INTENSITY²
Politics, Mature and taboo => Political Pundits => Topic started by: Parts on September 23, 2007, 05:38:18 PM
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If it wasn't for the fact that benefit from today's throw away society I'd be out raged by it. People have no care about throwing out anything that is outdated even marginally or broken however slightly it's sick. Nobody wants to fix anything any more even if they could find someone who could fix it the answer is always to get a new one. New stuff is becoming cheaper and cheaper and not just in price in quality too. Think of all the resources that go in to this and how much could be saved making durable goods. The town I live in is a prime example we have bulky waste pick up three times a year I have gotten everything from tools, speakers televisions, radio transceivers, professional test equipment even musical instruments and the list goes on. I don't understand this waste is it this way ever where ???
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Durable shit... I miss it. I try to get some things old and used because I know it won't break. Or I don't bother replacing old things because I know the new thing will break in three weeks.
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I hate it. Especially when it comes to people.
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I deal in durable goods at the flea market I sell at older stuff mostly tools most new stuff is crap unless you pay a premium. I also fix stuff others throw away and modify it for my needs and durability. So there is still good stuff it's hard to find though and most people don't bother made in China is good enough for them :(
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I hate it. Especially when it comes to people.
Who?
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I hate it. Especially when it comes to people.
Who?
Oh, just the concept of disposable relationships.
Like, it's not worth fighting for what you have,
rather than looking for something better.
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If it wasn't for the fact that benefit from today's throw away society I'd be out raged by it. People have no care about throwing out anything that is outdated even marginally or broken however slightly it's sick....
Aye, just think of the bloody land fills!
And y'know, this is going to bite us in the ass soon, since we're using up the world's rarest elements at a frightful rate and throwing them away. All these new TeeVee designs are gonna be useless when they run out of chromium or whatever that they need for 'em. Great article in New Scientist a while ago on this; lesse if I can find it...
Okay, here it is. Dunno if you can view it without a subscription, but I expect you can always find out! :laugh:
Earth's natural wealth: an audit (23 May 2007) (http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19426051.200-earths-natural-wealth-an-audit.html;jsessionid=FBLNPODJNLJA)
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You can read the first couple paragraphs at least. It kinda confirms an idea that I have had for awhile that land fills will become a resource in the future and mined for their contents.
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Throwing away society seems
a good idea.
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Throwing away society seems
a good idea.
Much of it anyways :)
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don't get me started on disposable goods. :grrr:
fuckers, the lot of them. double :grrr:
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If it wasn't for the fact that benefit from today's throw away society I'd be out raged by it. People have no care about throwing out anything that is outdated even marginally or broken however slightly it's sick....
Aye, just think of the bloody land fills!
And y'know, this is going to bite us in the ass soon, since we're using up the world's rarest elements at a frightful rate and throwing them away. All these new TeeVee designs are gonna be useless when they run out of chromium or whatever that they need for 'em. Great article in New Scientist a while ago on this; lesse if I can find it...
Okay, here it is. Dunno if you can view it without a subscription, but I expect you can always find out! :laugh:
Earth's natural wealth: an audit (23 May 2007) (http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19426051.200-earths-natural-wealth-an-audit.html;jsessionid=FBLNPODJNLJA)
Could you paste the complete article here?
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Here is a sample of stuff I got out of trash piles in the last couple months, not even near everything just what I wanted or could sell. Most of the stuff in the piles is cheap Ikea furniture or plastic junk toys ect.
(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q131/parts67/019-1.jpg)
I've gotten lots of other stuff but much of it is either sold or being used
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:'(
i get so depressed when i see things like that.
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Trashpicking is SO much easier with
a truck. :laugh:
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:'(
i get so depressed when i see things like that.
I do too but on the other hand I see dollar signs for me ;)
Don't worry all this stuff at least will find a nice home :laugh:
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Trashpicking is SO much easier with
a truck. :laugh:
It sure is I even got an electric organ for my son weighs in at about 250 lbs
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Could you paste the complete article here?
Err, not legally... I generally try to be nice to the gods of Internet copyright; the good karma might help atone for the pirated library CDs... :green:
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The reason why people throw stuff away is because it's cheaper to buy a new one. It cost them more money if they had it fixed instead while they could have gone out and bought another one and save money. But if it was an expensive item like a big screen TV, they would defenitly hire someone to fix it. Maybe you can encourage your neighbors if any of their items needs fixing, they should bring them to you so you can fix them so that they won't go out and buy a new one.
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i don't get it. people have no appreciation of their shit if they do this. i grew up to appreciate my belongings. we shouldn't take the things we have for granted or throw away working things. we can give them away. that helps everybody.
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The reason why people throw stuff away is because it's cheaper to buy a new one. It cost them more money if they had it fixed instead while they could have gone out and bought another one and save money. But if it was an expensive item like a big screen TV, they would defenitly hire someone to fix it. Maybe you can encourage your neighbors if any of their items needs fixing, they should bring them to you so you can fix them so that they won't go out and buy a new one.
A lot of stuff is intentionally designed not to be easily repaired. Not that it's impossible just that in most cases impracticable for most people. I always encourage people to try and fix things but most don't want to even try and I have a house full of stuff to be fixed if they ask I try but most people don't mostly because my people skills suck. Also where it may be cheaper to buy a new one, and yes even I do at times when stuff is truly screwed, the price doesn't always represent the true cost of the item in resources and cost of disposal.
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i don't get it. people have no appreciation of their shit if they do this. i grew up to appreciate my belongings. we shouldn't take the things we have for granted or throw away working things. we can give them away. that helps everybody.
I feel the same way :plus:
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me too. :plus:
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The reason why people throw stuff away is because it's cheaper to buy a new one. It cost them more money if they had it fixed instead while they could have gone out and bought another one and save money. But if it was an expensive item like a big screen TV, they would defenitly hire someone to fix it. Maybe you can encourage your neighbors if any of their items needs fixing, they should bring them to you so you can fix them so that they won't go out and buy a new one.
A lot of stuff is intentionally designed not to be easily repaired. Not that it's impossible just that in most cases impracticable for most people. I always encourage people to try and fix things but most don't want to even try and I have a house full of stuff to be fixed if they ask I try but most people don't mostly because my people skills suck. Also where it may be cheaper to buy a new one, and yes even I do at times when stuff is truly screwed, the price doesn't always represent the true cost of the item in resources and cost of disposal.
I fixed my NES one time. I had to get angry at it to take it apart. All it needed was the pin connector needed to be cleaned.
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The reason why people throw stuff away is because it's cheaper to buy a new one. It cost them more money if they had it fixed instead while they could have gone out and bought another one and save money. But if it was an expensive item like a big screen TV, they would defenitly hire someone to fix it. Maybe you can encourage your neighbors if any of their items needs fixing, they should bring them to you so you can fix them so that they won't go out and buy a new one.
A lot of stuff is intentionally designed not to be easily repaired. Not that it's impossible just that in most cases impracticable for most people. I always encourage people to try and fix things but most don't want to even try and I have a house full of stuff to be fixed if they ask I try but most people don't mostly because my people skills suck. Also where it may be cheaper to buy a new one, and yes even I do at times when stuff is truly screwed, the price doesn't always represent the true cost of the item in resources and cost of disposal.
I fixed my NES one time. I had to get angry at it to take it apart. All it needed was the pin connector needed to be cleaned.
That's great :plus:
You at least try most people though don't.
My son not once but twice washed his gameboy thingy in the laundry I fixed it both times and once for one of his friends too
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I only try to fix something if it is no longer under warranty (other than PCs). If it is under warranty I just send it back to the manufacturer, like I did with my Xbox360.
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I only try to fix something if it is no longer under warranty (other than PCs). If it is under warranty I just send it back to the manufacturer, like I did with my Xbox360.
I don't buy a lot of new stuff but do occasionally, after I make sure it works the modifying begins
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Call me pragmatic but I figure the faster we use up resources on Earth, the more incentive we'll have to develop better space travel.
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Call me pragmatic but I figure the faster we use up resources on Earth, the more incentive we'll have to develop better space travel.
That is a good point I remember when I was little they said by now that it would be rather routine what the hell happened there. Back then we where landing on the moon now it seems it's all they can do to resupply the space station. Though the more resources wasted on the cheap crap they make the less for stuff like space travel
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Call me pragmatic but I figure the faster we use up resources on Earth, the more incentive we'll have to develop better space travel.
I would hope that we do more before we use up all of our resources. We need those resources to reach other planets (or just the moon) right now, unless we discover one hell of an energy source.
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parts I assume you do a lot of dumpster diving?
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parts I assume you do a lot of dumpster diving?
Yes it runs in the family. I do it for fun and profit :laugh:
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Dude I feel the same way. But the idea of conservation has always been caught in a cultural whirlpool. Even at University, which is supposed to be so fucking progressive and everybody gives lip service to shit like this, nobody cares. People drink bottled water, buy a new laptop every six months, buy a new iPod every six weeks... Fuck.
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Dude I feel the same way. But the idea of conservation has always been caught in a cultural whirlpool. Even at University, which is supposed to be so fucking progressive and everybody gives lip service to shit like this, nobody cares. People drink bottled water, buy a new laptop every six months, buy a new iPod every six weeks... Fuck.
Not to mention how they have new editions of the text book all the time so you can't get them used so easy and the book store won't give you shit for them at the end of the year.
This is one of my obsessions and the way I make my living. I specialize in energy conservation as my main job the other is selling stuff I find or buy at estate and yard after I fix it up some.
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Dude I feel the same way. But the idea of conservation has always been caught in a cultural whirlpool. Even at University, which is supposed to be so fucking progressive and everybody gives lip service to shit like this, nobody cares. People drink bottled water, buy a new laptop every six months, buy a new iPod every six weeks... Fuck.
Not to mention how they have new editions of the text book all the time so you can't get them used so easy and the book store won't give you shit for them at the end of the year.
This is one of my obsessions and the way I make my living. I specialize in energy conservation as my main job the other is selling stuff I find or buy at estate and yard after I fix it up some.
:plus:
I can't believe I forgot to add that. They charge $150 on average new, $80-100 used, and you're usually lucky to get $30 back. And the whole thing is supposedly "not for profit." And if you hold on the them too long to shop around for a better price, whoops! they came out with the new edition where page 17 and 24 switched places and now you're lucky to get 5 cents for it. No, fuck that. You're lucky if you can find someone to give the fucking textbooks to. I have about three still hanging around that the store that sold them to me refused to take back, one semester after I bought them.
But hey, man, shrug it off. Life goes on. It's just the way things are. Funny how that excuse works for everything.
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They charge $150 on average new, $80-100 used, and you're usually lucky to get $30 back.
Wow :o I went to school a long time ago they were only 40-60. I thought it was bad when I paid $60 for a spiral bound one
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Call me pragmatic but I figure the faster we use up resources on Earth, the more incentive we'll have to develop better space travel.
Kinda throwing the dice though.
Might not be possible, if we use
up too much.
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parts I assume you do a lot of dumpster diving?
Yes it runs in the family. I do it for fun and profit :laugh:
Fixing things runs in your family?
Are they autistic too or NTs who like to fix stuff or doing dumpster driving?
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Garbage picking and pack ratting seems
to run in my dad's side of the family too.
Big bonus if you actually fix things though.
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It irritates me that things are manufactured deliberately to not to last all that long and so that its cheaper to buy new than pay to get something repaired. Huge amounts of packaging on stuff annoys me, as does the fact that people think its too much effort to wash out a can/bottle/etc and recycle it when they can just drop it in the bin instead. I also get annoyed with charity shops who over-price things- I've seen them charge more for second hand kids' clothing than it would have cost new- it hardly encourages people to buy second hand stuff.
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I fix anything that can reasonably be fixed. Once I fixed a VCR by using superglue to repair a large rubber band that had broken.
Unfortunately, if I can't fix it myself, it often costs more for me to have it professionally repaired than to just buy a new one. That happened with my daughter's small TV/VCR when the VCR broke and also with a battery pack for her DVD player that we use in the bus for her long rides to and from school.
Her play fort is made primarily of dumpster dived redwood. This place that makes "play systems" for children was throwing out perfectly good scraps of redwood as well as nuts and bolts and other useful things. We even found her play fort ladder in their dumpster. My husband made a hexagonal design that utilized the shorter pieces of redwood we had, then he made an octagonal picnic table to use the scraps of wood left over from building her play fort.
:green:
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parts I assume you do a lot of dumpster diving?
Yes it runs in the family. I do it for fun and profit :laugh:
Fixing things runs in your family?
Are they autistic too or NTs who like to fix stuff or doing dumpster driving?
My family is full of people who if they aren't are very close I am one of the only one's who actually believe in ASD . Most including my parents ,even in their 70's, dumpster dive and fix things my brothers and I more than most. We would do very well on a show like Junkyard Wars :green:
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I fix anything that can reasonably be fixed. Once I fixed a VCR by using superglue to repair a large rubber band that had broken.
Unfortunately, if I can't fix it myself, it often costs more for me to have it professionally repaired than to just buy a new one. That happened with my daughter's small TV/VCR when the VCR broke and also with a battery pack for her DVD player that we use in the bus for her long rides to and from school.
Her play fort is made primarily of dumpster dived redwood. This place that makes "play systems" for children was throwing out perfectly good scraps of redwood as well as nuts and bolts and other useful things. We even found her play fort ladder in their dumpster. My husband made a hexagonal design that utilized the shorter pieces of redwood we had, then he made an octagonal picnic table to use the scraps of wood left over from building her play fort.
:green:
:plus:
My brother redid one of his bathrooms with scrap wood from pallets which is mostly oak which if you pick the nice pieces cleans up nice. He made the cabinets and wainscoting out of that and used an antique marble sink he had scavenged it looked nice.
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the sun is a power source. we will use it.
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the sun is a power source. we will use it.
I made a model (doll) house that was heated with solar energy for a science fair project when I was a kid. It won first place.
I couldn't find any good books about solar energy in my school library or my local library, so I wrote my Senator and asked him if he could go look for books about solar energy in the Library of Congress for me, because I had heard that it had a copy of every book ever written and I knew that he could check out books from it. He sent me copies of two books about solar energy that he said I could keep and within a couple of years, my local library was greatly expanded. My husband thinks that maybe the Senator had something to do with it.
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the sun is a power source. we will use it.
There are already several different contractors in my area that sell and install systems for homes and businesses. My suppler is working on one for heating warehouses and installed it on his already they are still in the development stage though working out bugs and pricing schedules. Geothermal is another under utilized energy source that is up and comming
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What do doll's need with heating?
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What do doll's need with heating?
I just used my doll house as a scale model representation of a real house. It didn't have any dolls in it.
Over the doll house roof I added a steel roof which I painted flat black, I added panes of glass above it to utilize the greenhouse effect, and I used a water pump and tubes to carry the water to the roof. There it was heated by the sunlight and other tubes carried it to a large holding tank in the basement. This holding tank, which was a large steel can with heat exchange fins around it, was the heat source for a heat exchanger (a larger steel can around the first can which had heat exchange fins) and an air pump carried air from this heat exchanger into the dol house.
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Someone once told me that the earth gives off more heat than it absorbs. Which makes sense, since pretty much all the energy we work with ends up burning off to friction, which ends up as heat, which rises. Then I asked that person, "can't we build a shield around the earth or something to collect all the heat and turn it back into kinetic energy?" Actually, we can't do that.
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Bulky pickup is all year round out here. All you have to do is call ahead and warn the driver if you're throwing something really big out like a sofa or a major appliance.
The neighboring areas dole out a couple bulky stickers every month. My only problem is having to pass up a few of the larger goodies because I can't load them myself. :green: I've gotten chairs, furniture, vcr's, a ton of vacuums, mowers, weedeaters, bikes, scooters, computers, sewing machines, and boxes of leftover yard sale goodies. I'd say 90% of everything I've picked up was a simple fix or just discarded because someone was sick of it. ::)
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the sun is a power source. we will use it.
I made a model (doll) house that was heated with solar energy for a science fair project when I was a kid. It won first place.
I couldn't find any good books about solar energy in my school library or my local library, so I wrote my Senator and asked him if he could go look for books about solar energy in the Library of Congress for me, because I had heard that it had a copy of every book ever written and I knew that he could check out books from it. He sent me copies of two books about solar energy that he said I could keep and within a couple of years, my local library was greatly expanded. My husband thinks that maybe the Senator had something to do with it.
great senator. :)
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the sun is a power source. we will use it.
I made a model (doll) house that was heated with solar energy for a science fair project when I was a kid. It won first place.
I couldn't find any good books about solar energy in my school library or my local library, so I wrote my Senator and asked him if he could go look for books about solar energy in the Library of Congress for me, because I had heard that it had a copy of every book ever written and I knew that he could check out books from it. He sent me copies of two books about solar energy that he said I could keep and within a couple of years, my local library was greatly expanded. My husband thinks that maybe the Senator had something to do with it.
great senator. :)
Yes, he was. I loved him and I was very sorry when he died.
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too bad. we need good politicians.
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I'm republican, but I like alternative energy. I'm a big advocate of wind energy, Wyoming has shitloads of it and I want it to be taken advantage of. A lot of it is possible today, but we need to economize it to make it viable.
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you're a republican? :'(
what made you this way?
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you're a republican? :'(
what made you this way?
democrats
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join liberals. join us. join us. :P
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I'm republican, but I like alternative energy. I'm a big advocate of wind energy, Wyoming has shitloads of it and I want it to be taken advantage of. A lot of it is possible today, but we need to economize it to make it viable.
One of the people I know who is in the construction business who is into alternative energy is very republican and has even run for local state rep. with that as one of his main points. But then again I live in Ct and republicans here are a bit more liberal than the national party. BTW he lost
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the sun is a power source. we will use it.
I made a model (doll) house that was heated with solar energy for a science fair project when I was a kid. It won first place.
I couldn't find any good books about solar energy in my school library or my local library, so I wrote my Senator and asked him if he could go look for books about solar energy in the Library of Congress for me, because I had heard that it had a copy of every book ever written and I knew that he could check out books from it. He sent me copies of two books about solar energy that he said I could keep and within a couple of years, my local library was greatly expanded. My husband thinks that maybe the Senator had something to do with it.
great senator. :)
Yes, he was. I loved him and I was very sorry when he died.
Who was it?
(just realized that might be too personal a piece of info,
if so, sorry)
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The answer isn't to make things durable, but more recyclable. It's not the throw away, consumerist society that's the problem, it's that the waste is going to waste.
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The answer isn't to make things durable, but more recyclable. It's not the throw away, consumerist society that's the problem, it's that the waste is going to waste.
The waste is going to waste yes but much of the new stuff made is just fit for the landfill out of the box. If consumers demanded better quality and used them for the life of the product it wouldn't be as much of a problem. Recycling is important but it's better to just make things right the first time than make lost of crappy stuff. BTW I read something about the US army doing research on packing materials that could be turned into biodiesel to cut down on waste.
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People should be reused.
Take the organs, eat the
meat, and use the rest for
fuel.
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Clarice... you called?
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With people as fat as they are we would have a LOT of fuel.
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With people as fat as they are we would have a LOT of fuel.
I have been talking about using fat people for fuel for YEARS. Seriously back in 1994 or so I would talk about sucking fat out of people and using it like whale blubber. There are tons spare people around that could have their biomass used for fuel.
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With people as fat as they are we would have a LOT of fuel.
I have been talking about using fat people for fuel for YEARS. Seriously back in 1994 or so I would talk about sucking fat out of people and using it like whale blubber. There are tons spare people around that could have their biomass used for fuel.
It's a renewable resource too :evillaugh:
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Sadly.
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But that means more food for my dogs and future goats >:D
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The Germans were the best at utilizing people for fuel.
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The Germans were the best at utilizing people for fuel.
The Russians were better, technically.
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The Germans were the best at utilizing people for fuel.
The Russians were better, technically.
What about the Chinese the Cultural Revolution was no picnic either
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Honestly, I don't remember seeing claims
that anyone OTHER than the nazis made fuel
out of people.
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Honestly, I don't remember seeing claims
that anyone OTHER than the nazis made fuel
out of people.
I have some nice tallow candles if you like them and some human pork sausage it's really good >:D
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Ah, I wasn't thinking of food as fuel.
My error.
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Depending on how metaphorical you wanna get, any country at war uses people as fuel..