Citizen Journalists Elucidate Recent Zenn Shakeup

Zenn Motor Company has recently undergone a shakeup of its board of directors and management that has left many scratching their head wondering what was going on. Thanks to the efforts of a couple inquisitive and remarkably thorough citizen journalists, we have the benefit of a more enlightened view of the battle to control Zenn Motor Company's future.  If you haven't already done so,  have a gander at the AGM diary entries penned by TheEEStory users  -->G<-- and his compatriot PFujimoto.

First, the good news. Zenn's management has been fighting over how to best maximize their EEStor investment.  We would all be in big trouble if Zenn's enterprise weren't serious enough to occasionally generate this kind of situation.  My partial first clue that this was going on was the distinct lack of communication from Zenn to the public for the year leading up to this AGM:  very strange indeed for a little company who seemed to be in every newspaper, magazine and television program in North America the year prior.

Now the bad news. Zenn's management has been fighting over how to best maximize their EEStor investment.  Even though it's also good news,  it represents a risk of uncertainty that no one following EEStor wants to see.  What is the bone of contention?  Most importantly, what caused new board member Roger Hammock to become involved is the burn rate at Zenn and not understanding what exactly the money is being spent upon there.  Hammock & his business partner own over 1 million shares of Zenn and as he mentioned recently, he has visited EEStor.  In plain English, investors like Hammock worry that Zenn is spending money too rapidly requiring a new round of financing which would dilute the value of shares owned by fellows like Hammock.   It's typically easy to have conversations about such things but when one of the parties shows up with an army of attorneys threatening a proxy fight,  there's more than a small disconnect in force.

Newest EEStor Inventor: Dr. Lucas Pettey

1955
Young Dick Weir receives first clue
from God concerning  energy storage.

Perhaps, it is fair to say that for years now, everyone has had the same image of how EEStor runs its operation.   Essentially, you have a collection of short nerdy looking geeks in white lab coats raising their hands until addressed by two large, lumbering characters who stand a good foot taller than everyone else:  Dick Weir & Carl Nelson.   After an initial briefing before important work, the underlings then scurry off to fondle some fantastic piece of equipment hand picked and/or adapted by Weir & Nelson.  You might say the support group sort of polishes the equipment, swats away invading house flies and or moves trays from slot X to slot Z at times prescribed by Weir & Nelson over speaker system from a brightly lit and elevated glass encased control room.   Sometimes, there are just hand gestures indicating that something needs to be done again from the start or slightly nudged left right or up or down, resulting sometimes in impatient shouting over the loudspeaker when body language breaks down.   To complete the picture, you have to imagine a thick multi-strand fiber cable connecting a special hat on Dick Weir's head to a special hat on Carl Nelson's head allowing for the nearly artistic synchronization of two rare talents.  (a connection re-established each morning by Tom Weir  and taken down at night). As the machine that is Weir & Nelson work each day building their dream, support staff or family occasionally interrupt by tossing ham sandwiches in front of their face which get gobbled down almost bionically without interrupting efficiency.  Obviously,  this must be how it can be possible to invent and develop a radically new manufacturing system that pops out bizarrely impressive energy storage components with insanely staggering quantities.

Dr. Pettey hand modeling paramagnetic
& paraelectric properties.
Source: Picasaweb

Sock Puppets

Devout followers of EEStor often wonder if the company's online reputation is the target of sock puppets, ie, individuals paid to bash EEStor online.  It seems everyone has a theory about who is a sock puppet for whom in this regard.  But some will deny that sock puppets actually exist.  

Personally, I definitely believe there are sufficient motivations out there to bash EEStor for a variety of competing interests.  I have my own pet theories about who may be gaming the system but I don't put a lot of stock in them.   One of the more intriguing possibilities is whether it would be worthwhile for a government to play a role in manipulating EEStor's image.   I doubt it but can't rule it out.   If you google it a bit, you'll find ample evidence that China employs sock puppets to control opinion about the Chinese communist party.  But now we know too that they are not alone in this as the US Dept of Defense has apparently invested in some technology that makes it easier to create sock puppets and control them from a central place.  The story appears to have been broke originally by the Guardian. 

As for the various EEStor doubters who have made it their life mission to trash EEStor, I doubt any of them are compensated for their work.  I think what we see there is mostly disgruntled former Zenn investors hell bent on making current Zenn investors pay. 

What's your sock puppet theory, Mr. Sock Puppet?

Shareholders Invade Zenn Board of Directors

James E. Kofman

According to a late night Zenn Motor Company press release, "certain shareholders of the Company" have received cooperation from Zenn management to allow three new individuals to take seats on the Zenn Board of Directors.  Departing board members include Brian Cott, Stephen Rodgers & John R. Wallace.

Inbound board members include long time M&A expert James Kofman, well known Canadian TV personality & journalist Allan Gregg and Roger Hammock, a Zenn shareholder possessing over 1mil shares of Zenn stock.

Allan Gregg

What does this mean?  First of all, it means the new board of directors could seriously pummel almost any other board of directors in Canada.  On the business side,  Kofman has experience with "some of the largest M&A transactions and financings in Canada" according to the release.  Essentially, if you're planning to purchase Zenn Motor Company, you will now need to crawl on your hands and knees and politely relinquish your bid to Sir James Kofman.  As for Gregg, he currently sits on the Advisory Boards of General Motors Canada & Bank of Montreal.  Take a look at his interesting interview of Jeff Rubin back in 2009.   Actually, check out all of his interviews on youtube.  If you have the time and means, it probably wouldn't hurt to do a voice analysis to establish once and for all that he and I are not the same person.  As for Roger Hammock, what can I tell you other than that he owns over 1mil Zenn shares? Well, one thing I could tell you is I had a couple beers with him in Los Angeles last year and got a debrief on why he owns that many Zenn shares.  I can tell you that he & I had a lot of agreement on where EEStor is headed and how Zenn can maximize what it has.  More on that later.

TheEEstory.com Under Attack Again!!!

Image: Starships.com? WT?

Nah, I'm kidding.  It's probably just technical difficulties. You know, difficulties that are technical meaning techniques and technologies are technically tenacious at this time.  Don't worry though, you don't really need TheEEStory.com right now. You have this blog post to read which I can tell you are definitely enjoying.  I know I am enjoying writing it.  Tell me, what if I told you right now that I am shutting down TheEEStory for good?  All gone.  Wouldn't that be sorta like becoming a vegetarian all of a sudden (or vice versa you vegans out there)?  How would you handle that situation anyway?  I know it is crazy to think about.  Blows your mind doesn't it?  Yeah, me too. Whew.  Well, listen, I can't really keep writing this blog post all day. I've got other blog posts to write.  News topics area always coming at me. That's what it's like being the center of the EEStor information universe.  Oh, are you surprised by that statement?  You think Dick Weir is the center of that universe?  No, it is me and only me.  Ok, sure, he does a little bit every now and then but for the most part all of his information is "proprietary" whereas see, I'm open source.  Proprietary. Open Source. See the difference?  I find that followers have adopted me as a solution for EEStor information because I don't require you to invest $5Mil in EEStor to obtain it.   True, I should require it but I don't...for the time being.  Do any of you have $5Mil out there?  If so, send it to me.  Don't worry about what I'll do with it. It will be happy here. I give you my solemn assurance.

Any way, you probably miss your friends at TheEEStory so go ahead and make use of the comment section to talk to your buddies OLD SCHOOL style.  Remember the early days on this blog when Y_Po would post like 85 comments in a day and battle Steve and others?   Wow. What a long time we've been sitting around waiting for Godot.

UPDATE:  Site is back up!

EEStor Applies for Fusible Link Patent

Thanks to the work of GaryB, we know EEStor continues to apply for patents related to its technology. The latest is an application for a fusible link.   In case you're worried EEStor isn't covering enough bases, this application also invokes "Thomas Edison's electrical power distribution system," useful for anyone critical of EEStor's grasp of history.

On a related note, I was going to keep this in stealth mode but changed my mind recently.  I've applied for a patent--wrote it up at night, sent it in with me fees, etc.  I believe I have uncovered a method and apparatus for attracting idiots and confirming their stupidity through commenting.  Here's an example tidbit from a prominent disturbed UK professor,

By definition, it is difficult, effectively impossible, to prove a negative. But the science puts constraints on how a viable EEStor dielectric might work. Those are very far away from anything that we have ever seen, and for fundamental reasons. You don't get proved false from this. You get proved quite extraordinarily unlikely. That is as near to false as we get in science.

Thanks Professor.  Let's see.... of the 14000 steps EEStor needs to complete to become a commercially viable entity, I guess number 13,996 is test the components for energy density.  Brilliant.   In the meantime, EEStor will be as near to false as science allows.

Lockheed Martin & EEStor: An Enduring Love

As Tuesday Feb 1, 2011, Lockheed Martin maintains that there have been "no changes" in it's EEStor agreement.  "Our rights agreement is still in effect," Craig Van Bebber wrote in an email to me today.

To find out why Lockheed would maintain such a long term relationship with EEStor Inc and get virtually nothing in return, I decided to go under cover once again to see if perhaps a nugget of truth could be located among the abyss of misinformation about EEStor that exists on the Internet and around the world.

What I learned may surprise you:  while most business relationships are predicated on a quid pro quo basis,  the Lockheed-EEStor hookup is based purely on love.  It started when a mutual friend introduced them at a social event and soon blossomed into a 3 division review resulting in an inability to conclude EEStor's technology couldn't work (or if it doesn't, at least Lockheed couldn't find a reason why it couldn't).   This paved the way for love to take root and bring both parties a rarely experienced profoundly intense LOVE.

According to Lockheed Martin strongman & CEO, Bob Stevens, it is not uncommon for the two companies to exchange poems penned by each company's board of directors.   I was able to obtain an unauthorized copy of such an exchange recently. I will quote sufficiently to allow you a guess at the author:

To me, you are like love taffy

I can't wait to hold you but once I do

I can never let go

until I wash with industrial soap

which is itself rather nice

About the only time the relationship went rocky was when both parties were separated due to family vacations and the dreadful thought that perhaps their beloved was wooed by someone else inevitably crept in.

"I'm not saying A123 Systems and GE are attractive mates.  But the thought of Lockheed running to their arms almost drove me mad with jealously, " stated a senior executive at EEStor too embarrassingly smitten to admit his or her name in conjunction with this flowery topic.   When I checked with Lockheed,  a key spokesperson within Missiles and Fire Control assured me "when in love, the mind can wander off a cliff on occasion which only adds to the excitement and fire in a real romance. "

But is this an enduring relationship? As one senior Lockheed executive explained recently,  "Listen. Let me explain something and you draw whatever conclusions you wish to draw.   What we have together is not the typical booster rocket event leading to an almost immediate crash. We've already endured real pain together and it only brought us closer.  It's not what our minds tell us that counts, it is what our souls identify as our meaning. Do you understand?"  This last sentence was accompanied by an almost frightening facial depiction of earnestness.

So this Valentine's day, when you ponder your particular romance status, keep in mind that personal relationships aren't the only option when it comes to experiencing love: sometimes you can find this in the commercial world as well.  The mechanics can be awkward and may require a whole new set of social conventions, but some companies are making it work.

McCoullough Speaks

Note from Sylvia McCollough:

Thank you. As a former Advocate for ZMC, but no longer working in a professional capacity, I am still very much supporting the success of EEStor's technology. I continue to hope Michigan will be considered a viable location for any advanced EESU and ZMC technology development. We are just waiting for the final development of the technology, as are others.

And wait, wait, and wait and wait.   See especially 0:54:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-T8ZhBc4I4

ZMC Lobbyist Says Senator Carl Levin Supportive of Zenn (a year ago anyway)

From Facebook

Poor Sylvia McCoullough.  Lobbyists tend to shy away from media attention unless it serves a good purpose.  But now here she is in my blog as a centerpiece in the latest chapter about EEStor Inc.  Ouch. (dont worry, this won't hurt a bit)

 About a year ago, I was looking into her work on behalf of ZMC America (Zenn Motor Company's American subsidiary) to see if I could learn anything about what America's elected officials are doing in relation to EEStor.   As I reported previously, no less than the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin had taken an interest in EEStor/Zenn.

In a prior article, I spelled out some of this and was of course accused of being a liar among other things (thanks geniuses).  At the time, I could have pointed to McCoullough but I figured why drag an innocent bystander into the dirty (but occasionally amusing) debate around whether or not EEStor is real.  Thanks to a Facebook posting today by Mrs. McCoullough on Former Michigan Governor Granholm's page, I no longer have to protect the identity of someone I've never met or spoken to.    It caused me to do a google and find another Facebook reference to EEStor by Mrs. McCoullough.   It is this second posting which interests me the most since it basically provides additional evidence for what I reported previously, that Senator Levin had offered some support for a Zenn facility in Michigan.

In a Discussion Board posting (exact date unknown-'over a year ago'), McCoullough responds to a query from a random guy (talk show host actually: TalkLansing.net) about EEStor:

Lots of work to be done yet, and we have only a small window of opportunity to pull all of this together; as China, Japan, England and Canada are also hoping to win these two new green energy Industries.....but Michigan is in the runnning, and we're working hard to make it all happen. Senator Carl Levin is being supportive and working with us on winning a grant for ZMC who is also investing $5Mil in the new Drivetrain Development & Research Center. 

Later she adds:

 I will keep you posted, and if you like I can send you our presentation information; has all the information regaridng both the battery and ZENN/ZMC Inc. 

EESTor will have a functioning prototype within the next two -three months, if not sooner. They have surpassed all their milestones, and have only one more validation before they all the paper work is signed and they set a production date. The last test will be final wivery soon and a funtioning prototype ready to be introduced to the World!

The same venture capital group that invested in Google and Amazon have also invested in EESTor Inc., and say this battery will do for this industry what the "chip" did for the Silicon Valley, which would be a miracle for Michigan!

The battery will be lighter, cheaper, and be a better battery than what is being proposed for the Volt; plus its been developed in America and will be produced in America, using Bariam , which is commonly found throughout North America; unlike Lithium which is found mainly in China, Russia and Bolivia. 

Yes, the battery will make all electric cars cheaper and better than anything on the development horizon today, including the GM Volt. 

See ZENN Inc. website and EESTOR Cedar Park, Texas website....lot's of great information. 

Thank you so much for your interest, and I'll be sure an let you know what's happening! 

Good Luck with your new Show! 

Sylvia McCollough

It's sort of hard to make that up. But I suppose there will be a few knuckle heads who cast aspersions on Mrs. McCoullough. 

Senator Levin Wagging His Finger at EEStor Doubters

Ok, what does this all add up to?  Not a tremendous amount but it is yet another clue.  As I reported previously, when Senator Levin's office began investigating whether or not they wanted to be involved with Zenn (McCoullough's client), Levin called Lockheed Martin as I learned from an anonymous source Lockheed Martin authorized me to speak with at a conference a year ago (I kept that source anonymous at the source's request).  A call from the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman is a big deal considering Lockheed Martin's almost entire existence depends upon what that committee allows to happen from a $800Bil/yr budget standpoint.   So that call went to Lockheed CEO Robert Steven's office.  And as I noted, the timing of the call was prior to the ZMC proposal being submitted to the DOE (which included a reference to Senator Levin in one of the letters).  ...which basically means Lockheed didn't scare Levin away from EEStor when he called them inquiring. 




This paragraph is solely for the international audience (and a majority of Americans) who have no idea what any of this means. To keep it simple:  funding for the US military emanates from laws passed every year allocating funds.  So, if you're a  top leader in the Military with a great new way to spend several billion dollars, at some point you probably have to run it by the legislature, specifically the Senate Armed Services Commitee, chaired by Senator Levin and Senator John McCain.   It is a very powerful position committee in the US federal government and Levin is a very powerful person in our government (my fingers tremble as I type this). 


Does any of this mean the US government has an official position on EEStor?  No, but it does mean there is some activity afoot and it's those afoots that  keep me writing. 

Yet Another EEStor Patent Application: Power Averaging

Due to an inadvertent misconfiguration early in the process, the EEStor pilot production line under construction in their Cedar Park, TX facility has been producing patent applications instead of capacitor components for the past couple years.  No word on when that might get corrected. In the meantime, the    latest EEStor patent application, published today, January 20, 2011 has to do with with power averaging.   The abstract indicates the following:

A system is disclosed for providing power averaging for the utility grids and more specifically to utilizing a unique EESU unit with the capability to store electrical energy over 24 hour periods each day and provide power averaging to homes, commercial, and industrial sites to reduce the peak power requirements. charging such power averaging units during the non-peak times and delivering the energy during the peak demands times provides for more efficient utilization of utility-grid power-generating plants and the already existing capability of isolating the users from utility grid power failures, transients and AC noise. 

According to unnamed sources, this patent has caused a few concerned individuals over at American Power Conversion to clean out their desk and update their linkedin profile.  Not so fast folks. You can always license your existence from EEStor.  Good luck.  Oh, I almost forgot, that is....IF Dick Weir's battery works.  So many geniuses make it clear to us that actually testing dielectrics and components for energy density may be something Weir shelved a long time ago.  Brilliant insight.

Furthermore, the patent reveals what EEStor thinks a home EESU might cost:  $4000-$5000. It would save the end user approximately $1000/yr in situations where off peak electricity is cheaper than during peak. (assuming more variables than I or EEStor care to list).  



Discussion question:  when people are wrong about what is scientifically possible, is it more correct to refer to them as morons or neanderthals?  Oh, you're right, that's not polite.  They are simply in error.