[TheProdigalModern]

It turns out that humans might be able to provide renewable energy, and we get to eat all of the junk food we want to do it.

[JerryLove]

I remember the popularity of communes amongst the pro-Christian hippies of the 70s. One can argue the semantics of their religion, but they were spiritual/religious and advocates of communism.

There is nothing in communism that's anti-religious.

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by JerryLove

I remember the popularity of communes amongst the pro-Christian hippies of the 70s. One can argue the semantics of their religion, but they were spiritual/religious and advocates of communism.

There is nothing in communism that's anti-religious.

I just hear more about Christian communism as a concept than I do specific instances or speakers for the movement. It doesn't shock me that it exists, but it seems like a weaker, less established or articulated version of the more secular forms.

[irtrogdor]

*EDIT*
i'm deleting my post here, i replied to a comment on the first page without knowing there were two more... hehe...

*/EDIT*

[SO14C3]

Sorry, but I had to revive this.

2nd Law of thermodynamics always wins.

Why waste energy by using electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen for use as fuel when you could use that energy MUCH more efficiently to power electric vehicles. Doesn't matter how the electricity is produced.

Convince people to buy electric cars. HA, good luck.
Show people how buying hydrogen vehicles (when they are finally readily available) is like buying a hydrogen bomb to drive. Anyone remember the Hindenburg? Anyone want to think about the consequences of a leaking hydrogen tank? The tanks will eventually leak; there is no known material that can safely hold large amounts of hydrogen for long.

BOOM!

Hydrogen sucks.

Wind power and solar power will never work as a replacement for current generators. You can't get constant energy from them. Oh look, a cloudy day. Hey, the wind died. Unfortunately, it seems that nuclear energy is the best option.

The other option is finding a way to produce electrical energy from processes with untapped generating potential. If anything is burned, you can use the heat to produce electricity. The flue gasses from industry could be theoretically forced to spin turbines.

Or we could search for a new form of energy instead of electricity.

[Ax]

Originally Posted by SO14C3

Sorry, but I had to revive this.

2nd Law of thermodynamics always wins.

Why waste energy by using electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen for use as fuel when you could use that energy MUCH more efficiently to power electric vehicles. Doesn't matter how the electricity is produced.

Convince people to buy electric cars. HA, good luck.
Show people how buying hydrogen vehicles (when they are finally readily available) is like buying a hydrogen bomb to drive. Anyone remember the Hindenburg? Anyone want to think about the consequences of a leaking hydrogen tank? The tanks will eventually leak; there is no known material that can safely hold large amounts of hydrogen for long.

BOOM!

Hydrogen sucks.

Wind power and solar power will never work as a replacement for current generators. You can't get constant energy from them. Oh look, a cloudy day. Hey, the wind died. Unfortunately, it seems that nuclear energy is the best option.

The other option is finding a way to produce electrical energy from processes with untapped generating potential. If anything is burned, you can use the heat to produce electricity. The flue gasses from industry could be theoretically forced to spin turbines.

Or we could search for a new form of energy instead of electricity.

I actually think this is a good time to bring this back up... we've been talking about this in CE...

I agree with most of what you say, I do however think that if we could store the electricity from solar and wind energies in an efficient matter, we could make up for cloudy and windless days... The problem, of course, is that batteries charge too slowly and don't hold enough charge...

Also... there is no alternative to electricity... that statement makes no sense, mostly as electricity is simply the flow of electrons...

[JerryLove]

Originally Posted by SO14C3

2nd Law of thermodynamics always wins.

In a closed system, movement is always towards entropy? Ok. I'm having trouble tying this to the rest of your post.

Why waste energy by using electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen for use as fuel when you could use that energy MUCH more efficiently to power electric vehicles.

Why drive cars when you can use flying hoverboards? Because we don't have flying hoverboards.

How, exactly, would you use it more efficintly to power electric vehicles? What is your storage mechanism and how will you disperse it?

Doesn't matter how the electricity is produced.

Burning babies for fuel?

Convince people to buy electric cars. HA, good luck.

Make a functional electric car for real needs. HA good luck.

Show people how buying hydrogen vehicles (when they are finally readily available) is like buying a hydrogen bomb to drive.

Show people how drinking water is like having sex with a small-pox virus? Oh yes, it's not.

Anyone remember the Hindenburg?

Lightening ignighted an aluminum-based coating on the skin and the aluminium burned.

Oh, did you mistake the issue for burning hydrogen? Certainly that did eventually ignght, after the fire burned through the bladders... but what you think happened and what actually happened are not similar.

Anyone want to think about the consequences of a leaking hydrogen tank?

Hydrogen escaping into the air and bad fuel economy.

The tanks will eventually leak; there is no known material that can safely hold large amounts of hydrogen for long.

Really? I've had a compressed hydrogen tank behind my old jobsite for 15 years now.

BOOM!

You can't even decide if you want to assert that it burns or explodes.

Hydrogen sucks.

So you want electric cars. You do know that batteries burn? You do know that batteries explode? You do know that they are toxic?

Wind power and solar power will never work as a replacement for current generators. You can't get constant energy from them. Oh look, a cloudy day. Hey, the wind died. Unfortunately, it seems that nuclear energy is the best option.

That depends on a great deal. Tyo obvious solutions:

1. Good batteries. Collect enough when you have sun to survive when you don't. The fact that the power grid is national should even out the oddity.

2. Location. Move your wind turbines to 30,000ft (like a giant kite) or your solar collectors out of the aptmosphere (orbital) and you have very consistant power.

The other option is finding a way to produce electrical energy from processes with untapped generating potential. If anything is burned, you can use the heat to produce electricity. The flue gasses from industry could be theoretically forced to spin turbines.

It's already done, though many power plants don't install the equipment because of cost.

There, however, is where thermodynamics 2 kicks in. It took power to make those emissions, recaptured energy will always be less than it took.

Or we could search for a new form of energy instead of electricity.

We know many. Electromagnetic, heat, mechanical. We use a great number of them.