LED Wireless Networks

Researchers at Boston University's College of Engineering are developing technology to create wireless networks that use special LED lighting (that is used in place of standard lighting) to transmit data. I love this. Not only will it encourage the wider use of LEDs as a home/business lighting option, it eliminates the electromagnetic pollution generated by wireless radio signals.

GAO criticizes US companies for exporting e-waste

A report by the GAO, and published in Network World, eviscerates US companies that claim good environmental practices with regard to electronic waste. Many companies are skirting the rules and exporting monitors and TVs to China, Pakistan and Africa. Those of us familiar with the industry have known about this problem, and it's good to see the GAO do such a comprehensive job. The real question is: will positive change be the result?

Fun on Foster

Bear is a sponsor for this years Fun on Foster and the Foster Artwalk event(s) that are happening in our neighborhood all day, Saturday, September 13th from 10am 'til 6pm. Bear is hosting live music acts in the warehouse, a recycled electronic parts art contest and an art gallery in the basement. Last year was lots of fun. That's me hangin' with (soon to be) Mayor Sam Adams at last years event.

Brighter LED developments

Researchers at Purdue University have found ways to drastically reduce the cost of manufacturing LEDs by substituting the very expensive sapphire substrate layer with a much less expensive metal-coated silicon wafer. This could mean LEDs near the same price as incandescent bulbs within two years.

The cost of saving energy using FLBs

CNN has an interview with Ron Hui, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, on the environmental downside of using fluorescent light bulbs (FLB). It's about time the mainstream press started talking about this.

A Public Service Announcement

From Vampire Bear...just watch it.

Are plasma and LCD televisions destroying the environment?

TG Daily reports the findings of Michael Prather, a research scientist at UCLA. Apparently, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) a gas used in the production of plasma and LCD screens may be more than 17,000 times more powerful of a green house gas than carbon dioxide. Oh yeah, it's not covered by the Kyoto treaty either. Now what was it that was so bad about CRTs again...?

Hat tip to Mike Wall for the link.

Peak Metal

You may have heard of the concept of Peak Oil, the idea that there is a point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction will be reached, after which the rate of production will enter a terminal decline leading to a global energy crisis. This is obviously a problem for a petroleum based economy.

What is getting a lot less attention is the concept of Peak Metal, where by the finite resources of rare earth metals and even some of the more common metals used in electronics devices are being consumed at rates that will lead to depletion of these metals in less than 10 years.

I've often mused that the increasing demand for metals for electronics will lead to the mining of old landfills to get the copper and gold buried there from previous decades, looks like that might happen sooner than I realized.

Brighter LEDs

Science Daily had this story on how researchers at the University of Glasgow are increasing the brightness of LEDs. It was posted online back in January, but I just found it, as my fascination with LED lighting is constantly growing. I just hope the three year projection of consumer availability is overly conservative. Want now.