RENEWABLE ENERGY

Human Power! Alternative energy is big news, so maybe Santa Rita do Sapucai prison in Brazil are on to something. In return for a reduction on their sentences, prisoners are hooked up to specially adapted exercise bikes which charge batteries. Prisoners get one day removed from their sentence for every 16 hours they pedal. This is certainly something that could be adopted by prisons anywhere in the world, but I wonder whether it has a commercial application. It seems to me that there are hundreds of thousands of gym members up and down the UK, all using exercise bikes. The energy they use in an attempt to shed a few excess pounds, is wasted. Is there a cost effective way to harness all this energy, and how might it be done? The answer to these questions could form the basis of a multi-million pound business for an ambitious entrepreneur. However give the success of Sir Chris Hoy, and the wave of popularity taking hold of cycling as a result the inmates of the Bar L and Peterheid could be put to good use. The complaints made by some of the fat lags that prison grub was making them fat can soon be dealt with. Hook them up to the grid and get them pedalling. 16 hours for a day of your sentence seems like a great deal and will burn the fat of the buggers. I think Kenny Macaskill should get it going right now. A wee trip to Brazil Kenny the advance guard for Team Scotland. Just think of the cycling team we would have we would sweep the board. Don't forget you read it here first.