http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:PassiveSmoking&section=today deviantART RSS for by:PassiveSmoking en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:17:26 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/27031861/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/27031861/ Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:29:37 PDT
[link]
[link] (main gallery)

I've been really badly neglecting this site, got a pile of stuff in my inbox. Sorry for not leaving any prompt replies! I'll be trying to get through all the stuff and answering what's still relevant.

I also put some photos of my workspace up in scraps.

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/25436185/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/25436185/ Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:14:25 PDT
[link]

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/25026363/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/25026363/ Sat, 30 May 2009 02:58:18 PDT [link]

Claire and Michael: [link]
Hat!: [link]
Lookit my pencil: [link]
Don't like summer: [link]
Breadbox: [link]
Oh my God: [link]
Early Hiroe: [link]
.....: [link]
You have pretty eyes: [link]
MANNNNYYYYY!!!: [link]
Katanas are just better: [link]
Claire: [link]
Claire leaning: [link]

Claire and Michael is my personal favourite.

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/24840573/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/24840573/ Tue, 19 May 2009 14:15:35 PDT [link]

Just a scrap this time, doodle done with the tablet to stay loose and hopefully get the old inspiration juices flowing.

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/24737386/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/24737386/ Wed, 13 May 2009 13:04:37 PDT
[link]

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/23001362/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/23001362/ Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:09:41 PST
See yas all on storm-art!

[link]

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/22559412/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/22559412/ Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:52:05 PST
I'll do some research into this figure. And unlike the publishers of the original claim, I'll cite my sources!

According to [link] a Google search releases 7g of CO2, compared to 15g for boiling a kettle.

So how much CO2 is released per kilowatt/hour of electricity generation? [link] claims the various power generation systems in use in the UK result in an average carbon dioxide emission of 430g CO2/KWh of electricity generated.

I looked at the electrical specification plate attached to the bottom of my kettle. It says that it is rated at 2 kilowatts. Running the kettle continuously for 30 minutes would therefore use 1KWh of power. The kettle has a maximum safe capacity of 1.7 litres, but I'll fill it to 1.5 litres because a) it's a nice round number and b) most people probably don't brim their kettles when they boil them. The outside temperature is 5 degrees Celsius, so the starting temperature of the water can't be higher than that and is probably a degree or 2 colder.

I set a timer going and recorded a video of the kettle going from stone cold to boiling. I could put it on youtube if you really want, but as it's horrifically dull I won't inflict that on you. Suffice to say that it took as near to 5 minutes as makes no odds for the kettle to boil (4:56).

Remember that I said running the kettle for 30 minutes used 1KWh of electricity? It therefore follows that running the kettle for 5 minutes uses 1/6KWh, or 0.166666 ... 667KWh, or in a more convenient unit, 166.666 ... 67 Watt Hours.

If generating one kilowatt hour releases 430g of CO2 then it must follow that boiling my kettle, which took 1/6th of the time it would need to consume 1KWh would result in 430/6g of CO2 being released, or 76.666 ... 67g

76.67g is a much bigger number than 15g, last time I checked.

We have therefore managed to conclusively demonstrate that his 15g claim for the kettle is utter bullshit.

Given that his figure for the kettle bears no semblance to reality, it's probably safe to say that his figure of 7g per Google search is also completely inaccurate, However, just for the sake of argument, lets assume that it is correct. How many searches would generate 76.67 grams of CO2? Well if anyone remembers their times tables, then 11x7=77. That's close enough, I think. So, if his figure for how much energy a Google search uses is correct, and given that we have proven his kettle figure completely wrong that's an enormous if, then it would take 11 searches to result in carbon equivalent to a kettle being boiled being released into the atmosphere.

How did he arrive at his figure for how much carbon Googling releases? The sensible sum would be to calculate how many searches occur in 24 hours, against how many KWh of energy all of Google's data centres consume in the same time, the sum of searches/KWh would give you how much energy a single search needs. However, Google don't release their energy bills to the public. [link] gives a figure for how many searches happen on Google daily, but it is only for America and years out of date.

Without the power data or the data on number of searches performed a day any figure I could come up with would be nothing but a wild guess. Which is almost certainly how our intrepid campaigner arrived at his figure. [link] claims that a Google search only releases .2g of carbon, but as that figure came from Google itself there's little that can be done to validate it, and it is certainly in Google's interest to exaggerate the figure. So lets pretend that we have proof that Google have wildly inflated the figure and the real one is 5 times higher.

That's still only 1g of carbon per search. Versus 76.67 for the kettle. You'd have to perform 77 searches to exceed the kettle's carbon footprint.

If the figure Google have released is indeed accurate then you'd have to perform nearly 400 Google searches to cause the magic 76.67g of CO2 to end up in the atmosphere.

So what can we take from this? First and foremost, never trust figures that don't cite a source or show working. Without knowing how a number was arrived at the number in question is worthless. Second, modern journalism isn't anything like as thorough or critical as it should be, most tech sites published the story as is without doing investigation that anybody with a kettle and a stopwatch could do. Finally, there isn't such a thing as bad science, but there most definitely is such a thing as bad sci... ]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/20203709/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/20203709/ Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:00:57 PDT [link] I reported the art theft in question to the admins in the hope something would be done about it. The result of apparently 2 dozen complaints? No action taken, the stolen artwork remains up.

As DevArt don't seem to give a flying fuck about the rights of people who post artwork to their site in good faith I feel I have no alternative but to pull the work I have up here until such time as the apathetic attitude of the admin staff comes to an end. From now on this account will only be used for watching my friends and artists whose work I like and whom don't post to any other archives I know.

On a related topic, does anybody know of any other archives out there?

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/19492632/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/19492632/ Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:26:44 PDT
]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/19193852/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/19193852/ Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:49:46 PDT
Anyway...

NAME: Peach
OCCUPATION: Princess
AGE: Oh gee, well Donkey Kong came out in 1981, so.... um... Really? Thanks! 27. I'm 27. (Sorry, I'm innumerate)
PROFILE: Well, I'm.... blonde! I like long walks on the beach, getting abducted, talking to mushrooms and just standing around all day in silly pink dresses. PINK!

HOBBIES: Getting abducted, talking to sentient mushrooms, gokart racing. I like to go racing with the giant turtle lizard guy who abducts me and the huge gorilla guy who used to abduct me and throw banana skins at them.

WHAT I LIKE IN MEN: Midgets are just so cute! And moustaches! I like unusual accents, they make me just go all gooey inside, and it'd be nice to find someone who is handy, like an electrician or something like that. I think the most important thing is that he'll come and get me when I get abducted, cos that happens a lot! Oh, and he must like mushrooms.

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/18838776/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/18838776/ Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:32:51 PDT
It feels like it's just gone. I don't think I can draw anymore if I even wanted to.

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/17977555/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/17977555/ Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:41:39 PDT
YOUR REAL NAME: Gordon

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first three letters of your name with 'izzle' on the end)
Gorizzle.... good grief that's awful!

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color, fav animal)
BlueCat. More like a chat room name than a detective name.

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, and current street)
Robert King.

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name)
Mcvgohar. Sounds like a cough.


6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
Green Cola! *dramatic*

7. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, any letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of you dads middle name, 1st letter of a siblings first name, last letter of your moms middle name)
...what? gonna have to calculate that one.

Apparently it's Cvba... I don't know if my dad even has a middle name. Guess I don't have and iraqi name then.

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mothers middle name and fathers name.)

Don't know my mother's maiden name, if any, either.

9. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one your pets)
Black Bert. That's just not right.

I don't think I'll tag anybody but feel free to do this yourself too, and drop a note to let me know you did

]]> ~PassiveSmoking http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/16594294/ http://PassiveSmoking.deviantart.com/journal/16594294/ Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:43:26 PST
The thing is I really want to have at least an outline of the complete story, the beginning, middle and end before I start progressing into doing anything with it, but I just seem to keep hitting this wall and have no idea where to go next. I don't want to abandon the idea because it's one I've grown quite fond of, and I think there's really some potential in there for at the very least something that somebody other than me would want to read, but I just keep running out of inspiration or good ideas, or keep writing to a point where the characters hit a dead end. Not the sort where they're in some kind of prediciment that I can't think of an out of, more the kind of situation where the story just runs out of steam and there's nothing propelling them to move on anymore. like there's a stage I get to where they could just all stay where they are and opt out of the story, as it were, with nothing resolved.

I tried the idea of writing out just a short list of things that need to happen and get an overview of the story, I've tried writing isolated scenes of things I want to occur with nothing preceding or following written, just to try and get that one scene down as a sort of anchor point or foundation I can build upon, but every time things just grind to a halt and I'm left thinking I have no idea where to go from where I am. Then when I come back in a month or two and read what I've written to see if I can pick up where I left off I just find myself thinking what I have written so far is rubbish and I should start over. I just can't seem to progress or really penetrate into my ideas in any meaningful way or get what I can picture in my head out in a way that makes any kind of sense or be an enjoyable read for anybody.

Maybe I ought to just accept the idea that I'm a godawful writer and leave it to other people to write things. Maybe I should instead of trying to come up with my own story just get somebody else to write a story for me that I can use as the basis for the comic/animation/whatever I want to do with it and just stick to the visual side of things, leaving the narrative up to somebody else. I know that can work, but I also know it can turn sour and go all to hell. I mean, look at Megatokyo, after Largo left it just became really really really slow-paced and not funny anymore. Or maybe there really is a good idea in there somewhere but I just can't get it out, and if I can find somebody to partner with who can give input and let me know what works and what sucks like a hoover then I could finally start getting somewhere.

I know some of you guys are well into the whole writing thing and I'd really appreciate any help and advice I can get at this point.

]]> ~PassiveSmoking