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Image: Laowa
When Laowa released its 180mm F4.5 1.5X Ultra Macro APO lens last year, it offered autofocus, but not at macro distances. For those extra close subjects, manual focus was required. Now, Laowa is fixing that limitation with a firmware update.
Laowa's 180mm macro lens supports a minimum focusing distance of 0.3m (11.8"), but its autofocus only engaged from 1.5m (4' 11") and beyond. That's a pretty good gap between how close you can focus and how close autofocus works. Because of that, subjects at macro distance would require manual focus, which may not be ideal for some photographers and situations.
A small note on Laowa's product page says that new firmware is available, "enabling autofocus for macro photography," so that limitation is now gone, potentially making it easier for photographers to get in focus images. The firmware update also unlocks macro focus bracketing, which is a useful tool for macro photographers. Interestingly, the page still warns that "auto-focus is only available for subjects from 1.5m to infinity," though we suspect this applies only to the old firmware version.
The firmware update is now available for download for Canon EF-, Nikon Z-, and Sony E-mount versions of the lens. The RF and L-mount versions of the lens are manual focus only, so this update does not affect them.
Thanks to DPReview reader Stig Nygaard for the tip.
Setzt voll auf Geschwindigkeit: | Mit seinem TN-Panel erreicht der KTC 25N1 Gaming-Monitor krasse Reaktionszeiten, lässt dafür aber Federn bei Kontrast und Blickwinkeln. KTC stellt mit Fast-TN eine Alternative zu flackernden OLED-Panels vor.
200 Menschen gingen auf einen Polizeiwagen los, laut Angaben der Beamten gab es eine Bedrohungslage: In Solingen hat die Polizei nach Ausschreitungen ein Tuningtreffen aufgelöst. Auch in Aachen mussten Einsatzkräfte ausrücken.[mehr]
Wohnraum fehlt in Deutschland fast überall. Gleichzeitig verfallen in vielen Städten Häuser in bester Lage, weil die Eigentümer sich nicht darum kümmern. Das Problem war heute auch Thema im Bundestag. Von Teresa Peters.[mehr]
As recently as the 1990s, when the Greenland Ice Sheet and the rest of the Arctic region were measurably thawing under the climatic blowtorch of human-caused global warming, most of Antarctica’s vast ice cap still seemed securely frozen.
But not anymore. Physics is physics. As the planet heats up, more ice will melt at both poles, and recent research shows that Antarctica’s ice caps, glaciers, and floating ice shelves, as well as its sea ice, are just as vulnerable to warming as the Arctic.
Both satellite data and field observations in Antarctica reveal alarming signs of a Greenland-like meltdown, with increased surface melting of the ice fields, faster-moving glaciers, and dwindling sea ice. Some scientists are sounding the alarm, warning that the rapid “Greenlandification” of Antarctica will have serious consequences, including an accelerated rise in sea levels and significant shifts in rainfall and drought patterns.
Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira on Thursday floated an idea of collecting value-added tax (VAT) from businesses with an annual income below 1.8 million baht to boost state income and reduce budget deficits.
Before the digital age, when transistors were expensive, unreliable, and/or nonexistent, engineers had to use other tricks to do things that we take for granted nowadays. Motor positioning, for example, wasn’t as straightforward as using a rotary encoder and a microcontroller. There are a few other ways of doing this, though, and [Void Electronics] walks us through an older piece of technology called a synchro (or selsyn) which uses a motor with a special set of windings to keep track of its position and even output that position on a second motor without any digital processing or microcontrollers.
Synchros are electromagnetic devices similar to transformers, where a set of windings induces a voltage on another set, but they also have a movable rotor like an electric motor. When the rotor is energized, the output windings generate voltages corresponding to the rotor’s angle, which are then transmitted to another synchro. This second device, if mechanically free to move, will align its rotor to match the first. Both devices must be powered by the same AC source to maintain phase alignment, ensuring their magnetic fields remain synchronized and their rotors stay in step.
While largely obsolete now, there are a few places where these machines are still in use. One is in places where high reliability or ruggedness is needed, such as instrumentation for airplanes or control systems or for the electric grid and its associated control infrastructure. For more information on how they work, [Al Williams] wrote a detailed article about them a few years ago.
Our bodies rely on their lymphatic system to drain excessive fluids and remove waste from tissues, feeding those back into the blood stream. It’s a complex yet efficient cleaning mechanism that works in every organ except the brain. “When cells are active, they produce waste metabolites, and this also happens in the brain. Since there are no lymphatic vessels in the brain, the question was what was it that cleaned the brain,” Natalie Hauglund, a neuroscientist at Oxford University who led a recent study on the brain-clearing mechanism, told Ars.
Earlier studies done mostly on mice discovered that the brain had a system that flushed its tissues with cerebrospinal fluid, which carried away waste products in a process called glymphatic clearance. “Scientists noticed that this only happened during sleep, but it was unknown what it was about sleep that initiated this cleaning process,” Hauglund explains.
Her study found the glymphatic clearance was mediated by a hormone called norepinephrine and happened almost exclusively during the NREM sleep phase. But it only worked when sleep was natural. Anesthesia and sleeping pills shut this process down nearly completely.
MagBoost Bit-Magnetisierer für ein sofortiges magnetisches Einschrauben Der hochwertige MagBoost Bit-Magnetisierer ist ideal für die Verwendung mit 50 mm Bits. Der Bit-Magnetisierer sorgt für zusätzlichen Halt der Schraube und eine vielfach erhöhte Magnetisierung.
Der Makita E-03442 Impact Premier Magnetisierer MagBoost ist ein nützliches Werkzeug, das speziell für die Verwendung mit 50 mm Bits entwickelt wurde. Er ermöglicht ein sofortiges magnetisches Einschrauben und sorgt für einen sicheren Halt der Schraube. Dieser hochwertige Bit-Magnetisierer bietet eine signifikant erhöhte Magnetisierung, wodurch das Arbeiten mit Schrauben erheblich erleichtert wird. Mit nur einem Stück in der Packung ist er kompakt und einfach zu handhaben. Wichtige Merkmale:
Geeignet für 50 mm Bits
Erhöhte Magnetisierung für besseren Halt
Kompakte Größe
Einfach zu verwenden
Der MagBoost Bit-Magnetisierer ist magnetisch und sorgt dafür, dass Schrauben sicher an Ort und Stelle bleiben, was die Präzision und Effizienz beim Arbeiten steigert. Er ist besonders nützlich für alle, die regelmäßig mit Schrauben und Bits arbeiten. Preisentwicklung
Linux developer Stefan Wahren has been working on adding support for suspend-to-idle (s2idle) to the Raspberry Pi single board computers. It's working and there are power-savings benefits, but the downside is that initially the support is just for older Raspberry Pi boards...
3,99€ - Amazon Für Prime-Mitglieder gibt's den Klassiker "Bang Boom Bang" für 3,99€ als Stream zum Kaufen. VGP ist 9,99€ in HDBang Boom Bang (1999) IMDb 7,5/10
Gelegenheitsgauner Keek ist im Stress: Er hat den Großteil der Beute aus einem Bankraub verprasst, obwohl das Geld eigentlich seinem inhaftierten Kumpel Kalle gehört. Nicht einmal den goldenen Mercedes, den er Kalle kaufen soll, kann er mehr bezahlen. Deshalb linkt Keek eine Autohehlerbande mit Falschgeld. Und dann steht plötzlich der leibhaftige Kalle vor Keeks Tür, zwei Jahre vor seiner Entlassung! Kalle ist ausgebrochen und verlangt sein Geld. Sofort! Keek bleibt nichts anderes übrig, als gemeinsam mit seinem besten Freund Andy, dem durchgeknallten Schlucke und dem brutalen Ratte in die Spedition des halbseidenen Geschäftsmannes Kampmann einzubrechen. Doch das scheinbar todsichere Ding artet zum Fiasko aus.
LONDON (AP) — The Princess of Wales has been hospitalized for planned abdominal surgery and will remain at The London Clinic for up to two weeks, Kensington Palace said Wednesday.
The former Kate Middleton is expected to return to public duties after Easter, the palace said.
“The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate,’' the palace said. “She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private.’'
The palace said that Kate, the wife of Prince William, wished to apologize for postponing her upcoming engagements.
“She looks forward to reinstating as many as possible, as soon as possible,” the palace said.
Increasing talk of AI developing with potentially dangerous speed is hardly slowing things down. A year after OpenAI launched ChatGPT and triggered a new race to develop AI technology, Google today revealed an AI project intended to reestablish the search giant as the world leader in AI. From a report: Gemini, a new type of AI model that can work with text, images, and video, could be the most important algorithm in Google's history after PageRank, which vaulted the search engine into the public psyche and created a corporate giant.
An initial version of Gemini starts to roll out today inside Google's chatbot Bard for the English language setting. It will be available in more than 170 countries and territories. Google says Gemini will be made available to developers through Google Cloud's API from December 13. A more compact version of the model will from today power suggested messaging replies from the keyboard of Pixel 8 smartphones. Gemini will be introduced into other Google products including generative search, ads, and Chrome in "coming months," the company says. The most powerful Gemini version of all will debut in 2024, pending "extensive trust and safety checks," Google says.
"It's a big moment for us," Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, told WIRED ahead of today's announcement. "We're really excited by its performance, and we're also excited to see what people are going to do building on top of that." Gemini is described by Google as "natively multimodal," because it was trained on images, video, and audio rather than just text, as the large language models at the heart of the recent generative AI boom are. "It's our largest and most capable model; it's also our most general," Eli Collins, vice president of product for Google DeepMind, said at a press briefing announcing Gemini.
Das PISA-Debakel deutscher Schülerinnen und Schüler beschäftigt auch die Politik. "Besorgniserregend" seien die Ergebnisse, lässt Kanzler Scholz ausrichten. Doch was tun? Mehr Förderprogramme oder ein Sondergipfel werden diskutiert.[mehr]
Awdijiwka ist seit neun Jahren Frontstadt, und wieder versuchen russische Truppen, die Stadt einzunehmen - offenbar mit schweren Verlusten. Was sagen die Kämpfe über Russlands Kriegsführung aus? Von R. Barth.[mehr]
Alle Größen von 38.5 bis 52.5 vorhanden. (UPDATE 51.5 ausverkauft)
Klassiker sind immer in – genau wie der Nike Air Force 1 Low Retro. Diese Sneaker mit OG-Details sind ein echter Hingucker für Sport und Mode. Das langlebige Obermaterial mit genähten Leder-Overlays ist eine Hommage an die Air Force 1-Tradition und bietet ganztägige Leichtigkeit. Die charakteristische Air-Sole-Einheit sorgt für bequemen Tragekomfort. Erobere die Straßen im gefeierten Stil des Nike Air Force 1 Low Retro.
Produktdetails für Nike Air Force 1 Low Retro:
Obermaterial mit Overlays aus gestepptem Leder
Aufgesticktes Mini-Swoosh auf der Unterseite der Schnürsenkel
Gepolsterter, niedriger Schaft
Goldener „Anniversary Edition“-Schriftzug auf dem Zungenlabel
NIKE AIR“ an der Ferse
Nike-Air-Dämpfung
Durchgehende Gummilaufsohle im sternförmigen Basketball-Design
Chef Aaron Verzosa poses for a portrait while demonstrating plating Tailor Made, a course in which diners disclose their hunger level from five to one, at Filipino American restaurant Archipelago, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Seattle. Verzosa is nominated for a 2023 James Beard Award in the Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific category. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Like a lot of chefs, Aaron Verzosa has been hustling the past three years to get Archipelago, his Filipino restaurant in Seattle, through the pandemic and its ripple effects. Getting a James Beard Award nomination was a validating moment.
“Being able to amplify and showcase stories about the Filipino American culture, the communities here, specifically in the Northwest, and really the immigrant story that my parents came with ... I was just very humbled to be able to have the opportunity to showcase what the sacrifice was and be able to represent the region in that way," said Verzosa, who is up for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific.
In the culinary world, the awards are the equivalent of the Oscars. Three Filipino restaurants will be represented at the James Beard Foundation's annual awards ceremony, on June 5 in Chicago.
Abacá, in San Francisco, scored an Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker nod for Vince Bugtong. And Kasama, in Chicago, earned a joint Best Chef: Great Lakes nomination for husband and wife Tim Flores and Genie Kwon. Last year, Kasama was nominated for Best New Restaurant and also became the first Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant. Past Filipino American winners include Tom Cunanan, who snagged Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2019 for his now closed Washington, D.C., restaurant, Bad Saint.
All this recognition is welcome praise for a cuisine that has historically been stifled by colonialism and a general lack of appreciation. These chefs are part of a younger generation giving voice to the Filipino American experience through the language of food.
Before joining Abacá in January, Bugtong said he was having an identity crisis as pastry chef for an Oakland cocktail bar. He wanted to do more Filipino-centric desserts, but at the same time felt he lacked authenticity. At Abacá, he said, chef and owner Francis Ang gave him the freedom to explore his culinary roots. He has since experimented with dishes from the Philippines' pre-Spanish days, like rice-based desserts, or kakanin in Tagalog.
“In the small amount of time that I’ve worked here, I definitely learned so much,” Bugtong said.
He enjoys playing around with ingredients from the Philippines. For example, he wants to make a granita with barako coffee, which is grown there, and pair it with muscovado jelly and leche flan ice cream. Leche flan is the Filipino version of creme caramel.
Bugtong doesn’t worry about whether something is unconventional and outside the usual traditions of Filipino culture.
“My thought process when I come up with stuff is, ’Do I like it?'” he said. “Does it represent me as a Filipino American? Then the second thing that I think about is, ‘Is this approachable to other people? Filipino or otherwise?’ And then I think of a composition that makes it aesthetically beautiful.”
In Seattle, Archipelago, named because the Philippines is comprised of 7,100 islands, has been dishing out a seasonal tasting menu since 2018. Verzosa and his wife, Amber Manuguid, wanted a “Pacific Northwest restaurant first and foremost.” But there's a “Filipino American-ness” intrinsic to the meals too.
For instance, Verzosa might swap out tamarind for wild lingonberries. He does his own take on Filipino banana ketchup with sweeter tubers or root vegetables.
With only 12 seats in the restaurant, Verzosa chats with every patron.
“When we have Filipinos coming from the Philippines and we have Filipinos that are here from the U.S. — whether they be first, second, all the way to fifth generation — there’s a really beautiful way to connect with them differently,” Verzosa said.
“I think the most important thing to realize is that there is absolutely — like anything — no one way to be Filipino."
Neither Verzosa nor Bugtong seriously considered a culinary career until after college. Verzosa grew up on a diet of PBS and Food Network cooking shows, as well as the cooking of his father, aunts and uncles.
“I would come home from school, be eating my dad’s food and watching these shows,” said Verzosa, who was originally headed to medical school. “At some point, he was like, ‘Hey, listen, Aaron, if you love eating as much as you do, you need to learn how to love to cook.'"
Bugtong dropped plans to become a teacher and enrolled in a Bay Area culinary school in 2014. As a child, he hadn't demonstrated any passion for making things from scratch.
“I did stuff with Betty Crocker and thought I was badass, like substituting milk instead of water,” Bugtong said, chuckling. “When I was a kid, I used to put egg wash on Chips Ahoy! and bake them. They came out very gooey inside and crispy on the outside.”
Filipinos have heard on and off for the last decade that their food is having a moment, about to be the next big thing in U.S. cuisine. Its staples include steamed rice, meat, fish, and notes of sweet, salty and sour. Dishes like adobo (a meat braised in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic), lumpia (spring rolls) and pancit (fried noodles) are already part of the zeitgeist.
Yet Filipino restaurants make up only 1% of U.S. restaurants serving Asian food, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released earlier this month.
There's no one explanation why other Asian cuisines like Chinese grabbed a bigger foothold in the restaurant industry.
One reason is the “funneling” of early Filipino immigrants into particular occupations, according to Martin Manalansan IV, an American Studies professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. In the 1920s and '30s, he said, they came to the U.S. for agricultural work. After 1965, they worked mostly in more technical fields like nursing and engineering.
Many young Filipino Americans were discouraged from becoming chefs "because that was seen as very lowly, especially if your parents are nurses, doctors, engineers, whatever," Manalansan said.
In addition, Filipino food was often dismissed as a fusion of Chinese, Spanish and a dash of American. That perception annoys Manalansan because it doesn't recognize the creativity of Filipino culture.
"The late ‘90s foodie revolution was really ... about being adventurous and being called a 'foodie,’ being into more ’exotic,' interesting cuisine,” Manalansan said. “The Filipino cuisine was seen as kind of homey, kind of blasé.”
Whether this year's James Beard love is a coincidence or not, Verzosa says it feels like there are more rising, accomplished Filipino chefs than ever.
“Over the last five, 10 years or so now, they’re finally coming through and developing their own voice, and wanting to showcase their own families, their own communities, their own regions,” Verzosa said.
“Having the craft and ability to make delicious food — obviously that needs to happen to tell those stories.”
___
Terry Tang is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP
Der weltweite Markt für Tablets befindet sich im Sturzflug. Die Absatzzahlen für das Apple iPad sowie die Tablets von Amazon, Huawei, Lenovo und Samsung brechen ein. Nur Huawei schafft es dank guten Verkäufen in China, die Absatzverluste zu begrenzen.
The children's book "You Are Home With Me," illustrated by Mitchell Thomas Watley, is shown at a bookstore in Portland, Ore. in this April 5, 2023 photo. Publisher Sasquatch books, owned by Penguin Random House, said Wednesday, April 5, 2023, it has ended its publishing relationship with Watley after he was arrested on allegations of leaving violent, transphobic notes in stores around Juneau, Alaska. Watley told police he was motivated by fear following a deadly school shooting in Nashville that sparked online backlash about the shooter's gender identity, court records show. (AP Photo/Claire Rush)
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A children's book illustrator from Alaska known for drawing mother-baby animal pairs like sea otters and wolves was dropped by his publisher this week after authorities allege he posted transphobic notes threatening children.
Mitchell Thomas Watley, 47, will have a preliminary hearing April 11 in Juneau on a single count of terroristic threatening for allegedly placing notes in businesses that included an assault rifle superimposed over the transgender flag. The text on the notes read: “Feeling Cute Might Shoot Some Children.”
The notes were found during a period of heightened rhetoric and laws targeting transgender people across the country and came just days after a shooting at a Christian school in Nashville that left six dead. Social media accounts and other sources indicate that the shooter identified as a man; police said the shooter “was assigned female at birth” but used male pronouns on a social media profile.
After the Nashville shooting, a false and baseless online narrative emerged that claimed there's been a rise in transgender or nonbinary mass shooters in recent years. Some pundits and political influencers on social media went further, falsely suggesting that movements for trans rights are radicalizing activists into terrorists.
Court documents show that Watley referenced the Nashville shooting suspect after his arrest. Watley, who lives in the small coastal city of Juneau 575 miles (923 kilometers) southeast of Anchorage had his $10,000 bail paid by his wife, according to online records.
“Officers spoke to Mitchell, who said (in essence) that he was in fear of the recent transgender school shooter and took it upon himself to print out and distribute these leaflets,” the criminal complaint said.
Online records didn’t list an attorney for Watley. A man who didn’t identify himself answered the door at the couple’s home and said there would be no comment.
In Juneau, booksellers removed the books Watley illustrated for his wife, Sarah Asper-Smith. Their publisher, Sasquatch Books, owned by Penguin Random House, said Wednesday it has ended its publishing relationship with Watley and will discontinue selling their books.
Watley is best known as the illustrator for three children’s books written by his wife, including “I Would Tuck You In” and “You Are Home With Me.” The books for children ages 1 to 5 feature mother animals snuggling their young and trying to make them feel safe with loving, affirmative statements like “wherever you may be, you will always have a home with me.”
Juneau merchants began removing Asper-Smith’s books from their shelves this week, but only the ones with illustrations by her husband. She does not face charges.
Pat Race with Alaska Robotics Gallery, a downtown Juneau store, said the shop has hosted gallery shows and book releases for Watley and carried his artwork for years.
“Whatever the motivation, we feel Mitch’s actions were not consistent with our values or the values of our community," he said in a statement on social media. “In that light, we’ve decided to pull all of Mitch’s books and artwork from our shelves.”
Christy NaMee Eriksen, who owns Kindred Post, a store in downtown Juneau, has also removed the books.
Eriksen said in a social media post the actions that Watley is accused of are “terrifying and transphobic."
“We have little patience for acts of disrespect, and we have no tolerance for hatred against marginalized groups," Eriksen said. “Members of the trans community are our community.”
Tori Weaver, a co-owner of Rainy Retreat Books in downtown Juneau, said the retailer pulled Watley’s books, which she said were “incredibly” popular, particularly during the busy summer tourism months.
“We don’t want to alienate any of our customers,” she said.
The first of several notes was found in a grocery store Friday, which was International Day of Transgender Visibility. That discovery prompted Juneau schools to increase security, and some parents kept their children home. Another was found at the Alaska State Office Building. The last notes were found Sunday at a Costco, and police used the store's surveillance video to track the man who left the notes to his vehicle. Vehicle registration records led them to Watley, who was arrested Sunday, authorities said.
The incident also came as lawmakers across the country consider bills limiting the rights of transgender people, including in Alaska where a bill from Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has garnered significant attention.
It would require parental permission before a student can use a different name or pronoun in school records; that sex ed classes require parental notice and permission and that schools must provide for locker rooms or restrooms based on “biological sex” or access to single-occupant facilities.
The bill remains in its first committee in the House. Senate leaders in a bipartisan majority of nine Democrats and eight Republicans have already indicated the bill isn’t expected to advance on their side.
“The anti-trans rhetoric around the country has had an effect on hate crimes or attempted hate crimes like this one,” said Caitlin Shortell, an Anchorage civil rights attorney and board member of Identity Inc., which offers community services and focused health care to the LGBTQ+ community.
She said transgender people rarely commit mass shootings and are more likely to be victims of violence.
“And we’ve seen nationwide, and in Alaska, initiatives to discriminate against trans people in the name of protecting children, and I link this to attempted crimes like the one that we averted in Juneau,” Shortell said.
An LGBTQ leader in Juneau said this situation is a direct consequence of a national environment that is being directed by political and media leaders to target and dehumanize trans people.
“The expected result is death,” said Emily Mesch, chair of SEAGLA, the Southeast Alaska LGBTQ Alliance.
“They’re expecting that violence will come upon the trans community and some of us will die, and in exchange, some of them will get a couple thousand more votes,” Mesch said. “And that’s the deal with the devil that’s being made, the environment and the dialogue that is happening on the national level.”
___
Thiessen reported from Anchorage. AP Writer Claire Rush contributed from Portland, Oregon.
Gartner prognostiziert, das 2023 die Stunde der Wahrheit für batteriebetriebene Elektroautos schlägt. Die Autoindustrie wird 2023 mehr Turbulenzen erleben, als in den vorangegangenen Jahren. Bis 2026 werden mehr als 50 Prozent der weltweit verkauften E-Autos chinesische Marken sein.
Epic Games Ab dem 23. Februar um 17:00 erhaltet ihr eine Woche lang das Spiel Duskers für den PC kostenlos im Epic Games Store. Wie immer ist es kein Probespielen und ausreichend die Spiele zu "kaufen". Ein Download ist nicht nötig, um sie dauerhaft zu behalten.
Vor einer Woche ist Die Siedler: Neue Allianzen nach langer Irrfahrt endlich erschienen, zumindest auf dem PC. Und wer dachte, er könne gar nicht mehr negativ überrascht werden, wurde eines Besseren belehrt. Dabei hätte der Titel so viel Potenzial gehabt – aber er ist dem Spielspaß konsequent selbst im Weg.
One of the most unpleasant aspects of teaching is grading. Passing judgment on people is never fun, and it’s even less fun when you’ve spent months interacting with those people on a daily basis. Discovering that your students have tried to get a leg up by using an AI chatbot like ChatGPT has made the process even more unpleasant. From a teacher's perspective, it feels a bit like betrayal—I put in all this effort, and you respond by trying to do an end-run around the assessment.
Unfortunately, the bot-writing horse bolted long ago. The stable is not just empty; it's on fire.
So what is the right response to ChatGPT in education? Is there even a single correct response?
Enlarge / Each of those white structures contains lots of batteries that were built for cars. (credit: B2U)
Last week, a company called B2U Storage Solutions announced that it had started operations at a 25 Megawatt-hour battery facility in California. On its own, that isn't really news, as California is adding a lot of battery power. But in this case, the source of the batteries was unusual: Many of them had spent an earlier life powering electric vehicles.
The idea of repurposing electric vehicle batteries has been around for a while. To work in a car, the batteries need to be able to meet certain standards in terms of capacity and rate of discharge, but that performance declines with use. Even after a battery no longer meets the needs of a car, however, it can still store enough energy to be useful on the electric grid. So it was suggested that grid storage might be an intermediate destination between vehicles and recycling.
But there are some significant technical and economic challenges to implementing the idea. So we talked with B2U's CEO, Freeman Hall, to find out why the company decided it was the right time to put the concept into action.
Teile der Bundesregierung und Opposition kritisieren den geplanten Teilverkauf des Hamburger Hafens an einen chinesischen Staatskonzern. Grünen-Chefin Lang warnt vor Abhängigkeiten, Hamburg verteidigt den Einstieg. mehr
Der weltweite Markt für Tablets befindet sich im Sturzflug. Die Absatzzahlen für das Apple iPad sowie die Tablets von Amazon, Huawei, Lenovo und Samsung brechen ein. Nur Huawei schafft es dank guten Verkäufen in China, die Absatzverluste zu begrenzen.
Gartner prognostiziert, das 2023 die Stunde der Wahrheit für batteriebetriebene Elektroautos schlägt. Die Autoindustrie wird 2023 mehr Turbulenzen erleben, als in den vorangegangenen Jahren. Bis 2026 werden mehr als 50 Prozent der weltweit verkauften E-Autos chinesische Marken sein.
