Interesting Links for 30-06-2012

[andrewducker]

• The energy saved by turning off a phone charger for a year is equivalent to skipping one shower.
  That's my excuse sorted then!
  (tags: electricity cleanliness science )
• Poor bright pupils lag two years behind rich in the UK and Scotland - twice as much as Germany/Finland/Iceland
  (tags: poverty education uk scotland )
• HP, and others, dumping Microsoft over it's Surface tablet.
  (tags: microsoft computers business )
• Cod stocks in North Sea increasing - reaching desired levels for the first time since 1998.
  (tags: fish ocean environment )
• The Real Reasons Why We Want Universal Health Care
  (tags: funny politics healthcare satire )
• An absolutely mesmerising video. Full of amazing animation, with gorgeous music.
  (tags: viaFanf animation art video )
• Bright Idea: Artist Turns Simple Materials Into Massive Lighting Installations
  (tags: art technology light )
• Is the Internet Convincing Women Not To Study Computer Science?
  (tags: viaJennieRigg internet education computing gender )
• Government puts up video on benefits appeals, takes it down again. Copy here, if you need tips.
  (tags: politics uk welfare video )

Comments

[pseudomonas]

Skipping one bath is a couple of showers, right?

[laplor.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that video about the appeals process. I know someone who may be able to use that.

[andrewducker]

I helped a couple of friends through DLA appeals, and it was definitely worth appealing, and taking friends along. Good luck with it!

[laplor.livejournal.com]

It's neither fair nor just, but it seems that in many places the first response is always deny claims.

And unfortunately it's often the most vulnerable who do not have the strength or resources to fight.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Re: charger power consumption; That's why I like about Without Hot Air so much as a resource. It examines so much of what's bruited about and *gasp* runs the numbers to see the real impact. Too much of the power debate rests on value statements and aspirations, and too little on the measurable impact of policies.

Re: HP abandoning MS; I'd have more sympathy for OEMs in the tabletspace if they'd delivered better on the Project Origami specifications back in '06. Origami was supposed to be light, mobile, and cheap; what we got was light, fairly mobile, and expensive... which left the market open for Apple to dominate the platform that MS had tried to originate.

-- Steve's still debating on whether to get a Surface as his next tablet.

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is I should shower less?

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. One mucky day of not having a shower pays for your entire year of phone charger.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I've skipped two showers this week. Do I have to get another phone?

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

If the power that you use is ultimately coming from a finite resource, then making even a tiny saving is still worthwhile. There are, of course, many and -better- ways to conserve larger amounts of energy available to individuals, but if you're not able/willing to do those, not doing the small ones "because it doesn't matter" is just hilariously depressing to me.

Hopefully the rise in cod stocks won't result in fishing more, since that would put things back to where they were!

[0olong.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I follow your logic here.

[andrewducker]

Neither do I.

There's always a time/effort pay-off. People seem happy to advocate for putting in effort for tiny reward, while ignoring other things that would make larger savings (like taking showers at half the temperature, or for much shorter lengths, or not travelling to things).

If someone was to tell me off for excessive energy expenditure, persuading me to not travel would be a lot more worthwhile than turning off power supplies which are largely down the backs of things, and a right pain to turn off/on as necessary.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

It's not a good argument at the individual level, but when you can get ten million people to improve a small aspect of their behaviour such as this, then it really makes a big blimmin difference.

[andrewducker]

Not really. You're still talking about a tiny amount of power comparatively. If you want to make an actual difference then you put the energy into persuading people to make larger differences. Getting everyone to shave a minute off their morning shower, or only fill a kettle to the minimum point they need would have much larger effects.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Aye true, I'm not saying this is the killer app as it were, but it all adds up. I suppose thinking about it in the first place is a large part of the improvement, as the mindset extends to other areas of power saving such a the ones you mention.

[naath.livejournal.com]

It's not worth putting lots of your effort into doing something that has only a tiny effect.
Because
a)now you have a lot less effort for other things, even if you want to do them
and
b)now you feel like you are "really doing a lot" and don't need to do other things.

It's better to start with doing the things that will have the biggest possible effect (that you can realistically do) and then work down the scale of effectiveness until you run out of ability to do things.

Yes, if I had infinite time/energy/money to put into saving energy I would do absolutely everything possible to do so (but not everything ever recommended to me - some "energy saving" recomendations I have seen actually don't save any energy at all) - but I don't, so I have to prioritise.

It is also not worth putting huge chunks of effort into telling everyone to do things that have only tiny effects. Partly because that's a waste of your time/money/effort but mostly because it *really annoys* people to be told what to do, and I'd much rather use up my cultural capital on convincing people to do things that make a big difference.

Equivalent to skipping one shower

[0olong.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this - I did some quick calculations off the top of my head the other day, and reckoned it would probably be the equivalent of about three or four, but there were several rough guesses involved, so I expect MacKay's closer to the mark. Although I notice he actually says bath, not shower, and the average shower probably uses quite a lot less energy than the average bath (though with enough variation in both that they'll overlap).

Which makes it even more infuriating that Samsung phones insist on beeping in the middle of the night to wake you up and let you know they're fully charged. QUICK, QUICK, WAKE UP AND TURN ME OFF, WITH THOSE SIX HOURS OF UNNECESSARY CHARGING EVERY NIGHT YOU COULD WASTE THE EQUIVALENT OF A WHOLE BATH'S WORTH OF ENERGY BY 2016!

Re: Equivalent to skipping one shower

[andrewducker]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15836433

"The average shower lasted eight minutes - much longer than previous studies suggested, using almost as much water and energy as the average bath.
...
According to the data, an eight-minute shower used 62 litres of hot water, compared with an average bath's 80 litres.

And, it suggested, that if people were using a power shower - an appliance that adds extra pressure to the water flow - then an eight-minute shower would require twice as much water and energy as a bath."

So it depends on how long your shower is, and what kind it is.

Re: Equivalent to skipping one shower

[naath.livejournal.com]

If you have a shower-over-bath it is very easy to test this water-use theory. IMO it's total bunk. My parents have the most ridonkulously overpowered power shower EVAR (the system has two showers on it, designed to run together, BUT THEY NEVER ARE), it's over a bath. When I shower with the plug in the water rarely comes up above my ankles and has never reached my knees; further the water then in the bath is far less hot than the water I would have run into the bath were I going to take a bath.

But the power shower OF DOOM clearly uses lots of power to presurise the water. So there's that.