P.s. ipsissimosity- Inventd by Friedrich Nietzsche who derived it from the Latin, ipsissima, “very own”. When Nietzsche used it he prefaced it with “accursed”: he is refering to his own self referentiality.

I would just like to add some “hard” facts and figures with regards to the human powered bicycle. It is true that you could power a low energy light bulb with one of these for 8 hours, but unfortunately you could also say the following:
– you’d need about 5 million people cycling in tandem to create the same energy output as a standard fission-based nuclear power station. That’s a lot of hungry cyclists. The energy required to feed such individuals would almost exceed the amount created (unless of course you just fed the 5 million people bananas as these are very efficient at converting sunlight into carbohydrate). It’s a roundabout way of using solar energy.
- The situation gets even worse if you were to feed them Peruvian Asparagus (who chose this dietitian?), in which case the 5 million cyclists are actually harming the environment by getting on their bikes, as the Asparagus is not only low in calories but has travelled a long way to get to the 5 million British cyclists.
Furthermore, even an ordinary road cyclist – free of the inefficiencies inherent in such power generation machines – is also better off (from an environmental viewpoint) to drive an SUV than cycle with a diet fueled by Peruvian Asparagus.
Extreme cases granted, but I hope you see my point.

I actually tried making one of these machines using an old car alternator and I worked out that if I cycled at full pace for 10 hours then I would only have made 10 pence worth of electricity. So neither is it a money-spinner.

Nice idea to highlight how profligate we are with our energy usage and how much exertion is required to power low power devices such as modern light bulbs.

Cool blog too!.

Nicholas (ever the cynic)

ps. can you fill me in on this ‘ipsissimosity’ thing?