Archive for the 'sustainability' Category

Behind the scene's in the current financial crisis

Published on March 6, 2009 in sustainability. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Really I had no clue where money came from or where it went, no clue on what happens when the government stimulates the economy, no clue about pretty much everything economic really.

There is a site called Depression 2007 which includes some really interesting insights into how things function in the financial world. According to Graham’s Dyer, it goes right back to the GoldSmiths, the Bank of London, the US federal reserve, income tax we shouldn’t have to pay, and the poor government who are the innocent (impotent) scape goat in all this.

I need to do a lot more reading, there is interesting stuff on the Debt Money System, and there are some interesting video’s as well.

Click here for the rest of the clips.

Anyway, for a depression, its truely fascinating – if you have a few moments and are wondering why you financial future is at risk, take a look.

Cheers
Pete

Reuse those DVD's – Scoodi clip

Published on February 26, 2009 in sustainability. 0 Comments

Scoodi posted a little clip, about re-using those DVD’s you have laying around

What to do with that DVD collection.

Published on February 16, 2009 in sustainability. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

dvd-cover-flow

A fair amount of work is required to create a DVD, you have to pump the oil out of the ground, ship it to some far of country, make a DVD case, ship it to some far off country, burn a dvd, create a label, ship it to some far of country, put it on the shelf, air condition it and get the lights just right – so that someone will buy it…. hmmmm.

I have a shelf full of DVD’s and although I generally only buy ex rentals, I still feel bad having them all site there – they add no more value, they just collect dust. The question is, what do you do with your shelf full of DVD’s?

What I needed, was

  1. A place I could list them such that others can see my collection.
  2. I want to swap them for DVD’s I haven’t seen (this make sense considering everyone else has shelves of DVD’s as well).
  3. I don’t want people driving long distances to pick them up, that makes no sense considering someone closer will have a copy of the same DVD so I needed a site that told people how far away I was (I don’t really understand why, but not may sites do this).

scdibrnd_betea

In the end I listed them all as a group on Scoodi.com. I have been meaning to list them for ages, but I felt compelled finally do it when I saw Planet ARK’s green resolutions site.

When it comes to listing those things that you no longer need around the house, there really is a huge gap between thinking that you should list them, and actually taking action and doing it.

heading-533-gr-final-sm

So if you are like me, and you have a shelf full of DVD’s, It might seem like a lot of work but you should get them listed up on Scoodi. When I actually got going it only took me 20 minutes.

As for what to do in the future, I bought an Apple TV which means I can download movies in HD without required any plastic, driving to the video shop, or storing movies on my book shelf. The only thing left to do is check out Boxee when I get a few moments, and patiently wait for an internet connection that is faster rather than slower.

Built to fail, has consumerism gone mad?

Published on January 15, 2009 in sustainability. 0 Comments Tags: , .

umbrella-stand

One of the principals of design of consumer goods, seems to be to make the device last just long enough to get it out of warranty but beyond that the sooner it fails the better. This makes good sense from a commercial perspective as it generates revenue but there must be a fine line between things failing to early (and being perceived as a bad product), and things failing too late (being considered a good product but not increasing revenue).

We bought two quite simple things, one was an umbrella, and the other was an umbrella stand. We didn’t realise at the time but the umbrella stand was clearly designed to have a limited life. If you look at the photo, you can see that its a cement base with a steel pipe to hold the umbrella. When it rains, water gets into the pipe but there is no way for the water to get out. Over a year or so the pipe starts to rust, and umbrella stand starts to rot, and eventually broke off during a storm.

The simple fix is to drill some drain holes in the bottom of the stand for it to drain – just little ones so that it does not effect the strength – the results is that we will probably get many years use out of the stand much to the disappointment of the manufactures. I wonder how many of these stands are out there right now, rotting and rusting away.

I wonder what would have to change, such that people knew they were buying a quality product and as such were willing to pay more for it. In this scenario, could the manufacture still be profitable? Our society forces the concept of a bargain on people which makes it hard for manufactures to do the right thing and risking pricing themselves out of the market. We see this everywhere from cheap tools, to cheap furniture to cheap toys. One day this will all have to change, but to change it today your only choice is to follow the old saying, “A wise man spends his money once”. If we all started acting wise, purchasing only high quality products even though they cost more, could we force this change upon the world?