Personally, I'm glad we're not stuck in the bronze age anymore. Nostalgia is fun, but we always do need to advance as a species. While I will always remember the days that I loved my old mixed tapes, I am having such an easier time now with my large collection of organized digital music tracks. Who even knows what we'll have tomorrow? I'm looking forward to it. Innovation and progression = good.
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Government says CFL's are good for the environment. Great. Then I can throw them in the trash when they burn out.
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There's another small part of this that hasn't been discussed here, and that's the "spiky" color spectrum of cfl's and to a smaller extent led's. If you do a spectrum ansalysis of daylight it comes out quite flat, as in there are no gaps or dips or spikes in the graphed representation. Incandescent bulbs are heavily weighted to the red end of the spectrum, but it is a smooth and unbroken curve. This is fairly natural light in a measurable way.
The cfl, in contrast, has intense spikes and deep valleys in it's spectrum graph. In other words, it is not producing some frequencies of light at all and others are being blasted out exponentially higher than the rest. It's not a constant range of color at all.
The modern white led is somewhat better in this regard. It is heavily weighted towards the red end of the spectrum, dips down rather low in the green area, and has a bit of a rise in the blue spectrum. It's nowhere near as flat of a response curve as daylight, and not as smooth as an incandescent. But it's miles above the cfl.
You might not notice this in everyday use. I'm surprised that BA is getting good results with his hydroponics, but maybe they like the particular spikes? But anyway, for certain tasks the color spectrum irregularity is a major problem. I am very much into photography, for instance. Old school photography. Color shifts are a serious pain in the ass. Exactly how am I supposed to create a decent light source for an enlarger under the new laws? Does this mean I will now effectively be limited to black and white or be forced to switch to digital? I actually really worry about this shit, as I like my 4x5 inch film and the results that are impossible to duplicate any other way.
That's one example. Artists in any medium could have a problem here.
To me, even understanding the economics and environmental issues, I'd rather not have the government regulating things on such a basic level. By all means regulate the sale of plutonium, but it a guy wants to light his house with incandescent bulbs why shouldn't he be allowed to? When the other technologies become superior enough won't they just take over anyway? According to free market principles they should. Or is that just all crap? (I'm being somewhat facetious here, I'm not a republican)
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Just wondering if the panic buying has started because bogans think they won't be able to use lights after the 1-1-14?
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