Month: September 2021

Battery Costs

Steven Guccione

Looking into battery storage for home use again. My goal would be to have enough solar to power the house charge car plus batteries for nighttime use. I know solar panels have gone down dramatically in price but wasn’t sure exactly what the data on batteries was. Now I see 10x this decade, with $100 per kwh already achieved for a large installation. Today this is attractive. In five years batteries in homes should be a no-brainer. Should also make electric cars a no-brainer over gas. Pretty much the same for large scale grid applications. This could, like most modern technologies, happen quickly.

Lithium Battery Prices Plunge

Anthrax Anniversary

Steven Guccione

Sort of lost in shuffle of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 was the 20th anniversary of the 2001 Anthrax Attacks. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, on 9/18, letters containing anthrax were sent to several US officials and media offices. Five people died and many were infected but survived. The story is complicated with lots of unusual twists. No one was ever charged but links went back to military bioweapons labs. One person of interest, Steven Hatfill, successfully sued several media outlets and the Us government for naming him in connection to the attacks. Oddly Dr Hatfill’s name has turned up recently as an advisor to the Trump Administration in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. From his wiki:

“Hatfill has recently spoken out on the COVID-19 pandemic on right-wing media outlets (e.g., Stephen Bannon’s War Room: Pandemic,[69] The Epoch Times, and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.[70]) In these venues, he presents himself as “an MD” and as “a virologist”. He has also criticised US and other nations’ exclusion of hydroxychloroquine for early treatment of COVID-19, suggesting that the low fatality rates experienced by some nations is the result of early use of the drug.”

End of an Era: Dry Creek Cafe Closing

Steven Guccione

Lots of little things mark the end of Old Austin for me. Most are closing of certain bars and restaurants. I’m still haven’t gotten over the closing of West Lynn Cafe. Just read in Texas Monthly that Dry Creek is shutting down. I did not know it had been there 68 years, but that is easy to believe. To call it ramshackle is an understatement. I remember being a bit afraid the entire place would collapse at any moment. I only went there once, in probably the late 1980s. Of course I remember the proprietor, Sarah. I made the mistake of asking for clarification of her “bring the damn bottles down” command and was treated like the clueless fool that I was. I’m not exactly sure why I never went back. A bit off my beaten path. But I drove past many times and it was always good to know that it was still there. An article from Texas Monthly and the jukebox playlist from Spotify.

Dry Creek Cafe, an Old-school Dive Bar on Lake Austin, Is Closing After 68 Years