Biden Administration misc. activities

[Nodack]

Makes me long for the Trump days. They never had to walk back any of his comments ever.

[Indy]

And his comment was the right thing to do. But our stupid foreign policy for the last 50 years on Taiwan is awful.

[ShadowHawke]

I agree with that, but what's wrong with Nuclear or what is the ultimate cleaner form of power?

It isn't that there is anything wrong with nuclear. It is just a multi-year, multi-billion dollar process, not to mention the potential dangers. Then you have to pipe that energy hundreds and hundreds of miles to get to the place you need it. Which wastes huge amounts of the energy created. Like Mori said, it is fine for some areas and as a stop gap, but fission isn't the end-all-be-all of power generation.

Actually Indy, there is a higher percentage of loss of energy for charging an EV battery, than the percentage loss for the transmission to the home.

[Indy]

I agree with that, but what's wrong with Nuclear or what is the ultimate cleaner form of power?

It isn't that there is anything wrong with nuclear. It is just a multi-year, multi-billion dollar process, not to mention the potential dangers. Then you have to pipe that energy hundreds and hundreds of miles to get to the place you need it. Which wastes huge amounts of the energy created. Like Mori said, it is fine for some areas and as a stop gap, but fission isn't the end-all-be-all of power generation.

Actually Indy, there is a higher percentage of loss of energy for charging an EV battery, than the percentage loss for the transmission to the home.

That is true for almost any electric usage in your home, regardless of if you are charging a car, running your dishwasher, or just turning on your lights. But our transmission losses are highly dependent on what company is delivering your power (and where you live). That could make one company 6 or 7 time more wasteful than another.

[ShadowHawke]

I agree with that, but what's wrong with Nuclear or what is the ultimate cleaner form of power?

It isn't that there is anything wrong with nuclear. It is just a multi-year, multi-billion dollar process, not to mention the potential dangers. Then you have to pipe that energy hundreds and hundreds of miles to get to the place you need it. Which wastes huge amounts of the energy created. Like Mori said, it is fine for some areas and as a stop gap, but fission isn't the end-all-be-all of power generation.

Actually Indy, there is a higher percentage of loss of energy for charging an EV battery, than the percentage loss for the transmission to the home.

That is true for almost any electric usage in your home, regardless of if you are charging a car, running your dishwasher, or just turning on your lights. But our transmission losses are highly dependent on what company is delivering your power (and where you live). That could make one company 6 or 7 time more wasteful than another.

On what are you basing these opinions?

[Indy]

Which ones? The energy loss in transmission? You can find one source here: http://insideenergy.org/2015/11/06/lost ... your-plug/. It shows that some states/locales have 2.2% loss, where others can be as high as over 13%.

Or the energy loss in your home electric use? I mean just look at any of the stickers required on your appliances. Even something as efficient as LED bulbs don't turn 100% of their electrical power into photons. They produce a ton of heat, which is an energy waste.

[ShadowHawke]

Which ones? The energy loss in transmission? You can find one source here: http://insideenergy.org/2015/11/06/lost ... your-plug/. It shows that some states/locales have 2.2% loss, where others can be as high as over 13%.

Or the energy loss in your home electric use? I mean just look at any of the stickers required on your appliances. Even something as efficient as LED bulbs don't turn 100% of their electrical power into photons. They produce a ton of heat, which is an energy waste.

Yes, so does charging the batteries at an even greater percentage of loss.

But please, keep explaining to the electrical engineer.

[Indy]

Ha! You were the one that jumped in with your "well actually" comment. And it didn't change the fact that transmission and distribution of electricity is costly in the losses. Yeah, you can work on finding new ways to limit the losses once it gets to your home, but that doesn't take away the problem of getting it to your home in the first place.

[Indy]

Oh, and glad to see another engineer here. Mine is biomedical with emphasis in electrical and mechanical.

[ShadowHawke]

For losses in power:

Transmission to home 5%. If it's higher, the power company is neglecting to update deteriorating equipment.

AC to DC 5% to 20% loss with the conversion.

Charging EV 35% to 40% loss. Converting from electrical to chemical storage. This is comparable to the percent loss of generating the electricity in the first place.

Based on total values, yes, more electricity is lost in transmission, but as EV vehicles become more commonplace advances will be needed in battery technology to get that loss down (efficiency).

What areas of electrical engineering are of interest to biomedical engineers?

[Indy]

For losses in power:

Transmission to home 5%. If it's higher, the power company is neglecting to update deteriorating equipment.

AC to DC 5% to 20% loss with the conversion.

Charging EV 35% to 40% loss. Converting from electrical to chemical storage. This is comparable to the percent loss of generating the electricity in the first place.

Based on total values, yes, more electricity is lost in transmission, but as EV vehicles become more commonplace advances will be needed in battery technology to get that loss down (efficiency).



What areas of electrical engineering are of interest to biomedical engineers?

1) Completely agree

2) Basically I took the EE 201/202 and 301/302 but also had several bioengineering systems classes that focused on things like electrical impulses driving the Bundle of His to drive cardiac function, and electrical impulses down nerves to drive muscle function (including in paralyzed limbs).

[AmareIsGod]

Solid state batteries. I own about 200 shares of Quantumscape. It's a long game.

[Mori Chu]

Biden is getting a lot of blame for inflation, high gas prices, even stuff like baby formula shortages. He's not completely blameless, but a lot of these things are global, such as gas prices going up because most of the world is refusing to buy Russian oil.

[Mori Chu]

So Biden announced today that they are canceling up to $10k of student debt for all college students whose families make under a certain max income. Pretty big news. Some say he should have gone further and canceled ALL student debt; others say he shouldn't cancel any of it and that college students are adults who chose to take on those loans. What do y'all think?

[Superbone]

I think I shouldn't have paid off the rest of my son's student loan a few years ago.

[Indy]

I know I am old being in my mid-40s, but I was able to go to a state school for ~1,000 per semester in tuition and a similar amount for books. I didn't get any support from my family, so I took out student loans to bridge the gap between what I made at my job and my living/school expenses. I still ended up with ~30k in student loan debt (and paid it off a long time ago).

The same school's tuition is now 6x that amount, and living expenses are about 2.5x the amount I had in the Phoenix metro area (I had a nice 2 bedroom apartment in good neighborhood for ~700 a month and similar places are now ~1900).

I don't know how people afford to put themselves through college anymore, and predatory lending practices mean you have millions of people that took out loans for college, have paid the minimum payments every month for a decade, and still owe nearly the same amount as when they started paying them.

I wish Biden had gone further in this case. But I wish we could have a real discussion about what education means in this country, especially when it comes to public universities.

[specialsauce]

And yet again, a cap on income. Fuck this administration and their stupid ass limits (this is not an endorsement of the last administration, relax)

So all the work I’ve put in and the $500k in student loan debt I accumulated doesn’t matter, because my income is too high (but proportionally I have an enormous debt burden)?

Same thing with the electric vehicle tax credit- apparently incentivizing clean energy is only important if you’re below a government determined level- if you make more than that level then your car’s farts don’t taint the environment so you don’t get incentive.

[specialsauce]

What they should have done is cancelled $10k across the board regardless of income AND capped what universities could charge for tuition AND capped student loan interest rates at REASONABLE levels, not the 6%+ my wife and I have.


Paying $70k+ per year for school is criminal.

[Superbone]

And yet again, a cap on income. Fuck this administration and their stupid ass limits (this is not an endorsement of the last administration, relax)

So all the work I’ve put in and the $500k in student loan debt I accumulated doesn’t matter, because my income is too high (but proportionally I have an enormous debt burden)?

Same thing with the electric vehicle tax credit- apparently incentivizing clean energy is only important if you’re below a government determined level- if you make more than that level then your car’s farts don’t taint the environment so you don’t get incentive.

I'll stick with my Camaro then.

[Mori Chu]

IMO this student loan cancellation doesn't go far enough, but at least it's a start. It's kind of the ObamaCare of loan cancelling. At least it will help a lot of people.