Tag: fires
Lithium-Ion Battery Fires on Aircraft are Happening ‘Much More Frequently’
The flight crew contained the situation, and “Airport fire trucks met the plane on the runway and everyone evacuated safely.” But a CBS News Investigation “has discovered similar incidents have been happening much more frequently in the skies over the United States.”
The FAA verifies the number of lithium-Ion battery fires jumped more 42% in the last five years. A CBS News analysis of the FAA’s data found that since 2021 there’s been at least one lithium battery incident on a passenger plane somewhere in the U.S., on average, once every week…
Some airlines are taking action to control the growing number of fires. They are using specialized “thermal containment” bags designed for flight crews to use if a lithium battery starts heating up to the point where it’s smoking or burning. Mechanical engineers at the University of Texas at Austin say the bags can effectively contain fire and keep it from spreading, but don’t extinguish it.
In a video accompanying the article, an engineering professor at the university’s Fire Research Group even showed a lithium-ion battery fire that continued burning undewater. “You can’t put it out. It’s a fire within the cell. So, you’ve got fuel, oxygen, heat in the cell, all.” (The article also notes a startup called Pure Lithium is working on a new kind of non-flammable battery using lithium metal cells instead of lithium ion).
Guidelines from America’s Federal Aviation Administration require spare lithium-ion batteries be kept with passengers (and not checked) — and prohibits passengers from bringing onboard damaged or recalled batteries and battery-powered devices.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader khb for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Unity fires manager who tweeted the company is “out of touch”
A senior partner relations manager at Unity has been fired following a tweet critising an exec at the company. This comes shortly after Unity laid off roughly 8% of its total workforce earlier this month.
The tweet in question states: “A Unity exec just shared that they rent a secondary apt in SF to make it easier to be in the office- maybe we should all just do this to make it easier to RTO? This company has lost it. Completely out of touch.”
The poster, Miranda Due, followed up by stating that “renting an apt in SF would cost me over half my gross monthly salary 🙁 Probably 3/4 of my takehome at least”. Roughly two hours later, Due would confirm she was fired.
FromSoft’s mech-action game Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon comes out in August
Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon is dropping into action on August 25th, developer FromSoftware have announced. Last December, the studio most famous for Dark Souls and Elden Ring announced they were returning to their mecha action roots, and we now have the first gameplay trailer showing off those chunky mechs and huge explosions. Take a look below.
Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon launches August 25 – New gameplay details
Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon Combines FromSoftware’s Souls Experience with the Franchise’s Mech History
Dark and Darker studio fires back over DMCA takedown fiasco: ‘We hope that Nexon will stop making baseless claims’
Funko leadership fires Mondo founders, ending pop culture’s best poster maker
Collectible maker’s toy and LP divisions remain, nominally