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Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#31

Post by revdinosaur »

throwaway9848 wrote: post #27
hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably you've never seen a slum, so let me explain: - Houses are juxtaposed to each other, there's no room for windows - Roofs are corrugated, so you can't easily fit a top glass panel even if you have the money for one. - There are transparent, fiber glass roofs, and some people use those, but often they don't get to choose the materials used to build the house, just use what is available. So this is a quite nice…

All those sound plausible (having never been to a favela), and if true I agree with you on almost all counts. But it's still not a substitute for a light bulb unless it works in the dark.

I'm not sure that's fair. It is bulb shape and it emits light. The source of the light happens to be the sun. This is kind of like saying that tungsten lamps aren't lightbulbs because they don't work when not supplied with electricity. They're truly acting as a substitute by spreading light around a darkened area.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#32

Post by e3pi »

throwaway420 wrote: post #29
rickdale wrote: post #15

The title of this article bothers me since the article focuses much more on the bottle and light and rather than how poor and proud Alfredo Moser is. Regardless, pretty cool exposure of life in the slums, I'd bet there are more 'hacks' as a means of survival that are necessary there, but we wouldn't think twice about. I will say the article is good, just don't like the title.

I can understand being proud of a beneficial invention and offering something to people without taking money for it. He's done an amazing good deed and hopefully will be remembered for this. But I don't understand the title of the article because I think taking pride in poverty is a weird position to be taking. The headline might just be catchy click bait.

Proud to be poor?

Not paying taxes into NSA surveillance/military state or any whatever exploitive capitalism as other collared proles. Some people are far too busy than to concern themselves with financial vanity and the distractions that follow it.

Teeming masses of slum youth with linux netbooks must be high on the list of Fort Meade's threat matrix.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#33

Post by kefka »

Hmm. This would also be really useful in doing underground greenhouses.

A tin sheet is cheap. You dig a hole, however long, wide, and deep. Then, you can get in the hole and plant whatever in there. Once done, you can cover it up with the sheet (or wood or whatever) and put the bottle-lights inside.

That way, you keep the pests out of your new garden.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#37

Post by gyom »

The problem with the article is that they're obfuscating the fact that this does not produce light. It's basically a smarter way to poke a hole through your ceiling. It's not a device that converts energy into light.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#38

Post by throwaway420 »

e3pi wrote: post #32
throwaway420 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand being proud of a beneficial invention and offering something to people without taking money for it. He's done an amazing good deed and hopefully will be remembered for this. But I don't understand the title of the article because I think taking pride in poverty is a weird position to be taking. The headline might just be catchy click bait.

Proud to be poor? Not paying taxes into NSA surveillance/military state or any whatever exploitive capitalism as other collared proles. Some people are far too busy than to concern themselves with financial vanity and the distractions that follow it. Teeming masses of slum youth with linux netbooks must be high on the list of Fort Meade's threat matrix.

* You can be proud of opposing the NSA and the MIC and other mechanisms of destruction without volunteering for a life of destitution.

* You're free to do whatever you want, but I don't think that embracing poverty is a good solution to the NSA or the MIC. Mass poverty means that the government controls everybody's means of survival (foodstamps, healthcare, etc) which equals total political control. I think that creating business solutions and voluntary organizations that oppose these things is a more viable path, and having money helps with that. Start up a secure email webservice. Startup a charity organization that can help bring relief and attention to innocent civilians being bombed or harmed by governments.

* Your stance on capitalism being exploitative is a logical contradiction. A voluntary transaction can only occur in a market when both sides of a trade value what they are getting more than what they are giving up.

* What we have today as an economic system is not capitalism - governments dictate the winners and losers in the marketplace and those companies with the best lobbyists always win rather than the companies who create the most value for customers.

* You don't need to be a collared prole, to use your terminology. Software is all free and open source now. Start a business with some friends and live an alternative lifestyle to being a 9-5 corporate man. That's what a lot of people here currently do or are working towards.

* Not being poor doesn't automatically equate to financial vanity.

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#39

Post by eksith »

gyom wrote: post #37

The problem with the article is that they're obfuscating the fact that this does not produce light. It's basically a smarter way to poke a hole through your ceiling. It's not a device that converts energy into light.

Rather odd thing to say. How it works is explained in the second paragraph after the intro :

"So how does it work? Simple refraction of sunlight, explains Moser, as he fills an empty two-litre plastic bottle."

I agree that it does involve poking a hole through the ceiling, but the thing's simplicity belies its utility and what may seem "obvious" after the fact doesn't make it any less significant an invention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_of_Columbus

Re: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

#40

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

throwaway9848 wrote: post #27
hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably you've never seen a slum, so let me explain: - Houses are juxtaposed to each other, there's no room for windows - Roofs are corrugated, so you can't easily fit a top glass panel even if you have the money for one. - There are transparent, fiber glass roofs, and some people use those, but often they don't get to choose the materials used to build the house, just use what is available. So this is a quite nice…

All those sound plausible (having never been to a favela), and if true I agree with you on almost all counts. But it's still not a substitute for a light bulb unless it works in the dark.

> But it's still not a substitute for a light bulb unless it works in the dark.

Of course it isn't, but it solves 50% of the problem.

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