[Tfug] OT: Battery Powered Transportation: Converting Thermal to Electrical Energy

[Jesse Allen]

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 9:31 PM, Bexley Hall<bexley401 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> use the equivalent of an electric golf cart, Segway, etc.
> instead.  Why haul 3000 pounds of steel/iron/plastic down
> the street just to carry 20 pounds of groceries *back*?
>
> Note that the mindset shift also impacts urban planning
> approaches.  If people start thinking about clusters of
> housing/retail/employment instead of the 1950's model
> of "living in the suburbs" and "driving to the ______",
> then there is an attendant ENERGY savings that is reflected
> in hydrocarbons and/or electricity consumption.  But, it
> is predicated on getting people to think of transportation
> in terms OTHER THAN gas guzzling soccer-mom vans and
> trucks on steroids.

On the energy debate and mindset shifting: allow me to put in my 2 cents.

I think that care should be taken that we don't allow electric
vehicles to become a crutch which keeps people from changing mindset.
Perhaps there ought to be a sort of energy crisis -- at least as far
as our pocketbooks are concerned -- in order to see real
infrastructure, attitude, and behavioral change. My personal
preference is to have
http://www.chromebagsstore.com/metropolis-black-black-black-buckle.html
as my "trunk" and http://www.beef.org/ as my fuel when possible.

Just my $0.02.

-- 
Jesse Allen
Charles de Gaulle  - "The better I get to know men, the more I find
myself loving dogs." -
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_de_gaulle.html