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Once again this morning I saw a preposterously lazy bit of journalism on the BBC.

The enthusiastic reporter had invited himself into someones home and was telling them how to save energy. Turn off the light in the hallway? Check. Switch off the Playstation if you go to the shops? Check. All sound advice.

But then he came out with the most absurd statement - and one that is repeated all the time by the green lobby. “TVs on standby use 90% of the energy of ones that are turned on”.

Come again? 90%! Just to power a little red light and the circuit that senses the “on” signal from the doofer? You must be joking!

A telly on standby, not destroying the world, yesterday

If the TV really used 90% power on standby you would be able to fry eggs on it! All that energy has to go somewhere - and the only realistic way it could be lost would be as excess heat. But have you noticed how your TV is actually stone cold on standby?

The standby-energy-use-myth is just that - a myth and a lie perpetrated by people that don’t understand how things really work, but won’t let that get in the way of their agenda.

Don’t get me wrong, I totally support sensible measures to decrease power consumption - after all, I’m the one paying the electric bill. But it is a folly to manipulate the argument with bad science, because it makes you look like a twerp.

I did a little research - first of all, have a read of this great little article from the Guardian. Then, take a look at the manual from your TV. It probably has power consumption statistics in the back. Our old 28″ CRT Panasonic consumes a whopping 90W when switched on. And in standby mode? A not-so-whopping 1.4W. Now it has been a while since I did my Maths A-level but I am sure that is a lot less than 90%.

By my calculations, every activist that watches the eco-propaganda movie “An Inconvenient Truth”, at 100 minutes long, is wasting the equivalent of an astonishing 104 hours of standby power!

I’ll be leaving my TV on standby I think. It’s just so easily turn-off-and-on-able. And it’s far from destroying the world or breaking the bank.

After another afternoon ‘effing and blinding at the ridiculous orange machine I bought to supposedly mow the lawn (not leave random long tufts all over it) I thought I would look a little more deeply into the history of the hover mower.

Did you know that it was invented by a man called Karl Dahlman, and that it won a gold medal at the Brussels Inventors Fair in 1964? Did you also know that the first Flymos were produced a year later at a factory in Newton Aycliffe here in the sunny North East of England? And did you know that they used to be blue and white?

Well, I didn’t know any of this until I read it on Flymo’s own website - take a look if you like.

However, what I do know is that hover mowers don’t really work. Especially cheap modern ones.

When I was a lad my dad had a Flymo. It was big, heavy, powerful and proudly orange. It had a vicious metal blade that he would regularly sharpen on a grinding wheel in the garage. And it actually seemed to cut the grass.

Fast forward 20-odd years and, as the proud first-time owner of a garden, it is time for me to buy my first mower. Naturally I choose a Flymo.

This particular model (the Hover Vac) has two high-tech advances - grass collection and safe, plastic blades. Amazing! Until you actually put it on the lawn…

The grass collection system is based on a vacuum sucking up the grass cuttings from the back of the mower. Sounds reasonable until you realise that the whole principle of a Flymo is that it sits on a cushion of air. So all the effort to blow air out beneath the front is ruined by the grass collector stubbornly sucking the back of the mower back onto the ground. Result - you can’t move the mower.

To solve this, remove the grass collector. The mower moves, and 20 quids worth of plastic box lies idle in the garage.

Next up, the plastic blades. Of course these are safe - because they are blunt! No children’s fingers at risk, nor any grass either.

Combine these two “features” with the Flymo’s fundamental problem - that it is constantly blowing the very grass it is trying to cut away from the blades, rather like a hairdresser trying to give you a trim and a blowdry at once - and my lawn does not get mown. Instead, the grass gets gently squashed, ready to spring up to its original height the following day.

I may as well walk around with a pair of chopping boards strapped to my feet. At least I would save on electricity.

Just watching a pastiche of the Tron light cycles on Family Guy reminded me of how great that film looks now.

At the time it was seen as a weak cash-in on the video games boom. Now it stands out as one of the most visually striking films of the era. OK, so the storyline is pretty rubbish, but rather like the psychedelic sequence at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, who cares if it makes sense when it feels so right?

Skip the heavy rock numbers - very dated now - but wallow in the ethereal delights of Rhinoceros and Crush. In retrospect, is this the best Pumpkins album?

If you are interested in any of the stuff in this .xls file then leave a comment and I will get back to you.

parts_for_sale

Here are some pics of my TOP Scythe. For those that don’t know this is a 1/10th electric touring car, combining the best of HPI, Yokomo and TOP’s own parts to make a very competitive chassis.

I just took these pics quickly as it is a sunny day, the car was run at an outdoor meeting a couple of days ago hence the tyre dust all over it. Sorry if it offends your eyes.

Somewhat battered shell now, having had the car 9 months or so. It is a Protoform Mazdaspeed 6 if you were wondering.

Under the shell. The car is quite close to standard, there are a few bling parts on there like the red nuts, but I still run the plastic bulkheads because for me the car is a lot easier to drive like that. And yes, I know I am using stone age brushed/NiMH/40MHz technology - but it works!

Couple of quick comments about this side - Keyence speedo is far and away the best brushed speedo I have ever used - totally programmable on-board and no schottky or power cap needed. I am using a low-profile servo (Futaba S9550) which does not overhang the chassis. And my lead ballast (50g of it to make 1500g safely) is in the centre of the chassis, just in front of the motor mount and beside the ESC. At some point I might experiment and move some of it behind the motor mount for a more rearward CG which should add stability when the grip is low.

Shot of the front showing the TOP steel spool - a very worthwhile addition on carpet and tarmac IMHO. Also, a tip on shock mounting, get some longer screws (M3×16mm) and fit backwards with a locknut so you can remove them more easily for maintenance and not crush the plastic mounts.

Another shot here showing the optional split suspension mounts - I use them because I run a raised front roll centre (2mm spacers under the mounts) and this gives more belt clearance.

Final shot of the car, the back end. Not much to say except that the TOP diff protection seals keep everything a lot cleaner and consistent, well worth the small outlay, and another tip about building the Yokomo-based shocks - cut down the triangle spacer for extra travel, you need it to get the droop right.

Any questions? Just leave a comment and I will reply.

Mmmmm…. delicious apple and blackcurrant barley drink. Just dilute to taste. Best of all - NO artificial colours or flavourings and NO added sugar! Says so right there on the label. Great for tennis players, great for me, great for the toddler.

But hold on a second. What is all this on the back?

A big tick next to ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS! Yes, this baby is loaded! Aspartame AND Saccharin. On top of that Robinsons have given me a wide selection of artificial preservatives to savour too. Delicious for me, delicious for the toddler - NOT.

Just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover - or more accurately, a foodstuff by its marketing campaign.

Shame on you Britvic.