Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Story of Stuff

I watched this a few years ago. I just watched it again and I'm disturbed at just how much more pertinent it's become. She compresses 20 years of research into 20 minutes. (I apologize for the football field comparison in the video: it's very American)

If you haven't watched it yet, watch it now.



Here's the website:
The Story of Stuff

On it, there are videos about bottled water and cap and trade.

7 comments:

Dementor said...

I dont see how you could be surprised that its still pertinent.
Things have only gotten exponentially worse in the past 2 1/2 years, and they will continue to get worse in the coming years as well. Stupidity breeds, and theres nothing the .004% of the population that actually cares can do about it. NOTHING.

Now... where was I... Ah yes, to destroy the autobots.

Dementor said...

wait wait wait wait... that part on chucking computers because the part doesnt fit because its not the right shape ? CMON!!!

I mean... what ? oh! its meant to be oversimplified ? Oh, I see. So as to reach out to the masses. Hmmm. Clever. I guess.

Master of the Craw said...

You could actually just replace the motherboard on most computers and create a fraction of the waste and either recycle those parts or sell them to third world countries so to say she's oversimplifying and/or being paranoid is an understatement.

It isn't planned obsolescence though. It isn't that chip makers plan to come out with new chips so people buy the old ones. It's just that chip makers actively seek to make faster and more efficient chips in order to outdo the competition and make more money (it's effectively a computational arms race spurred on by competition). When the competition is weak (as it happened a few years ago when AMD's products were pure shit) the advancement of the chips themselves is almost nonexistent (R&D costs a lot of money). Plus it's not that you're replacing one object for another of equal power, the chips are actually more powerful than the previous generation. There's a valid argument to be made about why you would need to upgrade those systems at all if they fit your needs but if you need more power you need a new system.

Oh, and computer stuff is subject to wear and tear.

Dementor said...

no man... she's talking about apple.

hum hum...

Napoleon Bonerpants said...

So does that mean she would throw away her screen as well everytime she would get a new computer?

Master of the Craw said...

Apparently she would throw her screen, mouse, printer, all her cables, her computer desk and her chair but only because they're all mac products and as a result are either soldered onto the system itself or are only compatible with a specific subset of Mac products.

That's what you get for having Steve Job's dick lodged way up there I guess.

Napoleon Bonerpants said...

I see