Fizzy Logic?

So, the world is in danger of imminent destruction, or at least irreversible climate change, due to the carbon dioxide emissions from man-made sources such as flying in aeroplanes (see GreenThing)

Of course, there are other sources of carbon dioxide that make a big impact, notably cows / cattle whose flatulence and excrement contributes enormously, so think of this next time you eat a MacDonalds / Burger King...

But one surely major player in the carbon dioxide equation has got to be fizzy drinks. Think about it, companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi (who between them produce and distribute many of the known brands of fizzy pop) actually have massive factories where they deliberately create zillions of cubic metres of carbon dioxide. This is then pumped into bottles with acres of sugar, or those horrible sweetener chemicals, add a bit of flavouring and colouring and bob's your uncle you have an instant global warming time bomb!

Surely something should be said, if not even done about these shameless polluters? If the scientists are right (and not just jumping on the political funding bandwagon...) then a world without Coca Cola and its ilk may well be a cooler place to be, if perhaps lacking a bit of pizzaz and a little flatter too... burp! ;-)

Medicines & Glue

No, this isn't a article suggesting that you sniff glue instead of taking prescribed medicines, but these two items do seem to have something in common...

Ok I'll start with the glue and take the medicines later. Why is it that when you buy a tube of glue in packaging, whether it's superglue (in any of its varieties) or contact adhesive, wood glue or even Uhu, that all the instructions only seem to appear on the packaging itself? So, after the first use (or two if you're being careful to keep the glue in its plastic - that you had to cut open with scissors leaving a sharp edge..) you throw the packaging away, only to find that the next time you need to use the glue that you don't remember how to use it properly.

Was it supposed to be applied to one surface only, or both? Do you need a continuous coverage, or just spots here and there, and just how long do you need to wait before joining the two parts together? And then how long do you have to hold it together before it sets enough to let go (oh dear it fell apart...) and then how long is it going to take before it's set completely and the item is ready to use like before?

All this info was on the packaging and not on the tube. So why is this? Could it be that the manufacturers want us to waste endless tubes of glue through lack of information, i.e. we end up throwing them away as they don't work properly because we couldn't remember how to use the stuff correctly. I wonder... Certainly won't hurt their repeat sales if we have to go and buy yet another tube just for the instructions again!

That leads me on to the medicines, where a similar thing seems to be going on. Why is it that many medicines come in such plane packaging, both bottles and boxes? The instructions for use are almost always a piece of paper folded up inside the box, often written in about 30 different languages too. So once again we have the situation where the medicine doesn't have any instructions (or even warnings in many cases) on the bottle, and nothing of any use on its box either. Invariably the little piece of paper is the first thing to get lost, and then of course you don't know what the dosage should be; was it 2 tablets 4 times a day or 4 tablets every 2 hours... 

Also many medicines must be applied / used in a certain manner and there could be dangers, and or side effects, involved that are only mentioned on that piece of paper. Why on earth can't they just print this stuff in the language of the country of sale on the box? It would be much more informative, and safer too.

On top of this, most medicines have strange generic names that rarely hint at their actual remedy, so you've got no idea what the hell Gerandiumoxygelfen is actually for if you lose that little bit of paper. Why it can't just have words like 'for sore throats' or 'for insect stings' written under these brand names I cannot fathom. Could it be that the manufacturers actually want us to waste all these medicines so that we have to go out and buy new ones because we don't know how to deal with the medicine in question and dare not use the stuff incorrectly? I wonder... At the very least the important information should always be on the bottles, especially if you consider the warnings currently printed on many packets of tobacco!

Transformers

Thought I'd start with something fairly easy to pick at...

Anyway so what's the give with power supplies for all our lovely consumer toys, eh? Have you noticed how you just can't share the charger, power adaptor or supply for your phone, camcorder, camera, laptop, games console etc. etc?

Ok, within a given group of equipment the voltages and currents needed are often pretty much the same, but the manufacturers, in their infinite wisdom, seem to find endless new-fangled sockets and plugs to prevent us using them on other bits of kit. To add to the misery they change the voltages too so that gear won't either even fire up, or it'll blow up (hence invalidating your warranty too). So you find things like 7.2V on a camcorder that could easily have been something fairly standard like 6 or 9V.

And mobile phones too, virtually none of them are interchangeable these days. It used to be that if you had a Nokia then you could use the psu from anyone else that had a Nokia, very handy in those moments of dead battery.

So why do they do it, technical reasons perhaps? No of course not, they make them all different so you have to go out and buy a replacement, often at hefty street prices, and then if you need a car charger it also has to be acquired too.

Once your bits of kit finally bite the dust, as they all too soon inevitably do, then you end up with a pile of unusable chargers and connectors. Try taking these to the recycling people, they'll have the phone, fine thanks, but aren't interested in these!

If you look online you can find OEM copies of most power adaptors, often from Chinese sources (hey they made the originals in the first place) at a fraction of the cost, so someone in the middle is making a killing out of us suckers...

The manufacturers love these wall warts so much they almost always use them in preference of putting the power supply inside a bit of gear. For example I've just bought an electric piano and it's got plenty of room in its case for the power supply, but oh no it's got an ugly lump that plugs into it (like its a shaver or something!). A standard IEC mains cable would have been much better, but hey that's too easy and cheap to replace if I lose it...

Seems someone needs to stop this ridiculous and wasteful practice before we all drown in a mountain of black bits, or perhaps they'll transform into something useful magically, I doubt it ;-)

Well good news! Seems that after pressure from european administrators that power supplies for 'most' mobile phones are due to be standardised, thus preventing at least some of the aforementioned wastage. Apparently even Apple are due to implement this change for their iPhone too (remains to be seen) but this is a positive step forward for a change!

My only concern is that they seem to have plumped for the mini USB plug as the connector which, I feel, is a mistake as this is a standard socket on computers and digital cameras and, it's not going to take long before someone plugs their phone psu into the socket designed for transferring photos etc. with I expect the wrong result...