TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2007
Tuesday Edition: States Back Fluorescent
Stateline.org reports:Lawmakers in at least seven states want to ban ordinary light bulbs in favor of longer-lasting, energy-efficient compact fluorescents.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) already has ordered state agencies to fill the light sockets with fluorescents to save electricity and cut power-plant emissions blamed for global warming.
In what could be the beginning of the end for inventor Thomas Alva Edison's most famous achievement, even his home state of New Jersey has a bill to do away with energy-eating incandescent bulbs in state government buildings within three years. A similar proposal is up for debate in South Carolina. And legislatures in California, Connecticut, North Carolina and Rhode Island are debating bills to phase out traditional light bulbs statewide by 2012 or 2016 as a way to trim consumers' and governments' electricity bills and to help save the planet from global warming.
The incandescent light bulb isn't on a slippery slope just in the United States. Australia already has banned it by 2010, and the Canadian province of Ontario will do the same by 2012.
The problem is that more than 90 percent of the energy used to light a thin tungsten filament inside common bulbs -- using a different material but the same design as Edison in 1879 -- goes to waste as excess heat, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Several inventors actually worked on the light bulb before Edison, but he's credited with improving it enough for safe, practical use.
Fluorescent lights use electricity to excite a gas inside a glass tube. They consume one-quarter to one-third as much electricity as conventional light bulbs and last up to 10 times longer, according to ACEEE. One downside, though, is they also contain small amounts of toxic mercury and should be properly recycled, the EPA recommends.
With an estimated 4 billion light sockets in the country, the simple gesture of changing a light bulb is seen as a big idea in a world just told by an international scientific panel that human activity is almost certainly heating up the planet. The less electricity a household uses, the less power that must be generated by coal- and natural gas-fired plants that produce carbon dioxide, one of the main gases blamed for global warming.
The California bill, which would ban the sale of most incandescent bulbs in the Golden State by 2012, was passed by the Assembly's Utilities and Commerce Committee on April 23. A competing measure would require all residential lighting in California to be 50 percent more energy-efficient by 2018.
The proposed bans in California, North Carolina and Rhode Island would bar the sale of incandescent bulbs that use 25 watts to 150 watts of electricity but would exclude appliance lighting and several specialty lamps, such as used in traffic signals, on boats or inside mines.
The Connecticut bill would authorize the state Commissioner of Environmental Protection to develop a list of inefficient incandescent bulbs to be banned.
When you dispose of a fluorescent bulb, do not just toss it in the trash. The Department of Energy says:
CFLs contain a small amount of mercury and should be disposed of properly, ideally recycled. More information regarding mercury in CFLs, including proper disposal options and what to do if a bulb breaks, can be found in this fact sheet [PDF].
Colleges Boost Security
Now, two weeks after the Virginia Tech shootings, schools have gone beyond talking about changing their security and have started installing new systems. The Washington Post says:
Catholic University in the District is adding sirens to its security cameras. Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., will start training students how to get out of harm's way during a crisis. The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., has decided to break its tradition of open barrack doors and install locks.
After the shootings at Virginia Tech [...], scores of schools across the country have implemented measures to bolster security and improve communication.
The story adds:
State officials also are getting involved. New Jersey legislators are readying legislation to require colleges to submit security plans to state officials by the summer. Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) called for a statewide meeting of colleges and universities to review security procedures.
Colleges also are enlisting the help of law enforcement officers. In Nashville, police officials met [last] week with security officers and administrators from more than a dozen colleges and universities and assessed each school's response plans.
DVD Vending Machines
They are a big deal already in some places because they involve so little manpower.
Al's Morning Multimedia: It's a "Second Life" World
Just as Facebook, MySpace and a gazillion other sites sprang up and found life long before mainstream journalists knew about it, a Web site -- which may be better described as a Web way of life -- called Second Life has millions of devoted users.
University of Maryland professor Don Heider, an old friend of mine from our TV days together in Nashville, is co-authoring a book about Second Life. I interviewed Don to see what journalists should know.
Click here to see a video of our interview.
In a few sentences, explain what Second Life is. Tell us about the economy, interaction and social networking that occurs there, too.
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world -- accessed through the Web. It's free to join and participate. It is a place with geography, physics and a sense of place, and is populated by people represented by avatars. It's a social world, a game for some and, for others, a building and development tool.
When you started studying Second Life, what surprised you most?
I just visited at first -- didn't have any idea I would study it, but I was amazed by the place. It's not a game in the classic sense in that there are no goals. You're not earning points or reaching levels. But it did have playful elements. It also is a place where people are allowed to let their creativity run free, and the company that runs it -- Linden Lab -- allows people to have the intellectual property rights to whatever they create inside the world.
I was surprised by the rich social interaction -- how people treated each other, the complex relationships that were formed, the level of emotional attachment, just to name a few things. It felt like the first time I got on the Internet, there seemed to be that kind of open-ended potential in Second Life.
There are 5.8 million residents in Second Life and 1.7 million logins in the last month. When I logged in, there were 36,000 other people logged on. What is the attraction to this thing?
One good thing to know is you have to take Linden Lab's numbers with a grain of salt. There are 5.8 million accounts, but people can create multiple accounts. My guess to date would still be between 1 and 2 million individuals with accounts.
I think the attraction is a place where you can create your own reality and experience the different realities others have created as well. I've described Second Life to some as "playing Barbie on steroids." You can make your avatar beautiful, sexy, attractive and dress it up in all sorts of different outfits -- then buy land, build or purchase a home, furnish the home, get a car and boat, etc. In this way, it resembles some of our childhood fantasies. But for others, there are much different kinds of fantasies that they can live out that might include living life as an animal, living cross-gendered, living as a slave, experiencing life as a vampire -- those kinds of things.
Some people join for the economic aspects. There is a real viable business community. There is a currency which can be bought and sold for real dollars, and people come in and create and sell goods and services, a few with considerable success. But many people come with the idea that this might be a place to make money.
I understand that Reuters even has a Second Life reporter. Is Reuters covering the real news about SL, or is it covering the virtual news that occurs in that virtual world?
Adam Pasick spends a few hours a day in Second Life and writes about activities and events in the world as well as covering a larger beat of technology. Reuters has built a very good site inside Second Life where residents can go to find out about news or get a device they can carry with them that apprises them of news going on in the world.
See Reuters' interview with Pasick here.
What stories do you think journalists should do about Second Life?
Remember this? "There are 8 million stories in the naked city." Well, in this virtual world, there are a lot of stories to be done. There are some already that are overdone. Second Life has been covered by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, NBC, BBC, etc. The most frequent story: how people are making money in Second Life. The problem is, not that many people really are. Often these stories have lacked perspective and context, often because the reporters covering them haven't spent any time in the world. They feel like those bad, old stories by new foreign correspondents right off the boat. There was a high gee-whiz factor but almost no understanding of what they were seeing and reporting.
The other issue is -- Second Life is anonymous. So, reporters have to persuade people to go public so they can tell their stories. I think the key for this, like any story, is trying to find a local angle.
A good way to learn about Second Life other than just spending time there is to read blogs about it. One of the better ones is done by an embedded journalist in Second Life, Wagner James Au.
Along the right column on his page are links to many other blogs. Some of the bloggers identify their real identity and include contact information.
I think Au has also operated like a de facto PR person for Linden Lab regarding Second Life. His in-world name is Hamlet Linden, and he can be contacted at hamlet@secondlife.com.
A few good story ideas
- A number of community organizations have support groups or a presence in Second Life. What are they doing there and why?
- Many universities are building sites in Second Life. Are they teaching classes? Is this the future of distance education?
- Corporations are entering Second Life, from Reebok to NBC. What do they hope to gain from their presence?
- Love and marriage are a big part of Second Life. Many people have romances in the world even though they may already be married. What effect do virtual relationships have on real-life marriages?
A couple of final notes. Tech consultancy Gartner, whose "Hype Cycle" has measured Second Life adoption, predicts that 80 percent of active Internet users will be in non-gaming virtual worlds like Second Life by the end of 2011. This is a big increase from levels now. And there is a small but public insurgency about some nagging problems inside Second Life.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Posted at 12:22:32 PM
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