Natural power for TV

A posting about telemarketing on digg reminded me how a teacher friend used to mess with the heads of cold callers, asking them obviously dumb questions.

One of the less subtle was to ask the telemarketer from British Gas, which now also offer electricity as well as natural gas to UK customers, whether he’d be able to run his TV from the gas supply.

They caller would politely tell him no, but become increasingly frustrated as my friend continued his line of enquiry embellishing his questions all the while with thermodynamic gobbledegook and nonsense about improved efficiency. He could keep them hanging on for hours…

Of course, the irony is that once we all have methane-fed fuel cells in our homes, we will indeed be running our TVs off natural gas!