I posted my submission to the contest here. Stumbled across the post while flipping through posts today and I thought I might as well do a follow-up on the project. If you haven't yet, go to the official website, it's still online.

First of all, I didn't win. Bummer.

You can see the winning video demonstration on site. Basically the idea is to take all the cash people pay on speeding fines, pack it all together, and give it back to the people, to the people who actually drive at legal speeds. I didn't expect to win, so don't think I'm just being jealous or something when I state my view, but I think it's pretty stupid that this entry should win the whole competition.

Sure, the idea is ok, it might make it more interesting for people to drive at legal speeds, nothing wrong with that. The reasons I'm not interested at all are multiple. First, I like driving fast. I also don't like the idea of putting up speed cameras all over the country, not just because it forces me to drive slower, but because it causes injustice. People pay more attention to the speed cameras than to the cars around them, they drive slower than needed, they waste time, they waste interest, they waste energy. Some people drive faster and still drive great, it's a matter of skill and highly personal. I'm not saying I drive great, but I know plenty of people who frequently take risks while driving that I would never dream of... and no they aren't teenagers.

Laws apply to everyone, but I don't think I'm the only one who sees the speed limits as a recommendation, not a barrier. I mean I know it's a barrier, but I don't believe it should be, I believe it causes more stress than it solves. Everything depends on the weather, on you, on your car (I'm not saying BMWs should never need to slow down though, that's a myth) and the environment around you.

Another stupid idea is to fill in the gaps between speed limits, instead of needing to focus on 30, 50, 70, 90 & 110 we now have 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 & 120 as well, and that's just unneeded. Waste of time, waste of money, waste of resources. I can think of a thousand better things to spend that cash on. Example: giving everyone in the country a free toothbrush. Or, if they want the giveaway to be commercially beneficial, give everyone something with sugar in it instead. That's how the world works, not like it should work, much like this contest.

I've vented out my thoughts a bit, but the main point is that there were so many other great ideas, much better than the winning entry. Entries that provided only benefit, that wouldn't be subject to such an ongoing feud as this one would be. Even my dynamo idea was better, and there were heaps of ideas that were better than mine, but not this one. I'm disappointed. :/

Didn't win, bummer. If I did, you best believe this post would've been longer! ;)

I was planning on entering this competition this year (click the EN flag if the site appears in Swedish, assuming you can't read Swedish), so I've had the site in my list of bookmarks for a couple of months now. Decided to check it out today and maybe think up something, and guess what, today is the deadline! With not too much time on my hands I threw together a pretty quick submission. Read below, untranslated though:

Genom dynamo kan man omvandla rörelseenergi till elektrisk energi. Generatorer av denna sort används i de allra flesta industriella sammanhang men kan även tillämpas vid personligt bruk, dynamolampor har t.ex. funnits i flera årtionden nu, men det är först nu på sistonne som försäljningen av dessa riktigt kommit igång. Mekanism är enkel och billig att producera, men det bästa är ändå att det är mänsklig energi (alltså miljövänlig) som är själva drivkraften. I lampexemplet kan man genom enkla handrörelser kan generera electricitet som lagras i ett enkelt batteri och får lampan att lysa, och med energisnåla LED dioder krävs det inte mycket tillförd energi för att denna energi skall räcka i flera timmar.

Min ide är att tillverka gatubelysning som drivs med dynamo. Denna fristående belysning skulle i princip driva sig själv och dessutom inte använda sig av några elkablar, vilket gör att lamporna kan placeras i stort sett var som helst. Städer, byar, öar, skogsstigar, överallt. Både regeringen och privatpersoner (som ett extra tillskott till stadskassan skulle regeringen kunna stå för tillverkning och försäljning) skulle kunna sätta upp gatubelysning av denna sort. Om LED används som belysning (det finns vanliga "glödlampsvarianter") räcker dessutom dessa lampor en hel livstid.

För att göra det hela roligare kan man dölja dynamo dynamiken bakom en slagtålig boxningsboll eller liknande, som sluter sig kring stolpen. Förbipasserande människor kan slå några slag eller stanna ett tag och motionera. Det skulle vara ett perfekt redskap för att lätta på stressen efter en arbetsam dag, släppa ut uppdämd aggresion eller ett överskott på energi - och samtidigt gynna både samhälle och miljö.

Vem som helst kan lätt få lite extra motion och samtidigt slå ett slag för en ljusare framtid.

I tagged the submision: miljö, boxning, belysning, dynamo, motion, hälsa, energi, positivt. What do you think? Good idea? I have a few other ones, but lets save those for the coming contests and years. ;) Oh, and I can't forget the image now...

Remember the stat game that was held before the new year? Well here are the results for it. ^_^ The number of blogs posted was: 120. If you don't believe me, see the archives page, it's automated. I checked the emails today, and the participators guesses were 100, 101, 104, 115, 138 and 200. No right guesses, but at least that saves me a little shipping expenses, hehe. Better luck next time!

Also, apparently the contact form suddenly messed up a while ago, and emails that were sent during the time before I posted about a note about it have not been received. If some of you did guess right, but the email was lost, I apologize. Nothing to do about that now though. I'll be fixing the form as soon as I figure out why it isn't working. I haven't changed the code at all and it's been working fine until a few weeks ago. Stay tuned for exiting contact form updates.