Another concern has now come up regarding compact fluorescent bulbs:
Mercury leaks found as new bulbs break - The Boston Globe: "'People should continue to support CFLs until there are mercury-free alternatives available,' said Cindy Luppi of Clean Water Action, a local advocacy group."
Of course like I mentioned here are we making it less likely for mercuty free alternative light sources will be developed as easily if laws are already being passed to force incandescents to an early death. Are CFLs being ushered in too soon and once again if the market decided what consumers want perhaps we would have LEDs in a few years that would help avoid the new concerns about CFLs.
Well maybe not directly but as this study points out the push for fluorescent bulbs may have unintended consequences like most well meaning laws do. But like everything else, the government will make a law that ends up bad and then act like that didn't happen and outlaw the thing they pushed to begin with. It seems that melatonin production is suppressed by light from the blue part of the spectrum and could be linked to higher cancer rates.
Lights at Night Are Linked to Breast Cancer - washingtonpost.com: "Abraham Haim, a University of Haifa chronobiologist involved in the study, said the findings raise questions about the recent push to switch to energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, which suppress melatonin production more than conventional incandescent bulbs. 'This may be a disaster in another 20 years,' Haim said, 'and you won't be able to reverse what we did by mistake.' He called for more research before policies favoring fluorescent lights are implemented, and for more emphasis on using less light at night."
Once again governments just need to get out of the way and let the market and people decide what they want and what science reveals about what is chosen. Then the market can adjust quickly without the red legal tape in the way. Who knows without this huge premature push for fluorescent bulbs LED lights may have taken a foothold or another technology would have been developed had companies not had to change course of production to focus so much on fluorescent bulbs.
While Barack Obama continues to play the part of the perfect smooth talking politician, his wife has some baggage it seems in bringing some unneeded controversy to the table. First her comment came that, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." Then now her senior thesis at Princeton was released, showing what I think is a young woman with a chip on her shoulder for little reason.
From Politico. com Michelle Obama's thesis was on racial divide: "The thesis, titled 'Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community' and written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, in 1985, has been the subject of much conjecture on the blogosphere and elsewhere in recent weeks, as it has been 'temporarily withdrawn' from Princeton's library until after this year's presidential election in November. Some of the material has been written about previously, however, including a story last year in the Newark Star Ledger.
Obama writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her 'further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.'"
Yeah on the periphery of society like becoming the first lady. This kind of attitude she seems to present is something that perpetuates racism in this country by constantly pointing to every possible example of someone being treated differently because of race. Sure there are issues of race in this country still, but that is what has made Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton so played out when they push the race card at every opportunity. People then start to glaze over at the real issues of race and start treating all instances of discrimination as someone just playing the race card.
Why oh why does Penn Jillette have to be doing Dancing With The Stars?!? I love Penn and I know he will be entertaining but I've tried to watch that show before and it just bores me to tears. I guess that's what the DVR is for. Funny enough on a couple of the latest Penn Says episodes, he is talking about getting crap injected in his face to smooth out wrinkles for the show.
Catster.com
Innocently enough, my husband an I clicked on a coupon for a free sample of "kitty febreeze" today when low and behold we were sent to this site. Catster is like Myspace for cats, complete with interest groups, polls, "the scratching post" and more. It reminds me of this documentary we recently watched on Animal Planet called "Cat People" where these people are totally obsessed with cats. Anyways, we made a page for Callie. There's even Dogster.com for those who are more inclined towards canines.
