[video] Lego: Everything is NOT awesome.

[featured_spectre]

I was also going to mention @nephilim because I think what you're doing is brilliant you're doing as much as you can and find enjoyment in the process and I really admire you for what you have done although didn't put that in my very first post because it may have sounded a bit stalkerish

 

Not stalkerish at all. In the last year I have made a huge effort to be as energy efficient and as money saving/thrifty/self sufficient as possible.

[Seb1780]

I was thinking of that myself, would be handy if someone could let me know...

 

I'll give you a clue: Eco-warriors are not often seen in Curry's

Edited July 25, 2014 by Seb1780
Removed emotive content

[abillybob]

Alex, stop for just one minute and think about how you've made yourself look with that statement. You have proudly declared your intent to get a 40" TV with no idea of the consequences of your actions for neither your arguement nor the planet.

 

I'll give you a clue: Eco-warriors are not often seen in Curry's

 

Eh!? I think you're going a bit overboard here personally. Question is how do you think I look!? hmmm

 

As I have stated I want to change the way I consume things such as energy but I don't want to change my lifestyle, now I don't know the figures and I'm sure neither do you but if I kept my current power hogging TV for another 5 years lets say, will that use more power than me buying a new TV that will last me a further 10 years and will be LED? hmmm I'm not sure and neither are you unless you have the facts (which you couldn't possibly figure out as I haven't posted exactly how much power consumption my current TV uses and you haven't found out how much waste and pollution it creates when manufacturing a new TV screen. So your comment is invalid because it COULD mean that it's better for the world as a whole to buy a new more efficient TV than keep using my current one.

 

What do you contribute as you haven't said you do anything though you're pointing a lot of fingers in this thread with not very much contribution onto how to resolve the eco crisis in anyway?

[SYNACK]

Whilst I LOVE Lego, I don't often buy the new stuff, I get the old stuff from charity shops, ebay, car boot sales etc.

 

As for my impact on the environment, I re-use as much as possible at home. If I have scrap wood, I make it into something, I don't chuck it (newest build was 2 chopping boards which I need to oil). If I have any scrap metal I will melt it down into an ingot until I need to use it. Water from the washing up gets used for the garden. Old toys become presents for nieces and nephews. Food scraps (veg, egg shells, fruit etc) get composted, whilst meat not eaten by the use by date goes to the cat.

 

Hmm @nephilim , is the construction of your furnace outlined somewhere online, have been meaning to look into something like this.

[featured_spectre]

Honestly, no, I watched a lot of youtube videos, and just made my own design.

 

I will say this though, ensure your bricks have time to cure with the heat (around a month is ideal) otherwise they'll crack at the high temps, and believe me they WILL crack and sometimes shatter. Every day cure them for 6 hours at a reasonably constant temp each day. Increase the temp by 30C per day (where a bellows comes in handy, or a hair dryer to keep the airflow constant).

 

Day 1 - 300C

Day 2 - 330C

Day 3 - 360C

Repeat until Day 30 - which will be around 1200C.

 

For the piping, ensure you insulate them with a thick layer of clay around them (the clay hardens and becomes a good insulator, and drill holes in the clay and pipe so your air flow can reach all of the hot embers.

 

I use a bellows for mine now (I did use a hair dryer I have to admit) and this was so that the airflow was constant. A bellows however allows larger blasts of air producing much higher temperatures.

 

You can loan non-contact thermometres from some hardware shops rather than buying one.

Edited July 25, 2014 by featured_spectre

[matt40k]

for Lego to be effectively promoting this kind of behaviour to children I think is disgusting and should be stopped!!!!

 

First up, not watched or read anything beyond this first paragraph. But... the evil bad guy is Lord Business - who runs octan, an evil oil company - who rigged elections to become president - who's use of robots is almost to the point it could be a lego\terminator movie, who's general goal trying to stop free speech so the world is the way he wants it.

 

Damm Lego for promoting free speech to children!! Damm you!!

 

Anyway, I'll watch it again and try to look out for those pro-oil hidden messages, maybe if I play in reverse?

[abillybob]

First up, not watched or read anything beyond this first paragraph. But... the evil bad guy is Lord Business - who runs octan, an evil oil company - who rigged elections to become president - who's use of robots is almost to the point it could be a lego\terminator movie, who's general goal trying to stop free speech so the world is the way he wants it.

 

Damm Lego for promoting free speech to children!! Damm you!!

 

Anyway, I'll watch it again and try to look out for those pro-oil hidden messages, maybe if I play in reverse?

 

Am I being thick or is anyone else confused by this statement?

Also how did you get to this:

Damm Lego for promoting free speech to children!! Damm you!!

 

As far as I can see it's got nothing to do with free speech but then again I didn't understand the post....?????

[ICTDirect_Dave]

And yet someone with imagination has used lego and their shell branding to make them look bad. Lego IS all about imagination in play.

 

In terms of solar power, there are significant problems with renewable energy most significant is the storage issue. Solar only generates power during the day, wind turbines when it's windy and using agricultural land to produce bio fuel is a bit loony. The Grid needs to be able to supply power to peak demand and that means despite putting in significant renewable capacity, we also have to build gas power stations to be able to service the peak demand when those renewable sources aren't generating any power. We desperately need to solve the storage issue.

 

There is a growing problem with the feed in subsidy in that those that can afford a capital outlay for solar installations are then subsidised by those that are too poor to make that investment. They (the poor) end up paying a disproportionate share of maintaining the grid and building those power stations that are needed despite the presence of renewable generation capacity.

 

The other problem is that oil is effectively heavily subsidised - the real cost will be paid by future generations - which is you when you are older and your children (I'll thankfully be long dead). But talk of putting up the cost of energy and fuel to realistic levels (levels where the cost of 'cleaning up' the GHG's is built into the supply now) and voters panic. People like to fly away on cheap holidays. We like our cars. We like to be proliferate with energy, leave things switched on when we are not using them.We like our consumer lifestyles of new computers, phones and shiny baubles shipped half way round the world. People won't vote in anyone who is actually going to do anything about that, it would be a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas.

 

And of course, expect someone to pop up and claim that AGW doesn't exist - "oh well the climate has always had natural variation, this is all a conspiracy of the greens". Although maybe that number is shrinking and it's just the brain dead ignorant &"%£%!* Nigel Lawson who spouts that nonsense these days,. but sadly ... not.

 

 

The solution (for the next thousand years or so at least) isn't in renewable power sources. They're too reliable and the tech isn't up to scratch yet. When we've got orbital solar power plants we might be okay. but for now the solution has to be Thorium based nuclear power. It has so many plus points and relatively few negatives. Have a read here Thorium-based nuclear power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. If the world went thorium based we'd cut emissions by a massive margin. And the decay of the waste (of which there is much less than conventional uranium reactors) only takes a few hundred years, as opposed to the thousands of years our current nuclear waste takes to become safe.

 

The only reason we haven't been using it since the fifties is really that you can't easilly make a bomb out of it. A plus I'd say given the current global climate?

[matt40k]

As far as I can see it's got nothing to do with free speech but then again I didn't understand the post....?????

 

Have you actually watched the Lego Movie? The Lego Movie message is about pro free speech. The bad guy doesn't like people "messing with my stuff". Seriously, did you not get that?

[webman]

I haven't posted exactly how much power consumption my current TV uses and you haven't found out how much waste and pollution it creates when manufacturing a new TV screen.

 

But neither have you, it seems? So your purchase could potentially have more of a negative environmental impact than a positive one.

 

I don't know either, without looking in to it - which is something I would do if I considering replacing something that works perfectly fine as it is, with something new.

[dwhyte85]

Close the thread before we have tears!

[featured_spectre]

I know that when I get a new TV, the carbon cost is going to be huge, however in that respect, I never just "upgrade the tv". I wait until the TV is pretty much dead before I get a new one. The one in my front room has been in use for a good 7 years now, and is on its last legs due to heavy use. Will definitely get an LED one next time however.

[SYNACK]

Am I being thick or is anyone else confused by this statement?

Also how did you get to this:

 

 

As far as I can see it's got nothing to do with free speech but then again I didn't understand the post....?????

 

He is talking about the actual movie which is actually quite decent, even from a free thought, imagination, political, moral and family angle. Yes, I liked the movie and downloaded the 'Awesome' song to blast through my car stereo when I arrived at work to mess with people

[matt40k]

I know that when I get a new TV, the carbon cost is going to be huge, however in that respect, I never just "upgrade the tv". I wait until the TV is pretty much dead before I get a new one. The one in my front room has been in use for a good 7 years now, and is on its last legs due to heavy use. Will definitely get an LED one next time however.

 

Next we'll hear how using a black theme over white savings electric.

[featured_spectre]

Next we'll hear how using a black theme over white savings electric.

 

haha, no not at all. Just plasma and LCD aren't as energy efficient as LED. I just do what I can to save monies. I know its a bit more up front cost, but long term, the savings on electric will make up for that.

[matt40k]

Yer, why I fitted a 65w i5 rather then 77w+ Still didn't stop me putting a massive graphic card in tho

LED are actually pretty cheap if your buying new vs 2nd hand - £200 for a 32" in Sainsbury a while ago, full hd too!

 

I think I'd prefer wind turbines to nuclear powerstations @ICTDirect_Dave. I figure my abilities of dodging failing wind turbines is better then my radation dodging skillz. Just playing the odds tho

[SYNACK]

The solution (for the next thousand years or so at least) isn't in renewable power sources. They're too reliable and the tech isn't up to scratch yet. When we've got orbital solar power plants we might be okay. but for now the solution has to be Thorium based nuclear power. It has so many plus points and relatively few negatives. Have a read here Thorium-based nuclear power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. If the world went thorium based we'd cut emissions by a massive margin. And the decay of the waste (of which there is much less than conventional uranium reactors) only takes a few hundred years, as opposed to the thousands of years our current nuclear waste takes to become safe.

 

The only reason we haven't been using it since the fifties is really that you can't easilly make a bomb out of it. A plus I'd say given the current global climate?

 

+1 but thorium micro breeder reactors will never happen thanks to decades of uninformed fear and the persisting use of 1950s tech for nuclear generation. Germany were the shining light in this but have now gone all renewable so that is pretty much done. It stuffs spacecraft too. Now we need to wait for fusion if that happens with governments cutting funding left and right while subsidising oil companies and taxing oil themselves effectively adding to the price but using half of it to pay off the oil companies along with tacit acceptance of their mess.

 

Power has been stalled for decades by governments defending the status quo. Solar is about to get a whole lot more acceptable though as the cells switch from nasty rare, toxic polluting gallium to grapheme and production costs plummet. These will be the actual environmentally friendly cells and have a truly lower environmental cost along with a way cheaper price point and the way things are going - a higher efficiency ratio also.

 

I still agree that we need stuff like the clean sealed micro reactors to keep things moving and generate the extra capacity safely while we wait for the tech to catch up. Japan was looking at an orbital solar array but I think the psudoscientist hippy eco Nazis wined too much about the dangerous skinny, confined, nonpersistant column of microwaves to transmit it back to earth. To that lot, I hope they enjoy their victory eating their all organic radioactive caesium filled rice with the knowledge they stopped that nasty pinpoint of microwave energy that may have prematurely cooked a duck or two.

[SYNACK]

Honestly, no, I watched a lot of youtube videos, and just made my own design.

 

I will say this though, ensure your bricks have time to cure with the heat (around a month is ideal) otherwise they'll crack at the high temps, and believe me they WILL crack and sometimes shatter. Every day cure them for 6 hours at a reasonably constant temp each day. Increase the temp by 30C per day (where a bellows comes in handy, or a hair dryer to keep the airflow constant).

 

Day 1 - 300C

Day 2 - 330C

Day 3 - 360C

Repeat until Day 30 - which will be around 1200C.

 

For the piping, ensure you insulate them with a thick layer of clay around them (the clay hardens and becomes a good insulator, and drill holes in the clay and pipe so your air flow can reach all of the hot embers.

 

I use a bellows for mine now (I did use a hair dryer I have to admit) and this was so that the airflow was constant. A bellows however allows larger blasts of air producing much higher temperatures.

 

You can loan non-contact thermometres from some hardware shops rather than buying one.

 

Nice, maybe a segment for your next book, 'Rebuilding after the apocalypse'

Edited July 25, 2014 by SYNACK

[abillybob]

But neither have you, it seems? So your purchase could potentially have more of a negative environmental impact than a positive one.

 

I don't know either, without looking in to it - which is something I would do if I considering replacing something that works perfectly fine as it is, with something new.

 

Exactly which is why I was asking what people thought whether or not it would be more of a negative impact than positive

 

Have you actually watched the Lego Movie? The Lego Movie message is about pro free speech. The bad guy doesn't like people "messing with my stuff". Seriously, did you not get that?

 

I haven't watched the lego movie though I have got it at home I might give it a go.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

 

I think I'd prefer wind turbines to nuclear powerstations @ICTDirect_Dave. I figure my abilities of dodging failing wind turbines is better then my radation dodging skillz. Just playing the odds tho

 

It would be my feverent hope that in switching the world's power generation to Thorium, that we'd actually get pretty decent at running the damn things.

 

Nuclear incidents have been few and far between (admittedly each and every one has been horrible and put nuclear power back years). My argument would be to just build them away from hazardous geological zones and transmite the power where needed.

 

+1 but thorium micro breeder reactors will never happen thanks to decades of uninformed fear and the persisting use of 1950s tech for nuclear generation. Germany were the shining light in this but have now gone all renewable so that is pretty much done. It stuffs spacecraft too. Now we need to wait for fusion if that happens with governments cutting funding left and right while subsidising oil companies and taxing oil themselves effectively adding to the price but using half of it to pay off the oil companies along with tacit acceptance of their mess.

 

Power has been stalled for decades by governments defending the status quo. Solar is about to get a whole lot more acceptable though as the cells switch from nasty rare, toxic polluting gallium to grapheme and production costs plummet. These will be the actual environmentally friendly cells and have a truly lower environmental cost along with a way cheaper price point and the way things are going - a higher efficiency ratio also.

 

I still agree that we need stuff like the clean sealed micro reactors to keep things moving and generate the extra capacity safely while we wait for the tech to catch up. Japan was looking at an orbital solar array but I think the psudoscientist hippy eco Nazis wined too much about the dangerous skinny, confined, nonpersistant column of microwaves to transmit it back to earth. To that lot, I hope they enjoy their victory eating their all organic radioactive caesium filled rice with the knowledge they stopped that nasty pinpoint of microwave energy that may have prematurely cooked a duck or two.

 

It's such a shame! I've been telling anybody who'd listen down the pub (avoid me if you see me out and about my conversation is nerdy and boring!) that Thorium would be the way to go. Safe (relatively) clean energy with no shortage in sight. Would give us plenty of time to get the Orbital Solar Grid online and truly make use of the sun!

 

Also, I don't care where the power comes from. Hell the oil companies make enough money that they could get on with the Thorium reactor job now and just move oil into/gas into a niche market. I also don't get green campaigners shouting down Japan's idea either. It's exactly the kind of solution people have been clamouring on about for ages now. People hate renewable energy as we need to develop extensive tracks of land to make it worthwhile. Why not put the damn thing in orbit then? Silly people!

 

 

Upon further reading it seems that India has a fully fledged Thorium deployment plan and will be a world leader in the field. I'm chuffed about this. So much so that I might even forgive them the spanking they're about to hand us in the cricket this summer!

Edited July 25, 2014 by ICTDirect_Dave
Further Reading...

[pcstru]

I do eat meat again not wanting to change my lifestyle but I am very careful on the amount of meat (and where it is from) that I consume. Please go back a page I updated my previous post but while writing a lot of people have posted since then!

So someone's choice is to burn methane is 'disgusting', but you as a meat eater who contributes to a lot of methane production because you eat meat, is OK because while you are shocked at what other people are doing to the planet, don't want to change your own lifestyle.

 

And that dear @abillybob is pretty much why I have given up.

[abillybob]

So someone's choice is to burn methane is 'disgusting', but you as a meat eater who contributes to a lot of methane production because you eat meat, is OK because while you are shocked at what other people are doing to the planet, don't want to change your own lifestyle.

 

And that dear @abillybob is pretty much why I have given up.

 

Meat Eaters & Carnivores = Destroying the planet, because y'know logic and stuffs.

 

Edit: I eat meat as we are like it or not Carnivores thats what we eat and that's where we get the biggest source of energy and growth from, it's how our bodies where designed, our teeth and our facial features are all that of a carnivore.... No crime in it. They where doing it for fun and a "laugh" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA so funny and entertaining, I eat to stay alive and I like to eat meat, I eat veggies too don't worry your point is?

So to round things off your saying that me eating meat is the same as someone poking holes into a natural methane reserve to let it out because YOLO and things.... Okay as I said LOGIC.

Edited July 25, 2014 by abillybob

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Meat Eaters & Carnivores = Destroying the planet, because y'know logic and stuffs.

 

Sorry mate, that's kinda true. As meat eaters we support the farming and mass breeding of cattle, which is just about the worst source of methane gas going.

[featured_spectre]

I am a meat eater, however, I have drastically cut down on consumption. From 1 - 2 times a day, to 2 - 3 times a week. Meat is great and everything, but proteins can be found elsewhere. Plus the fact I actively trap and fish for food as well certainly helps (Squirrels are very very nice!)

[abillybob]

Sorry mate, that's kinda true. As meat eaters we support the farming and mass breeding of cattle, which is just about the worst source of methane gas going.

 

I know meat eaters contribute to a huge problem but @pcstru is suggesting because I've just filled my belly full of beef it's the same as me purposely letting methane gas out of a natural reserve for no other reason than for my own entertainment... don't think so, very short sighted argument and case there.

 

I don't eat meat all the time and I have massively cut down on it but I am still a meat eater because I eat it maybe 5 times a week.