Music (composition, performance, instruments and sound), film, literature (novels, biographies, plays, short stories), technology (invention, innovation, creation).
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Apr 9 2011: Do you make these docs and films because you feel strongly about these issues and topics, because you like to make documentaries and these are the subjects that came up, because it's just what you do, or a mixture of all three?
Mar 4 2011: I was going to post something similar, but I stumbled upon your idea before I did. I've asked the same questions that you ask. I agree that waste heat is a potentially huge problem that I am frankly surprised is getting so little attention. In fact, it changes climate more obviously than greenhouse gases. Maybe not yet on a massive scale, but one cannot deny that heated microclimates are being created around populated areas like cities and industrial centres. You can't say that this has no effect on the big picture.
Secondly, I think your efficiency idea is spot on. Most generators and transducers, of all types, are incredibly inefficient. There is so much energy being wasted through friction in mechanical devices like engines, infrared radiation (in light bulbs for example) and even the friction between a vehicle and air (where do you think all the energy in you momentum goes when you take your foot off the gas?) That's a lot of power being released willy-nilly into the environment. Who knows what will happen?
Engineers, instead of focusing on hydrogen and electrical power, should work on making transducers more effective. People don't realize the extent of power hidden in the smallest amount of fossil fuels. It's just that it is mostly lost. I believe that we would actually have longer lasting energy by making use of fossil fuels' full potential, rather than using up the world's lithium supplies and greatest minds in developing electric cars while gasoline and nearly all of it's priceless energy is literally being left to burn away.
TEDCred score: +0.50 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.
A comment on Conversation: I'm online and will be here for the next hour to answer any questions you may have. Thanks - Morgan
A comment on Conversation: Is the quest for cheaper, cleaner energy a flawed idea? Shouldn't we be focusing instead on energy efficiency?
Secondly, I think your efficiency idea is spot on. Most generators and transducers, of all types, are incredibly inefficient. There is so much energy being wasted through friction in mechanical devices like engines, infrared radiation (in light bulbs for example) and even the friction between a vehicle and air (where do you think all the energy in you momentum goes when you take your foot off the gas?) That's a lot of power being released willy-nilly into the environment. Who knows what will happen?
Engineers, instead of focusing on hydrogen and electrical power, should work on making transducers more effective. People don't realize the extent of power hidden in the smallest amount of fossil fuels. It's just that it is mostly lost. I believe that we would actually have longer lasting energy by making use of fossil fuels' full potential, rather than using up the world's lithium supplies and greatest minds in developing electric cars while gasoline and nearly all of it's priceless energy is literally being left to burn away.