthrough-lithium-metal-doesnt.html

One lump or two?

The coal lobby has won.
Our new prime minister, Scott Morrison, has ended the fusion of the energy and environment portfolios in the Australian Government
On Sunday, he appointed one of the country’s most prominent anti-wind campaigners, Angus Taylor, as energy minister, while a former mining industry lawyer, Melissa Price, became the environment minister.
Morrison's chief of staff is John Kunkel, the former deputy CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia, the same group that thoughtfully provided a lacquered lump of coal for the then Treasurer to wave around parliament in February

This despite a Lowy Institute finding published in June that, overwhelmingly, Australians want to move to renewables.

Mapping for Google

One of my hobbies is contributing to Google Maps.

I have provided, over the last five years, 455 reviews, 3581 photos and discovered for Maps 24 new locations. Consequently, I do have a reasonable feel for where it is headed.
And I am not particularly happy.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to do anything but review accomodation, shops and restaurants. On any marked public space, Maps will ask if you want to "claim this business" and it has a constant problem with out of town businesses declaring themselves as located on public lands.
At the same time, significant cultural sites can be ignored or poorly marked. It is hard to do.
I live in the national capital of Australia, which is strewn with significant sites, symbolic monuments, museums and galleries and thus often have very human juxtapositions that should be noted.
For example, the Australian War Memorial has, over the term of the current conservative government, been steadily more politicised with promotion of militarism over the waste of war. The adjoining Poppy Restaurant actually promotes a current political figure. This is not sufficiently represented in Maps.

Across Lake Burley Griffin is Old Parliament House which is well marked but colourless in its entry, confused with the reviews of the Museum of Democracy, the cafe and the restaurant that it houses.  What we should have is more historical photos that put it in context much as the Australian War Memorial does.  For example, why not the inclusion of the front steps at the opening and again at the famous moment when Whitlam was dismissed?

Opening 1927

Whitlam Dismissal crowd on steps of the Old Parliament House

But perhaps the best example is the controversial and culturally significant Aboriginal Tent Embassy, on the lawns of Old Parliament House

It is described by Local Guide Chris Forker as the "Informal embassy of Australia's first people" is poorly represented photographically(but is elsewhere) with no commentary or link back to Wikipedia and split over two entries. Worse, the best entry is obscured under the vague and difficult to discover name "Sovereign Tribal Original Embassy of the land now known as Australia (Aboriginal Tent Embassy)" The fight to take possession of the adjoining abandoned restaurant has been well-documented in photos

All three sites are difficult subjects to map but somehow Google does have to come to terms with how to best map the cultural dimension to such locations.

"Jhay the Cobbler" a fixture at Dickson shops has a new baby: a brand-new Indian Scout.

It is so new that, only today, he took delivery of his matching matt-black helmet to replace the beige one that matched his equally immaculate Royal Enfield.

The Fallen

Yesterday, an extraordinary firefight has broken out on Twitter caused by a position put by the well-respected Australian journalist and heavy-weight professor, Peter van Onselen @vanOnselenP.

The rights and wrongs of what he said is an ongoing battle, spreading across Australian media. It has managed to bring out some excellent scholarship and explanations to the surface about what was Nazism and what happened in WW2...a time fast fading from our collective memory, and, sadly, the lessons it taught.

Here is one diamond uncovered, strictly on the impact of WW2. It is an uncontroversial, 18 minute, award-winning video presenting beautifully (if that is the right word) the cost in human lives of that conflict and compares it to previous and subsequent wars.

Lest we forget,

https://vimeo.com/128373915

Tramatic Sydney

Nothing says Sydney central at the moment than these temporary litter bins as a fixture in the landscape. The length of George Street from Central to the Quay, appears as an abandoned worksite with odd bits of unused equipment, half finished concrete works and building material littering the thoroughfare.  Big streams of pedestrians move slowly on the narrowed sidewalks. Every intersection the passage is a snarl of angry honking motorists queing across the CBD. 

The new Eastern Suburbs light rail network was due for completion next year but, with contract issues, cost overruns and poor planning the most optimistic prediction is at least another year.

Pity the NSW Government ripped the most extensive tram network in the Southern Hemisphere up in 1961(above) to give more room to those motorists. SMH article

No charge today

How not to have an EV Charging Station.

• The charging station should be easily visible (inclusive of signage, parking bays and charging equipment) and accessible for users to find. 
• A prominent location has the additional effect of creating awareness amongst the general public of the existence of EV charging infrastructure. 
• Though prominence is important, the location should not be in a premium, high-demand parking area that would encourage non-EVs to occupy the charging bay, or attract high parking fees. 
• Accessibility in terms of limitations to non-paying patrons, and out-of-hours restrictions also need to be considered.