TheEEStory.com

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 10:11 AM ET
Ported from B's Original post

The word of the day-- today-- is chronopotentiometry which edged out it's near cousin chronoamperometry.

Ta-ta!!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:15 PM ET
Ported from B's Original post

Brain Surgeon, Dr. Lyle Dennis of Gm-Volt.com, cracked open my mind today (I didn't feel a thing and was actually awake the whole time) to a report from a trio of analysts at Deutsche Bank claiming greater optimism for the future of electric vehicles including primarily that the price of batteries "appear to be coming down faster than we expected." The sharper decline in pricing "implies potential for more rapid EV penetration," according to the report.

I would like to echo what the astute seers--Rod Lache, Dan Galves & Patrick Nolan-- from Deutsche Bank have pointed out for us with one slight modification. Not only will the price of lithium ion batteries continue to fall--in my opinion--but they will soon enough become more worthless than dirt. Dirt, as you know, has many uses and for the most part, you don't have to pay any fees to dispose of it as it just sort of stays where it is. Lithium ion however, is a toxic substance. Accordingly, I predict that the introduction of the EEStor EESU into the market place will rapidly turn lithium ion assets into toxic liabilities....worth less than dirt, when you factor in the appropriate regulations that should eventually be introduced to keep them away from the water table.

Saturday, March 6, 2010 4:02 PM ET
Ported from B's Original post

You may recall a couple articles I wrote concerning a FOIA request issued to NASA headquarters by world famous EEStor follower, RT. In that request, we learned that EEStor had submitted 6 proposals to the SBIR program in 2002. If you check the original release, the last page shows an email from an employee who found the proposals using a search tool at NASA. The original FOIA request should have encompassed those proposals redacted of any proprietary information. Additionally, NASA should have provided any records surrounding those proposals including meeting notes, emails, etc associated with the proposals. They should have done this because it is the law.

Instead, NASA said the proposals no longer existed. Out of anger, I used the word 'Assholes' to convey my displeasure. That is a really inappropriate word to use in a serious blog such as this where my world renowned journalist skills are showcased so frequently. I really regret having said that about NASA. I wish I had chosen a more professional way of expressing myself and calling to light an issue which definitely deserves more light. Therefore, I am redacting what I said earlier and would ask you, kind reader to forgive me for this breach of your trust in my professionalism. I would be very appreciative, dear reader, if you would replace what I said earlier:

with this updated phrase which I think may foster more understanding of the actual facts:

Perhaps slightly because of my maniacal, non-stop prodding, RT continued to follow up with NASA and recently asked for a print out of the prior search of the proposals. Fortunately, we got a copy of that print out. While it doesn't seem to provide any important new information, (unless you consider what is likely the first attempt at naming the device prior to arriving at EESU), it did lead me on a little quest for knowledge.

First, it would appear from the proposal notes that the first name for an EESU was intended to be Rapid-Energy-Delivery-Battery. REDB. Doesn't roll off the tongue, does it? No. We can conclude then that EEStor has made progress outside of what has been revealed in their press releases. Don't accept any lies to the contrary.

Secondly, at the bottom of the print out, you can see the server against which the query was issued. After poking around, I called the support line for the system in question and learned that indeed all 6 of the proposals ARE IN FACT STILL ON THE SERVER. I asked the person supporting the app to look at each proposal and determine the number of pages in each. (ranges from 14-17). Alas, the documents were not authorized for release....by this particular individual.

At first glance, there would be sufficient facts to warrant calling this a NASA COVERUP!!! But, I'm not prone to conspiracies and so I actually did a bit more digging and as best as I can surmise, we're dealing with nothing more than incompetence and laziness in the FOIA office. I won't name names or go into any detail...it's immaterial. But I am convinced there are more documents that have not been released.

I hope this clarifies this particular episode in the EEStory and that you won't judge me by my incomplete phrasing about NASA earlier.

Thursday, March 4, 2010 9:50 PM ET

Ported from B's Original Post

But, thank ya anyway.

Lockheed Martin revealed their WORLD CHANGING SEEsuite software capabilities today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, God Bless Them. Unfortunately for this important Lockheed initiative, no new information about EEStor was revealed. However, Lockheed Martin DID make an excellent choice today and they actually answered a question THAT I SUBMITTED online during the webcast. KUDOS to the person reading the questions coming in from online. I love you!!!

And as luck would have it, tonite, we have a little bit more to reveal about EEStor.....if you can follow the clues.
HAVE A LOOK.

Thursday, March 4, 2010 8:04 AM ET
Ported from B's original post

Lockheed will be rolling back the curtains on their SEESuite or grid management applications today at the National Press Club. Early indications are that there will be no new information concerning EEStor. However, based on past events, Lockheed officials have been desperately working on their EEStor poker faces. I anticipate forced grimaces and stone faced indifference when invariably asked about EEStor today at the event.

Are you planning to attend via webcast and slip in a question about EEStor? Please do but keep in mind Lockheed received well over 50 questions last time about EEStor and they refused to address a single one.

My advice to Lockheed in all of this? Provide a tiny update on EEStor so that people aren't distracted by it and so renewable energy bloggers like me will actually put in the effort to write about SEEsuite. It only makes sense.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 8:21 AM ET
Ported from B's original post

In his new book, "Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy," veteran Washington DC reporter Eamon Javers provides a vivid picture of the current collaboration taking place between various multi-national corporations and individuals and firms arising from the intelligence community. As Javers discovered, today's large businesses & a growing number of hedge funds are increasingly utilizing the spy skills of individuals trained to support various state sponsored intelligence agencies around the world: NSA, CIA, KGB, FBI, etc.

What is drawing these spys into spying for big businesses like Disney, Mars & Nestle? Money. Javers points out that many US agencies have moonlighting policies which allow agents to perform work on the side if they obtain approval to do so....for the purpose of improving morale and retention. These individuals, current in the art of collecting intelligence and in running counterintelligence operations are going to work for a growing number of private companies formed by former members of intelligence organizations around the world, some of them very high ranking. (Not even going to mention countries where the Intelligence community now rules the people)

Shockingly, some of these private firms combine forces with their adversaries around the world who work or worked for unfriendlies such as the Soviet Union & China. The success of these firms has also turned intelligence gathering into a business into which large companies are investing money and resources. Just as with other types of businesses, these companies are being bought and sold by entities that would give the average American pause, such as companies in the Middle East.

One fruit of Javers work is that conspiracy theorists will have much more reality to draw upon to spin their tales which brings us to Javers "modest suggestion" to society,

The spy firms must be dragged farther into the public view, where citizens can keep an eye on whether what they're doing is constructive or destructive.

Javers recommends that the framework of registration and disclosure successfully applied to the lobbyist industry also be applied to spys.

With Javers thought in mind, it is worth noting that at least 1 individual working in our country's intelligence community keeps close tabs on EEStor and TheEEStory.com and has been doing so for months.

Website statistics for the barium titanate blog and TheEESTory.com show that someone whose traffic originates from the md procurement office (what some consider the contracting office of the NSA) has been lurking on the site for quite some time. Interestingly, it may be more than one individual since the traffic originates from up to 5 separate networks. Either this individual moves around for his/her job or there is more than one interested party at NSA keeping tabs on EEStor information. Interestingly, some of the recent traffic has arrived via google searchers for "eestor scam."

Who are these people at NSA gathering EEStor information? Are they making sure nothing spills out? Are they working for private industry and orchestrating a dirty tricks campaign on behalf of EEStor competitors? Is it an old friend of Dick Weir's or Carl Nelson's--both of whom worked at one time for the CIA? Or is it just the janitor who occasionally hacks into the most secure, well-logged network in the world to check up on his investments?

You be the judge. But please don't complain that you were not informed. MUHAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

While I would have loved to be there and ask the "Hard Questions" to the likes of KPC&B et. cetera, at least the hard-working blogger Ross Miller was at the eBay reveal of Bloom Energy's Bloom Box event.

Check out the blog and pretend you were there yourself!

Live from the Bloom Box press event

The service provider supporting TheEEStory's hosting company had an outage this morning (Saturday, February 20, 2010). Seems service has been restored.

Friday, February 19, 2010 2:55 PM ET
Ported from B's Original Post

Many have wondered why I haven't posted an interview with EEStor's Dick Weir in quite some time. Well, today, I think I can finally shed some light on that issue. As it turns out, EEStor has been in agreement with having another interview for a long time. However, I have been unwilling to agree with their one condition. But, in light of the fact that so many people want to know what is going on now, I decided to bite the bullet and I agreed to their conditional offer in order to get the interview.

In this interview with EEStor founder Dick Weir, I was able to ask any question I wanted. No holds barred. However, the answers provided by Mr. Weir would be---and this is the condition---would be expressed only via a Jamaican dialect.

B: Dick, it's good to be speaking with you again. It's been a long time and this format you've required should probably be addressed from the outside. So, why the Jamaican manner of speaking today?

DW: Dat a mi brudda. Jamaican mon, mi luv a Jamaica, mon. Mi did de day a mi own in Jamaica, mon.

B: I see. Ok. If it's your preference. First question, can you please provide an update on the status of EEStor's commercialization effort?

DW: Da tists a go a home rrreeeun mi brudda. Dis lef nuttin but da prahducks ah rah bots a crunkin Lawd 'ave mercy pan mi bones. Someting a see, mon. Nuh dun yet. Buh di for di tree tousand jooles cc, mon.

[Longish pause]

B: Ahem. Go on.

DW: De nex one mi brudda.

B: Oh, ok. So, when might we hear some sort of announcement from EEStor?

DW: Mi a go bak a wuk pan Chewsday a may pan de Fraday a fe da patans a nite. Nuh di inna buks inna woryd ga dat. Nuh di profs a me fambly. Galang bout mi business inna de bik mi brudda. Aright? Put dis all inna de bag. Inna de bag, mon.

B: That's great news. It must feel really good to be where you are and on the cusp of doing some really important and great things. But, your choice to maintain such a low profile has lead to many vocal critics saying quite a few nasty things such as that you're incompetent and worse, that you've orchestrated everything as part of a scam. What do you say to those skeptics out there who believe this today?

DW: Smaddy tell me sey did a chat bout mi. De bwoy a de biggest liad. Mi wud radda yu nuh chat a mi. Yu see? Dis a skeps tahs uh pan a mango tree, mi brudda. I'm jook mi inna mi yeye. Yu ave an idea.

B: Understood. How is Carl Nelson getting along?

DW: Carl is mi brudda fra ah nudda mudda. Jus lika brudda inna mi haht. No bodda bawl Carl soon cum bak.

B: Tell him we wish him all the best. Moving on now, would you be able to say a few words about your work with Lockheed Martin?

DW: Coodeh, yuh see de big bud eena de sky ah mi Lawd 'ave Mercy. Lockheed mek up thim mind arredy bout de awl of de midda east. Jesum Peeze, a cyan bleve dat wi lose de contree. So dah mista Stevens issa wan big mon. Ya wa see but kept de sinting inna de bag. Butta goooda di questyon, mon.

B: What about Kleiner Perkins, how do they feel these days?

DW: Len out de money an no troubles. Happy like du buds in da tree, mon, smokin de ganga wit mi brudda Carl. But mi brudda carl mak eh mi call dis da "Cannabis" da CAN AAHH BIS. [said slowly and emphatically] De Jon Doerr mak eh Carl call dis de Midical Manywanna a goin green. Oh brudda. [laughing... then a pause as if Weir is taking a drink. A large beer possibly. ]

B: I definitely believe that. And as for your other partner, Zenn Motor Company. Do you have any thoughts on when they might receive their first pre-production unit?

DW: I be tellin a Ian a lang time mi dey inna dis close anna no cigah. Buttta mi askin fa du big jesu a tree days now inna mango tree. Das it. Na bye ti de next time mi rohbatd de callin mi. Bye mon.

[phone hangs up abruptly.]

This interview took place today via phone with Dick Weir at his production facility in Cedar Park, TX

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:29 PM

ported from B's original post

One of the more interesting aspects of following the EEStor story is the belief among numerous reputable individuals that what EEStor has claimed to do is impossible. Skeptics say there are no known materials, in the capacitor realm, that can store between 10 and 20 thousand Joules/cc (EEStor's proposed energy density) due to phenomena known as saturation & breakdown respectively. While most academics are cautious about saying something is impossible, some are confident enough with regard to EEStor to say it will never happen.

What seems to be a unanimous opinion among those skilled in the art of capacitor materials is that the mechanism EEStor is exploiting to gain incredible energy density can not be a simple dipole system because the ion would be stretched outside the unit cell. (gross oversimplification: the toothpick can only be bent so far before it breaks...yielding toothpick.... pieces). But the data and presentation of EEStor's program as found in its patents seem to suggest a simple dipole system is in use.

The question that arises, however, is how could Kleiner Perkins' Bill Joy, John Doerr & John Denniston (all of whom have been active in the EEStor project) invest A N Y T H I N G in a project like EEStor's? What sort of shoddy due diligence led Kleiner Perkins to part with at least $3Mil of their clients' money (especially since much of that money comes from endowment funds from competent universities like MIT)? Well, fair reader, let me tell you.

{Dr. Tom Shrout}

According to numerous sources, Kleiner Perkins hired none other than THE pre-eminent US University in the field of material science, ie, Penn State University to evaluate EEStor's claims. The verdict of the hired guns Dr. Tom Shrout and Dr. Joe Dougherty? N O T I M P O S S I B L E (You hear that John Miller?). ...which you should quickly note is about 18,000 kilometers away from "likely to work." This verdict seems to imply Penn State was not provided with prototypes but rather only data. Sources close to these researchers point out that Shrout & Dougherty, although under strict NDA with Kleiner & EEStor, will comment mostly in the negative concerning EEStor's chance for success.

{Professor Clive Randall}

It was in this atmosphere, a few years ago that Professor Clive Randall gave a presentation (at least twice) on several hyped technologies including EEStor's. The simple thrust of that presentation was that EEStor positions their technology as exploiting a simple dipole system which the physics show cannot produce enough energy density to support their claims. Case closed, right?

It was closed for all of the academics at Penn State until a funny thing happened about 16 months ago. One of the leading material researchers was approached by a mystery VC company who wanted to know all over again if there just might be an EEStor mechanism capable of providing the energy density that's been claimed. "Absolutely impossible" was the written reply "on the basis of a simple calculation." The mystery VC company then sent a representative to discuss with researchers "some additional information." [Note: this information couldn't be found in an academic journal or spoken about at some academic conference].

The result of that meeting lead at least two prominent & senior Penn State researchers to an amazing discovery: it seems "sometimes a leopard can change its spots." But have ALL of the leopards changed their spots? No. This is primarily because even among a seemingly tight nit group like the PSU Materials Research Institute not all information is shared among colleagues. Although some researchers pretend not to know that Shrout and Dougherty were in possession of proprietary EEStor data, others genuinely did not know it due to what appears to be true professional discretion. But this discretion works in the opposite direction as well making what you are reading a possible source of enlightenment for persons who have been working at PSU for years.

A theory that a mechanism exists which can store more than 20,000 J/cc is afoot at Penn State. But it cannot be talked about. Actually, it can be talked about but the talkers can't be named although if you read this blog, you would be in a proper position to form a theory.

{Dr. L. E. Cross}

So, what happens next? In the ordinary course of things, you might one day find an academic journal article spelling out the details of the mechanism in question. But in this one tiny special case, due to the ownership intention of the mystery VC company, you will not learn about it until a patent is published. ...or until you continue reading this blog, which ever comes first. (Muahaha)

I want to state emphatically that the VC company is in no way tied to any traditional capacitor or supercapacitor companies...giving one further reason to wonder how such an entity could stumble upon SOMETHING that causes Penn State leopard spots to change.

What can be said about this theory under analysis at PSU? First, the researchers have already demonstrated to their own satisfaction that some mechanisms exist which cannot be explained with simple ferroelectric models. Data has been collected in support of the theory. The mechanisms do not seem to be captured by the traditional definitions of capacitors OR batteries but some sort of hybrid in between both. The possible energy density is enormous.

For purposes of continuity, it should be re-echoed here that there are other ties between EEStor and Penn State. First, EEStor's Carl Nelson was a colleague of deceased & long time PSU researcher Bob Newnham, having taught him how to drive a car actually. Secondly, EEStor's patents reference work done by a Dupont researcher named Ian Burn. Burn is currently working under the umbrella of the Center for Dielectric Studies and has told me that he actually spoke to Dick Weir a couple years ago regarding the patents and stories that were emerging. According to Burn, Weir was not amenable to dialogue.

Another interesting tie between EEStor and Penn State comes via a mutual benefactor of sorts, WS Investments, which is the investment fund of law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The fund is managed by Mario Rosati and according to crunchbase.com it includes an investment in May 2008 with Strategic Polymer Sciences. SPS Inc. is a startup company focused on high energy density capacitors among other things and consists of many former and current Penn State researchers. Yes, an EEStor competitor. Where is Rosati's head in all of this? Law School. Check out the course he's teaching this semester at Berkely. (MUhahah)

So, what does it all add up to? What are we left with here? Well, as per usual, for you fair reader, you have a new set of tea leaves...familiar territory, right?

Discuss this and more at TheEEStory.com

Note: for my next trick, I will attempt to pull a rabbit out of a DoD battery testing hat. Stay tuned.