Electric vehicles
Fig. 1. “A Toyota bZ4X electric sport utility vehicle: EVs currently on the market are fitted with batteries that use liquid lithium-ion electrolytes.” Photograph by Kiyoshi Ota, n.d., via Financial Times, fair use.
Uber wanted to know why I haven’t gone for an electric vehicle already. Their survey was terribly crude but I was able to express concerns about range, charging time, and charging availability. More seriously, their push[1] reflects a high technology arrogance that assumes everything they do is perfect when those of us who have to use it know very well otherwise.
And, as it happens, a Wall Street Journal reporter has discovered the problem of non-working charging stations, which is yet another reason to wait. She visited charging stations in the Los Angeles basin. But there’s every reason to believe the problems she found[2] are universal.
My plan remains to wait for Toyota’s offering in this space.[3]
Joanna Stern, “I Visited Over 120 EV Chargers: Three Reasons Why So Many Were Broken,” Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/tech/i-visited-over-120-ev-chargers-three-reasons-why-so-many-were-broken-7a5d3e45
Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[4] fair use.
United Nations Security Council resolutions, like one just adopted requiring Israel to permit days-long ‘pauses,’ to allow humanitarian aid to get in and hostages to get out, are binding, but Israel has practice ignoring them.[5]
Seb Starcevic, “UN Security Council adopts resolution for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza,” Politico, November 16, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/un-security-council-adopts-gaza-resolution-calling-for-humanitarian-pauses/
Adam Taylor, “Al-Shifa Hospital raid serves as potent symbol in Israel-Gaza war,” Washington Post, November 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/16/al-shifa-hospital-symbol-gaza-israel/
- [1]Andrew J. Hawkins, “Uber pledges to shift to ‘100 percent’ electric vehicles by 2030,” Verge, September 8, 2020, https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/8/21427196/uber-promise-100-percent-electric-vehicle-ev-2030↩
- [2]Joanna Stern, “I Visited Over 120 EV Chargers: Three Reasons Why So Many Were Broken,” Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/tech/i-visited-over-120-ev-chargers-three-reasons-why-so-many-were-broken-7a5d3e45↩
- [3]Peter Campbell and Kana Inagaki, “Between hope and hype for Toyota’s ‘solid-state’ EV batteries,” Financial Times, July 4, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/457269a7-9500-43ed-bfb7-f729d19de5ee; Emily Dreibelbis, “Toyota Inks Deal to Mass Produce Solid State EV Batteries With 932-Mile Range,” PC, October 13, 2023, https://www.pcmag.com/news/toyota-inks-deal-to-mass-produce-solid-state-ev-batteries-with-932-mile; Kana Inagaki, “Toyota says solid-state battery breakthrough can halve cost and size,” Financial Times, July 4, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/87cb8e92-8e82-4755-8fc3-2943f8f63e1d; Akito Tanaka et al., “Toyota bets on solid-state as CATL eyes Thailand,” Financial Times, June 15, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/09e23ac9-f73a-4104-aa2e-33ea48eba67a↩
- [4]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
- [5]Seb Starcevic, “UN Security Council adopts resolution for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza,” Politico, November 16, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/un-security-council-adopts-gaza-resolution-calling-for-humanitarian-pauses/↩