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Many of us have them in our homes and at offices — but a neuroscientist warns that one household staple may be a major threat to our health. Glen Jeffery, a professor of neuroscience at University College London, is sounding the alarm about what he calls a “clear and present public health emergency” that no one seems to be talking about. He has gone so far as to compare the item to asbestos — once widely used in building materials before people realized it can cause issues like mesothelioma and lung cancer. The health threat? Energy-efficient light-emitting diode bulbs, which...

Feds Say Mich. Man Arranged U.S. Lawmaker Trips for Saddam Hussein's Intel Service The former spokesman of a Detroit-area Islamic charity, who organized U.S. congressional delegations to Iraq, has been indicted for alleged conspiracy to spy for Saddam Hussein's government. Muthanna Al-Hanooti, who worked as a top official at Life for Relief and Development — a charity in Southfield, Mich. — allegedly coordinated U.S. congressional delegations to Iraq at the direction of the executed dictator's intelligence service between 1999 and 2002. In return, investigators say he received payoffs via the United Nation's Oil for Food program. The indictment, which was...

Key Points * Headlight brightness has doubled in a decade, with widespread driver complaints and frustration. * Regulatory loopholes allow manufacturers to increase brightness because of outdated federal standards. * Regulations capping maximum brightness for LED headlights have still not been formulated. ============================================================= Illuminated headlights on an urban street at night The Bright Headlights Crisis Is Far From Over If you find yourself squinting while driving at night, you’re not alone. The IIHS reports that average headlight brightness has roughly doubled in the last decade. The NHTSA receives growing consumer complaints regarding headlight brightness. There’s a real, widespread anger out...

In the new method, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin fired infrared light, a type of light invisible to the eye, from LED bulbs at test tubes that contained human skin cancer or colon cancer cells and healthy human skin cells. The tubes also contained nanoscopic flakes of tin oxide, or SnOx nanoflakes, which were absorbed by the cancer cells. The scientists found that when the light was fired at the cells, the nanoscopic flakes absorbed it and heated up, turning into 'microscopic heaters' that damaged cancer cells and caused them to die, while leaving the healthy cells...

Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) School of Engineering say they have invented the world’s brightest and most energy-efficient quantum rod LEDs (QRLEDs). Designed to maximize energy efficiency while delivering highly bright, deep green emissions “at the top of the color triangle,” these potentially breakthrough QRLEDs could replace organic LEDs (OLEDs) and quantum dot LEDs (QLEDs), and even in-development phosphorescent light emitting diodes (PHOLEDS), as the state-of-the-art LED architecture for smartphones, Televisions, and AR/VR devices by offering unprecedented color purity and a maximized color gamut. In a statement announcing the breakthrough design, team leader Professor...

Imagine if you could drive at night with your high beams on all the time, bathing the road ahead in bright light but without ever blinding other drivers. In Europe and Asia, many cars offer adaptive driving beam headlights that can do this. ADB is a lighting technology that has been available for many years in other parts of the world including Europe, China and Canada, but not in the United States. It can actually shape the light coming from headlights rather than scattering it all over the road. If there’s a car coming in the other direction, or one...

Not all of us have time to get a degree in electrical engineering to make sure our home doesn’t look like the inside of an alien spaceship... Aren’t LED lights supposed to outlast the heat death of the universe or some unbelievably long amount of time? Under this guise and the guise of energy efficiency, the Biden administration finally allowed a 2007 ban on incandescent light bulbs to go through at the end of July this year. The problem is that LED lights are not more efficient in a meaningful economic sense, and, as my story illustrates, they don't necessarily...

America’s ban on incandescent light bulbs, 16 years in the making, is finally a reality. Well, mostly. A rule issued in 2007, rolled back by the Trump administration, and updated last year by the Biden administration, effectively bans the sale of common incandescent light bulbs. The rule went fully into effect Tuesday, August 1. ... The rule passed by President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy in April 2022 states that light bulbs must emit a minimum of 45 lumens per watt. A lumen is a measure of brightness. That effectively outlaws the manufacture and sale of common incandescent bulbs, the...

LED light bulbs 'currently cost more than incandescent bulbs and are inferior,' consumer groups said in letter to U.S. Department of Energy The Biden administration is preparing to implement a sweeping nationwide ban on commonly used light bulbs as part of its energy efficiency and climate agenda. The regulations, which prohibit retailers from selling incandescent light bulbs, were finalized by the Department of Energy (DOE) in April 2022 and are slated to go into effect on Aug. 1, 2023. The DOE will begin full enforcement of the ban on that date, but it has already urged retailers to begin transitioning...

A research team from the UK's Nottingham Trent University, the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales Canberra has developed a proof-of-concept display technology that could replace the LCD panels common to many of today's big-screen TVs. Though some modern high-end televisions may sport quantum-dot displays or OLED panels, many of the cheaper models available will use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, polarizing filters and LED backlighting. But the researchers say that the limit has been reached for development of this kind of technology. "The capability of conventional displays has reached its peak and is unlikely to...

My initial introduction to the CIA was through the medium of film and literature. The spy versus spy mystique was alluringly romantic, with a definite ‘good versus evil’ vibe. I grew up, after all, during the Cold War, where the ‘red menace’ permeated every fiber of American popular culture. I opted to serve my country in the military, and not as a spy, receiving a commission in the Marine Corps in 1984 as an intelligence officer. My specialty was combat, not espionage, and it seemed that my path and that of the premier American intelligence agency were never to cross....

Sean and the Sheep Pong

I was looking at some LED car light bulbs online (for a backup light application (personal vehicle) that takes a stock 921 bulb), and ran across a product with a "2020" SMD (surface mount) LED in it. I often take a look at LED specifications to see if the output claimed for a light or bulb is even possible, but in this case I could not find anything that seemed definitive, online. Most was confusing...

A new electrode that could free up 20% more light from organic light-emitting diodes has been developed at the University of Michigan. It could help extend the battery life of smartphones and laptops, or make next-gen televisions and displays much more energy efficient. The approach prevents light from being trapped in the light-emitting part of an OLED, enabling OLEDs to maintain brightness while using less power. In addition, the electrode is easy to fit into existing processes for making OLED displays and light fixtures. "With our approach, you can do it all in the same vacuum chamber," said L. Jay...

The United States led the entire world in reducing CO2 emissions last year while also experiencing solid economic growth, according to a newly released report.  “The United States saw the largest decline in energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019 on a country basis – a fall of 140 Mt, or 2.9%, to 4.8 Gt,” The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported on Tuesday. “US emissions are now down almost 1 Gt from their peak in the year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period.”“A 15% reduction in the use of coal for power generation underpinned the decline in overall US emissions...

Think mods are e not treating twitter as they should.

The Trump administration on Friday said it has finalized a decision to roll back a George W. Bush-era rule to phase out incandescent light bulbs, saying that requirements for energy efficient bulbs would be costly to consumers. The administration finalized a proposal made in September to roll back the standard that was to come into effect next year. The move has been challenged by 16 states including New York and California who say it would harm state efforts to fight climate change.

Fresh off a legislative victory for the billboard industry at Nationals Park, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans’ attempt to preserve a loophole for digital sign companies doing business in the District seemed inevitable—especially given his close ties with the vendor that stands to benefit the most. Evans recently introduced an emergency bill that would provide a permit exemption in certain cases—a boon for Digi Media Communications LLC, which already has installed numerous signs in violation of city rules and is looking to install dozens more throughout the District.

From the “law of unintended consequences” department comes this finding, suggesting that the push for eco-friendly energy savings may be doing more harm to us than good. Study links night exposure to blue light with breast and prostate cancer Researchers used images taken by astronauts to evaluate outdoor lighting in Madrid and Barcelona A study performed by an international team led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation, reports a link between exposure to blue light at night and higher risk of developing breast and prostate cancer. Blue light is a...

The American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted an official policy statement about street lighting color temperature : "minimize potential harmful human health and environmental effects."