Mark Forrester - Independent digital designer and online entrepreneur

Have you ever wondered how much electricity your TV or other appliances are using when on standy? How about how much CO2 it is emitting? Bet you never thought of that one.

In a recently published article on BBC News it is revealed that:

“Britons waste the equivalent of around two power stations’ worth of electricity each year by leaving TV sets and other gadgets on standby.

Last June Environment Minister Elliot Morley, responding to an MP’s question, revealed that electrical equipment in sleep mode used roughly 7TWh of energy and emitted around 800,000 tonnes of carbon.”

That’s alot of electricty and alot of crap we are releasing into our atmosphere.

Let’s not forget that in England there are far more TVs, but you can still get a rough idea of the usage here from these factsIn the newspaper, yesterday (www.news24.com) the City Council were saying that we are going to start conserving electricity here in Cape Town, like we do with the water.

“In certain parts of the city, street lights burn during the day to prevent the lights’ cables from being stolen. The cables are going to be buried in cement so that the lights can be turned off during the day.

Table Mountain’s famous illuminations will also disappear. The 49 light bulbs of 2 W each use about 98 kW of power. This isn’t enough to supply power to a building or suburb but it may help conserve power. (Turn your frigging TV off dude!)

Lights along national main routes such as the N2 highway will also be switched off. For safety reasons, the street lights in the city’s suburbs won’t be switched off,” Kadalie said.”

Why don’t the council just watch BBC News and get some ideas from there. Instead of turning the lights off on the N2, which is already a death trap with lighting, why don’t we just get off our behinds and turn off our appliances, instead of leaving them on standby. We’ll save electricity and save our precious atmosphere at the same time. Just an idea. Use it or lose it.

I have just read the full text of the message Bin Laden recorded recently offering a truce with America. It is a must read, and can be found on BBC News, read it here. I’m not going to say too much here as there are a lot of differing opinions on the topic. I do believe this is a critical turning point in the war on terror though, and its outcome could either be tragic or hopefully a peaceful end to a bloody war.

I want to know what you think though. Vote on my poll on the left menu. Should Bush accept the truce, or should he continue the fight?

I’m hoping the title of this post caught your attention? Now what is it all about? Tik.

In South Africa, “tik” (a.k.a. crystal meth”) is becoming increasingly popular, and is the latest buzz word, amongst teenagers and young adults. “Tik” is a drug, a drug that is known as “the stay awake drug, that makes you violent”. Otherwise known on the street as “tuk-tuk”, “globes”, “straws”, and “crystal”.

What does it do? (taken from Health24.com)

According to users, the drug gives an immediate, extremely pleasurable rush or “flush”. The rush only lasts a few seconds, but is followed by euphoria (a high) which lasts for several hours. Users stay awake for hours, even days, during which they feel extremely active and energetic. They seldom get hungry and go for long periods without any food. Both the rush and the high are believed to result from the release of very high levels of the brain chemical dopamine into areas of the brain that regulate feelings of pleasure.

Oprah has had a show on it, and locally “3talk with Noeleen” has had a show on it, (Please note guys: I do now watch either, well Oprah occasionally, maybe, what I didn’t say that!) Both of which posted startling facts on the uprise in the users of tik in the USA and more importantly in our home country, South Africa. School girls are using it to lose weight, students are using it to stay awake. Your next door neighbour might be using it, it’s a drug that is attracting loads of first-time users.

This news isn’t that new, neither is that interesting to those of you who have heard about it but not been effected by it in some away or another. It has effected my life and my family’s life though. In less than a month, my mother’s best friend was brutally murdered by a young man painting her house, a young man who I had met, a young man that sang in the church choir in his community. He took tik and he became violent.

Then this last weekend a person I know was raped by two men, both of which were on tik. They became violent.

Yesterday, another man living in the same community as the young man who murdered my mother’s friend, became depressed, on a “low”, after the effects of tik had worn off on him. He walked into the bush near his house, found a tree and hung himself.

Does this make the dangers of tik more real to you. Maybe. Maybe not. You might need an event to personally effect you, before you really understand that this drug is dangerous. But I have given my two cents worth, and I’m telling you, don’t do tik.

My boet watched this movie on the aeroplane the other week and said it was worth watching. So I took it out and watched it on the weekend. And its every bit as good as he and Roger Ebert, the famous movie critic, says it is. One of those movies that gives you the occassional goosebump (even us hardcore men).

Ebert describes the movie as follows: “Crash” tells interlocking stories of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops and criminals, the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless, all defined in one way or another by racism. All are victims of it, and all are guilty it. Sometimes, yes, they rise above it, although it is never that simple. Their negative impulses may be instinctive, their positive impulses may be dangerous, and who knows what the other person is thinking? The result is a movie of intense fascination; we understand quickly enough who the characters are and what their lives are like, but we have no idea how they will behave, because so much depends on accident. (read Ebert’s full review here).

So take it out and review it for yourself. My star rating: **** and an eigth.
:)