Sir Bandelot

Indeed... Go where... no man has... gone before...

Then there are the disposal costs, which will involve either recycling or hazardous waste collection of expired CFL's. THis cost will ultimately be passed on to the consumer. I prefer to use a combination of both CFL's and incandescents. I like the CFL's where the application involves leaving the light on for long periods of time. CFL's work best that way, and last longest. They are not good for outdoor however, because in my experience they don't like to start, "ignite" in very cold weather. I prefer incandescents where the light is switched on frequently but only briefly. Like lights in the staircase, or the bathroom which also uses a smaller sized buld with the candela base. And in some cases where I want a low level of light, like in the hall outside the bedroom. CFL's, while they are low wattage are not low in light level. Sadly, in the near future I the consumer will no longer have a choice. Thanks to government interference, the incandescents will be BANNED, making their sale, ownership and use illegal. What a bunch of jackasses run this country, and the bigger jackasses are the ones who vote for them, again and again.

Plus, she can finish her knitting...

Yeah, things will really start picking up, once we invent the matter- antimatter "warp drive"...

It's not really my type of music, although I do like "Won't get fooled again" for the lyrics. I'm sure many a British soccer hooligans heart was shattered to find out, the Who were gay.

I believe a certain referendum did prove you wrong.

The divide on unfettered liberalism goes beyond merely "immigrants" vs. "non-immigrants".

It may be theoretically impossible to travel at light speed, but at 50% speed of light it would take 8 years to get there. Not out of reach for new world explorers. If Columbus can do it in 1492, we can do it! But as far as deep space travel goes, there are other formidable problems, like intense radiation belts around the solar system that might make it practically impossible.

Some stars are very close. The Alpha Centauri system is only about 2 light years away, and there is evidence of a planetary system around some of the stars there as well.

The distribution of planet sizes is also interesting.

Well I have also read that the "white" LEDs actually put out a larger blue level component. Widespread use of these lights will increase the light pollution coming from cities, a growing concern for the International Dark Sky Association, and for astronomers like me. Sodium lamps give off a very specific wavelength that is relatively easy to filter out, using a "notch" filter. Not so with LED's, or any light source with a color temperature above 3000K. Source Help preserve our dark skies. Please shut your outdoor lights off at night, when not needed!

I don't pretend to have all the answers either. I just think part of the solution is to encourage and support the good muslims, and firmly oppose the radical nut jobs. We need to discriminate, not paint them all with the same brush. Treating them as second class citizens (muslim apartheid) would give the nut jobs more justification for their anti-western message. Then the muslim youth, then next generation will grow up despising the west because they are disadvantaged from birth, just by nature of being a muslim.

Mercury lasts a while. As of next year, your choice is to use an expensive LED with limited light output, or a cheaper and brighter CFL. Also, LED's are not completely non toxic as they like many optical semiconductors contain metals such as gallium arsenide. Other lighting options like the Halogens contain a gas that is destructive to the ozone layer. Seems there's no free ride.

Yes we should. And if a people elects leaders who advocate preemptive wars of aggression, and ignore the plight of a nation put under sanctions for 20 years, resulting in the death of innumerable, some say up to 500,00 children, they should be called barbaric as well. So knowing this I ask, what are you going to do about it? Bomb them into the stone age? Cause I got news for you pal, they're already there. But that should hardly be the response of a civilized (non-barbaric) society. The objective would be to find a way to get them to stop being barbarians, without becoming barbarians ourselves. I know, that is a very very tall order. It's far easier and quicker to go down the ladder, than it is to go up.

The mercury is a very serious problem, in particular if these bulbs become the main light source for millions of homes in Canada. Even with the implementation of a recycling program, some bulbs will be improperly discarded and it will lead to contamination. We saw what mercury did to Lake Ontario fish, for example. This reminds me of that time a few decades ago when grocery stores all switched from paper to plastic bags. Ordinary people (not government) were asking at the time what will happen in a few decades, when the landfills are full of plastic instead of biodegradable paper. Well here we are now. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. The short sightedness of our leadership (read: rich people's kids) is only concerned about solving the immediate problem now, for the minimum buck and let someone else deal with the problems this causes in the future. This probably has some connection to international commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, through energy conservation. And the concept of "banning" incandescent lights is absurd and another example of excessive government control. What next, a "black" market on incandescents, complete with fines or perhaps a prison sentence?

That is a moot point, because no one in their right mind would deny such things are barbaric.

Well I am no expert in these matters, but a tree is mostly carbon, and that carbon as to come from somewhere. Maybe the evergreens, pines do not suck up as much co2 as those ones in the Amazon did... you know... the place in South America where great swaths of rain forest were cut down to make cattle pastures. But trees take a long time to grow. Huge crops of marijuana, on the other hand, which have a turn around cycle of about 3 months per crop... would provide excellent fiber, seed and flowers. And it's a cash crop. You would have no problem finding volunteers to help work the land...

Grow trees.

Culturally backward- we have degenerated from what was a far more refined culture. Extremely violent, brutal and intolerant- Our armies sent from this part of the world have easily killed more than anything they have done, ten times over. Whether that be done through sanctions, carpet bombing or use of nuclear weapons. Really if this is to be the scale we use for barbarism, the west wins the prize. Add to that the the hypocritical judgment of others as evil, barbarous and inferior, you get the picture. Not that I hate our society, or think that its inferior to others but if we're going to pass some sort of judgment on who is "right" or "wrong", lets do it in fairness and honesty. Whoops, forgot, this is "politics"

How many die in Canada each year? From murder, neglect, abortion. How many in the United States? Is it the same number per capita? What percentage would you "civilized" people find acceptable. You who vote in the murderers. Who do nothing when sanctions are imposed, that killed thousands or hundreds of thousands of children. Who's leaders deemed it "acceptable losses"...

Here is an analogy you may understand... when you put some ice cubes in your rocks glass, and pour warm rye on it, the ice melts. And yet, at the same time the rye gets cold. It confounds the imagination. But fret not, after a while the ice is gone, and the rye starts to warm up again (if you can wait that long). Then everything reaches a homogeneous temperature. See? You don't need a university degree or supercomputer to figure that out

Of course it's still a highly dangerous area, there was a major bombing in Kabul just recently, and the Governor of Kandahar was killed by a suicide bomber yesterday. Nothing of substance has been accomplished, vis a vis Taliban. What we're seeing now is the first steps toward a pullout, mission unaccomplished. If the mission was to stabilize and reduce extremism, mission anti-accomplished. We must not blame the military. The rich people's kids who run our country have absolutely goofed it. Yet despite their failings and loss of life, undermining national security they will not be held accountable. Oh Canada

It appears that the tipping point between "retreating" and "advancing" glaciers is only a few degrees C. Other factors might that come into play, like extremely high altitude. Maybe we should all move to the Himilayas?

Your link does not work. There is an extra "http" in front of it. I fixed it in the above quote. This just shows how utterly ridiculous the situation is that we have gotten into. Although, I do not subscribe to you notion that profiling is the better way. I call the empire "the animal". The animal has built up its strength and dominance over individuals, and uses punitive measures against anyone who challenges the established notion of "right", or, "lawful". Democracy has failed in this regard because the voice of the people, and the better interests of the people is no longer served. There is no "animal" outside of ourselves, but rather like a collective consciousness that the herd instinct dogmatically adheres to. People are born and raised to obey authority. Keeping people dumb helps to ensure they follow the rules without question, without thought. From this view it is better if people do not have creative ideas of their own, or read or learn about information that challenges the established mindset. Yesterdays artist, poet, thinker, social critic will be tomorrows terrorist. Because the animal fears; the animal is the reptilian part of our brain. Another fine example of strict adherence to rules, lack of human compassion. The cold, incorporate view of social justice. The state as supreme mono-archy. Mother sent to jail

You mean that good family friend of Peter Mackay and Stephen Harper?