David Atwell

Standplaats Krakow @standplaatskrk.pl [ View ] Jun 08, 2024 at 11:49 UTC

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 00:22 UTC

My mind is not made up, I just haven't seen any actual evidence--other than a paper providing a minimal shred--that H2 can reasonably defeat the laws of thermodynamics at scale.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:49 UTC

So, petroleum: not renewable, not eco-friendly, no local tank or fuel, but no new infra. 1-4 Hydrogen: renewable, eco-friendly, no local tank or fuel, requires new infra. 2-3 Electric: renewable, eco-friendly, no local battery, local energy, no new infra. 4-1 Hydrogen has a huge uphill climb.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:43 UTC

With electricity, we can generate electricity locally & renewably; and store it on board in a battery that may have been made far away, but which we can reuse. The losses with this plan are not negligible, but they are minimal. We have this technology now, and it works using existing infrastructure.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:42 UTC

With hydrogen, we can store energy in tanks aboard the vehicle. This can be renewable and environmentally-friendly! But it does require the fuel to be refined far from where we are, transported to us, and purchased from specialized stores, or an infrastructure overhaul with no transitional utility.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:39 UTC

With petroleum, we can store pre-generated energy in tanks aboard the vehicle. This is not renewable or environmentally-friendly. It also requires the fuel to be extracted and refined far from where we are, transported to us, and purchased from specialized stores.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:36 UTC

Look, here's the thing. At the end of the day, we need to power vehicles using energy. We've discovered that the amount of energy per second required to operate a vehicle is greater than the amount than it can currently collect on its own, so we have to collect it elsewhere and put it on board.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:32 UTC

"Oh you're just a sheep repeating the stuff you've heard"--yeah, I'm fine with that, because it's stuff like *the laws of thermodynamics* and other relevant scientific facts.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:30 UTC

Also, who said "perfect solution?" Nobody did. You're arguing with no one. People have said it's the best solution we have right now, people have said it's good enough, people have said it's better than hydrogen, but I don't think anyone has said it's perfect.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:28 UTC

I don't know how it would be possible for my beliefs to come from social media, since I've *never had a conversation about this on social media before.* This isn't a realm I spend a lot of time engaging about, but I have some familiarity with science and engineering.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:27 UTC

The battery, by contrast, can be made in a far-off location, but requires no pipeline to get it to your location. You can source it from anywhere, buying it from a different manufacturer if supply lines are limited. Then you charge it with your own, local, cheap (hopefully renewable) electricity.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:25 UTC

Yes! At higher cost! Thank you! The thing you need to make perpetually, you have to either ship a further distance or pay more to make locally. That's additional cost, additional points of failure, and additional lossiness. For something you need immediate access to, forever.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 14:23 UTC

No, I'm explaining the difference between where you source the batteries and the energy you put in them.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 20:53 UTC

Oh, well since you said it, it must be so. 🙄

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 20:52 UTC

[...] moving a fuel cell a short distance once, and then hydrogen a longer distance perpetually. Transmission losses are one factor. Uptime/reliability another. We should make the batteries far away and the energy closer, not the other way around.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 20:51 UTC

I'm not actually confused, that was a rhetorical device because you're arguing both sides of the same idea. We should move stuff as little as possible. Moving a battery a long distance once, and then electrons a shorter distance perpetually, is more efficient than [...]

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 20:44 UTC

Yeah, because the laws of physics and economics together are telling everyone that your dream world is impossible.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 20:43 UTC

Sorry--are you pro-creating things elsewhere and transmitting it long distances? Or against it? I've lost track. Batteries (durable) should be made wherever is most efficient. Energy (ephemeral) should be made as close to you as possible.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 00:16 UTC

They can be *charged* locally. Come on, don't be intentionally dense.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 00:15 UTC

How do you propose getting from here to there?

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 00:15 UTC

So, free energy, no transfer costs, no retrofitting, no inconvenience. What a utopian world you're suggesting.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 00:10 UTC

Larger*, not smaller.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 00:09 UTC

Oof. No thank you. We need more diversified and local energy production, not more centralized and homogenous. But that's another story.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 00:06 UTC

Now, I will grant you that rural areas might provide a more compelling use case for H2 vehicles than cities. But I still don't know how long that's going to be the case.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 00:06 UTC

We still need those pipelines for natural gas, unless you think everyone in cold climates is going to just decide to give up on heating or pay thousands to convert to heat pumps or resistive overnight. And the grid is only non-electric outside of populous areas. That's not where electric cars are.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 13, 2024 at 00:03 UTC

Hydrogen's storage and distance benefits aren't enough to overcome the huge lead electric already has. And that lead is getting smaller all the time.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 23:15 UTC

That's what I mean about going to an alternate universe where the grid was never invented. You have to start with the hydrogen infrastructure in order for it to make any sense. The cost to retool our built world for H2 would overrun any gains we make for decades or more.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 23:13 UTC

It *is* an unnecessary middleman, as long as it's more expensive, more lossy, or more inconvenient than the technology that is already installed. In order for hydrogen to be viable, as you've noted, you have to replace wires with tubes. Or delivery vehicles.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 23:10 UTC

Convert electricity to electricity: 0% conversion loss Transmit electricity to destination: 13% transmission loss Convert electricity to hydrogen: 40% conversion loss Transmit hydrogen to destination: 2% transmission loss There's a pretty big, penny-wise-pound-foolish disparity here.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 23:08 UTC

Mm, much better. Thank you. Yes, I see that the transmission loss for H2 is about 2%, compared to 13% for electric transmission (ok, so I was off by 3%. Sorry). But that better transmission loss doesn't even kind of offset the 40% loss in conversion. Remember, electricity is *already* electricity!

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 23:03 UTC

I'm not planning on reading marketing hype, thanks. I've had enough advertising to last a lifetime already, and it just keeps coming! 😆

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 23:02 UTC

Ah, but now you're talking about just replacing our existing battery chemistry with fuel cells, you're not talking about replacing all of our wires with hydrogen tubes. Don't switch goalposts.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 23:00 UTC

Anyway, this article you mention--it's peer-reviewed and published in a reputable journal, I assume? No? Hmm.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 23:00 UTC

"Hydrogen lets you get rid of a lot of wires"--yeah, and replace them with *pipes!* I mean, come on man, if you're that much of a zealot that you can't even see that reality, I don't even know what you're doing here.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 22:53 UTC

No see you have to understand the hydrogen plan requires us to not have invented electricity first, and *then* we invent the fuel cell. So first, we go to an alternate universe...

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 12, 2024 at 22:52 UTC

But...laws of physics! Transmission loss in power lines is, like, 10%. Why on earth would we trade that for 40-50%?!? Even the rosiest estimates for hydrogen power loss are like 10%, right? And that's super theoretical, like frictionless-sphere-in-an-airless-room theoretical?

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 07, 2024 at 14:11 UTC

And most of the time they don't mean it to diminish the films. They mean that the themes and ideas are simple enough that kids will get it, and the story and action are interesting enough to grab their attention. It's a good thing, not a bad thing.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 07, 2024 at 14:10 UTC

PG-13 doesn't mean "kids not allowed," it means "parental guidance recommended for kids under 13." Not "don't take your kids," but "don't send your kids alone." When people say that Star Wars are kids' movies, they don't mean four-year-olds. They mean 8-10-year-olds seeing it with their parents.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 07, 2024 at 14:07 UTC

Jumanji, Five Nights at Freddy's, four of the Harry Potter movies, The Goonies, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Hotel Transylvania, Last Action Hero, Addams Family, Mrs. Doubtfire, Small Soldiers--all of those are directly and demonstrably for kids, and they're all PG-13. And they're not rare exceptions.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 06, 2024 at 19:06 UTC

I read this and had a sudden realization. The rich are using your work hours to subsidize their leisure hours. They're literally sucking the life from us to enrich their own. Certainly I am not the first person to have come to this conclusion, but it is jarring.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 06, 2024 at 18:48 UTC

I recognize people readily, but struggle to describe their appearance to people. Even for my close family members, I have difficulty calling an actual image of their face (rather than some representative image that implies them) to mind.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 04, 2024 at 14:51 UTC

Whoa, look at the joy on her face. She's the only one there who's truly living in the moment

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 04, 2024 at 14:50 UTC

Absolutely could be AI, but I think more likely is them trying to deliver more packages than ever with fewer people than ever. Every person I know who works in carrier logistics is overworked and underpaid. Which could certainly mean that they're "replacing" humans with AI, of course.

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David Atwell @ilinamorato.bsky.social [ View ] May 31, 2024 at 02:54 UTC

"I'm sorry, Ambassador, but we'll have to hold the North American leadership summit here. You see, our president is legally prohibited from entering Canada."

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