Slashdot Mirror
Hacking the Fluorescent Light
DynaSoar writes "MSNBC reports on an elegant hack performed on the common fluorescent tube. By mixing phosphorescent material with the usual white fluorescent material, American Environmental Products has developed a tube that continues to glow when shut off. Originally intended for submarines, and then used in places where terrorists could disrupt services, they are also perfect for power outages, providing some light so you don't have to thrash around in the dark looking for your candles and flashlights. Since the 'hack' is inside the tube, they can also be removed from their fixtures and carried around, as well as provide light even if they're shattered."
OMG, all they need to do is put a hard-shield around the glass tube ;P
This msg is brought to you by the letter 'W'.. for Worthless Wuss
besides that it's an interesting toy, what would be a real use for common people of this tube?
-m-m-
Aren't fluorescent bulbs the ones that implode if mishandled? I just don't want a face full of glass when the power is out. If I am incorrect, then this hack is awesome.
how do you turn these lights off.
but how is this a hack? I mean its not something we could do ourselves at home and while its really nifty I don't see its overall usefulness to the everyday person for the cost. Wouldn't it just be cheaper to install glow in the dark plastic strips along the hallways and such? Just my $0.02.
"To face death, that's nothing much. But to feel really stupid when you die, well, that would be insufferable."
Why didn't i think of that?
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
While this is a great product, I can see people like my granny going nuts over this. She can't handle the TV anymore (called me because it wouldn't work - I guess it has to be plugged in!), the telephone (has no idea how voicemail works, thinks that I am my answering machine). When lightbulbs exist that won't turn off, that might just be over the top.
I am installing these in my fleet of nuclear subs right away! :P
Join the Empire! http://www.empirereborn.net/
"...used in places where terrorists could disrupt services,..."
Nothing like a little shilling for that fat government contract, yes?
...used in places where terrorists could disrupt services, they are also perfect for power outages...
Because we all know that terrorist attacks are way more common than power outages. I hate this "War on Terror." It's the major reason for doing anything at this point, and it's not a particularly good one.
Haida Manga
lightsabers
DO IT
From TFA: "The tubes can even be removed from their fixture and carried around as portable light sources."
Now this is impressive. Unscrew the bulb/tube and walk with it to safety. Very nice idea.
"Even if the tubes are shattered by an explosion, the shards will still provide light"
A smart idea. Also can serve as a sort of "bread crumbs" way for people to explore in dark passageways and find their way back out. Kind of hard to clean up shattered glass tubing.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
So what do you do when you really do want the lights off? Wait? Geez.
I always wanted a light bulb that I couldn't turn off. I suppose I could just remove the switch and connect the wires, but this solution is so much simpler.
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
I wonder how deadly the chemicals in these are compared to normal tubes as well.
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
This is an excellent example of advancing something that we take for granted. Although the idea of carrying one of these is really bad considering the thin glass walls of the tube, as a safety device it makes sense for these to be fitted to shops, warehouses and offices.
Guys, I think the big reason this hasn't caught on already is that it would mean your lights could never be turned off instantly.
Your room would remain lit up for the few hours it takes for the glowing substance to completely discharge.
As neat as this feature is, I certainly wouldn't want it in my house.
What a bright idea!
I'll be here all night, ladies and gents!
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Many fluorescent lamps already glow long enough in the dark to be annoying. And there are already emergency lights anywhere where terrorists (or natural disaster) can disrupt services, and presumably their batteries last longer, and they are controllable.
Well probably still a nice idea by itself, unlike using terrorist attack for the marketing.
I AM 73H 1337! I H4X UR L1GHT SO 1T DOESN'T TURN 0FF! LOLLOLLOL!
The obvious problem I see is that if you switch them off, they keep on glowing. Clearly these are not useful except in a handful of very specific situations.
"Place me in the company of those who seek Truth, but deliver me from those who believe to have found it."
The terrorists could also use the same technology to continue their work after a [US] strike takes out power.
But the question is whether this is the same science in glow sticks or one Catholic rosary I have seen that glows in the dark.
The idea is clever, and real simple. All you do: 1) Purchase some glow-in-the-dark paint availiable at any common hobby store (not reflective paint, but glo-paint!) 2) Paint your "light stick..." he he ) (that's the neon tube to those of you that actually thought of something else). 3) Make sure you paint around the MIDDLE of the tube and not the contact-areas as the paint probably can catch fire if too close to the hot-coils inside the tube...that is...NOT near the terminals) 4) Now re-insert it into the socket armature. Have fun! It works the same way...it'll glow for hours. Now...you see...the man who invented this...probably did the same, but inside the tube instead....don't try THAT yourself..unless you have some smart way of filling the lamp with neon gas...again...and sealing tight! That's todays lesson for you - Have fun kids!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
There's more detail on what he's doing with Patent 6,917,154. It's definately not a hack, it's just a new (and obviously expensive) process. Interesting quote:
The after-glow phosphor of the scotopic after-glow lamp of the present invention is selected with a hyperbolic decay rate dropping to approximately ten (10%) percent of its initial brightness in about six minutes and to one-tenth that in an hour.
Anyway, read up, interesting stuff.
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
if the tube breaks, not only can you use the shards for lighting for the next hour or so, you can also easily dispose of the shards too (well duh, theres no lighting and all the pieces of the tube are glowing :P)
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
How incredibly new! *sarcasm* I think a lot of us had glow in the dark stars when we were kids. What I'm curious about is if they were able to increase the intensity far greater then those glowing pieces of plastic.... Nothing to see here. Move along.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
There's a serious lack of actual data in the articles, but my suspicion is that by putting glow-in-the-dark stuff on the inside of the tube it benefits from all the extra UV that you get inside the tube.
A fluorescent lamp glows by discharging electricity into a gas which then gives off UV. The phosphorescent coating inside the tube takes the UV and turns it into light.
The glow-in-the-dark strips also respond to UV light, but in a way that stores and releases the energy later. You could just put up strips, but only a tiny percentage of the UV light from the tubes would hit them; the rest would leak out into the room. (And they're designed to give off as little UV as possible, since it's unhealthy and wasteful; you want it as visible light.)
So by effectively putting the UV strips inside the tube, you charge them up when the light is on. You'd have to cover the walls with UV strips to get the same effect outside the lamp.
For everyday people? Probably not. Not in your home, at least, where you probably want it dark when you turn off the lights. But in office buildings, these could be a nice alternative to the emergency lights that are required in most places. No extra wiring; you just fit fancy bulbs into the existing fluorescent fixtures.
I have one in my bedroom here in Japan for the last four years. It is a ring florescent tube that glows like a night light after the light goes out. The light is made by NEC and is called Hotarukku (a play on the word hotaru, which is Japanese for firefly). It seems they launched the product in March 2000. http://www.nelt.co.jp/navi/la_shg/fre_shg.htm (Japanese) gives specs and has some pics showing the room lit with the light on and off.
This is a solution desperately looking for a problem. It isn't even a good one. It could only work in basements and office buildings, at night, if there are no windows nearby. (I presume you would be able to see your way around by the steady glow of the raging fires shining in through the broken windows.)
This was indeed a hack and so is the guy.
Didn't he ever ask himself "Why?"
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Yay. So now I wont need an extension cord when I play with my light saber any more. Because we all play with a light saber now and then, right guys? Guys?
By turning the light on and off and using the afterglow would it be possible to get a lower overall energy usage?
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
The vapour in fluorescent tubes is mercury (Hg). Very bad to breathe, and perilous to touch too (unless you wash hard, and even potent cleansers aren't designed to remove heavy metal contamination).
That's why they need phosphorescent coating in the first place: the excited Hg vapour emits UV, and it's actually the phosphors that 'fluoresce' visible EM.
Competent safety procedures include vacating the area of a fluorescent bulb break for at least ten minutes, followed by thorough cleanup and HAZMAT disposal of the materials used.
This will work great when the water-based fireplace blows a breaker!
One obvious (at least to me) use for this that no one has mentioned yet is energy conservation. Just turn on your glowing fluorescent light, let it charge up, switch it off, and Ta-Da! you have light without using electricity for about an hour. True, the light is much weaker than standard electric lighting, but it is a step in the right direction.
A company produces an interesting variation of a product that has been mass-produced for decades, and it's called a hack? And how did you manage to get your shiny new favourite word, "terrorist" in a summary on flourescent tubes? Let me read that again. Interesting story, puerile summary.
My motorbike travels in Chile.
those were filled with petrol
does it involve gasoline and soap? 'Cause if so, it's been done and it doesn't work too good.
Schrodinger's cat is either dead or really pissed off...
Go to your local hobby store, buy glow in the dark paint. It is not opaque . . . paint it on your light tube, install . . . and you'll get the same emergency lighting.
It's also in the anarchist cookbook.
Problem: Domestically produced commodity items are no longer cost competetive in the marketplace. Increased competition from overseas manufacturing is producing insurmountable pricing pressure on commodity items. Company is approaching insolvency.
Solution: Minor cosmetic changes to commodity product manufacturing process. Re-write marketing material to reflect the change, emphasis on the 'terrorist' application. Increase sale price dramatically to reflect the new 'terrorist' application.
Results: Small increase in sales volume, substantial improvement of product margins. Financial insolvency averted.
Conclusions: Terrorist hysteria is an effective marketing tool. Properly exploited in the marketing literature, the terrorist hysteria can breath new financial life into any product that is no longer producing adaquate margins through traditional channels.
Future Risk Analysis: A fundamental shift in marketing strategy brings with it inherent market risks. The major risk of this conceptual change is that the public mindset will begin to discard the 'terrorist threat', rendering increased marketing efforts in this area ineffective. This risk is deemed minimal at this time, the majority of the expenditures required to maintain the public mindset are being undertaken by the federal government, with a virtually unlimited budget for this marketing effort. This paradigm shift by our company is essentially parasite marketing where our relatively small marketing budget is being used to leverage the expenditures of the federal government. This strategy should remain effective for a minimum of one election cycle, so we should see improvements in the bottom line for at least the next 10 quarters. The primary risk moving forward is that the federal government expenditures to promote terrorist hysteria are reduced, with a resultant loss of marketplace mindset for this strategy. This is a relatively small risk moving forward, and partially offset by hundreds of companies such as our own, all focussed on re-working marketing strategies to promote and extend the terrorist hysteria.
Recommendations: Marketing budget needs to be re-allocated. Television advertising should only be purchased on networks whose news organizations properly emphasize the terrorist threat. The same for print media advertising. The marketing department needs to re-allocate human resources, emphasis on 'product efficiency' needs to be lowered, with appropriate staffing reductions. A new team needs to be established to emphasize the 'security' aspect of the product. A 'threat analyst' should be hired, and put in charge of this new team, who will be responsible for producing white papers emphasizing the 'security' aspect of the product, with particular detail on the 'terrorist' aspect.
MacGyver's known this for years. Why, with just a tub of cottage cheese and a Tickle-me-Elmo he can turn it into a fully functional PS3.
no, a capacitator needs to be charged and an inductor needs to euh lets call it charged as well
the load procces takes up most power, besides flouresant light are pretty low in energy usage
i wonder if this harms the power usage of the lamps
basicaly the glow in the dark substance is poluting
the the coating that makes the light visible
but i'm no electrical engenier
Sheesh! Those Japanese have a different word for Everything!
I can see the marketing dweebs getting their hands on this bad boy. While the lights are on, the room looks normal, proper, clean even. There would be no advertising for the darker culture, the elements that more conservative people abhor.
But turn off the lights, and all of the sudden you get ads for... well, I'll let your mind wander. Just little logos, or maybe slogans, painted on the inside of the lights that glows for a few hours after the club or restaurant gets 'busy.' Perhaps in a bathroom fixture in an hourly hotel room.
I suddenly feel my brain shrinking from thinking like a marketer. I'm gonna go wash my hands now...
I wonder how much the (powered) light output is diminished for a feature that will be used for a vanishingly small part of the useful lifetime of each tube...
...make floursecent tubes that emit a decent color and intensity of light I might consider using them.
By "Colorado Firm" did they mean to say
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla "Nikola Tesla" ?
It seems that the use of the word 'hack' is sufficient to get any bit of product development on to /.
This article is an example of product development, not a hack!
In terms of annoying flicker from fluorescent lights, this will be like adding a capacitor across "noisy" DC current to smooth it out -- fluorescent light will have smoother, more natural look without the headache-inducing flicker.
Possible uses: Nightlights - turn the kids light off and it glows for a while so they go to sleep (you'd still need the little light on the way to the bathroom). Folks are willing to pay extra for baby stuff. 1 out of 5 (or 10) of the lights in a commercial or institutional (esp schools) setting. I was in a cubical farm the other day and the lights went out. A few glowing tubes would have made it much more pleasant for folks to sit around goofing off. Stairways. Hospitals - the one I worked at had to work on rewiring areas to provide emergency lights. This would be cheaper.
This could also be used for energy savings - you don't need to supply power to the lamp continuously. Power off the lamp and still get the illumination for a while. When it gets dim, turn on the power again. Put in a timer circuit and it happens automatically. Assuming you could do a 50% on 50% off cycle, you've automatically doubled the efficiency of the lamp (by reusing UV energy that was otherwise lost).
The lamp pays for itself. Your energy sources last longer. The world is a better place.
cat
That was my first thought on reading the summary. I really hope my boss doesn't read Slashdot today...
The company I work for actually had a competition a few years back to find the best suggestions for cost-cutting. The person who won the trip to a World Cup Soccer match actually suggested we turn the lights off in the office at night (when there's nobody there!). At the time we all joked that if they hadn't thought of that they evidently had bigger problems than cost-cutting...
If these lights could be made to provide a higher percentage of the "power on" light, and last for a little longer, I could really see the bean counters going for this.
And that kids is how I met your mother.
they can also be removed from their fixtures and carried around
Great!!! My "Christopher Lambert in Subway" Halloween costume is complete!!!
This sig intentionally left justified.
If he's still living with his mom I hope tv room means television.
This is exactly the reason we need this technology right now. I am already imagining fluorescent tube light saber battles... oh yeah, come get some of the glowing.
cool as this sounds, its over engineered, a recharble battery and battery powered bulb could do the same.
I sense a large number of Star Wars related accidents in the not too distant future.
As a former employee in R&D for American Environmental Products who was wrongfully terminated due to backstabbing politics, I thought it only fair to to take a page out of AEP's own rulebook and play dirty. As such, here are a few projects that are still under wraps for future release:
1. A faucet that continues to release water after being shut off.
2. A car engine that won't start on a full tank.
3. Slashcode that won't accept a submission if it hasn't been posted before.
What goes around, comes around, AEP. Take that.
about time someone shed some light on this.
(ducks)
I hate existing flourescent bulbs. They give me a headache. This phosphor which glows continuously should help to reduce flicker.
Even a much shorter-lived phosphor would be good: If one could develop a phosphor which decays at about the rate that a lightbulb filament cools down, then we get both flicker-free lighting AND essentially instantaneous turn-off.
As a former submariner, I can attest to it's usefullness on a submarine. The only places that are dark are berthing, and Control, if we are doing night ops. The cost isn't prohibitive on a submarine, so that doesn't matter. There already is a emergency lighting system in place, that runs of the battery on loss of AC, but it would be great to not need that right away, and save some of the juice in the battery.
Finally we get those cool umbrellas from Blade Runner.
A man in England has some different ideas concerning the fluorescent tube.
Seems kinda dangerous - not something that you should try at home...
Nothing sucks like a Vax, nothing blows like a PowerMac G4
Sorry, fella. But seriously, there is prior art to this one.
Read on...
In March 11, 1986, a college dormitory had a power outage in the middle of the nite. Imagine a hallway without windows, just dorm doors.
Anyway, there is a lone light fixture that illuminated the middle of the hall. Naturally, like moth, students began to congregate around the lite.
It remained bright enough for some of the students to hold conversation in sign language.
It stay alit for four hours before the power was restored. More than 10% of brightness remains.
So, I swiped the tube... I still have it...
...a short story by Philip K. Dick called "Foster, You're Dead". Find a copy and read it, it's good. It's about a kid during an alternate-reality cold war whose father refuses to buy a nuke shelter. Wikipedia Link
---
Recent studies indicate that you are a moron.
Generated by SlashdotRndSig via GreaseMonkey
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
The problem with neon is that it glows orange. The solution has been to use mercury vapor which emits ultraviolet and coat the inside of the tubes with a florescent material to bring it down to visible (and mostly white) light. I'd say the real achievement here is getting a mostly white glow-in-the-dark phosphor. You don't really appreciate white light until you have to deal with odd colors a lot. I pity those who work in "dance"clubs.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
What is going on with the use of Hack? So anytime someone invents or improves something it's a 'hack'? Give me a break guys.
Mod parent up +1 Zork Reference
If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
or am I missing something by not reading the article?
I bought a blue compact fluorescent bulb a while ago for no particular reason. When switched off, the bulb continues to glow perceptably for a couple minutes. It's not bright enough to light up the room, but it looks really weird. I hope the bulbs mentioned in the article, which I haven't read, glow a little brighter.
This will completely ruin the premise of shooting out the lights in Splinter Cell!
--I smoked my sig.
Date: Thursday, September 23, 1999 7:21 AM From: http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma/offline.htm Offline Illumination; Steamshovel Press Spooky Boys With Spooky Toys by Uri Dowbenko Future War: Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First Century Warfare by Colonel John B. Alexander, US Army (Retired) (1999, St. Martin's Press, 254 pp.. $24.95) Colonel John Alexander never met a war he didn't like. As an unofficial spokesman for the Military-Industrial Complex, Alexander has written a book called Future War in which he continues to ply his trade -- promoting war -- and most importantly advocating those all-important expendables called "weapons systems." The oxymoronic "non-lethal weapons" which Alexander touts are anything but. They include exotic systems like electromagnetic weapons, chemical and biological warfare, so-called physical restraints like goop guns, etc., acoustic weapons, as well as information warfare technologies, which include good old-fashioned military propaganda -- like his book itself. Without questioning the wrong-headed abstruse US Government policies of war-making, he includes a brief history of War's Greatest Hits in a chapter called "Are We the World's Police Force?" Alexander's answer is an unequivocal yes. These include -- Restore Hope: Somalia; United Shield: Somalia Round II; Uphold Democracy: Haiti; Bosnia; The Idaho Rebellion (just kidding). Internet Bashing In a chapter called "Information Warfare," Alexander sounds the alarm about -- you guessed -it -- the "dangers of the Internet." You see, those nasty hackers, crackers and phrackers are out to get the Information Infrastructure. How do we know? Alexander says so. "It is predicted that anti-hacker software sales will increase from $1.1 billion in 1995 to greater than $16 billion in 2000," he writes. "The President's Committee of Critical Infrastructure Protection noted the increased likelihood of computer terrorism and recommended that research and development, now $250 million annually, should be increased $100 million per year until $12 billion is provided on a yearly basis." No matter what the "security" problem, all we need to do is spend more taxpayer dollars on the Military-Industrial Complex. Secret Life of John Alexander Virtually disregarded in this book is Alexander's spooky background as a Psy0ps (or psychological operations) expert, as well as a psychic warfare- mind control operative. According to Alex Constantine, author of Virtual Government (Feral House, 1997), Colonel John Alexander has displayed a long term interest in the paranormal and "has actively promoted psychic metal bending among government personnel using the techniques pioneered by Jack Houck of McDonnell-Douglas." Before his "retirement," Alexander had a 32-year career in the Army, including a stint as director of Advanced Systems Concepts Office, US Army Laboratory Command Alexander was also chief of the Advanced Human Technology Office & Security Command (INSCOM) and ran the "non-lethal" weapons lab at Los Alamos in New Mexico. Alexander allegedly also has a doctor's degree in thanatology, the science of death. British reporter Armen Victorian concludes that John B. Alexander is an active operative assigned to a covert military group "specializing in dissemination of disinformation," collectively known as the "Aviary." In a recent interview, David Morehouse, author of Psychic Warrior, (St. Martin's Press, 1996) reports that "Alexander was a Special Forces officer in Vietnam who commanded a Montagnard battalion. Others say he was a member of the Phoenix Project [the notorious CIA assassination program]. When he came out, he worked with the intelligence community and he never left." Later Alexander led a CIA harassment campaign against Morehouse. Alexander, the "retired" colonel working for the CIA, Jim Schnabel and Joe McMoneagle were all actively involved in spreading disinformation Campaign against him on the Internet, says Morehouse. Politically Incorrect Warrior And why was Morehouse harassed?
Light Happens.
do they come in flourescent red?
Where you look at it and think,
`Well gee whiz, why didn't anyone do this before? It's so obvious.'
It's like when you're a kid and you're trying out your new watch with the glow-in-the-dark hands by holding it up to the light and then turning the light off to see the neat little dots.
It's like the ball-bearing. For years grease, at first animal and then more refined, was used to keep wheels from burning on axles, probably after a carter with roast pork or chicken greased fingers had to make an emergency repair.
Some years later, bullets are being made for muskets and early pistols by using molds, and dropping small amounts of lead down the inside of a tower into tepid water.
What was the thing that triggered the mental connection between wheels and balls to allow the wheel to spin much more freely?
What was the trigger that prompted someone to look at a fluorescent light bulb and think,
`Hey, if we put some sort of glow-in-the-dark shit in that, it'll work even when it's off!'
I love these little inventions because you never really think about them and make the connections, but then once someone does, it all just seems so simple and obvious.
I think it's a perfect example of the humorous theory that ideas are just out there, like bits of benign radiation just zipping about the cosmos, and every once in a while they pass through the right person's head and trigger off all the right neurons to germinate that idea inside that person's mind.
`Eureka!'* He cried as he leapt from the bath, his face aglow with sudden clarity of thought.
* `Hand me a towel!'
His name is Robert Paulsen...
THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVER! this is why: WHEN YOU GO TO SLEEP AND YOU TURN OFF YOUR LIGHT....IT WONT TURN OUT!!!!!~!! YOU'LL NEVER SLEEP!!!!! that hard cover better have a snooze button taht makes it go black, or else this will become quickly the "worst idea ever."
The only downside I can think of right now is that the effort needed to scrape off the coating and later reseal the tube might exceed that of just making a vacuum tube designed for the task in the first place.
But I love this kind of grass roots recycling thinking!
These would be great for lightsabre battles! Much better than pouring gas inside of one anyway... but you'd need to wear gloves.
:)
Really though, regarding the post, does everything need to be related to terrorism? Isn't that just a marketing ploy? Don't we already have our anti-terrorist duct tape at the ready?
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
What ever happened to this fluorescent light bulb hack? I'd pay good money for x-ray specs, even if they are 3m long.
If the new material absorbs the UV light and releases visible light more slowly, doesn't that mean that the outer coating on the bulb has less UV to absorb for itself?
Also read a more informative piece in http://www.drhoffman.com/page.cfm/444 which references "Strontium ranelate boosts bone density in elderly women" from N Engl J Med 2004;350:459-468. This article outlines different forms of Strontium that have been used in medicine, and their effects. Looks like Sr actually aids in increasing bone density, and tooth integrity.
BTW, Sr-90, being a good beta emitter, is used in nuclear gauging. Years ago I maintained and calibrated Betamike(TM) gauging systems measuring extruded plastic web from 0.010" up to approx. 0.100" thick (control system maintenance only; we farmed out all the 'hot' work).
Sr-90 (28.78 yr half-life, pure beta emitter) breaks down to Yttrium-90 (64.1 hour half-life, also beta), then to Zirconium 90 (stable). Does a good job, but, after 15 to 20 years, and enough of the the source has changed to Zr it is necessary to boost amplifier gain pretty high resulting in a poor s/n ratio.
While checking my facts ran across this useful page which goes into some detail on nuclear weapon physics, and what the byproducts are for a typical fission device. http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/Chemi stry/NuclearChemistry/NuclearWeapons/FirstChainRea ction/EffectsNucl/WeaponEffects.htm
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
The first thought that came to me was a "night light."
Basically, you could put this in your kid's room, and it would act like a regular light. When bedtime came, you'd shut off the light, leaving the glow. Your kid could get some sleep, and then the glow would go away.
Or the lights would cast an eerie glow on your kid's toys, traumatizing him/her for life. Whatever.
which, in a way are even more retro-cool since many of the first computers used LED readouts, so it's like a wayback machine to the real future.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
But there's no relation whatesoever to those strange all nigth on lighths...