Two things.

I went camping recently up to Scotland with an old schoolfriend, and took with me a relatively new wind-up torch I was eager to try out. In truth, it lasted about five minutes giving good lighting before it needed winding up for about a minute and a half, even if the instructions said it would take one minute winding to have it last for ten minutes. It wasn't that so much that was the problem with the thing, it was the noise. For whatever reason, it gave off a very loud rotating, whirring noise as I wound it up, and being at a campsite with a few other tents relatively nearby, I felt conscious about using it a lot, as it was quite a wail! I got back, and my parents had actually bought me a different type of rechargeable torch (they didn't know I had one already) which actually works with a squeezy lever at the side - http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?V=1&Sec=8&Sub=48&PID=2517 - exactly like that one. Now, this one too makes a 'clickity' noise every time you release the part you squeeze, again, quite loud, and for reasons I cannot really understand.

It's tough enough trying to change a lifestyle when it seems that the technology designed to help us on our way is either impractical, ill designed, or both. When I hear of a noisless rechargable wind-up torch, I will no doubt be interested, but then that leaves me with redundant torches. The recent step up of a solar cell that converts 43 percent of solar energy into energy is a fantastic step forward, and pioneering work, of course. But to say the person that first had 42.3 percent efficiency was lacking in what he was doing would be unfair. Each step is that little but further. If a noisless torch is discovered, I will dismantle the current torches, and reuse the component parts, because otherwise I guess it's ignoring all the small steps that make a huge difference, like the tiny leaps forward. If we ever finally reach our goal of 50 percent efficiency, I'm not sure we'll look back on the people that reached 43 percent and call their work wasted. Necessary, and a stepping stone in the right direction.

And the second thing.

We have a paper shredder where I'm working this holiday (I'm a student). We use both sides of the paper first, and normally print out web orders with details that need to be shredded on them. But the shredder is still using power, and on a lot of the day as we use a lot of paper that needs to be printed, and then shredded, unfortunately, and it is recycled, but I was curious as to hear whether there were any other alternatives to shredding. I was possibly thinking of some sort of device you could use to store water which you then put the papers in until they broke down, and then you drained out the paper dregs with some sort of seive, and then reused the water again once again to break down different papers. I'm thinking it would be a great idea, but not sure if one exists! Any ideas if something exists, or something similar?