There is a sort of smugness that comes from living a green lifestyle, but these are the people who go the extra 10 (100?) kilometres toward "reducing their carbon footprint". Somehow, they manage to make you feel like you are living an environmentally unfriendly lifestyle because you:
* Don't go on holiday via astral projection (reducing your Carbon Footprint by not driving a car or, even worse, flying)
* boil the water in the electric kettle more than once (these people even have solar powered kettles).
* have any non-compact florescent bulbs in your house
* your form of transportation has any connection to fossil fuels or electricity (even if it's electric or a bicycle--rubber on the tyres)
* you throw anything into the trash and it isn't reused in some way.
* the food you ate required any energy to raise, transport, or what have you (you should photsyntesise instead of eat).
* Don't get your power from people on bicycles
* Even have a carbon footprint for that matter
I think you get the picture.
BBC's Bang Goes the Theory had an episode that was along this line called The Human Power Station. In this episode they powered a house for an entire day solely through human pedal power: while the unsuspecting family inside went about their normal Sunday routine. The clip below shows what happened when the father used an ELECTRIC SHOWER: malus malorum!
This programme rubbed in how wasteful our lifestyle is (yes, you who double boil that water!) by roasting a chicken with two 60 watt bulbs. Of course, watching 80 people pedal all day to power a house makes the point of how much energy we use. We don't realise how much literal power is needed to push our appliances. Bang did do this in a manner that was entertaining even if it did make you feel guilty for the incandescent bulbs in the fridge and cooker (do they have compact florescent bulbs (CFLs) for those yet?).
You might be able to download this episode here and it does make for fascinating viewing. Although, there were points when I wanted to roast the presenters on a solar cooker because they made me feel guilty for "wasting energy" by merely existing.
Now, I need to find some people willing to power our houses by bicycle.
Showing posts with label Bang goes the Theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bang goes the Theory. Show all posts
07 January 2010
20 December 2009
Wanna see how smart you REALLY are?
Take Bang Goes the Theory's Brain Test Britain. I did mention that I like taking tests. I'm not sure why, but I do. I should have been tested enough in school to be petrified of anything like a test. But isn't life a test anyway?
Bang Goes the Theory is according to presenter Dallas Campbell, a show for "anyone who is remotely curious about life, the Universe and pretty much everything." It's a science show where they do more than just experiment. The only special episode I caught was where they powered a house inhabited by a "nuclear family" for a day by 80 bicyclists. Which may sound odd to you, but was absolutely fascinating in how much energy it takes to run our appliances. It also pointed out ways to cut back on energy use. Which although switching lightbulbs may seem like a small thing, as someone told me at the Centre for Alternative Technology combining just a lightbulbs worth of energy can add up. That is made more apparent when you watch a team of bicyclists power a house!
Unfortunately, Season one is over. So, you would have to wait until season 2 in 2010 to catch the show
Anyway, these are all sorts of weird little tricky tests to see if training your mind will improve it. They are sort of Kim's Game in spirit where you guess where things are. Also, they had one test where I had to put things from high to low, which sounds simple until you have to deal with negative numbers along with written (six) and numeric (6) numbers. One test gave me grief when I had to count items going into a box ancd compare them to items coming out. My internet connection screwed up that test. Also, there was one test/game where I had to do simple math calculations whilst balloon floated up, but I couldn't figure out which balloon I was supposed to be calculating.
If training your mind isn't enough, there are weird little science challenges that take me back to the quickie radio electronics class I was subjected to in the army (What was ohms law? (V=IxR)).
Fun! fun! fun! Now, I can't wait for the annual Financial Times Christmas Quiz!
Bang Goes the Theory is according to presenter Dallas Campbell, a show for "anyone who is remotely curious about life, the Universe and pretty much everything." It's a science show where they do more than just experiment. The only special episode I caught was where they powered a house inhabited by a "nuclear family" for a day by 80 bicyclists. Which may sound odd to you, but was absolutely fascinating in how much energy it takes to run our appliances. It also pointed out ways to cut back on energy use. Which although switching lightbulbs may seem like a small thing, as someone told me at the Centre for Alternative Technology combining just a lightbulbs worth of energy can add up. That is made more apparent when you watch a team of bicyclists power a house!
Unfortunately, Season one is over. So, you would have to wait until season 2 in 2010 to catch the show
Anyway, these are all sorts of weird little tricky tests to see if training your mind will improve it. They are sort of Kim's Game in spirit where you guess where things are. Also, they had one test where I had to put things from high to low, which sounds simple until you have to deal with negative numbers along with written (six) and numeric (6) numbers. One test gave me grief when I had to count items going into a box ancd compare them to items coming out. My internet connection screwed up that test. Also, there was one test/game where I had to do simple math calculations whilst balloon floated up, but I couldn't figure out which balloon I was supposed to be calculating.
If training your mind isn't enough, there are weird little science challenges that take me back to the quickie radio electronics class I was subjected to in the army (What was ohms law? (V=IxR)).
Fun! fun! fun! Now, I can't wait for the annual Financial Times Christmas Quiz!
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