TED Community » Thomas Hjort

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• A reply on Conversation: What would be the best way to make Khan Academy go International?

  Mar 14 2011: Absolutely - that would be the place to go.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: What would be the best way to make Khan Academy go International?

  Mar 11 2011: For children under the age of 16, native spoken voices are a must. We should not expect children to master one difficult "craft"(reading or translating) to learn another. Thus the material needs to be voiced over or in some cases tranlated to local languages.
  
  I think TED could make a differece here, they already have a open translation system in place, the goal to spread ideas and knowledge. What if they added voice translation into that scheme, and then helped picking relevant educational (not only Khan) videos from the web, deal with the copyrights and corrdinated the translation process, to ensure teh usual high TED standard?

• A reply on Conversation: A conversation with GE: What are the best ideas for alternative energy management at home?

  Mar 9 2011: If this is paired with solar power it makes the comsumption almost zero in most parts of the world, this goes for both refrigiators and even for airconditioners.

• A reply on Conversation: A conversation with GE: What are the best ideas for alternative energy management at home?

  Mar 9 2011: The notion of net-zero is problematic, as it needs to be supported by a strong grid to ensure power continuity. In this case the grid can be considered a battery, which may be ok for a low renewable porducion penetration percentage, but as soon as we move to a setup, where renewable are the main prodution it is essensial that the continuity of power is maintained, and controlled.
  
  As an example let us assume that everyone has a net-zero hous based on solar production, meaning that the entire energy usage is covered over time by solar panels. On the energy balance this is great, but if there is no storage in the setup the entire supply will fail at night where no power is produced.
  
  So the equation is more complex than that. We need a battery! - currently we can use either the grid, thermal storage, physical batteries or the hydro plants as storage. The latter, by using surplus daytime production to pump water "uphill" into the ressevoirs, and reclaim whem needed. omly problem here is cost, as we now have 2 time the power capacity to supply the need - a heavy investment.

• A comment on Conversation: A conversation with GE: What are the best ideas for alternative energy management at home?

  Mar 9 2011: In order to spark more ideas, here is an approach.
  
  We live in a spoiled socity where power 24/7 is assumed to be a human right. Many of the load scheduling and power production balancing considerations are heavily halted by this, so what if we could only be garatied power 20h/day???
  
  What charateristics would the products in our homes have to exhibit? My take is that this is entirely doable, only very few loads needs to run always, such as fans and pumps for heating and cooling distribution. I my view the rest is a result of the evulution of power supplies as one giant interconnected gird, as the technologies of storing power (short time with batteries) are only now mature enought to rely on.
  
  Supporting a household for 4hours per day is 100% possible with batteries. In the electricfication of Africa, this may be a needed and fully accepted approach, and may drive the evolvement of products with the needed charateristics.
  
  The apporach would ease the peneration of renewables in the grid, as production/load balancing becomes uncritical, peak procution may no longer be needed, and transmission lines may no longer be a limit. Now we can wait for the wind to pick up, or for the sun to rise and not have to impose tough requirements on a giant complex infrastructure.
  
  If further this is evaluated in conjunction with a matched production and load type (such as 1: solar power driving airconditioners, 2:wind turbines driveing heating - and many more - all having high concurency of load and production) setup I think we can go a long way.
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Debate: Does the world need nuclear energy?

  Jun 15 2010: The world is not as simple as it is layed out here, there are a number of factors to take into considerations when discussing the future of power supply. There is no need to simplify, we can go a long way by thinking smart.
  
  Why is it a given fact that we need full power all the time? Why is it always considered to be needed to transport all energy?? Why is it one or the other? Does the wind not blow somewhere always? and the sun?
  
  The immidiate sollutions could be that a mix of sources could be the answer, having a neuclear backbone structure, supported by (maybe considered as a fuelsaver) renewables?
  What about approaches like supplying airconditioners by solar power - then power is availeble when most needed. And use wind power for heating - this is again a good correlation as the cooling of houses is highly wind speed dependent, then we do not need infrastructure improvements.
  
  Without commenting on the wrong statements, I suggest that we start being creative not reactive.
• +6

  A reply on Talk: Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds

  Feb 25 2010: Hi again Coleen
  
  I too have a child with a mild autism, and I know that a diagnose will help in more ways than expected. It is a great communication tool, both to get the services availeble and right guidance, but also personally. Having a mild form of autism, my daughter is just a bit "off", but in many areas, and only the sum makes the "case". Many persons in my personal network initially said things like: "you worry too much", "every kid is different" etc when I brought up the subject, needless to say it is tough enough to deal with the problems of lacking social skills and the like, but missing backup makes things a lot harder.
  
  Also we need to be aware that the parrent is not always with the child (day care, school etc) here the diagnosis is also a good way to be sure that care taker have the right means to handle the child. I know that this should not be needed, but at least that is my experiance.
  
  BTW I also found Silverman out of place, but she put the item on the agenda