Day: July 6, 2009

New York Times on Innovation in the Incandescent Bulbs

The New York Times highlights ongoing innovation in incandescent bulbs ahead of new energy efficiency requirements set to take effect in 2012. Like most people, I assumed that meant widespread switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, but apparently there are still quite a bit of efficiency gains to be had in incandescents,

The first bulbs to emerge from this push, Philips Lighting’s Halogena Energy Savers, are expensive compared with older incandescents. They sell for $5 apiece and more, compared with as little as 25 cents for standard bulbs.

But they are also 30 percent more efficient than older bulbs. Philips says that a 70-watt Halogena Energy Saver gives off the same amount of light as a traditional 100-watt bulb and lasts about three times as long, eventually paying for itself.

…

And a physics professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Shawn-Yu Lin, is also seeing improved incandescent performance by using a high-tech, iridium-coated filament that recycles wasted heat. “The technology can get up to six to seven times more efficient,” Mr. Lin said.

As I’ve said before, my main concern with light bulbs is less energy efficiency than durability — I want a light bulb I only have to change every 10 years. Every little step toward that goal is to be applauded, with the energy efficiency options not a bad thing to throw in as well.

Pew Poll: 25 Percent of 18-29 Year Olds Identify as Atheist / Agnostic / No Religion

American Atheists points to this Pew Poll that surveyed both old and young people in order to measure the similarities and differences in their lives. AA focuses on the stated difference between the two on the importance of religion in their lives,

Religion is a far bigger part of the lives of older adults than younger adults. Two-thirds of adults ages 65 and older say religion is very important to them, compared with just over half of those ages 30 to 49 and just 44% of those ages 18 to 29. Moreover, among adults ages 65 and above, a third (34%) say religion has grown more important to them over the course of their lives, while just 4% say it has become less important and the majority (60%) say it has stayed the same. Among those who are over 65 and report having an illness or feeling sad, the share who say that religion has become more important to them rises to 43%.

American Atheist responded to this with,

“Translation: 56% of the younger generation thinks religion is not very important. That’s more than half, folks!”

I wanted to dig into the numbers to see if that excerpt was overstating the degree of irreligion among the young, and so downloaded the full report (1mb PDF) If anything, however, the situation is even better/worse (depending on your point of view) than that excerpt lets on — significant percentages of young people classified themselves as atheists/agnostics/no religion,

Age Group % Atheists / Agnostics/ No Religion
18-29 25%
30-49 18%
50-64 13%
65+ 7%

For the 18-29 year old group, more people identified themselves as atheist/agnostic/no religion than identified themselves as Catholic. This is, of course, entirely consistent with other surveys of religious belief that have shown dramatic increases in unbelief/lack of religious affiliation over the past couple decades, but is still kind of amazing to actually see accelerate.

Republican Party In Full Suicide Mode

The Republican Party may want to ditch its plank on assisted suicide given how quickly it seems to be destroying itself. For example, I would think that at this point given he has zero chance of ever seriously contending for president again, that John McCain might want to give the nation some straight talk and admit he made a serious error picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate last year. Instead, he’s trumpeting her as playing some post-resignation leadership role in the GOP,

“I have the greatest respect and affection for Sarah, Todd, and their family. I was deeply honored to have her as my running mate and believe she will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republican Party and our nation,” McCain said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.

Palin’s continued popularity with a segment of Republican voters is obvious, but if she gains traction it is also a clear path to permanent minority status for the Republican Party. It is going to have a hard enough time overcoming its past reliance on the increasingly irrelevant Religious Right. Throw in a glorification of Bush-league stupidity and mismanagement, and its all over.