Is the quest for safer, cheaper, more powerful batteries closer?

ByDr. Tim Sandle
FIGITAL JOURNAL
Published July 28, 2023

A battery-powered Nio EP9 sports car. EV firms offer more than 300 models on the Chinese market. — © AFP

Aluminium materials have shown a promising performance in the bid for safer, cheaper, more powerful batteries. Georgia Institute of Technology scientists have succeeded in using aluminium foil to create batteries with higher energy density and greater stability.

The test batteries indicate that the technology could enable electric vehicles to run longer on a single charge. In addition, the materials required mean that the batteries would be cheaper to manufacture compared with comparable devices.

The more efficient the battery then the better its energy density (which is necessary to power devices) and its stability (which influences both safety and the ability of the battery to be recharged).

Lithium-ion batteries are the current top performing everyday use batteries, and they are used in smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. The trouble is we have reached the limits of lithium-ion. While lithium-ion batteries are widely used for various applications challenges are associated with the stability of cathode materials have hindered their overall performance and lifespan.

Limitations with batteries will hamper progress towards next-generation long-range vehicles and electric aircraft – unless alternatives are developed. Today’s batteries, for instance, do not hold enough energy to power aircraft to fly distances greater than 150 miles. On a bigger scale, large-scale energy storage could provide back-up systems to guard against disruption to electrical grids.

The aluminium foil battery should, in theory, enable electric vehicles to run longer on a single charge. An advantage of using aluminium as a battery material relates to the material being cost-effective, highly recyclable, and easy to work with. This is as solid-state batteries.

To create the battery, the researchers added small amounts of other materials to the aluminium to create foils with particular “microstructures”. For this, they tested over 100 different materials to understand how they would behave in batteries.

It was observed that the aluminium anode could store more lithium than conventional anode materials, and therefore more energy.

To advance a more energy-optimized and cost-effective battery cell architecture the researchers are seeking to understand further how size influences the aluminium’s behaviour. The researchers are also actively exploring other materials and microstructures with the goal of creating very cheap foils for battery systems.

The research appears in the publication Nature Communications, titled “Aluminum foil negative electrodes with multiphase microstructure for all-solid-state Li-ion batteries.”

SELLING INDULGENCES
Centuries-old seal used to fast-track one’s entry into heaven goes on display in the UK

By Karen Graham

DIGITAL JOURNAL
Published July 28, 2023

Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire, England. Source - Kate Jewell, CC SA 2.0.

A Stamp for papers that enabled one to have a ‘fast-track’ through purgatory will be on show at a Hampshire priory.

The rare seal was found by a metal detectorist just two miles from Mottisfont, an Augustinian priory and site of pilgrimage near Romsey, Hampshire, after spending about 500 years buried in a field, according to The Guardian.

The rare seal matrix, made of cast copper-alloy, is inscribed in Latin and features a carved depiction of the Trinity and a figure of a praying cleric.

The small carved mold, dating between 1470 and 1520, was stamped on “indulgences” otherwise known as written pardons for sinful behavior granted by religious institutions in return for a financial donation.

The indulgences were supposed to lessen one’s time in purgatory by one year and 40 days, an individual’s time in purgatory after their death.

\

“The selling of “indulgences” was one of the corrupt practices of the late Medieval Catholic Church, wherein payment of a small (or large, depending) sum of money gets you forgiven for a sin.”

  Painting by By François Marius Granet (1775–1849). Public Domain

George Roberts, curator at the National Trust, said: “All this was done to help secure a place in heaven after their death. However, before they could reach heaven, they believed they would need to spend time in purgatory to be purified.”

The document certifying this purchase was certified with a stamp or impression that was created using the seal matrix pressed into hot-colored wax.

While it is now operated by the National Trust, Mottisfont was founded in 1201 and was a wealthy institution. however, its income was depleted as a result of the Black Death plague that swept through Europe in the 1340s.

Following this, the pope granted the institution permission to sell indulgences to raise funds.

RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE SO YOU TOO CAN GET INTO HEAVEN

A medieval seal matrix is returning to Mottisfont after 500 years, on display from 29 July. The matrix- a carved mold used to make wax impressions to seal official documents– lay buried in a local field for centuries until it was discovered by a metal detectorist.

“By being able to sell indulgences, Mottisfont priory could offer people a reduction in their time in purgatory—in effect, fast-tracking them to heaven. This of course came with a price, which was then used to support the priory’s finances,” says Roberts.

Fueling the Protestant Reformation

Depending on whether you believe in the concept of heaven and hell, you can be sure that human nature being what it is – it wasn’t too long before the practice of selling these pardons became embroiled in accusations of corruption that ended up helping to fuel the Protestant Reformation.

Adding to the bitter accusations, in 1517, Pope Leo X offered indulgences for those who gave alms to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The aggressive marketing practices of Johann Tetzel in promoting this cause provoked Martin Luther to write his Ninety-five Theses.

Martin Luther’s Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum of 1517, commonly known as the Ninety-Five Theses, is considered the central document of the Protestant Reformation. Source – The Berlin State Library – OCLC: 249862464, Public Domain

In the Theses, Luther condemned what he saw as the purchase and sale of salvation. In Thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.”

Mottisfont priory was dissolved in 1536 and Henry VIII gave Mottisfont to a favored statesman, Sir William Sandys, who turned it into a country home but, rather unusually, chose not to demolish the existing priory.

Ryanair pilots’ strike in Belgium cancels almost 100 flights

By AFP
Published July 29, 2023

Pilots say the low-cost Irish airline is failing to honour a collective convention agreed in 2020 - 

A strike by Ryanair pilots in Belgium in an ongoing dispute over working conditions has cancelled 96 flights to and from Charleroi this weekend, the airport said, in the midst of the busy summer travel season.

The industrial action will affect 17,000 passengers due to leave or land in the southern city, around 28 percent of the expected number of travellers, the airport’s management told AFP.

Pilots say the low-cost Irish airline is failing to honour a collective convention that sets time off work in exchange for salary cuts agreed in 2020 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, which decimated the industry.

The pilots’ union said the company was failing to respect Belgian law and was prospering thanks to “social dumping” that creates unfair competition for other airlines that abide by the rules.

Ryanair has previously called on the pilots to negotiate rather than strike and noted it had reached deals on working conditions with its Italian, French and Spanish staff.

More than half of Ryanair’s traffic at Charleroi is provided by planes operated by non-Belgian staff, according to the company.

A total of 120 flights to and from Charleroi were cancelled during the previous strike weekend on July 15 and 16.

Bangladesh police clash with protesters blockading capital

By AFP
Published July 29, 2023

THIS IS VIOLENCE 

Bangladesh police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse stone-throwing crowds blockading major roads in the capital Dhaka - Copyright AFP Munir uz zaman

Bangladesh police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse stone-throwing crowds blockading major roads in the capital Dhaka on Saturday in the latest protest demanding the prime minister’s resignation.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies have staged a series of protests since last year demanding Sheikh Hasina step down and allow a caretaker government to oversee elections due next January.

Clashes erupted in several locations when police moved in to clear thousands of people who gathered in the morning to block traffic on key arterials around the city.

“Some officers were injured,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP. “We fired tear gas and rubber bullets.”

At least four protest sites around the city saw clashes between police and protesters, Hossain said, with 20 officers injured and 90 protesters arrested.

AFP journalists at one protest site in Dholaikhal, an old neighbourhood now a hub for automotive repair shops, witnessed protesters retaliate by throwing rocks at riot police and their vehicles.

Bacchu Mia, a police inspector at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told AFP that six protesters had been admitted to the hospital with injuries.

Senior BNP leaders Goyeshwar Roy and Amanullah Aman had been taken into police custody but had not been formally arrested, Hossain said.

Transport links between the capital and other parts of the country were badly disrupted, with trucks and buses stuck in gridlock.

– Increasing demonstrations –

Hasina’s Awami League has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and has been accused of human rights abuses, corruption and creeping authoritarianism.

Demonstrations led by the BNP have become increasingly common since the start of the year, with rallies this month drawing tens of thousands of people to the streets.

Police arrested at least 500 opposition activists ahead of a rally outside the party’s headquarters this week.

Western governments have expressed concern over the political climate in Bangladesh, where the ruling party dominates the legislature and runs it virtually as a rubber stamp.

Her security forces are accused of detaining tens of thousands of opposition activists, killing hundreds in extrajudicial encounters and disappearing hundreds of leaders and supporters.

The elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) security force and seven of its senior officers were sanctioned by Washington in 2021 in response to those alleged rights abuses.

The BNP’s leader Khaleda Zia, a two-time premier and old foe of Hasina’s, is effectively under house arrest after a conviction on graft charges.

IMPERIALISM IN SPACE 

Argentina is the latest signatory of the Artemis Accords

By Karen Graham

DIGITAL JOURNAL

AFP
PublishedJuly 29, 2023

Argentina has joined 27 other nations that have committed to the safe and peaceful exploration of space. Ad Luna! Source - NASA.ARTEMIS

On Thursday, Argentina signed the U.S.-led Artemis Accords, becoming the 28th nation to sign the accords, and the fifth to do so in the last three months.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson participated in the signing ceremony, held at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires on Thursday, July 27, along with Daniel Filmus, the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, who signed on behalf of Argentina.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández and Marc Stanley, the U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, also were in attendance.

“As the United States and Argentina mark two centuries of diplomatic relations this year, we know our partnership over the next century will be deepened by discoveries made together in space,” said Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement.

“Along with our fellow Artemis Accords signatories, the United States and Argentina are setting a standard for 21st-century exploration and use of space. As we explore together, we will explore peacefully, safely, and transparently.”

What are the Artemis Accords?

The moon, our planet’s only natural satellite, has always fascinated humanity. In the more recent past, the former Soviet Union and the United States engaged in a costly and dangerous space race, culminating in a man setting foot on the lunar surface in 1969.

It has now been over 50 years since that first walk on the moon, and humans have not returned. Yet, a number of countries are interested in getting to the moon and establishing a base of operations.

So NASA and the US State Department, in 2020, drafted what was called a “framework for cooperation in the civil exploration and peaceful use of the Moon, Mars, and other astronomical objects,” now known as the Artemis Accords.‘

The Artemis Accords reinforce and implement the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, otherwise known as the Outer Space Treaty.

They also reinforce the commitment by the U.S. and partner nations to the Registration Convention, the Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, and other norms of behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.

Apollo 11 became the first mission to land human beings on the lunar surface. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin Jr. descended in the lunar module “Eagle” on July 20, 1969, to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the Moon. 

Source – NASA/Artemis

On October 13, 2020, the accords were signed. The founding member nations that have signed the Artemis Accords, in alphabetical order, are:

Australia

Canada

Italy

Japan

Luxembourg

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

United States of America

Since that time, additional signatories include Ukraine, South Korea, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland, Mexico, Israel, Romania, Bahrain, Singapore, Colombia, France, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Czech Republic, Spain, Ecuador, India, and Argentina. The Accords remain open for signature indefinitely, as NASA anticipates more nations joining.

The Artemis Accords have generally been welcomed for advancing international law and cooperation in space. Observers note that the substance of the Accords is “uncontentious” and represent a “significant political attempt to codify key principles of space law” for governing nations’ space activities.

But with all the positive press heaped on the accords, there has also been criticism. Generally, they have been criticized for allegedly being “too centered on American and commercial interests.”

An interesting paper, published in the Journal Science on October 9, 2020, noted that Russia condemned the Artemis Accords as a “blatant attempt to create international space law that favors the United States.”[

Besides possibly being an opportunity for China in light of the Wolf Amendment, Chinese government-affiliated media has called the Accords “akin to European colonial enclosure land-taking methods.”

The Wolf Amendment of 2011 prohibits the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from using government funds to engage in direct, bilateral cooperation with the Chinese government and China-affiliated organizations. (That is why China does not have anything to do with the International Space Station).

Op-Ed: Global water crisis — Dangerously undermining the future right now


By Paul Wallis
July 28,2023
DIGITAL JOURNAL

On current trends, pollution and overfishing could see as much plastic in the oceans as fish by mid-century - Copyright AFP/File Luis ACOSTA

Humans can’t live without water. They can’t live without food, either. Massive water shortages, mismanagement, antiquated food production, and long droughts are making a mess of the future and “growth” economics.

I’m not going to recite the obvious. If you want some grim reading, It’s called a “water crisis” for too many good reasons. If anything it’s a euphemistic understatement. Asia, India, the Mediterranean; and the Middle East are already experiencing atypical severe weather in the last two summers.

Polluted and contaminated water are suffocating rivers in India and China. Soil degradation is severely reducing crop yields. If there are 10 billion people on Earth by the end of this century, this world will be a very bleak place.

Adding to the misery is deforestation. Transpiration from plants supplies a lot of atmospheric water. The fewer the forests, the lower the contributions of water. Destroying forests also degrades the soil, which can break down very rapidly with fewer organic components

.

The leak filled a port area in the Japanese city of Nago: “The red water poses no danger to humans or the marine ecosystem,” the beer company said. – Image: © The 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters/AFP Handout

This also reduces available oxygen recycled by the forests. This “deficit” therefore reduces the amount of oxygen for formation of water molecules and things like breathing. In terms of land management, deforestation is about as dumb as possible.

Does anyone need a map of this? The symptoms of oxygen starvation are fatigue, breathlessness, irritability, and an inability to focus. Sound like a planet you know? Lack of water also debilitates metabolism.

So much for basic biology 101.

The hot weather also degrades atmospheric water and any water standing in the open evaporates quickly. Australian research discovered decades ago that evaporation can negatively impact reservoirs and thus available water supplies.

People cooled off in fountains in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, — © AFP

Groundwater is also at risk. Huge populations consume equally huge amounts of water. Big cities are the worst offenders.. Wells in Beijing have been drying out for generations.

Runoff of fertilizers like phosphorous additionally contaminates the water, causing algal blooms, some of which are extremely toxic. These problems have been allowed to literally fester in the environment for many years.

Climate change, whatever it does, won’t help. Depleted natural resources will have to cope with a completely different set of weather patterns, rainfall, and whatever the heat does to the soil.

Now, the economics for anyone who missed high school:A road blocked by the uprooted trees after Cyclone Judy made landfall in Port Vila, Vanuatu earlier in March — the Pacific nation is especially vulnerable to climate change – Copyright AFP Oliver Contreras

A system which can barely manage 8 billion people won’t support 10 billion.

Without proper water management, societies can’t and won’t function.

Ridiculously wasteful methods of agriculture like irrigation are using up a lot of water, very inefficiently. This is Stone Age technology.

Many inhabitants of Khartoum are in desperate need of drinking water, with some reopening wells or using pots to draw water from the Nile river – Copyright AFP –

Economic growth predicated on irresponsibly rising populations can’t work. It’s absurd. That growth theory is already stone cold dead.

Human fertility, particularly male fertility, is dropping incredibly fast, and perhaps just as well.

There are no ideas circulating about how to deal with any of this. It just shows how little intellect or talent goes into economic planning.

Which leads me to two questions:

Why are people spending generations not doing their jobs in basic resource management?

Where are the adults?

Fatalism is for fools.

___________________________________________________________

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

Biden and Netanyahu, unhappily bound in a key alliance

By AFP
Published July 29, 2023

(front L to R) US President Joe Biden, Israel's caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (back 3rd L), and Transport Minister Merav Michaeli (2nd R)stand after posing for a commemorative picture at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in Lod near Tel Aviv, on July 13, 2022. - Copyright AFP Munir uz zaman

Léon BRUNEAU

They have known each other for decades, rubbing shoulders at countless international events, but there is little love lost between US President Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu as the Israeli prime minister faces a full-blown crisis over a contested judicial reform.

For the Democratic president, a fervent supporter of Israel for a half-century, the dilemma has become increasingly public as he seeks ways to work with the most far-right Israeli government in history.

While Biden continues to insist on the “ironclad” nature of America’s support for its Israeli ally, he describes that country’s government as the most “extremist” he has known.

And while Biden has urged caution over the judicial reform, even denouncing it, the Israeli leader moves ahead unbudged, describing it as a “minor correction” despite the massive protests it has spawned in his country and the sharp criticism from abroad.

It is striking: while Biden has involved himself in an Israeli internal matter to a degree rare for a US president, his influence remains clearly limited.

– ‘Regrettable’ –

The White House on Monday described as “regrettable” the approval by the Israeli Knesset of a key measure in the judicial reform plan, which backers insist provides a needed rebalancing of power between the branches of government.

In an unusual move, the US president invited to the White House a New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, to underscore his opposition to a reform that Biden considers “a source of division.”

Beyond the reform itself, the Biden administration has not hidden its frustration over Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territories, which has gone on despite repeated US calls for the two sides to de-escalate and avoid unilateral measures.

But while Washington continues its pro-forma advocacy of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, it seems increasingly to be preaching in the wilderness.

The latest tensions are reminiscent of those between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu in 2015, when Biden was vice president and the United States was negotiating a nuclear agreement with Iran, to the manifest displeasure of Israel.

That agreement has been moribund since then president Donald Trump, who was close to Netanyahu, withdrew from the pact in 2018. Repeated efforts by Biden to revive it have been futile.

These tensions surfaced again in a squabble over whether Netanyahu would be invited to the White House for the first time since he returned to power late last year.

In a seeming snub to the prime minister, Biden last week hosted the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, a political moderate.

In an ABC interview, Netanyahu denied being snubbed, saying Biden had indeed invited him to the White House, a meeting he said would probably take place in September.

But the White House, clearly irritated, would confirm neither the venue nor the exact timing, saying only that the two men would “meet in the United States later this year.”

– ‘Not going to happen’ –

Despite everything, experts agree that American support for Israel is not about to weaken.

There have been calls, including from the left wing of the Democratic Party, for a reduction in US military aid to Israel.

But American diplomats flatly rule that out. “I’ll just say that that is not going to happen,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

Each year, the US sends $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel.

Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington said he expects that “we’ll have tense relationships between Biden and Netanyahu going forward.”

“Part of why Netanyahu is willing to be so confrontational with Biden,” he said, is that “he feels secure in the backing that he has from Republicans on the Hill, who basically adopted an Israel right-or-wrong position.”

That dynamic will not have escaped Biden, who is running for election to a second term in office next year.

But Boot believes Netanyahu’s close alignment to the Trump-led wing of the Republican Party carries a risk — that of “alienating a lot of other sectors of American public opinion.”

In the meantime, the United States and Israel are pushing hard for a normalization of ties between the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia, which would be a tectonic shift in the Middle East that Riyadh intends to bargain hard for.

“We’re working on it,” Netanyahu told ABC on Thursday.

He was speaking as US national security advisor Jake Sullivan was in Jeddah for talks for the second time in a few months, and on the heels of a June visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

COLD WAR 2.0

What’s at the center of the U.S.-China power struggle? Crypto

BY ADAM ZARAZINSKI
July 29, 2023
FORTUNE
COMMENTARY ·CRYPTOCURRENCY

China is pulling ahead of the U.S. when it comes to cryptocurrency.
PRASIT PHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

While a great global power struggle between the U.S. and China continues to escalate, many may not realize crypto is a battlefront.

Chinese spy balloons in America and naval provocations in the Taiwan Strait create exciting and dramatic headlines, but just last year Chinese President Xi Jinping himself argued that “technological innovation has become the main battleground of the global playing field, and competition for tech dominance will grow unprecedentedly fierce.”

Whether U.S. policymakers like it or not, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are a primary battleground in America’s contest with China—and the U.S. is dramatically falling behind.

Forefront in China

Chinese-affiliated cryptocurrency exchanges account for the vast majority of global trading. The Chinese Communist Party has already established bilateral agreements and deployed its central bank digital currency, the e-Yuan, beyond its own borders in places such as in Ecuador, Peru, and other major port locations across South America. And, last year, the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates joined the Multiple CBDC, or m-CBDC, Bridge, a project to build a system for real-time cross-border forex payments.

In parallel, criminal networks operating out of China and its neighbors have stolen and laundered billions of dollars in digital assets globally—including in the U.S. Chinese intermediaries, for example, that helped North Korean hackers launder hundreds of millions in stolen crypto. And it’s an unknown Chinese transnational criminal network behind the multibillion-dollar crypto scam called “Pig Butchering” that’s plagued everyday Americans looking to enter crypto markets for nearly a decade. “Pig Butchering” victims typically are new to crypto and unknowingly send their savings to these scammers. More robust markets in the U.S., with safe investment options from both crypto-native firms and traditional financial institutions, would reduce the scale and effectiveness of these operations.

Retreat in the U.S.

Of the top 15 cryptocurrency exchanges by volume, only three are American companies. While China banned cryptocurrency exchange operations in 2017 and transactions in 2021, the other 12 top exchanges by volume all have affiliations with China or Hong Kong, which China has used as an avenue for access to global markets broadly in the past and reportedly now as a testing ground for crypto markets. That amounts to over $10 billion in daily trading volume that’s outside U.S. jurisdiction.

At the same time, and particularly of late with the current regulatory landscape, some of the largest American market makers and exchanges are moving offshore. Jane Street and Jump Crypto, for example, have both scaled back operations in the U.S., and many others are searching for new headquarters in Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other jurisdictions that have established clear regulatory frameworks. Coinbase, the U.S.-based publicly traded exchange that was recently sued by the SEC, is considering setting up an international hub in the United Arab Emirates, and Galaxy Digital, a crypto investment company, is moving more of its operations offshore. Coinbase and Gemini, another U.S.-based exchange, also both recently launched derivatives platforms for non-U.S. users.


This industry is not going away—just shifting offshore—and America is losing what little influence it has over its trajectory.

What’s next?

A future where China owns the crypto forefront means less financial freedom for those who adopt its system, less creative influence, more opportunity for hidden financial crimes, a limited ability in the U.S. to impose sanctions and other financial penalties globally, and a diminished reliance on U.S. financial firms and the U.S. dollar.

America needs something more thoughtful and strategic than simply cracking down on exchanges. Despite the recent challenges cryptocurrency markets have faced—frauds, scams, hacks, and a bear market—decentralized finance has proven its value proposition and will rebound to continue to play a growing role in our global markets.

When China announced that a digital Yuan would be piloted in May of 2020, Mu Changchun, the head of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the PBoC, told a forum in Hong Kong about the nation’s “horse race approach” to cryptocurrency, and that “the front-runner will take the whole market—who is more efficient, who can provide a better service to the public—they can survive in the future.”

America must respond. The way the U.S. can win is the way it always has, with what’s fundamental to America: an open society with bold thinkers and entrepreneurs pushing the limits of the system with responsible technological innovation. We must foster innovation in decentralized finance because it’s the only way U.S. interests can win this “horse race.” Our national security depends on it.

Adam Zarazinski is the founder of the digital asset data analytics company Inca Digital and a major in the Air Force Reserve JAG Corps. The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

OUTLAW HORSERACING

Two horses die at California's Del Mar Racetrack, first deaths of summer racing season

SPORT OF ARISTOCRATS

The first death was followed by another just one day later

By Renee Schmiedeberg • Published 2 hours ago •

Just one week into the summer 2023 racing season at the Del Mar Racetrack, two horses have been euthanized following injuries.


Two horses were euthanized in two days after suffering injuries at the Del Mar Racetrack one week into the 2023 summer racing season, Mac McBride from the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club told NBC San Diego on Saturday.

A 5-year-old mare who came in third during last Saturday's Osunitas Stakes at the Del Mar Racetrack has died after being injured on Friday.

Nevisian Sunrise's death was the first of the 2023 summer season, which started on July 21.

Nevisian Sunrise got loose, ran off and collided with a stationary object. The attending veterinary team found her injuries inoperable and euthanized her, according to McBride.

On Saturday, a 4-year-old filly (a young female horse) named Ghostem suffered a non-operable musculoskeletal injury to her front right leg during a workout on the main track. The veterinarian team made the decision to euthanize her, McBride told NBC San Diego.

Both bodies of the horses are undergoing necropsies. The results will be reported to the California Horse Racing Board.

CANADA TOO

Cities Are Grappling With “Forever Chemicals” in Drinking Water

In Vancouver, BC, a fix could take years and cost more than $170 million.

SARAH TRENT

 Mother Jones

July 27, 2023

Cole Benak collects a water sample. 

Kaveer Rai/High Country News

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Just inside the rolled-up door of a pumphouse garage, Cole Benak pulled on a pair of black Nitrile gloves. Outside, morning sunshine warmed the quiet wooded hillside. From the room next door, three massive water pumps whined, pushing thousands of gallons per minute of Vancouver, Washington’s drinking water toward a reservoir another mile uphill. Benak, a city engineering technician, checked his watch and marked the time on a plastic water sampling flask.

He turned and knelt behind a four-foot-wide panel fitted with gauges and valves and four tall, narrow cylinders—like a miniature pipe organ of plastic, each tube filled with water and a different type of filtering material. The water that enters these cylinders, like nearly all of Vancouver’s water, is contaminated with common but dangerous chemicals called PFAS—perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. What flows out will help city officials determine which material is best at removing them. Benak opened the valve below one of the filter tubes, letting water first stream onto the concrete, then into the flask.

Tje Environmental Working Group estimates that the drinking water of at least two-thirds of all US residents is contaminated.

Vancouver officials first learned about PFAS contamination here in 2020, and they’re still sorting out how to address it. “I have so many questions,” said City Councilmember Sarah Fox. “What things do we need to consider? What are the drawbacks? Who needs to be at the table making some of these decisions?”

Benak screwed the lid onto the bottle and prepared another. His weekly samples are one step in a process that will transform Vancouver’s water system, which serves 270,000 people. But it will come at a high price—at least $170 million, likely far more—and take years to complete. Research showing the health effects of PFAS has evolved far faster than the state and federal regulations that govern water systems, and communities are trying to catch up. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent guidance is that no amount of PFAS contamination is safe, though it is still weighing the first-ever federal standards to regulate them. Achieving zero contamination may not be possible. As the EPA ramps up testing, officials here—and in communities across the U.S.—are grappling with exactly what must be done to keep their water safe.

PFAS are a set of more than 9,000 man-made chemicals prized for being slippery and waterproof. But the qualities that make them useful in clothing, food packaging, factories and firefighting foam make them especially dangerous to human health: Nearly indestructible, they accumulate in the body and have been linked with serious health conditions—cancers, thyroid and liver disorders, weakened immune systems, developmental problems—even at extremely low levels. They leach into the environment wherever they’re used and have been found in blood samples, breast milk, wild animals and rainwater worldwide. The nonprofit Environmental Working Group estimates that the drinking water of at least two-thirds of all US residents is contaminated.

When the Washington State Board of Health began to consider regulating PFAS in drinking water around 2017—as numerous states have done in the absence of EPA rules—Vancouver’s water manager, Tyler Clary, thought his system had nothing to worry about. He’d tested for PFAS in 2013, and found none. Then, in 2020, “we tested new samples and came back with these hits all over the place,” he said. Testing sensitivity had improved, he learned: Retesting old samples revealed that at least two of the city’s aquifers had been contaminated at low levels all along—and that many wells had levels near or above what the state later recommended as safe.

Shifting standards and evolving science have put city officials in a tricky position, as far as planning and communicating risk to residents.

Washington’s standards, implemented in 2021, set limits for several of the most common types of PFAS, including PFOA and PFOS, which were used in products like Teflon and Scotchgard until companies started phasing them out in the early 2000s. The state limits PFOA at 10 parts per trillion (ppt) and PFOS at 15 ppt, both less than a single drop in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The EPA’s newest guidelines go further: Newer science shows that no amount is safe. But current test technology can only reliably detect PFOA and PFOS down to about 4 ppt—and so this year, the agency proposed that threshold as the new federal limit, which could take effect by 2026.

This March, Clary’s team sampled water stations again. Most tested between 5 and 22 ppt for PFOA or PFOS. State rules recommend—but don’t require—that water at six of the city’s nine water stations be treated. If the EPA’s proposed standards are enacted, every station but one would need an upgrade.

The shifting standards and evolving science put Clary and city officials in a tricky position, as far as planning and communicating risk to residents. Some Washington cities, including Airway Heights near Spokane, have water so contaminated—often by military use of firefighting foam—that officials immediately shut down wells and brought in other water. In Vancouver, levels are low but so widespread that about half the city’s water falls into a regulatory gray area: Not worrisome by state rules, but exceeding the pending federal standard. And the culprit has not yet been identified, so there is no single polluter to stop or hold accountable.

It’s also difficult to tell residents how much is reaching their homes: Like many municipal systems, water from every station is mixed, and the amount drawn from any one well shifts to meet demand. When demand is low, Clary has been able to decrease use of the most contaminated wells. During peak summer use, he needs to turn that flow up again.

There is good news, though: Filtering PFAS to meet state or federal limits isn’t complicated, and the city has been through a similar process before. Near the pumphouse where Benak takes samples every Tuesday stand two white towers the size of upended school buses that have filtered tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a neurotoxic dry-cleaning chemical, since the ’90s.

Benak’s miniature pilot tanks are measuring how many months it takes before each filter becomes too saturated to work well. The longer a filter lasts, the cheaper the system will be to maintain. A preliminary engineering report suggested media replacement alone could cost Vancouver more than $1 million per year.

Each of the filters has other costs and benefits to consider, too. One of Benak’s test cylinders stands nearly twice as tall as the rest: Filled with granular activated carbon, it’s the media most often used to filter PFOA and PFOS, which cling to the black carbon flakes like nails to a magnet. Activated carbon removes many other contaminants, too, likely including some that aren’t known or regulated yet. Still, it may not be as good at catching newer, smaller types of PFAS that have been widely used to replace PFOA and PFOS but that similarly accumulate to dangerous levels. Activated carbon systems also require a lot of real estate. This single station could require 16 towers, each filled with 60,000 pounds of carbon, that would displace the dog park next door.

Engineers say filter systems that could satisfy British Columbia’s PFAS limits would take at least six years to complete.

The other three cylinders Benak is testing contain unique formulas of resin microbeads—a shiny golden sand-like plastic used for a filtration method called ion exchange. These filters use a reaction similar to static cling: The negative ions of a PFAS molecule stick to the positively charged beads. This process is often better at catching short-chain PFAS, and the towers take up less space: Here, they’d need two-thirds the footprint of a carbon system. But they don’t filter as many other contaminants and are harder to maintain.

Which media works best will also come down to the local water chemistry: Sediments, minerals and other compounds can interfere. Benak and Clary expect that by early next year, they’ll have an idea of which will last the longest. Then, they can develop long-term construction plans and ask the state, federal government and city council for funds.

From there, engineers say systems to meet state limits would take at least six years to complete. The EPA’s pending rules would add time and millions more in costs—though a recent state lawsuit to make PFAS manufacturers pay for water treatment may help.

Councilmembers and the county health department are just starting to consider how to keep residents safe until then. Officials, including Fox, hope that the council or county will seek grant dollars to buy home filters for vulnerable low-income residents. The state already recommends that breastfeeding parents avoid tap water that’s over the state limit, and suggests mixing infant formula with adequately filtered water.

After an hour of pulling samples from all four test cylinders, Benak shut off the last valve. The systems he’s helping to assess aren’t complicated or scary, he said—just really, really big. Packing up the flasks, vials and paperwork, he stepped through the puddle spread across the concrete—Vancouver water, free of detectable PFAS—then set off in his SUV toward the lab.